The Asaph psalms (50, 73-83) are a unity. They often call God 'Elohim' and 'El', and the people 'Joseph', as Amos does; they appeal to Israelite history, the exodus and the covenant; they are written in the face of military catastrophe. In this suggestive and brilliant work, Goulder argues that they were composed in Bethel in the 720s for use as the psalmody for the autumn festival. This gives us vital new evidence for the history of the Pentateuch: there was at Bethel a historical tradition from at least the time of the oppression in Egypt to the Solomonic Empire; the Asaphites took this tradition to Jerusalem and their descendants were the Deuteronomists.>

Slater presents a study of the three major christological images of Revelation and their meanings for the original audience. Employing both historical criticism and elements of sociology of knowledge, Christ and Community explores the social functions of 'one like a son of man', the Lamb, and the Divine Warrior, identifying both similarities and dissimilarities. The study argues, on the one hand, that the religious laxity found in Revelation 2-3 reflects attempts by some Christians to accommodate to provincial social pressures, while, on the other hand, Revelation 4-19 reflect the low status of Christians in the cities of Asia Minor.

Tom Wright has completed a tremendous task: to provide comprehensive guides to all the books of the New Testament, and to furnish them with his own fresh translation of the entire text. Each short passage is followed by a highly readable commentary with helpful background information. The format makes it appropriate also for daily study.

Hosea and the Hosean tradition play an important role in the internal Israelite dispute about the nature of God and his relation to the world and Israel. Hosea refers to traditions of the past in which the interdependence between Yahweh and Israel, and in particular Yahweh's care for his people, are recurrent themes. The prophet can presuppose that certain portions of these traditions, both "historical" and "theological", are known to his audience, but it is his claim that what is not known to Israel is the demand that is inherent in Yahweh's past dealings with his people, the demand for exclusive worship of Yahweh. In his "historical" retrospections, Hosea enphasizes time after time that Israel has been chosen, not for a life of passive retreat, but to serve Israel's God alone. This he proclaims as the true knowledge of God.

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The phrase 'works of the law' occurs only in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in Paul, but it has a different connotation in each corpus. At Qumran, the 'works of the law' are deeds of obedience to God's law, and are ultimately inspired by God. They function as a means of atonement, whether for the individual who performs them or for the sins of others. For Paul, on the other hand, the 'works of the law' are quintessentially the works of Abraham. Though they are indeed good deeds, Abraham himself was a sinful man, and so his deeds could not make atonement for himself or for others. In fact, Paul is reacting against the idea of Abraham as a redeemer figure that was held by some of his contemporaries. The phrase 'works of the law' thus takes on a negative coloration in Paul, as a deceptively false means of salvation. Against Qumran, Paul's position is that justification must be effected 'apart from works of the law', and thus by Jesus Christ. Abraham is no 'second Adam', as some were thinking, and his good deeds, epitomized in his sacrifice of Isaac, had no atoning value. This closely reasoned study makes an important contribution to the study of New Testament theology; it undertakes to settle some long-standing debates about Paul's soteriology by proposing an alternative both to traditional interpretation of Paul and to the 'New Perspective on Paul'.

In this challenging book, Craig Smith propounds the novel thesis that the famous lines in 2 Timothy 4 where 'Paul' announces that the time of his departure has come have been misunderstood. This is no farewell speech, Smith avers, and Paul is not intending to pass on the baton to his younger colleague, Timothy. Deploying epistolary analysis and rhetorical criticism, Smith shows that these verses (4.1-8) do not have the literary structure or the vocabulary of a testament or a farewell; rather, they are a 'charge', an authoritative command, comprised of five specific formal elements. This charge form is found also in the exorcism command and in some magical texts, Christian and non-Christian. From this perspective, Paul's being poured out as a libation is his experience of preaching to the Gentiles at his first trial, his 'departure' is the imminent release from prison that he is expecting, the fight he has fought and the race he has finished are his trial that he has withstood. Far from appointing Timothy as his successor, he is contemplating a continued companionship and collegiality as they continue their ministry together.

In his commentary, Ralph Martin singles out two themes that are high on today's agenda of theological and practical inquiry and planning. These themes are the cosmic dimensions of Christological teaching and the role of the church as God's locus and agent of reconciliation. In this examination, the author allows Paul's voice to be heard again on these important themes.

Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.

Tom Wright's own translation of the Letter to the Hebrews is combined, section by section with a highly readable discussion, with background information, useful explanation and interpretation, and thoughts as to how it can be relevant to our lives today. No knowledge of technical jargon is required.

"The Gospel Behind the Gospels portrays all the major areas of current discussion and debate regarding the early source of Jesus' sayings known as Q. Sixteen gospel scholars have advanced the debate about this source's nature, history and significance.
Contributors discuss Q's existence, its relationship to Mark's gospel and to the Gospel of Thomas, its genre, its redactional history with special reference to the Son of Man and to wisdom and prophetic traditions, its social history with respect to family structures and the Cynics, a feminist analysis of Q, its significance for the historical Jesus and for Jesus' parables.
The volume sheds important light on Jesus and Christian origins as well as upon Q itself, and it is significant for the diversity of major North American, European and Japanese scholarship which is represented.

"'Isaiah in the New Testament' brings together a set of specially commissioned studies by authors who are experts in the field. After an introductory chapter on the use of Isaiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls and second temple literature, each of the New Testament books that contain quotations from Isaiah are discussed: Matthew, Mark, Q, Luke-Acts, John, Romans & Galatians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Hebrews, 1 Peter, Revelation. The book provides an overview of the status, role and function of Isaiah in the first century. It considers the Greek and Hebrew manuscript traditions and offers insights into the various hermeneutical stances of the New Testament authors and the development of New Testament theology."

In this highly interdisciplinary work, linguist Anna Wierzbicka casts new light on the words of Jesus by taking her well-known semantic theory of "universal human concepts"- concepts which are intuitively understandable and self-explanatory across languages-and bringing it to bear on Jesus' parables and the Sermon on the Mount. Her approach results in strikingly novel interpretations of the Gospels. Written in dialogue with other biblical commentators, What Did Jesus Mean? is scholarly, rigorous, and yet accessible.

Galatians is a polemical letter which contains a substantial amount of argumentative passages. Paul evidently wanted to persuade by using the best arguments possible to convince his addressees. Using a state-of-the-art method from the discipline of argumentation analysis, Paul's argumentation can be analysed with a precision that standard exegetical methods cannot provide. The pragma-dialectical method developed in Amsterdam facilitates an analysis which is both descriptive and normative. On the one hand, Paul's argumentation can be described, such as the relationship between premisses and conclusions, the structure of the arguments, and features relating to rhetorical strategy. On the other hand, the method makes it possible to evaluate Paul's argumentation against a set of rules for sound reasoning. Fallacies and problematic arguments can be described accurately. The spiritual nature of Paul's matters do not relieve him of rationality, and Paul himself does not argue as if it did. Paul's argumentation is found problematic in several respects. There is a tension in the text: Paul works a great deal to argue his claims while at the same time giving the impression that he merely wants to declare his standpoints and does not want to carry out an argumentation at all. Many of the conclusions are presented as self-evident, even when they are not. Paul's style is far from an ideal model of the resolution of a dispute. Paul relies heavily on an argumentative strategy with maximal use of rhetorical devices. The analysis shows that a contemporary method of argumentation analysis provides tools necessary to adequately describe and understand both individual arguments and the overarching strategy of the argumentation in a Pauline text.

This book starts with questions concerning Lukes idea of the relationship between wealth and discipleship. Previous attempts have not succeeded in reconciling the ideas of wealth and poverty with the theme of discipleship in Lukes theology. This failure motivates Kim to investigate a new paradigm, namely stewardship. Reviewing the wide range of material regarding wealth and poverty in Luke-Acts, he concludes that for Luke a proper way for Christians as stewards to use their wealth is almsgiving in the interests of the poor and needy inside and outside the community.

The Saviour of the World covers each incident and each saying in the Bible and converts them to either a single poem, blank verse or rhymed stanza, according to the subject. This volume, called The Great Controversy, was originally published in 1911. This book will be of interest to students of both religious studies and English literature.

The Saviour of the World covers each incident and each saying in the Bible and converts them to either a single poem, blank verse or rhymed stanza, according to the subject. This volume, called The Bread of Life, was originally published in 1910. This book will be of interest to students of both religious studies and English literature.

The Saviour of the World covers each incident and each saying in the Bible and converts them to either a single poem, blank verse or rhymed stanza, according to the subject. This volume, called The Kingdom of Heaven, was originally published in 1909. This book will be of interest to students of both religious studies and English literature.

The Saviour of the World covers each incident and each saying in the Bible and converts them to either a single poem, blank verse or rhymed stanza, according to the subject. This volume, called The Holy Infancy, was originally published in 1908. This book will be of interest to students of both religious studies and English literature.

A literary-critical analysis is embarked to show how Matthew highlights the primacy, authority, and exclusivity of Jesus' role as the Teacher of God's will and how he features five long discourses in the narrative. Two cultural parallels, the Teacher of Righteousness and Epictetus, are studied for comparison. The ways in which they are remembered in the literature and in which they shape the lives of their followers provide proper historical perspectives and useful frames of reference. Finally, a social-historical reading of the three teachers and their followers, in the light of pertinent sociological theories (sociology of knowledge, group formation), indicates that Jesus the One Teacher serves four crucial functions for his readers in Matthew's church: polemic, apologetic, didactic, and pastoral.