The paper is a biblical-theological study that attempts to describe social groups which can be regarded as the poor in the light of teaching of Jesus . The study is based on the following biblical texts: Mk 1:15; cf . Mt 4:17; Lu 4:43, then Lk 4:18-19, Lk 6:20 and Mt 5:3 and several others. The poor of the Gospels are the first recipients of the kingdom of God. According to the author the evangelical poor have many different faces and also poverty has many dimensions. The first of all is the material lack and need. There are many other categories of poor people, for example those excluded from their social and religious position: widows and children, the little ones, am ha’aretz. Another category of the poor are the sick and suffering, sinners and the outlawed, men with an unclean spirit. All those people were the recipients and bene-ficiaries of the kingdom of God to come.

The paper compares the employment of the definite article in the Gothic version of the Gospel of Luke and in its Greek counterpart which served as the basis for the Gothic translation. Although the Gothic text is usually said to be a word-for-word reflection of the Greek text, we demonstrate that just like in the case of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of John, which were of concern in our previous studies, there are enormous differences between the two languages especially in the domain of the definite article, not only in terms of amount but also in terms of the cases used – nominative, genitive, dative or accusative.

The paper argues that the verbs ἀγαπάω and φιλέω occurring in John 21, 15–17 do not express different kinds of love (higher and lower), as some commentators claimed. At the same time, it may reasonably be doubted whether John used synonyms here only for stylistic reasons. Context analysis of the dialogue between Jesus and Peter points to allusions to their conversation in John 13, 31–38 and Jesus’ definition of love cited in John 15, 12–14. The identification of the references leads to the conclusion that the alternation of the synonymous verbs reflects the pattern ἀγάπη-φίλοι observed in the latter passage.

One of the most important challenges of the pontificate of Pope Francis is the confrontation with new religious movements, the increasing number of which takes the form of “new Reformation”. A pentecostal movement in which the issue of “prosperity theology” (also known as the “prosperity Gospel”) is an important theological problem, has gained many followers within various Christian denominations. Proponents of the trend which dates back to the turn of the century claim that health and wealth on earth are guaranteed by professing faith in God and praying to Him. The purpose of the article is to explain the essence of this phenomenon and its historical genesis, and to outline its geographical scope. The subsequent section presents a critical assessment of “prosperity theology” in the teaching of Pope Francis. The final stage of the reflection outlines the most important ethical challenges arising from the spread of this “false Gospel”. On the positive side, it is advisable to appreciate the value of the Holy Scriptures. Negative aspects of “prosperity theology”, however, include the false vision of God and man, the revival of the ancient heresies of gnosticism and pelagianism, or incorrect theological interpretation of health, illness and death.

Exegesis of Matthew 16:13-20, made in the light of historical and doctrinal terms occurred after 70 years in Judea, in which the evangelist Matthew was presented with its Judeo-Christian Church, indicates clearly existing in the text emphasis and related them to universalist objectives . They primarily guided him to define the saving message of Jesus the Risen of being Christological and Ecclesiological, in the final version edited by himself, in the Gospel of the Kingdom at the turning point for the fate of the Palestinian Church. The scene from Caesarea Philippi is edited in a manner which allows Peter to run his church in the Hellenistic world in order to gain complete doctrinal confidence that the same power of binding and resolving in heaven and on earth which he received from Jesus Simon Barjon to exercise it in the land of Israel, is also possessed by Simon Peter to celebrate it with the same saving efficiency in the lands of the heathen. Without this doctrinal certainty, it would probably be impossible to guarantee its further Judeo-Christian existence in the world of ethnochristians and gentiles.

In the submitted study, the author shows that Paul in the propositio (12,1-2) the section of encouragement (12,3-15,13), although he does not use the word syneidēsis directly, but the words used in it refer to him in conjunction with his basic functions and prove in this way how fundamental it is to renew the mind in the right, i.e. salvifically effective, education of Christian conscience. He does so in the encouragement context to make the recipients aware of how important it is to have a renewed mind and conscience in being and continuing to become a Christian in everyday and concrete living as well as practicing faith in Jesus. With propositio, he makes the foundation on which he builds the paraclesical message of the Letter. It clearly states that permanently renewed by the Gospel of God mind, is an absolute condition for an uninterrupted evangelical renewal of conscience. Thus, renewed in this way conscience is the only deity of mercy granted to sinful humanity, which guarantees constant faithfulness to its norms of judgment with God’s justice revealed in Christ, the Son of God, or his absolute righteousness, which is an indispensable condition for achieving eternal salvation.

Although interlinear glosses theoretically involve providing the most exact native equivalent for each foreign item in the text (cf., e.g. Nida 2004: 161), they often prove to be much more than a mechanical process of creating lexical correspondences. One of the best examples of glossing which is a “conscious, occasionally very careful “interpretative translation”” (Nagucka 1997: 180), is the collection of 10th century glosses added by Aldred to the Latin text of the Lindisfarne Gospels. This oldest existing translation of the Gospels into English consists not only of a word‑for‑word renderings, since Aldred also used multiple glosses, marginal notes, and occasionally left the words unglossed. Thus, particular Latin words are often translated in several different ways.
The present study focuses on words denoting objects and phenomena which were presumably unfamiliar or obscure to the Anglo‑Saxon audience. Those include items specific to the society, culture, as well as fauna and flora. The study shows various methods employed by the glossator to familiarise the concepts to the readers.

Foreskin, apart from its literal meaning, functions in Tanach also as a metaphor of blemish. Similarly, the circumcision is presented as a removal thereof. The perfecting function of the rite is visible in Second Temple texts, as well as in later tannaitic sources. The purpose of this paper is to analyze words of Jesus found in J 7:22–23 in the light of circumcision in the Hebrew Bible, understood as a ritual performed to remove a blemish. The conclusion is that Jesus’ words in the analyzed verses continue the biblical view, attesting to an exegetical trend visible in later Jewish sources.

The article discusses the concentration of Martin Luther’s theology on the Christian existence. There are three main areas pointing to this key idea. Firstly, the description of justification of the people in the categories of freedom gained through the experience of faith, which leads to a thankful service towards one’s neighbour. Secondly, sacramental understanding of the working of God’s Word as a performative that changes the world. It defines not only the understanding of the sacraments, with the key role of Baptism as a foundation for everyday actualisation of Christian life in penance, which strives for fighting off the sinfulness of an old, sinful man, and leads to building the man’s own justice based on the alien justice of Christ, but it is also the basis for the communion of believers – the church, as well as for the orders of creation, which structure the current reality. Thirdly, the remarks on theological knowledge closed in the triad prayer–meditation–temptation and theological weight of the experience of differentiating between the Law and the Gospel.

Th e article describes two Cyrillic Gospels from the Kórnik Library: BK 11985 and BK 896. It presents the cultural context of their creation, as well as their history, content, illuminations and a short lexical description. Both codices were the result of a cultural and spiritual revival in the Orthodox Church in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Both of them were luxury, professionally made goods; their copyists were experienced specialists. BK 896 represents a higher level of artistry. In view of their lexical characteristics, the manuscripts can be classifi ed as the third so-called Mount Athos-Tyrnovo linguistic redaction of the Gospel.

Scribes of the oldest part of the manuscript posted their names in two notes. In the fi rst note the final letter of the scribe’s name is seriously damaged. It is generally believed that his name was Mičьka (Мичька). The author proves that the scribe’s name is a derivative from the suffi x –ko (Mičьko). In the second note the name of the scribe is heavily damaged in the initial part, which results in a number of interpretations. According to the author’s studies the name of the scribe was Potamij (Потамий, gr. PÒtamoj).