Was Jesus a prophet of the eschatological Kingdom or a teacher of wisdom? These two characterizations of Jesus appear to be incompatible and, since the last century, the former has dominated our understanding of the Gospels at the expense of the latter. Proverbial sayings in the Synoptics have either been pressed into the service of eschatology-and have thus lost their character as wisdom-or have been disregarded as 'inauthentic', representing a later stage in the tradition. This book offers a critique of the method of historical reconstruction which leads to such conclusions. It also suggests an approach to the rhetoric or function of proverbial sayings, based on pragmatics, which develops the distinction between sense and force and offers some account of the rhetorical strategies involved in the use of proverbs in speech. A final chapter attempts to show how proverbial sayings might be given more significance in our understanding of Jesus' message through a reconsideration of the relationship between wisdom, eschatology and the Kingdom of God.

This original study offers, for the first time, an analysis of the characterization of Esther as she is portrayed in each of the three primary versions of the book of Esther-the Masoretic text, the Septuagint text, and the Greek a text. This study of characterization has implications beyond itself. It permits a reasssessment of relations between the book of Esther and other literature of the time, it sheds light on the place of origin of the ancient versions of Esther, and it raises serious feminist and canon-critical questions about the role of the book.

In a narrative about Jesus, a character like John the Baptist would not be expected to play a role much beyond that of providing a baptism for Jesus. Yet the Matthaean narrator finds several other uses for John in the development of the narrative, not only while he is still alive, but also after he is dead. In examining John's role, Yamasaki deploys an audience-oriented critical methodology, an approach that chronicles the narrator's efforts to influence first-time readers' experience of the narrative as they proceed sequentially through the text. He traces John's characterization as 'forerunner', from a glowing introduction in ch. 3-albeit with a slight flaw in his ideological point of view on Jesus-through a progressive exacerbation of this flaw, to a rehabilitation of John in ch. 11. As a result of this rehabilitation, the narrator is able to continue to use John in his role as forerunner in the second half of the narrative, even after John's death has removed him from the story-line.>

Christian Book Award Finalist But God speaks through wombs, birthing prophetic utterances. . . . Enough of this unbelieving religion that masquerades as faith. Divine favor is placed on what we have disgraced. In God Speaks Through Wombs, Drew Jackson explores the first eight chapters of Luke's Gospel in a new poetic register. These are declarative poems, faithfully proclaiming the gospel story in all its liberative power. Here the gospel is the "fresh words / that speak of / things impossible." From the Magnificat ("That girl can sing! . . . She has a voice / That can shatter shackles") to the baptism of Christ ("I stepped in / Committing insurrection"), this collection helps us hear the hum of deliverance-against all hope-that's been in the gospel all along.

An inspiring, thematic approach to the Book of Acts. Each theme is applied directly to modern church life, and to the relationship between the church and today's world. Themes opened up include church planting, evangelistic preaching, guidance, leadership and effective communication of the gospel in message and life-style.

This book presents the development of a theological reading strategy in conversation with contemporary hermeneutical theories. Using that as a model, Gen 1-11 is read as a unified text refracted through the prism of textuality from a canonical approach.

William Willimon combines the latest findings in Lukan scholarship with the pastoral, educational, and theological concerns of the local church to provide a new interpretation of Acts. He bases his commentary on the idea that the purpose of Acts was not to make Christianity acceptable to the Roman state but rather to preserve the integrity of the church against the onslaught of classical culture. 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.

God’s Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

You are never beyond the reach of God’s grace. Neither are you ever beyond the need of God’s grace.

Without grace we’d never come to Christ. But being a Christian is more than just coming to Christ, it’s about growing and becoming more like Jesus. This pursuit of holiness is hard work, and as we enter into this discipline, we sometimes lose sight of grace. Jerry Bridges helps us steer clear of this disastrous distraction, offering a clear and thorough explanation of the gospel and what it means to the believer.

Explore how the same grace that brings us to Christ also grows us in Christ.

This monograph, the first in English on any aspect of Joseph and Aseneth, examines Aseneth's conversion as narrated in this important but neglected apocryphal Jewish romance. An extensive history of research on Joseph and Aseneth and an analysis of key issues such as text, original language, character, provenance, date, and genre, precede and inform the study of conversion. The story of Aseneth's conversion has too often been understood on the basis of premature and superficial comparisons with other paradigms of conversion and initiation in the Hellenistic world. As a corrective, Chesnutt assigns priority to descriptive over comparative analysis. He draws comparisons and contrasts with other models of conversion and initiation only after he has carefully examined Aseneth's conversion in its own right within the literary context of Joseph and Aseneth and the social context which the document itself reflects. The attention not only to conversion but also to much broader social and religious dimensions of Judaism in antiquity makes this book important for specialists in Christian origins, Greco-Roman religions, women's studies, and patristics, as well as the history of Judaism>

A comparison of the message of Acts transmitted by Codez Bezae with that of the more familiar Alexandrian text, represented by Codex Vaticanus. For each section of Acts, there is a side by side translation of the Bezan and Alexandrian manuscripts, followed by a critical apparatus and, finally, a commentary that explores the differences in the message of the two texts. It is concluded that the Bezan text, with its interest in internal Jewish affairs and its focus on the struggles of the early disciples to free themselves from their traditional Jewish expectations and to achieve, despite their mistakes, a more accurate understanding of their master's teaching, is the earlier of the two texts. LNTS 302

The classic "All Series" books have graced the shelves of pastors, students, and laypeople alike for decades. "All the Teachings of Jesus" continues in the series' tradition of offering a faithful and comprehensive treatment of biblical subjects.

Herbert Lockyer begins this enlightening book by writing that the words of Jesus "were not only 'thoughts that breathe, and words that burn, ' but mighty words that were to shape the destinies of men and nations." With the wisdom that comes from years of preaching and studying the Bible, Herbert Lockyer provides his readers with insights into the teachings of Jesus and encourages us to allow those teachings to shape our lives.

One of Jesus' main purposes during his time on earth was to teach. In this useful, heart touching book, Herbert Lockyer examines the nature and authority of the Great Teacher himself. He points readers to the life giving words Jesus spoke to his disciples and the multitudes. Jesus taught on a variety of topics that are as significant to believers today as they were then: sin, forgiveness, money, sickness and death, love, ministry, and many more. In his teaching Jesus invited repentance and belief in the gospel, and he instructed his followers in how to live sanctified lives.

The message of Peter's first letter turned the world upside-down for his readers. He saw the people of the young church of the first century as strangers, aliens who were only temporary residents, travellers heading for their native land. Peter speaks to our own pilgrimage when he tells of suffering now and glory to come. Stormy seasons of persecution were beginning for the church in Asia Minor. These storms rage on in the modern world. Edmund Clowney believes that no true Christian can escape at least a measure of suffering for Christ's sake. Out of his firsthand knowledge as an apostle of Christ, Peter shows us what the story of Jesus' life means for us as we take up our cross and follow him.

The Human and the Divine in History investigates the possibility that the author of Daniel knew and drew upon the Histories of Herodotus. Daniel uses and develops Herodotean concepts such as the succession of world empires, dynastic dreams, and the focus on both human and divine cauration in explaining historical events. A comparative reading of these two texts illuminates DanielGCOs theology of history, showing it to be neither as exclusively eschatological nor as sectarian as is often supposed. Rather, it is specifically the end of exileGCounderstood as foreign dominationGCothat Daniel envisions for the entire Jewish people.

The hermeneutics employed in this work is partly referred to as hindsight hermeneutics, and upholds the resonance and dissonance between the Epilogue of the Book of Job and the preceding sections. Within the Theophany-epilogue continuum, rebuke and approval, retribution and its suspension, divine transcendence and accessibility are all held together. The dramatically discordant traditions in the preceding section are not interpreted as competing alternatives but as complementary possibilities for understanding the nature of the divine-human relationship and responding to the threat and reality of chaos and suffering.

The remarkably complex textual traditions of the Acts of the Apostles reflect the theological developments and socio-cultural framework of early Christianity. The present volume contains studies of textual witnesses, textual traditions and translations of the Acts. They do not only focus on the traditions which occur in the manuscripts, or on the theological tendencies of the major ancient versions and their reception in the Early Church, but also consider the relevance of mostly neglected witnesses such as amuletts and tablets, and the relationship between the ancient translators and Jewish exegetical traditions.

This book provides a look at purity language within the "Epistle of James", arguing against restricting the meaning of purity language to the individual moral sphere.Arguing against restricting the meaning of purity language to the individual moral sphere (as many commentaries do), the central argument of "Purity and Worldview in the Epistle of James" is that purity language both articulates and constructs the worldview in James' epistle. Lockett offers a taxonomy of purity language, applied as a heuristic guide to understand the function of purity and pollution in the epistle. Through this analysis the study concludes that James is not calling for sectarian separation, but rather demonstrates a degree of cultural accommodation while calling forth specific socio-cultural boundaries between the readers and the world.Formerly the "Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement", was a book series that explored the many aspects of New Testament study including historical perspectives, social-scientific and literary theory, and theological, cultural and contextual approaches. "The Early Christianity in Context" series, a part of JSNTS, examines the birth and development of early Christianity up to the end of the third century CE. The series places Christianity in its social, cultural, political and economic context. "European Seminar on Christian Origins" and "Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus Supplement" are also part of JSNTS.

The Gospel of Matthew portrays Jesus as a celibate 'bridegroom', whose presence disrupts traditional understandings of marriage and family and whose role as bridegroom involves not only joy but violence and separation. The bridegroom in John has received recent discussion, in Adeline Fehribach, 's Women in the Life of the Bridegroom: A Feminist Historical-Literary Analysis of the Female Characters in the Fourth Gospel (Liturgical Press, 1998), and in several articles published in A Feminist Companion to John, vol. 2, edited by Amy-Jill Levine (Sheffield Academic Press, 2003). But the bridegroom in Matthew has not received scholarly attention. This study offers an analysis of the bridegroom and wedding imagery in the Gospel of Matthew, specifically in the bridegroom saying (9.15), the two wedding parables (22.1-14, 25.1-13; the latter is unique to Matthew), and Matthew's teachings on marriage, divorce and family formation (e.g., 5.31-32; 19:1ff; 12:46-50). The eunuch saying (19:10-12) is explored in the context of a brideless and celibate bridegroom. Warren Carter's Matthew in the Margins (Orbis, 2000), and Barbara Reid's Violent Endings in Matthew's Parables and an End to Violence CBQ 66 (2004), pp. 237-55. This study builds on such concerns about Matthean violence and applies them specifically to Matthew's portrayal of Jesus as a bridegroom and the implications for marriage, family, gender and sexuality. For example, the slaughter of the innocents is discussed in terms of the bridegroom's association with violence and formation of a fictive family. No other books address the combined issues of Jesus as a bridegroom and attendant violence of that role and how this association affects Matthew's teachings on marriage or divorce, gender and sexuality, and the formation of family