This article investigates the concept of hospitality (xenia) in the ancient Mediterranean world and its relevance to contemporary migrant communities. To bridge the gap between ancient texts and modern experiences, we utilize a combined lens of contextual biblical hermeneutics and migration theory to analyze the Parable of the Returning Son (Luke 15:11–32), highlighting the inherent tensions and complexities of welcoming the stranger. Ethnographic research among Latin Pentecostal migrant congregations in the Nordic countries reveals how these communities embody xenia through tangible acts of welcome, risk-taking, and prodigal hospitality. This analysis demonstrates the vital role of hospitality in fostering community building within contexts of mobility. Furthermore, the concept of xenia helps address the limitations of applying modern migration theories directly to ancient contexts by providing a framework for understanding the continuity and evolution of hospitality practices across time and cultures.

This essay offers a new perspective on the booklists of the Gelasian Decree ( Decretum Gelasianium) from the sixth century. In this document’s apocryphal booklist, there are several titles featuring female or feminine names that exhibit a certain unruliness. Whether known only by title or by many titles, these entries pose the question of why female figures and texts not usually associated with heresy are constructed under this rubric in the Gelasian Decree. By untangling the lists from the academic discourse on canon and rather understanding them in the context of the document as a whole, the essay offers a fresh reading of the relations between gender, apocryphal books, and church hierarchy. Through an analysis of the occurrences of female/feminine names and signifiers throughout the text, it is found that while male figures are associated with God, the church hierarchy, and canonical and legitimate literature, the categories of apocrypha and heresy are feminized. It is argued that the “unruly” book titles in the Gelasian Degree ultimately resist the organizing efforts of its author.

This article discusses the relation between gender and migration in the New Testament. Six cases of women on the move are presented: Mary, the mother of Jesus; the women in the Jesus movement; three women from the first generation of Christ-believers, Prisca, Lydia and Phoebe; and the unnamed slave woman from Acts 16:16. It is argued that these cases reveal a variety of causes for migration and also depict women who are quite different when it comes to social location and power. The article also discusses the importance of migrant networks in the first century, including religious networks such as the Jewish diaspora. It is argued that women played a key role in the migrant networks presented in New Testament texts.

The present volume is the first biblical commentary written from a disability perspective. The concept is similar to other commentaries written from a particular critical perspective, such as femin...

This article offers a critical reflection on the teaching of the historical Jesus in undergraduate theological education, with particular attention to the continued pedagogical use of the so-called “Quests for the Historical Jesus.” Writing from a Nordic theological context, the author reflects on developing and teaching a bachelor-level New Testament course within a Lutheran educational framework shaped by historical-critical methods and increasing methodological plurality. The article examines how introductory textbooks commonly present historical Jesus research through the narrative of the Three Quests. The author questions whether this historiographical framework remains pedagogically useful, arguing that it risks marginalizing ongoing scholarship, obscuring methodological diversity, and reproducing gendered and Eurocentric patterns within the field. By comparing alternative textbook approaches that foreground sources, methods, and interpretive questions, the article proposes pedagogical strategies that situate the quests as a contested construct rather than a neutral organizing narrative.