With a scholar's mind and a pastor's heart, N. T. Wright helps us learn from Paul's writing in Phillippians the art of seeing God's purposes working out through problems and difficulties, and deepen our own confidence in God's power. Includes eight sessions for group or personal study.

Conozca su Biblia, developed in partnership with the Asociaci??n para la Educaci??n Teol??gica Hispana and the Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission unit of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is a unique new Bible commentary series written in Spanish by leading Hispanic theologians and Bible educators.

Beginning with Jesus' birth, Ken Bailey leads you on a kaleidoscopic study of Jesus throughout the four Gospels. Bailey examines the life and ministry of Jesus with attention to the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, Jesus' relationship to women, and especially Jesus' parables. Through it all, Bailey employs his trademark expertise as a master of Middle Eastern culture to lead you into a deeper understanding of the person and significance of Jesus within his own cultural context. With a sure but gentle hand, Bailey lifts away the obscuring layers of modern Western interpretation to reveal Jesus in the light of his actual historical and cultural setting. This entirely new material from the pen of Ken Bailey is a must-have for any student of the New Testament. If you have benefited from Bailey's work over the years, this book will be a welcome and indispensable addition to your library. If you are unfamiliar with Bailey's work, this book will introduce you to a very old yet entirely new way of understanding Jesus.

With so many Bible translations available, how do you make a choice between them? How do you even know what the criteria should be for making a choice?

As an expert in English literature and literary theory, Leland Ryken approaches the translation debate from a practical artistic viewpoint. He believes that many modern translations take liberties with the biblical text that would not be allowed with any other type of literary work. Also, what readers are presented with as biblical text is actually far from the original text. In literature, a simplified version of Milton's work is not Milton, and neither is an edition written in contemporary English. Anyone who is interested in Milton would find any version that changes his words unacceptable for serious study. Ryken argues that the same dedication to reproducing literature texts as closely as possible needs to be present in biblical translation. To do so it is necessary to take into account the difficulty of working with original languages. Only an essentially literal, "word for word" translation of the Bible can achieve sufficiently high standards in terms of literary criteria and fidelity to the original text.

Ryken does not contest that many modern translations have been used for good, and believes that there is a place for a range of Bible translations, including children's Bibles and Bible paraphrases. His purpose is not to say that the only Bible available should be one that is essentially literal. Instead, he defines the translation theory and principles that would result in the best Bible for English-speaking people and serious students of the Bible, and also for the English-speaking church as a whole. He believes that an essentially literal translation is the natural result of following these principles.

Along with a short history of translation, Ryken evaluates presuppositions that impact translation theory. He also examines fallacies about the Bible, translations in general, and Bible readers that influence what translation decisions are made. Believing that those who undertake the serious work of translating God's Word have an obligation both to God and to others, he assesses the theological, ethical, and hermeneutical issues involved and surveys difficulties with modern translations. Ryken's literary expertise gives him the perspective needed to provide Christians with a standard for comparing contemporary Bible translations, as well as an understanding of why some translations may not convey the very words of God.

Each of these volumes consists of thirteen detailed Bible studies. These Bible studies can be used for evening Bible study, for home study meetings, for faith communities, for retreats, and for personal Bible study. This book can even be used as a daily Bible study. Written in Spanish, the language is simple with a profound message for readers.

In the month of June, 1995, the Society for the Promotion of Eriugenian Studies held its ninth International Colloquium at Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve. The Colloquium was devoted to Eriugena's hermeneutics and his interpretation of the Bible. The feature of Biblical hermeneutics is of main interest for a thinker like Eriugena. For him the source and the end of all truth is the understanding of Sacred Scripture. To unravel this inconcussa auctoritas diuinae Scripturae all hermeneutical skills have to be brought into play, in order to give rise to a true spiritual understanding of the Bible.

This volume contains the contributions presented at the Colloquium, which shed light on numerous aspects of Eriugena's hermeneutics of Scripture. Without imposing too rigid a classification, the contributions to this book can be listed under four headings. The first two studies present large-scale tableaux, establishing the context within which Eriugena undertook his biblical studies. In a second group of articles, attention is paid more directly to the specifically Eriugenian method of understanding Sacred Scripture. The theoretical aspects of Eriugena's exegesis, as established in the second part, are adapted in the third, in which Eriugena's interpretation of particular Biblical texts is investigated. The fourth and last heading, then, would contain studies in the range and method of Eriugena's exegesis, with particular attention to manuscript sources, and to new texts to be included into the opera of John Scottus.

What is the secret to an obedient life? A faith that trusts in God. The life of Abraham offers a powerful look at how obedience through faith can change us and impact the world. This study examines Abraham's journey from an everyday person to the patriarch of faith, and shares foundational principles for obedient living. Wiersbe Bible Studies deliver practical, in-depth guides to selected books of the Bible. Featuring insights from Wiersbe's "Be Obedient" commentary, this eight-week study features engaging questions and practical applications that will help you connect God's word with your life.

Steve Moyise, an expert on the use of the Old Testament in the New, offers a brief but reliable introduction to the use of the Old Testament in the Gospels' portrayals of Jesus.

Introduces literary, historical, and theological issues of Luke and Acts.

Biblical texts create worlds of meaning, and invite readers to enter them. When readers enter such textual worlds, which are often strange and complex, they are confronted with theological claims. With this in mind, the purpose of the Interpreting Biblical Texts series is to help serious readers in their experience of reading and interpreting by providing guides for their journeys into textual worlds. The controlling perspective is expressed in the operative word of the title--interpreting. The primary focus of the series is not so much on the world behind the texts or out of which the texts have arisen as on the worlds created by the texts in their engagement with readers.
In keeping with the goals of the series, this volume provides an introductory guide to readers of the New Testament books of Luke and Acts. It focuses on both the synchronic and diachronic dimensions of the literature in an effort to acquaint readers with literary, historical, and theological issues that will facilitate interpretation of these important books.

F. Scott Spencer is Professor of New Testament at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.

Discourse related to sex excites passion and debate, partly because sexuality is a central aspect of what it means to be human. Following up on his recent book on sexuality in the Septuagint, William Loader here explores what the Christian Gospels and related writings have to say about sexuality, how they reflect the faith and social values of their day, and what impact they've had on our own.

"Sexuality and the Jesus Tradition is thorough in its investigation and compelling in its analyses. Loader examines all of the passages that convey views about sexuality in the Gospels and other first-century literature, including the "Gospel of Thomas, and the influence in Paul of the Jesus tradition. Among the interesting topics covered are attitudes concerning lust, perspectives on marriage and divorce, and views about celibacy. Loader shows how, despite the passing of two thousand years and massive social change, these ancient texts contain common issues that we still grapple with today.

Does the Bible speak to the real problems of real people in the real world? Does it offer viable solutions to those problems? You can weigh the evidence and decide for yourself with these 25 Bible studies, which show what the Bible actually teaches regarding our most fundamental questions about God.

Compiled and written by one of modern Christianity's greatest thinkers, this book highlights Scripture passages on the central doctrines of Christianity--such as creation, man's sin and God's grace, the person and work of Christ, future events--and briefly explains how each passage supports the biblical teaching on that particular theme. It's all right here. Laid out simply. So you can see for yourself what the Bible says--in God's own words.

This volume also contains Two Contents, Two Realities, Schaeffer's essay on the four things Christians need to make an impact in the current age. Together these two works serve to show the coherence and credibility of the Scriptures and their relevance to the critical issues in your life.

In this resourceful and illuminating exploration of the biblical virtues, Benjamin W. Farley examines both the Old and the New Testament and applies their teachings on moral character to the Christian life today.

The books constituting the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, have a complex history of authorship, resulting in a variety of styles, perspectives, and meanings. The authors and editors of the books that became the Bible lived through the political vicissitudes of a region that was a cultural crossroads, subject to successive waves of invasion, settlement, and influence by a variety of civilizations. Consequently, their works reflect the diverse political, intellectual, and literary legacies of the ancient Near East and, in some cases, the incorporation of non-Hebrew texts.

S. A. Nigosian, a scholar of Biblical and Near Eastern religions, explores the diverse literary antecedents of the Old Testament as well as the Apocrypha -- books excluded from the canonical Hebrew text but included in the Septuagint. Closely analyzing the formation and contents of these works, Nigosian compares them with the religious, philosophical, didactic, and historical works created by the neighboring Near Eastern civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Asia Minor. Proceeding book by book, he highlights parallels in language, structure, and story among Hebrew and non-Hebrew and non-canonical Hebrew texts.

From the ubiquity of flood myths throughout the ancient Near East to similarities between seduction tales in Genesis and Egyptian mythology, Job-like stories from Babylonian legend, and the recycling of elements within the Hebrew Bible, this book offers a concise and accessible history of the composition and compilation of the Bible and the complex process of canonization. It also features a glossary, an extensive bibliography, and a chronology of the composition of the Hebrew Bible andthe Apocrypha.

Written by leading experts on Aquinas's theology, the essays in Reading John with St. Thomas Aquinas bear common witness to a central theological conviction: the tasks of biblical exegesis and speculative theology, though distinct, indwell and inform each other. As the first book-length study of the full breadth of Aquinas's Commentary on the Gospel of John, this work illuminates the way in which thinking systematically or speculatively about revelation flows from questions raised within biblical exegesis itself.
Like any medieval biblical commentator, Aquinas attempts to understand a biblical text not only in itself but also by appealing to parallel interpretive texts drawn from throughout the Bible as well as the accumulated insights of the Church Fathers. This method enables him to penetrate deeply into the thought of the Bible, recognizing that the biblical authors, speaking from within the context of Israel and the Church, raise questions that are theological and that belong to coherent speculative theological frameworks. The result is, in large part, a speculative theological commentary that is not imposed on the biblical texts but emerges from it.
The essays in Reading John with St. Thomas Aquinas seek to illumine the necessary conjunction of the inspired words of Scripture, exegetical commentary, and theological analysis. The volume is both a study of Aquinas's thought and an attempt to foster contemporary exegetical approaches that emphasize the need to interpret Scripture speculatively, through the historical lens of tradition.
Michael Dauphinais is Associate Academic Dean and Assistant Professor of Theology at Ave Maria University. Matthew Levering is AssociateProfessor of Theology at Ave Maria University and author of Christ's Fulfillment of Torah and Temple: Salvation According to St. Thomas Aquinas and Scripture and Metaphysics: Aquinas and the Renewal of Trinitarian Theology. They are coeditors of the English edition of Nova et Vetera and coauthors of Holy People, Holy Land: A Theological Introduction to the Bible.

Pick up nearly any English Bible today, and you have already encountered Eugene A. Nida-his influence is that widespread. Nida's dynamic-equivalence approach to Bible translation helped to shape the Good News Bible, the Contemporary English Version, the New International Version, and the New Jerusalem Bible. In addition, Nida's longtime work with the American Bible Society and collaboration with the United Bible Societies spread his theories and methods around the world. Drawing on archival records and interviews with those who know Nida best, "Let the Words Be Written" examines and assesses the ongoing influence of this scholar of wide-ranging abilities and boundless energy. Bible translators, students and scholars of translation theory or cross-cultural studies, and general readers with an interest in the Bible will find this volume both accessible and enlightening. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

This volume offers a unique approach to the history of biblical interpretation, examining the historical, theological, and philosophical presuppositions of select interpreters in order to tease out the complexity of factors that shape one's engagement with biblical texts. Taking seriously the power of biblical texts to shape and address questions common to all humanity, these essays not only provide a window into how the biblical text was read at specific times and places and but also suggest fruitful ways to read it today. Contributions in both English and German focus on biblical interpretation in Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity, nineteenth-century German philosophy, and contemporary biblical theology. The contributors are Harold Attridge, Wilhelm Grab, Stephan Gratzel, Garrett Green, Christine Helmer, Bernd Janowski, Maren Niehoff, Joachim Ringleben, Marvin Sweeney, and Karen Torjesen. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

The six biblical manuscripts that reside in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC are historically significant artifacts for tracing the early history of the transmission of the writings that make up the New Testament and the Septuagint. The manuscripts, all purchased in Egypt at the beginning of the twentieth century by Charles Freer, date to the third through fifth centuries and include codices of the four Gospels, Deuteronomy and Joshua, the Psalms, and the Pauline Epistles, as well as a Coptic codex of the Psalms and a papyrus codex of the Minor Prophets, which, until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, was the earliest Greek manuscript of the Minor Prophets known. The ten essays in this volume are a notable collection of fresh scholarship with long-term value for the study of what is a small but highly valuable treasure trove of biblical manuscripts. The contributors are Malcolm Choat, Kent D. Clarke, Kristin De Troyer, Timothy J. Finney, Dennis Haugh, Larry W. Hurtado, J. Bruce Prior, Jean-Francois Racine, James R. Royse, Ulrich Schmid, and Thomas A. Wayment. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

This leader's guide to Unfailing Love will assist you in your role as a Sisters small-group leader. It outlines the Sisters program, which is very simple: after an initial gathering meeting with a brief introductory video segment, the women in your group will read and reflect each day for the following six weeks. Once a week, you will come together for 60 90 minutes. You will view a video presentation by Rebecca Laird, followed by a Sisters group discussion that Rebecca leads. Then it is your turn to facilitate the discussion in your own Sisters group. Step-by-step instructions are here as well as questions and suggestions to help you and your group connect what you have seen, read, and reflected on during the previous week. You will be able to relax and participate fully as a member of your Sisters group.
For more information about Sisters, go to www.sisters.cokesbury.com."

This book overflows with ideas that will help teachers inspire kids in Kindergarten-fifth grade to learn and remember Bible stories. Sections 1 3 highlight stories from the Old Testament, Advent/Christmas, and Holy Week. Weekly programs include: . Storytelling ideas . Creative dramatics . Music suggestions . Action packed games . Innovative crafts . Puzzles . Worship tie-ins . Service projects . Bulletin Boards that the children help design . Key Scripture verse Each section closes with plans for a rousing, fun-filled "Sonsational" Sunday event for the whole church Weekly lessons are reinforced as children of all ages participate in activities and crafts related to the program themes. Section 4, All Year Long, includes a myriad of monthly activities that can be shared by small groups or the entire church family. . Movie nights . Treasure hunts . Seasonal and holiday events . Field trips These intergenerational activities are designed to bring people closer together and help them grow in their Christian faith. More Bible Time with Kids also includes a section of Bible Activities, Bible Story Art, and Bible Story Games that are designed to help the children remember the Bible stories and characters they have studied. More Bible Time with Kids can be used in Sunday school programs, Christian school settings, VBS programs, after school clubs, home schooling programs, and by anyone interested in helping children learn more about the Bible. "

Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

Who are the mothers in the biblical text? What do they do? What kinds of power do they have? Issues of identity, authority, violence, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, sexual exploitation and rape-marriage, murder, and relation to God have haunted the characters and representations of motherhood from Eve to Mary and beyond. For better or for worse, these images speak potent messages even today. To explore biblical mothers and their relationships with their daughters and sons, the contributors to this volume participate in a comparative analysis between biblical mothers and mothers in popular media, history, literature, and the arts. The diversity of methods they employ prompts a rich discussion on the deconstruction of motherhood, offering new ways of envisioning both biblical and contemporary motherhood.The contributors are Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan and Tina Pippin, Madeline McClenney-Sadler, Wil Gafney, Brian Britt, Frank M. Yamada, Mignon R. Jacobs, Linda S. Schering, Mark Roncace and Deborah Whitehead, Andrew M. Mbuvi, Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, Brenda Wallace, Margaret Aymer, Tat-siong Benny Liew, and Alison Jasper.

Volume 2 of "History of Biblical Interpretation" deals with the most extensive period under examination in this four-volume set. It begins in Asia Minor in the late fourth century with Bishop Theodore of Mopsuestia, the founder of a school of interpretation that sought to accentuate the literal meaning of the Bible and thereby stood out from the tradition of antiquity. It ends with another outsider, a thousand years later in England, who by the presuppositions of his thought stood at the end of an era: John Wyclif. In between these two interpreters, this volume presents the history of biblical interpretation from late antiquity until the end of the Middle Ages by examining the lives, works, and interpretive practices of Didymus the Blind, Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Isidore of Seville, the Venerable Bede, Alcuin, John Scotus Eriugena, Abelard, Rupert of Deutz, Hugo of St. Victor, Joachim of Fiore, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Rashi, Abraham ibn Ezra, and Nicolas of Lyra. Translation of: Reventlow, Henning Graf. Epochen der Bibelauslegung. Munchen, C. H. Beck.

This volume reexamines and reconstructs the relationship between the Deuteronomic History and the book of Chronicles, building on recent developments such as the Persian-period dating of the Deuteronomic History, the contribution of oral traditional studies to understanding the production of biblical texts, and the reassessment of the relationship of Standard Biblical Hebrew and Late Biblical Hebrew. These new perspectives challenge widely held understandings of the relationship between the two scribal works and strongly suggest that they were competing historiographies during the Persian period that nevertheless descended from a common source. This new reconstruction leads to new readings of the literature.

"Interpreting Exile" considers forced displacement and deportation in ancient Israel and comparable modern contexts in order to offer insight into the realities of war and exile in ancient Israel and their representations in the Hebrew Bible. Introductory essays describe the interdisciplinary and comparative approach and explain how it overcomes methodological dead ends and advances the study of war in ancient and modern contexts. Following essays, written by scholars from various disciplines, explore specific cases drawn from a wide variety of ancient and modern settings and consider archaeological, anthropological, physical, and psychological realities, as well as biblical, literary, artistic, and iconographic representations of displacement and exile. The volume as a whole places Israel s experiences and expressions of forced displacement into the broader context of similar war-related phenomena from multiple contexts. The contributors are Rainer Albertz, Frank Ritchel Ames, Samuel E. Balentine, Bob Becking, Aaron A. Burke, David M. Carr, Marian H. Feldman, David G. Garber Jr., M. Jan Holton, Michael M. Homan, Hugo Kamya, Brad E. Kelle, T. M. Lemos, Nghana Lewis, Oded Lipschits, Christl M. Maier, Amy Meverden, William Morrow, Shelly Rambo, Janet L. Rumfelt, Carolyn J. Sharp, Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, and Jacob L. Wright.