Taking Stock

Near the beginning of a new year, this would be the perfect time to take stock, to look back at what the Lord has done with Jerusalem Perspective, and to look forward, towards the future, counting our blessings and recounting our vision of what the Lord may still want us to do.

Let's Look Back

Fifty-six editions of Jerusalem Perspective magazine were published from 1987 to 1999. In the late 1990's and throughout the year 2000, Jerusalem Perspective Online, a website that now holds almost 450 articles and audio recordings, was established and developed. In January of 2001, publication of two electronic newsletters was started: Pipeline and Lifeline. "Pipeline," a free publication, has grown from 500 to 2,900 subscribers. Currently, there also are 400 subscribers to the website's Premium Content service.

Let's Look Forward

Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus has been published in English, French, German and Japanese, and has been translated to Spanish, Portuguese and Polish. Publishers are being sought for the Spanish, Portuguese and Polish editions.

The German edition of UDWJ sold well. At the German publisher request, I have submitted a second manuscript. It has been translated to German, and Horst Krueger is editing the translation.

There are two other books on which I continue to work: a two-volume work in which he explains fifty-five hard-to-understand sayings of Jesus; and a one-volume catalog of Hebraisms and Aramaisms embedded in the texts of the Gospels.

I will deliver two papers at the International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature to be held on July 25-28 in Groningen, The Netherlands. The presentations that were accepted are: "'They Didn't Dare' (Matt 22:46; Mark 12:34; Luke 20:40): A Window on the Literary and Redactional Methods of the Synoptic Gospel Writers" (for the "Synoptic Gospels" section); and "'Entered' and 'Took Out': A Reinterpretation of Luke 19:45 in Light of Recent Research and Archaeological Evidence" (for the "Judaica" section). Colleagues Randall Buth and Halvor Ronning also are reading papers at this meeting.