The texts Joshua 1, 23 and 24, 1 Samuel 12, and 1 Kings 8 as speeches interpret the central epochs of the presentation of history from Deuteronomy 1 ? 2 Kings 25. The author analyzes these texts and their contextual relationships in regard to redaction, literary and genre criticism. On the basis of these studies, in regard to the presentation of history found in Deuteronomy 1 ? 2 Kings 25 a differentiation can be made between an exilic (DtrH) and an extensive post-exilic layer (DtrS). DtrH and DtrS show characteristic differences above all in their theological profile."

In the Gospels of the Bible there are a few comments about Mary Magdalene here and there. But in the Gnostic scriptures that have been discovered, there are tantalizing hints that both her relationship to Jesus and her role among Jesus' disciples may have been profoundly important. Among several schools of Gnostic Christianity, Mary plays an essential role in the revelation of the gospel.
Here, for the first time in print, is a Sophian Gospel of St. Mary Magdalene. No secret oral tradition as extensive as this has ever been recorded, and none has ever presented a Gnostic view of Mary Magdalene as she is portrayed in this groundbreaking work-as a powerful holy woman, the innermost disciple and beloved wife of Jesus, and a Christed woman who is coequal with Jesus in the Christ revelation.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer teaches readers how to create change in their lives and truly receive God's blessings. Includes powerful Scriptures covering over 50 topics, such as patience, loneliness, and wisdom.

What's the Big Deal About Sex?
Birds do it. Bees do it. And when you turn on the television, log on to the Internet, or watch a movie, you can't help but notice that everyone else seems to be doing it too. Our culture has embraced the message that sex is just a basic bodily function, as irresistible and harmless as satisfying your hunger and thirst. But is it? Or have we bought into a lie that is rapidly corroding our souls and our society?
When it comes to sexuality, you can't ignore the Manufacturer's directions and escape unharmed. That's why everyone-teen or adult, single or married-needs to know "The Truth About Sex."
This compelling, interactive study provides an antidote to the world's subtle yet insidiously dangerous lies. You'll learn...
-why God created sex in the first place
-what happens when you don't follow His design
-why virginity matters
-what consequences follow sex outside of marriage
-how to find healing if you've been harmed because you or someone else violated God's instructions
With this knowledge comes the power to stand firm, resisting the pull of temptation. Whatever your past-whether you've remained sexually pure or endured the pain of misusing God's precious gift-you'll find your eyes opened and your life transformed as you discover for yourself "The Truth About Sex,"
"
Includes a companion study guide for personal use or group discussion."

Four thousand years ago, amid tragic suffering and death, Job asked the question of the ages: "If a man dies, will he live again?" Since the dawn of history, the subject of death and the afterlife has been the great question of human existence. It's a subject that everyone wonders about. What lies behind the veil of death? Is there really life after death? Is there a place called hell? This small yet power-packed book answers, in a very straightforward, reader-friendly format, all the most-asked questions ordinary people have about death, near-death experiences, cremation, purgatory, hell, heaven, and our future bodies. You'll be amazed at what awaits us beyond the grave.
Is There Sex in Heaven?
It's a fair question And so are the rest. Go ahead...flip to the table of contents. Discover another one, two, or fifty-four others that are guaranteed to intrigue you. Questions like: "Do those in heaven know what's happening on earth? "and "Will I see my pets in heaven?"
Because even if you'd rather avoid the topic, death will not avoid you. So fire away Ask the tough questions, and get the dead-on answers you need. Straightforward and easy to read, "55 Answers to Questions About Life After Death" satisfies that nagging, curious voice whispering from the corner of your mind.
Story Behind the Book
"Three key experiences in my life have come together to make this book a reality. First, as the pastor of a local church for thirteen years, I have had the privilege of visiting people who are facing imminent death, conducting funerals, and ministering to grieving families. During these times people often have probing questions about life after death. Second, due to my interest and writing in the area of Bible prophecy, I am frequently asked questions about the afterlife at conferences and via e-mail. Third, all kinds of books, TV shows, and groups out there today are fostering unbiblical views of life after death. Knowing that this is a subject of universal interest and great confusion, I have a passionate desire to create a user-friendly, clear, straightforward resource to answer all the key questions that people everywhere are asking about life's greatest mystery."

Rather than being content with atomistic approaches to a text, recent scholarship has increasingly seen the value of tracing motifs and their variations as they run through biblical books, and even across book boundaries. Williamson takes up the important but inadequately explored messianic theme, tracing its development and variations through the canonical Isaiah. He sets this unifying thematic study against a counterpoint of redactional analysis, which exploits and builds on his previous work in The Book Called Isaiah: Deutero-Isaiah's Role in Composition and Redaction (1994). The current work was composed to serve as the source material for the 1997 Didsbury Lectures at the DEGREESNazarene Theological College near Manchester, England. In his introductory chapter, Williamson sets the foundation of his theme against the broader backdrop of the king, which moves from the minor tones of the human, Davidic king in the earlier chapters of Isaiah to the major key of the divine king later in the book. He goes against much recent scholarship in holding that the former derive most probably from before the exile. The second variation concerns Immanuel, looking in detail at chapters 6-9. He presents and critiques Buddes' century-old hypothesis that Isaiah 6-8 were an Isaianic Memoir which originally opened the book. Rather than taking the call narratives of other prophets as a comparison, Williamson finds closer parallels between the calls of Isaiah and of Micaiah (1 Kgs 22) and the literary shape of Amos 7-8. He sees the chief interest in the Immanuel figure being in fulfilling the role of righteous rule within the Davidic dynasty, rather than in identifying any specific individual. The third variation, the "Servant" is drawn from Deutero-Isaiah. There the original Davidic relationship with God is transferred to the nation of Israel. She will be God's witness and mediator to the world. As a Christian, Williamson brings up the interpretation that Jesus is the servant according to the NT. He defends his view by stating that "Jesus fulfills, but does not thereby exhaust, the prophecy" (p. 53). The theme of justice and righteousness in association with the servant ties his role to that of the king in the first section.

How to be God's man in relationship with a woman.
Few men would ever embark on an important project, a significant career change, or a major athletic challenge without gathering all the tactical knowledge possible to insure a good outcome. Yet, when it comes to relationships with women, most men fail to apply the simple principles that make them successful in other areas of life.
It may be easy to get into a relationship with a woman, but it's not so easy to make the relationship work well. It takes energy. It demands effort. It requires education and understanding.
God is available to help. But there's a catch: God's man must connect with God's purposes before he can truly connect with his wife (or wife-to-be). God uses the marriage relationship to promote growth in men's lives, because it shows us our character gaps and drives us to Him for solutions.
If you want true intimacy and connection with a woman, you'll need to grow up and graduate from God's school of character. This book, "Being God's Man by Understanding a Woman's Heart, " is the perfect start.
Special Features:
-Practical studies facilitate personal encounters with God and other men
-Questions encourage genuine reflection and help build godly convictions
-"Real Life" case studies show how the truths you discover have worked out in other men's lives
-"Standing Strong" section gives you the opportunity to form and express your action steps with God and your group

This French work presents an exegetic and theological interpretation of Qoheleth's speech on riches (Ecclesiastes 5:9-6:6). The detailed exegetic analysis distinguishes the existential meaning from the anthropological and theological meaning, and develops a rhetorical figure of wisdom which is characterised by two aspects - either the denial of God or the reference to God. Using a parallel to the Book of Job, the intertextuality of the discourse of wisdom becomes clear. To the extent that the critical literary and the hermeneutic approach foregrounds the text in its final form, it points directly to the internal tension of the text, which is marked by contrasts, and questions the conditions of the process of composition. This approach also provides a new access to Qoheleth's provocative thinking.

Good and evil, clean and unclean, rich and poor, self and other. The nature and function of such binary oppositions have long intrigued scholars in such fields as philosophy, linguistics, classics, and anthropology. From the opening chapters of Genesis, in which God separates day from night, and Adam and Eve partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, dyadic pairs proliferate throughout the Hebrew Bible. In this groundbreaking work melding critical exegesis and contemporary theory, Saul M. Olyan considers the prevalence of polarities in biblical discourse and expounds their significance for the social and religious institutions of ancient Israel. Extant biblical narrative and legal texts reveal a set of socially constructed and culturally privileged binary oppositions, Olyan argues, which instigate and perpetuate hierarchical social relations in ritual settings such as the sanctuary.

Focusing on four binary pairs--holy/common, Israelite/alien, clean/unclean, and whole/blemished--Olyan shows how these privileged oppositions were used to restrict access to cultic spaces, such as the temple or the Passover table. These ritual sites, therefore, became the primary contexts for creating and recreating unequal social relations. Olyan also uncovers a pattern of challenge to the established hierarchies by nonprivileged groups. Converging with contemporary issues of power, marginalization, and privileging, Olyan's painstaking yet lucid study abounds with implications for anthropology, classics, critical theory, and feminist studies.

Newly rebound edition of a famous Bible History used in Catholic schools for years.

Covers the most important events events narrated in the Bible. With 80 beautiful drawings of biblical events and suitable for sixth through eighth grades.

New full color cover!

The study examines the thesis widely held in religious studies and theology that in the ancient world there was a close link between the possession of citizenship and the chance - and also the obligation - to engage in cult. There is a critical discussion of different versions of this thesis. The study presents, translates and interprets epigraphic and literary sources on cultic practice and religious law from the Hellenistic Age from Greek poleis, Rome and Judaism.

Spirit-filled believers will find new resources for understanding the Bible and applying biblical themes to their day-to-day lives in these interactive study guides.

Written from a Pentecostal/Charismatic viewpoint, these interactive studies introduce believers to the books of the Bible and offer a thorough and balanced understanding of key themes of the Bible.

By studying the themes of the books, as well as the books themselves, these interactive studies offer groups and individuals a Spirit-filled perspective of the Bible's message for today.

Voted one of Christianity Today's 1996 Books of the Year The carnivalesque, pluralistic culture in hich we live can be seen as a consequence of the breakdown of modernity (which touted itself as the "greatest show on earth"), combined with a recognition of the socially constructed character of reality. Since the old construction has been discredited and is in a process of decomposition, the season is open on the construction of new realities which are produced with the speed and ease of temporary circus tents being raised. Far from witnessing the erosion or even eclipse of religious belief that the Enlightenment so confidently predicted, the eclipse of the Enlightenment has resulted in a veritable smorgasbord of religions and worldviews for our consumption. So Richard Middleton and Brian Walsh colorfully describe our postmodern setting. In this book they survey postmodern culture and philosophy, offering lucid explanations of such difficult theories as deconstruction. They are sympathetic to the postmodern critique, yet believe that a gospel stripped of its modernist trappings speaks a radical word of hope and transformation to our chaotic culture. The book for those who wonder what postmodernism is and how biblical Christians might best respond.

In this study the author is concerned with how human life is understood in the biblical book of Qoheleth (the Preacher). In Qoheleth, insight into one's own mortality leads to a new evaluation of happiness in life. Both the various areas of human life (for example work and rest, poverty and wealth, youth and old age) and the relationship of human beings to God are developed by Qoheleth between the poles of "death" and "happiness in life."

These six studies, edited by Cindy Bunch, will introduce you to the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus, remind you of God's faithfulness and power to fulfill his promises, and draw you more deeply into the love that brought Christ to earth.

The author here presents a contribution to the Gospel literature of the New Testament. In his analysis of Luke 8-21 as an integral part of Luke-Acts, he deals with this section in a literary-critical and traditio-historical way. Ever since Schleiermacher the hypothesis of a "travel narrative" or a corresponding "central section" (the term employed in the English-speaking world) beginning in "Luke" 9:51 and covering about ten chapters, has been dominant in research of the "Third Gospel". The author shows that this hypothesis is "un-Lukan". This in turn makes a new access to the total Lukan project possible. One part of the analysis of the text, for example, is a comparison with the narrative techniques of bios literature in classical sources.

Oskar Skarsaune gives us a new look into the development of the early church and its practice by showing us the evidence of interaction between the early Christians and rabbinic Judaism. He offers numerous fascinating episodes and glimpses into this untold story.

About LifeGuide Bible Studies We're updating and revising our bestselling LifeGuides to make them even more effective for small group Bible study! New features of the revised LifeGuides include special options for group activities, additional questions for personal reflection, a "Now or Later" section with practical follow-up activities for use after the study or between sessions, expanded and improved leaders' notes and an attractive, redesigned format for easier reading. For some of us the Lord's Prayer is simply a formal prayer. If so, we are missing out on a rich resource. This study guide unpacks the Lord's Prayer section by section with additional texts that help us go deeper into Jesus' teaching about prayer.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. To be spiritually mature is to show the fruit of the Spirit of Christ in our lives. These studies drawn from nine New and Old Testament passages highlight each quality and allow the Spirit's fruit to ripen in our lives.

In plain language and with ample illustration, Paul D. Wegner presents an overview of the history and methods, aims and results of textual criticism of the whole Bible--the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament. You will gain an appreciation for the vast work that has been accomplished in preserving the text of Scripture and find a renewed confidence in its reliability.

Joseph faced hard times--more than once. He was sold into slavery by his brothers. He spent years imprisoned because of a false accusation. And yet Joseph was able to live in forgiveness and hope, and God did great things in his life every step of the way. Paul Borthwick invites you to explore Joseph's story as a way toward discovering how God's dreams might be fulfilled in and through you. This LifeGuide Bible Study features questions for starting group discussions and for meeting God in personal reflection, together with leader's notes and a "Now or Later" section in each study.

Why don't I get what I pray for? Do I wait in faith for God to change a bad situation, or do I step out in faith to look for change? Why don't I feel more confident that God will help me? If you ever struggle with uncertainties about faith, you'll find good company in the pages of the Bible. Dale and Sandy Larsen lead you through nine Bible studies on people who struggled with faith to encourage you in your journey to deeper trust. This revised LifeGuide Bible Study features additional questions for starting group discussions and for meeting God in personal reflection, together with expanded leader's notes and a "Now or Later" section in each study.