In this book, Stanley E. Porter offers a unique, language-based critique of New Testament theology by comparing it to the development of language study from the Enlightenment to the present. Tracing the histories of two disciplines that are rarely considered together, Porter shows how the study of New Testament theology has followed outmoded conceptual models from previous eras of intellectual discussion. He reconceptualizes the study of New Testament theology via methods that are based upon the categories of modern linguistics, and demonstrates how they have already been applied to New Testament Greek studies. Porter also develops a workable linguistic model that can be applied to other areas of New Testament research. Opening New Testament Greek linguistics to a wider audience, his volume offers numerous examples of the productivity of this linguistic model, especially in his chapter devoted to the case study of the Son of Man.

The Passion Translation is a modern, easy-to-read Bible translation that unlocks the passion of God's heart and expresses his fiery love-merging emotion and life-changing truth. This translation will evoke an overwhelming response in every reader, unfolding the deep mysteries of the Scriptures. If you are hungry for God, The Passion Translation will help you encounter his heart and know him more intimately. Fall in love with God all over again.

Most of Paul's letters, especially First Corinthians, were written in the context of conflict with troublemaking opponents and the social dilemma at the Lord's Supper in Corinth. First Corinthians provides a unique glimpse into the social custom of the Christian congregation in a Greaco-Roman environment during the early years of the Christian Church. Much effort has gone into reconstructing what happened at the Lord's Supper and the social issues that were involved. More recently, attention has focused on the Corinthian congregation itself and how Paul solved the issue of idol food and dining in a pagan temple.

This book demonstrates that the encounter between Christianity and various African cultures gives rise to a number of problems for Africans who become Christians. It draws attention to certain traditional African beliefs and practices that seem to be incompatible with Christianity and create problems for Africans who embrace Christianity. Against this background it argues for the need to inculturate Christianity. It contends that in this exercise African Christianity can learn from the attempts at inculturation found in the New Testament times and in the early church. It offers examples of how the early church sought to make use of non-Christian categories of thought and elements in its articulation of the Christian message and in worship. It suggests a few areas of Ghanaian and African life where inculturation could and should take place. These include funeral rites, widowhood rites, child-naming rites, the rites of marriage, libation and christology. It concludes by offering some guidelines for use in the process of the inculturation of Christianity in Africa today.

Teaching the Historical Jesus in his Jewish context to students of varied religious backgrounds presents instructors with not only challenges, but also opportunities to sustain interfaith dialogue and foster mutual understanding and respect. This new collection explores these challenges and opportunities, gathering together experiential lessons drawn from teaching Jesus in a wide variety of settings-from the public, secular two- or four-year college, to the Jesuit university, to the Rabbinic school or seminary, to the orthodox, religious Israeli university. A diverse group of Jewish and Christian scholars reflect on their own classroom experiences and explicates crucial issues for teaching Jesus in a way that encourages students at every level to enter into an encounter with the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament without paternalism, parochialism, or prejudice. This volume is a valuable resource for instructors and graduate students interested in an interfaith approach in the classroom, and provides practical case studies for scholars working on Jewish-Christian relations.

For almost 1,500 years, the New Testament manuscripts were copied by hand--and mistakes and intentional changes abound in the competing manuscript versions. Religious and biblical scholar Bart Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself are the results of both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes. In this compelling and fascinating book, Ehrman shows where and why changes were made in our earliest surviving manuscripts, explaining for the first time how the many variations of our cherished biblical stories came to be, and why only certain versions of the stories qualify for publication in the Bibles we read today. Ehrman frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultra-conservative views of the Bible.

The historical claims of the New Testament--that Jesus performed miracles, fulfilled prophecy, died and rose again, and ascended into heaven--come to us as received tradition, and we receive them in faith, trusting that the New Testament is indeed an inspired collection of writings, that it indeed tells us the truth. Increasingly, the reliability of not just the New Testament but really any document of history is called into question. If everyone writes from a point of view and with an agenda, can we reasonably expect any historical account to be objective--to tell us the truth? In this newly revised edition of Is the New Testament Reliable? Paul Barnett defends the task of the historian and the concept of history. He then addresses questions about the New Testament of importance to people of faith and skeptics alike: How close in time are the New Testament documents to the life of Jesus? Why should we believe the writings of "biased" early Christians? Were any of the writers of the New Testament books eyewitnesses to the events it records? How can we know that what was originally written has not been altered through the centuries? It is no small thing to trust ancient claims, but Barnett shows that we can take confidence in the New Testament, for it tells us the truth.

This book examines in detail the use of the pronominal adjective Π a/?/ (« all, each, every) in the Greek New Testament, focusing on how syntactical patterns and the semantic value of words or phrases it modifies are factors determining its sense and scope. These findings are applied to the interpretation of several debated passages in the New Testament.

This book illustrates how the macro-structure of the « body of Romans essentially follows that of the diatribes in Epictetus's Discourses. As in Discourses, the diatribe in Romans begins with the thesis (1.16-17), then follows an indictment (1.18-32) and dialogues with a fictitious second-person singular in chapter two. Arguments with the mē genoito formula dominate the middle part of the diatribe. In the middle of chapter eleven, the phase changes back to dialogues with the second-person singular. The ending of the diatribe Romans also, like Discourses, includes cynic and hyperbolic statements (14.21 and 14.23). Thus, the « body of Romans should not be read as a real letter, but as a diatribe that was distributed in Paul's school-room and later appropriated as a letter. This teaching was not directed to a specific group of people, viz., the Christians in Rome, but rather intrinsically universalized. Therefore, its message is intrinsically more powerful for us.

'The Practice of the Body of Christ' begins a conversation between "apocalyptic" interpretations of the Apostle Paul and "virtue ethics" interpretations. It argues that the human actor's place in Pauline theology has long been captive to theological concerns foreign to Paul and that we can discern in Paul a classical account of human action, an account that Alasdair MacIntyre's work helps to recover. Such an account of agency helps ground an apocalyptic reading of Paul by recovering the centrality of the church and its day-to-day Christic practices, specifically, but not exclusively, the Eucharist. Miller first offers a critique of some contemporary accounts of agency in Paul in the light of MacIntyre's work. Three exegetical chapters then establish a "MacIntyrian" re-reading of central parts of the Letter to the Romans. Finally, a concluding chapter offers theological syntheses and prospects for future research.

Dennis Horton highlights the shape and function of the death-and-resurrection motif by applying William Freedman's criteria of a literary motif to the Acts narrative. By analyzing the statements about death and resurrection together with the examples of this messianic pattern among the experiences of major and minor characters, the motif becomes clear. This central theme then becomes intensified through contrast with a secondary motif, that of death and decay. Death and Resurrection provides a clear example of a biblical motif and how it develops and functions within the narrative, serving as a valuable guide for future studies of biblical motifs. The work also supplies a needed balance between the extremes of past and present Lukan scholarship by considering the combined effect of suffering and renewed life within a single motif. Both the statements and actions of the characters reveal the importance of the two elements for Lukan theology and soteriology. The function of the motif derives from its usage within the narrative and proves insightful for gaining a better understanding of the aesthetic quality of the story while simultaneously showing how the narrator skillfully wields the motif to provide encouragement to the followers of "The Way," to issue a warning to would-be persecutors, and to deliver an evangelistic message to potential converts such as the "God-fearers." The messianic pattern of death and resurrection becomes a heuristic tool that the narrator carefully applies to create a potent motif with a multifaceted message for a growing and often suffering Christian community.

Theologians today are facing a crisis of identity. Are they members of the academy or the church? Is it still possible to be members of both? In God and the Teaching of Theology, Steven Harris argues a way through the impasse by encompassing both church and academy within the umbrella of the divine economy. To accomplish this, Harris uses St. Paul's description of this economy in the opening chapters of his first letter to the Corinthians. Through Paul's discussion of wisdom, the Spirit, and the apostles' role in sharing that divine wisdom, theologians of the patristic, medieval, and Reformation eras found a description of their own work as educators; they discovered that they too had roles within the same divine economy. This book thus offers a rich description of the teaching of theology as part of God's own divine pedagogy, stretching from God the teacher himself, through the nature of students and teachers of theology, to the goal of this pedagogy: human salvation in the knowledge of God. In addressing the current identity crisis of theology faculties, Harris looks backward in order to chart a way forward. His book will appeal to academic theologians, and to theological and church educators, pastors, and Christians interested in the relationship between academic study and their faith.

When Dr. David Jeremiah prepares a sermon or teaching, at the forefront of his mind
is helping people understand what the Bible says, what it meant to the people at the
time it was written, and what is means to us today. The Jeremiah Bible Study Series
captures Dr. Jeremiah's forty years of teaching employing this approach and will lead
readers through each book of the New Testament, one chapter at a time. Along the
way, readers will gain insights into the text, identify the key stories and themes, and
be challenged to correctly apply the truths and meanings they find to their own lives.

Sections in each lesson include:

• Getting Started: An opening question to introduce readers to the lesson
• Setting the Stage: A short reflection to explain the context of the study
• Exploring the Text: The Scripture reading for the lesson with related study questions
• Reviewing the Story: Questions to help readers identify key points in the Scripture reading
• Applying the Message: Questions to help readers apply the key ideas to their lives
• Reflecting on the Meaning: A closing reflection on the key teachings in the lesson
• Each of the Bible studies in this series will help readers understand what the Bible says-particularly in its original context-and how to apply its teachings to their lives.

For many years now, the topic of the New Testament canon has been the main focus of my research and writing. It is an exciting field of study that probes into questions that have long fascinated both scholars and laymen alike, namely when and how these 27 books came to be regarded as a new scriptural deposit. But, the story of the New Testament canon is bigger than just the aEURO~whenaEURO (TM) and the aEURO~howaEURO (TM). It is also, and perhaps most fundamentally, about the aEURO~whyaEURO (TM). Why did Christians have a canon at all? Does the canon exist because of some later decision or action of the second- or third-century church? Or did it arise more naturally from within the early Christian faith itself? Was the canon an extrinsic phenomenon, or an intrinsic one? These are the questions this book is designed to address. And these are not micro questions, but macro ones. They address foundational and paradigmatic issues about the way we view the canon. They force us to consider the larger framework through which we conduct our research - whether we realized we had such a framework or not. Of course, we are not the first to ask such questions about why we have a canon. Indeed, for many scholars this question has already been settled. The dominant view today, as we shall see below, is that the New Testament is an extrinsic phenomenon; a later ecclesiastical development imposed on books originally written for another purpose. This is the framework through which much of modern scholarship operates. And it is the goal of this volume to ask whether it is a compelling one. To be sure, it is no easy task challenging the status quo in any academic field. But, we should not be afraid to ask tough questions. Likewise, the consensus position should not be afraid for them to be asked.

This innovative study makes a major contribution to the long scholarly discussion of the problematic geography of "Mark's Gospel". Using both modern spatial theory and an exhaustive review of ancient evidence, Stewart demonstrates how Mark's spatial perceptions reflect Greek, Roman and Jewish understandings of human geography. He addresses Mark's editorial and compositional control over the geographic presentation of Jesus' ministry, ultimately arguing that in Mark, Jesus offers a unique spatial practice.

During the Orthodox celebration of Holy Week, the Church relives the arrest, trial, sufferings, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. On Matins of Holy Friday (commonly served on the evening of Holy Thursday), there is a special service where, the passion of Christ's sufferings in the Garden of Gethsemane, His Trial, and Crucifixion through all four Gospels is read aloud in church. This book provides the English text for those twelve Passion Gospel readings.

The Passion Translation is a modern, easy-to-read Bible translation that unlocks the passion of God's heart and expresses his fiery love-merging emotion and life-changing truth. This translation will evoke an overwhelming response in every reader, unfolding the deep mysteries of the Scriptures. If you are hungry for God, The Passion Translation will help you encounter his heart and know him more intimately. Fall in love with God all over again.

This engaging commentary on the Gospel of Matthew is the fifth of seventeen volumes in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS), which will cover the entire New Testament. This volume, like each in the series, relates Scripture to life, is faithfully Catholic, and is supplemented by features designed to help readers understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively.
Praise for the CCSS:
"These commentaries are both exegetically sound and spiritually nourishing. They are indispensable tools for preaching, catechesis, evangelization, and other forms of pastoral ministry."--Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM Cap, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

The fourth volume in Peterson's best-selling "conversations" in spiritual theology Just as God used words both to create the world and to give us commandments, we too use words for many different purposes. In fact, we use the same language to talk to each other and to talk to God. Can our everyday speech, then, be just as important as the words and prayers we hear from the pulpit? Eugene Peterson unequivocally says "Yes!" Peterson's Tell It Slant explores how Jesus used language, particularly in his parables and prayers. His was not a direct language of information or instruction but an indirect, oblique language requiring a participating imagination -- "slant" language. Tell It Slant beautifully points to Jesus' engaging, relational way of speaking as a model for us today.

When Paul wrote First Thessalonians shortly after the recipients had accepted the Gospel, many significant issues had already arisen among them. Of great concern was the social complexity, and even persecution, they encountered because they had "turned to God from idols" (1:9). The countercultural stance of those earliest believers, and especially the impact that may have had for women, is addressed throughout this commentary. While Paul directs no remarks only to women in this letter, the ramifications of his preaching on their daily lives emerge vibrantly from the application of a feminist hermeneutics of suspicion to the text. While Second Thessalonians is a shorter letter, it has been disproportionately influential on Christian thought, especially apocalyptic doctrine and the "Protestant work ethic." From a feminist perspective, it is androcentric, rhetorically manipulative, and even violent. In this commentary, Mary Ann Beavis and HyeRan Kim-Cragg explore this text from many angles to expose both constructive and destructive implications in the text. Notably, they suggest a perspective on the "afflictions" endured by the Thessalonian church that neither glorifies suffering nor wishes for revenge but rather sees the divine presence in women's acts of compassion and care in circumstances of extreme duress and inhumanity. From the Wisdom Commentary series Feminist biblical interpretation has reached a level of maturity that now makes possible a commentary series on every book of the Bible. It is our hope that Wisdom Commentary, by making the best of current feminist biblical scholarship available in an accessible format to ministers, preachers, teachers, scholars, and students, will aid all readers in their advancement toward God's vision of dignity, equality, and justice for all. The aim of this commentary is to provide feminist interpretation of Scripture in serious, scholarly engagement with the whole text, not only those texts that explicitly mention women. A central concern is the world in front of the text, that is, how the text is heard and appropriated by women. At the same time, this commentary aims to be faithful to the ancient text, to explicate the world behind the text, where appropriate, and not impose contemporary questions onto the ancient texts. The commentary addresses not only issues of gender (which are primary in this project) but also those of power, authority, ethnicity, racism, and classism, which all intersect. Each volume incorporates diverse voices and differing interpretations from different parts of the world, showing the importance of social location in the process of interpretation and that there is no single definitive feminist interpretation of a text.

Since the earliest commentators, such as Origen in the third century, Luke 7:18-35, which contains one of the longest fragments dealing with John the Baptist, has often been glossed-over, misunderstood or misrepresented by scholars. Roberto Martinez contributes to our understanding with a refreshing use of a narrative-critical perspective, which has only recently gained prominence within the field of Biblical studies. This is the very first study that deals exclusively with this pericope, building upon previous Lukan scholarship dominated by historical-critical and redaction-critical views. The contradiction in verses 19-20 where John's disciples seem to question Jesus' identity despite John's prior affirmation that Jesus is the lamb of God, among other features of the pericope, is compared with the corresponding passage in Matthew. This strategy and textual analysis reveal how Luke's narrative has been carefully crafted to place emphasis on the Christology of the text while qualifying the plot involving John the Baptist. Martinez places the passage into a uniquely literary context, recognising that early commentators often commented on Luke's rhetorical art, which is somehow lost to modern commentators. Roberto Martinez is Adjunct Professor of the New Testament at the Dominican Study Center of the Caribbean (CEDOC) in Puerto Rico. He completed his doctoral dissertation at the Catholic University of America. 'Disciples of John the Baptist make a sudden appearance in Luke's gospel at 7:18. Their appearance allows the evangelist to reprise the comparison between John and Jesus found in the Infancy Narratives, with greater emphasis on their respective roles in the history of salvation. Using both the historical-critical method and the literary-method of textual analysis, Martinez carefully teases out the meaning of what Jesus had to say about John and himself in a stream of consciousness response to the critical question, " 'Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" ' Raymond F. Collins, Visiting Scholar, Brown University.

A 6-week exploration of the Lord's Prayer (traditional version) that shows readers how this ancient prayer can serve as a model for their prayers today.

Exam board: Edexcel Level: A-level Subject: Religious Studies First teaching: September 2016 First exams: Summer 2017 Build, reinforce and assess students' knowledge throughout their course; tailored to the 2016 Edexcel A level specification and brought to you by the leading Religious Studies publisher, this guide combines clear content coverage with practice questions and sample answers. Written by teachers with extensive examining experience, this guide: - Helps students identify what they need to know with a concise summary of the topics examined at AS and A-level - Consolidates understanding through assessment tips - Offers opportunities for students to improve their exam technique by consulting sample student answers and commentary for each question type - Builds understanding through accessible explanations of key definitions and thinkers