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.

Book Description Of Greek and Hebrew, Hebrew strikes the most fear in the heart of the Bible student. The alphabet does not look anything like English. The vocabulary offers almost no points of contact with English. The verb system is utterly alien. And the lexicons, grammars and textbooks are wrapped up in a meta-language--spiked with Latin--that is daunting in itself. For those who feel that studying the English Old Testament is a challenge, the thought of reading it in Hebrew is extreme. Hebrew students need all the help they can get. If you are beginning your study of Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible, this pocket dictionary by Todd J. Murphy is for you. From ablative to zaqeph qaton, it defines the tangled terms that infest Hebrew textbooks, grammars and lexicons. Here is a book that will deliver you from the perils of the Piel and the thicket of metathesis. It is an indispensable glossary that will cut through that technical language--neither Hebrew nor English--that hovers like ground fog over the study and discussion of biblical Hebrew. Now you can devote more time to enjoying biblical Hebrew in all its richness.

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 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.

You can't change the fact that you are getting older. And, indeed, you may not want to Age brings many gifts and opportunities for continued growth. In nine study sessions, Dale and Sandy Larsen help you discover the Bible's perspective on aging. You'll discover how God can effectively and powerfully use those who have grown wiser with the passing years. This LifeGuide Bible Study in IVP's revised format features questions for starting group discussions and for meeting God in personal reflection, as well as a new "Now or Later" section following each session to help you act on what you learn.

In this astute mix of cultural critique and biblical studies, John H. Walton presents and defends twenty propositions supporting a literary and theological understanding of Genesis 1 within the context of the ancient Near Eastern world and unpacks its implications for our modern scientific understanding of origins. Ideal for students, professors, pastors and lay readers with an interest in the intelligent design controversy and creation-evolution debates, Walton's thoughtful analysis unpacks seldom appreciated aspects of the biblical text and sets Bible-believing scientists free to investigate the question of origins.

"Plato s "Parmenides" and Its Heritage" presents in two volumes ground-breaking results in the history of interpretation of Plato s "Parmenides," the culmination of six years of international collaboration by the SBL Annual Meeting seminar, Rethinking Plato s Parmenides and Its Platonic, Gnostic and Patristic Reception (2001 2007). The theme of Volume 1 is the dissolution of firm boundaries for thinking about the tradition of Parmenides interpretation from the Old Academy through Middle Platonism and Gnosticism. The volume suggests a radically different interpretation of the history of thought from Plato to Proclus than is customary by arguing against Proclus s generally accepted view that there was no metaphysical interpretation of the Parmenides before Plotinus in the third century C.E. Instead, this volume traces such metaphysical interpretations, first, to Speusippus and the early Platonic Academy; second, to the Platonism of the first and second centuries C.E. in figures like Moderatus and Numenius; third, to the emergence of an exegetical tradition that read Aristotle s categories in relation to the Parmenides; and, fourth, to important Middle Platonic figures and texts. The contributors to Volume 1 are Kevin Corrigan, Gerald Bechtle, Luc Brisson, John Dillon, Thomas Szlez k, Zlatko Ple e, Noel Hubler, John D. Turner, Johanna Brankaer, Volker Henning Drecoll, and Alain Lernould.

The Bible is hardly the first text that comes to mind when the general public considers gender, sex, and violence, yet within its first four chapters the Bible includes the creation of the first couple, thus gender designation; procreation, thus sex; and violence via the first murder. "Pregnant Passion presents essays excavating some of the biblical stories that explore the dynamics, intersection, and relatedness of gender, human sexuality, and violence in the Bible, with themes spanning the realms of feasts and famines, betrayal and bloodshed, seduction and sensuality, power and politics, virtue and violence.
Contributors include Randall C. Bailey, Valerie C. Cooper, Nicole Duran, Barbara Green, Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara A. Holmes, Susan E. Hylen, Hyun Chul Paul Kim, Mignon R. Jacobs, Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, Madeline McClenney-Sadler, M. Fulgence Nyengele, Mary Donovan Turner, and Susan R. Holmes Winfield.
Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

This book investigates Colossians as a "captivity" letter from the primary implied author, the imprisoned Paul, to an implied audience of mainly Gentile converts currently in danger of influence by local Jews or Jewish Christians. Utilizing a text-centered, literary-rhetorical, and audience-oriented method, it demonstrates new chiastic structures for the entire letter that progressively encourage the audience to resist deceit and conduct themselves according to all the wisdom at their disposal as holy ones in Christ.

This work examines the Vorlage of LXX Ezekiel 40 48, arguing that it represents a reworking of these chapters in light of the book as a whole. The author applies Skopostheorie, a modern functional theory of translation, to understand the goals of translation in LXX Ezekiel 40 48, which include highlighting the distance and hence authority of the source text, suggesting solutions to problems posed by the text, and updating elements of the vision in light of Hellenistic culture. The goal of the translation was both to preserve the authority and to heighten the persuasive power of these chapters for Hellenistic readers of LXX Ezekiel.

This volume employs a text-centered, literary-rhetorical, and audience-oriented method to demonstrate how the implied audience of Philippians are persuaded and exhorted by the dynamic progression of the letter s chiastic structures to rejoice along with Paul and other believers in being conformed, with all of the broad implications of such conformity, to Christ. This reading assumes that Philippians is a single, unified letter written to be read and heard in a public setting as an oral performance substituting for the personal presence of the imprisoned Paul, and it proposes new chiastic structures for the entire letter as a key to understanding it.

New and comprehensive electronic reference work on The Dead Sea Scrolls. Prepared by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, under the editorship of Emanuel Tov. The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) probably represent the most significant manuscript discovery in recent history. These ancient texts have revolutionized the field of biblical and Judaic studies, and they have become an indispensable source for scholars and students alike. Although most of the texts have been published in some form or other, scholars have now only begun to grasp the true meaning and relevance of the scrolls for our understanding of ancient Judaism, the transmission of the biblical texts, and the origins of Christianity. This third volume of the DSS CD-ROM gives a more complete coverage of all of the published non-biblical DSS materials, including scrolls identified in 2004 and 2005. Anyone using the CD-ROM will be able to access texts, images, and reference materials quickly and efficiently. The combination of a powerful text search engine and sophisticated image-manipulating software will enable scholars and students unparalleled research possibilities. A major new feature is the addition of morphological analysis to all of the texts. This data gives glosses and part of speech analysis for each word in the database. The database is powered by version 7 of WordCruncher(R). This version is fully Unicode compatible, meaning that you can cut and paste from the database into Microsoft Word etc. The software makes full accommodation of the features of the Hebrew and Aramaic languages, by allowing users to search for words according to their root forms in theselanguages. The database has an improved image set. Many images have been replaced with higher resolution copies, additional images have been included, and each fragment or scroll image is individually labelled. With special thanks to West Semitic Research, who gave permission for the reproduction on the cover: "Photograph by Bruce and Kenneth Zuckerman, West Semitic Research. Courtesy Department of Antiquities, Jordan." DSSEL - System requirements -Operating System: Windows 2000, XP -Processor: Pentium 3 or equivalent, or better -RAM: 256 MB minimum -Free hard disk space: 2GB (installed) -CD-ROM drive: 16x speed, preferably faster -Screen Resolution: 1024x768, or higher "The Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library was awarded Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2007,"

The essays in "Bible Trouble" all engage queer theories for purposes of biblical interpretation, a rare effort to date within biblical scholarship. The title phrase "Bible Trouble" plays on "Judith Butler's Gender Trouble", gesturing toward a primary text for contemporary queer theory. The essays consider, among others, the Lazarus story, the Ethiopian eunuch, "gender trouble" in "Judges 4 and 5", the "Song of Songs", and an unorthodox coupling of the books of Samuel and the film "Paris Is Burning". This volume "troubles" not only the boundaries between biblical scholarship and queer theory but also the boundaries between different frameworks currently used in the analysis of biblical literature, including sexuality, gender, race, class, history, and literature. The contributors are Ellen T. Armour, Michael Joseph Brown, Sean D. Burke, Heidi Epstein, Deryn Guest, Jione Havea, Teresa J. Hornsby, Lynn R. Huber, S. Tamar Kamionkowski, Joseph A. Marchal, Jeremy Punt, Erin Runions, Ken Stone, Gillian Townsley, Jay Twomey, and Manuel Villalobos.

This volume explores the language and poetic structure of the seven non-Masoretic poems preserved in the Dead Sea Scroll labeled 11Q5 or 11QPsa. It presents fresh readings of the Hebrew poems, which were last studied intensively almost fifty years ago, stressing their structural and conceptual coherence and incorporating insights gained from the scholarship of recent decades. Each chapter addresses a single poem and describes its poetic structure, including its use of parallelism and allusion to scripture, as well as specific problems related to the poem s interpretation. In addition, the book considers these poems in relation to what they reveal about the development of Hebrew poetry in the late Second Temple period.

This 4 session study of the book of Philippians is part of the Bible Readers Series which is designed for adult study groups wishing to explore a particular book of the Bible for a limited number of sessions using the NRSV.

Sessions in this study of Philippians call us to live a life worthy of the name of Christ. Then, realizing that decisions are based on the example seen in those claiming to be children of God, Paul's words encourage us to continue pressing forward, focusing on the positives of a relationship with Christ, to the fulfillment of God's perfect will. (separate leader's guide #0687051630)
To see another adult Bible study offered by Cokesbury, go to the Adult Bible Studies website.

All scholars recognize that Scripture plays a vital role in the theology and rhetoric of the apostle Paul. They disagree, however, about how best to make sense of the many marked and unmarked references to Scripture that permeate his letters. This book aims to move the discussion forward by examining the reasons behind these scholarly differences. The essays are united by a concern to show how scholarly opinions concerning Paul's use of Scripture have been influenced by the application of divergent methods and conflicting presuppositions regarding Paul, his audiences, and the role of biblical references in his letters.The book also seeks to extend the boundaries of the discussion by applying the insights of deconstruction, postcolonial theory, and feminist criticism to the study of Paul's use of Scripture. Together these essays show what can be accomplished when scholars take the time to discuss their differences and try out new approaches to old problems. Paperback edition to this title is available from the Society of Biblical Literature.

Koehler, Baumgartner and Stamm's The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HAL), is widely recognized as being the standard modern dictionary for Biblical Hebrew. In combining scholarly thoroughness with easy accessibility, this dictionary meets the needs of a wide range of users. The CD-ROM edition of the dictionary not only contains all the information available in the print edition of HAL, but also provides additional features that enhance its usefulness considerably. This updated version includes the Aramaic Lexicon.
The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament on CD-ROM for Windows uses the Logos Library System Software. System requirements: Microsoft Windows version 3.1 or higher, 12Mb of RAM, 20Mb of free hard disk space, CD-ROM player.
Functionality
The functionality of the CD-ROM includes the exact reproduction of the character and paragraph formatting of the print edition. Additional functionality comes especially with the possibility of article-based navigation and extensive, language-aware, searching of Hebrew and related languages, e.g. full-text, Boolean, and proximity searches. Furthermore, every 'see also' cross-reference to other articles in the dictionary is be made into a hyperlink. Biblical references are also enabled to be hyperlinks to Biblical texts. As an aid to the reader, all abbreviations are turned into hotspots, activating window pop-ups with the full expansion of the abbreviation.

Before they were written in the Gospels, the teachings and deeds of Jesus were preserved in human memory - with all its frailties and strengths - for perhaps as long as 30 to 60 years. Much can happen to traditions preserved in memories for so long, and this groundbreaking work addresses the impact that the qualities of human memory would have had on the traditions of the historical Jesus found in the "Synoptic Gospels". It uses the insights gained from over a century of psychological experimentation to investigate the qualities and potential reliability of individual and collective memories underlying the various elements that make up the Gospel traditions.

What has hermeneutics to do with ecology? What texts, if any, come to mind when you consider what the scriptures might say about environmental ethics? To help readers think critically and clearly about the Bible's relation to modern environmental issues, this volume expands the horizons of biblical interpretation to introduce ecological hermeneutics, moving beyond a simple discussion about Earth and its constituents as topics to a reading of the text from the perspective of Earth. In these groundbreaking essays, sixteen scholars seek ways to identify with Earth as they read and retrieve the role or voice of Earth, a voice previously unnoticed or suppressed within the biblical text and its interpretation. This study enriches eco-theology with eco-exegesis, a radical and timely dialogue between ecology and hermeneutics. The contributors are Vicky Balabanski, Laurie Braaten, Norman Habel, Theodore Hiebert, Cameron Howard, Melissa Tubbs Loya, Hilary Marlow, Susan Miller, Raymond Person, Alice Sinnott, Kristin Swenson, Sigve Tonstad, Peter Trudinger, Marie Turner, Elaine Wainwright, and Arthur Walker-Jones. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

"Images of the Word: Hollywood's Bible and Beyond" is a collection of essays by leading international scholars in the field of Bible and film. Recognizing the increasingly global nature of both media and religion, the volume focuses on the ways in which the Bible is interpreted and visualized not only within Hollywood but also far beyond it. Cutting-edge analysis of films from France, Canada, Sweden, India, and elsewhere reveals that the Bible's visualization is culturally rooted and contributes to the shaping of a particular culture, including its perception of the Bible itself.Essays range across the canon from "Exodus" to "Ecclesiastes" to "Revelation", interacting with films of various national traditions and periods from Blackton's "Life of Moses" (1909) to "Karunamayudu" (1978) to Cronenberg's "eXistenZ" (1999). The volume engages the breadth of current scholarly interest in this interdisciplinary field, including the critical reading of 'Bible films', the exploration of biblical motifs and themes within contemporary cinema, and concluding responses to the essays from both a biblical scholar and a film scholar. Paperback to this edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature.

This volume assesses past, theoretically engaged work on Israelite religion and presents new approaches to particular problems and larger interpretive and methodological questions. It gathers previously unpublished research by senior and mid-career scholars well known for their contributions in the area of social theory and the study of Israelite religion and by junior scholars whose writing is just beginning to have a serious impact on the field. The volume begins with a critical introduction by the editor. Topics of interest to the contributors include gender, violence, social change, the festivals, the dynamics of shame and honor, and the relationship of text to ritual. The contributors engage theory from social and cultural anthropology, sociology, post-colonial studies, and ritual studies. Theoretical models are evaluated in light of the primary data, and some authors modify or adapt theory to increase its utility for biblical studies.

In spite of some scholars' inclination to include the book of Jubilees as another witness to "Enochic Judaism," the relationship of Jubilees to the apocalyptic writings and events surrounding the Maccabean revolt has never been adequately clarified. This book builds on scholarship on genre to establish a clear pattern among the ways Jubilees resembles and differs from other apocalypses. Jubilees matches the apocalypses of its day in overall structure and literary morphology. Jubilees also uses the literary genre to raise the issues typical of the apocalypses--including revelation, angels and demons, judgment, and eschatology--but rejects what the apocalypses typically say about those issues, subverting reader expectations with a corrected view. In addition to the main argument concerning Jubilees, this volume's survey of what is fundamentally apocalyptic about apocalyptic literature advances the understanding of early Jewish apocalyptic literature and, in turn, of later apocalypses and comparable perspectives, including those of Paul and the Qumran sectarians.

Over the last two centuries, many scholars have considered the Gospel of John off-limits for all quests for the historical Jesus. That stance, however, creates a new set of problems that need to be addressed thoughtfully. The essays in this book, reflecting the ongoing deliberations of an international group of Johannine and Jesus scholars, critically assess two primary assumptions of the prevalent view: the dehistoricization of John and the de-Johannification of Jesus. The approaches taken here are diverse, including cognitive-critical developments of Johannine memory, distinctive characteristics of the Johannine witness, new historicism, Johannine-Synoptic relations, and fresh analyses of Johannine traditional development. In addition to offering state-of-the-art reviews of Johannine studies and Jesus studies, this volume draws together an emerging consensus that sees the Gospel of John as an autonomous tradition with its own perspective, in dialogue with other traditions. Through this challenging of critical and traditional assumptions alike, new approaches to John's age-old riddles emerge, and the ground is cleared for new and creative ways forward. The contributors are Paul Anderson; D. A. Carson; Colleen M. Conway; Paula Fredriksen; Felix Just, S.J.; Robert Kysar; Andrew Lincoln; John Painter; Sidney Palmer; Mark Allan Powell; D. Moody Smith; Tom Thatcher; Marianne Meye Thompson; Gilbert Van Belle; and Jack Verheyden. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

Sharing many traditions and characteristics, the Gospel of Matthew, the letter of James, and the Didache invite comparative study. In this volume, internationally renowned scholars consider the three writings and the complex interrelationship between first-century Judaism and nascent Christianity. These texts likely reflect different aspects and emphases of a network of connected communities sharing basic theological assumptions and expressions.Of particular importance for the reconstruction of the religious and social milieu of these communities are issues such as the role of Jewish law, the development of community structures, the reception of the Jesus tradition, and conflict management. In addition to the Pauline and Johannine 'schools', "Matthew, James, and the Didache" may represent a third religious milieu within earliest Christianity that is especially characterized through its distinct connections to a particular ethical stream of contemporary Jewish tradition. Paperback edition of this title is available from the Society of Biblical Literature.