Adam and Eve weren't concerned about traffic jams as they strolled through the Garden of Eden. The Ten Commandments weren't delivered to Moses by e-mail. So how does the Word, written so long ago, fit into everyday life today? The Connections series offers today's readers and students of Scripture an answer to that puzzling question.

Connections builds an understanding of the relationship between the Bible and everyday life by examining the individual pieces and how they fit together. It invites us to broaden our comprehension of the Bible and its applications to modern life by placing current Scripture scholarship within the concerns of other fields, such as ethical problems in light of Scripture, science and Scripture, contemporary social challenges and Scripture, and the Bible in non-biblical cultures.

This series reveals more of God's intent, encouraging us to study and reflect on the Word from the life experiences, outlooks, and wisdom of many people.

In The Hope of Glory, David deSilva introduces readers to the cultural context of the ancient Mediterranean world and the role of the social values of honor and dishonor. He shows that with the help of cultural anthropologists, sociologists, and ancient authors who reflected on their culture firsthand, today's readers get a fresh and illuminating look at the Scriptures.

"Over the years, Thomas Moore has taught us how to discover the holiness concealed in the ordinary." - Harold Kushner In his latest book, Thomas Moore finds striking new meaning in the rich stories and imagery of the Gospels, recasting Jesus not as a teacher of morals and beliefs but as a spiritual visionary with a radical vision for humanity. This highly original take on the Gospels offers a fresh, new way of imagining human life and society. It presents Jesus not as the founder of a religion but as a world reformer offering a spiritual path to everyone, from every background. It offers a personal spirituality fit for the 21st century, where the individual bears responsibility for meaning and for a creative, convivial way of life. "The sincerity, intelligence and style - so beautifully clean - of Tom Moore's 'Care of the Soul' truly moved me. The book's got strength and class and soul, and I suspect may last longer than psychology itself." - James Hillman

Collected here are three gnostic writings from Thomas, Mary, and John. These books that were left out of the New Testament shed lite on the life and relationships of Jesus Christ and his friends and family especially his mother Mary.

This commentary is especially useful for pastors and teachers who know that the members of their audiences use a variety of different English versions. It is also a helpful tool for serious students of the Bible, including laypeople and seminary students. In addition to this passage-by-passage commentary, the reader is introduced to the art of textual criticism, its importance for studying the New Testament, and the challenges translators of English versions face.
Presented in a clear, easy to read manner. All major English translations are surveyed & tabulated.

The Gospel of John has long been understood as a sectarian text, one that reinforces the social and religious isolation of a Johannine community. Savior of the World: A Theology of the Universal Gospel directly challenges this reading, arguing that John's Jesus does not belong to just one community. John's Jesus came for all and spans the universe. In Savior of the World, Carlos Raul Sosa Siliezar carefully reconsiders the often-overlooked passages and motifs that emphasize Jesus as a figure of universal significance and as universal Savior. John's introduction of Jesus as the Word sets the stage for universal language by identifying Jesus as the rightful owner of all creation. Sosa Siliezar emphasizes that John's Jesus, in his public ministry, offers an all-inclusive love of God to anyone who will receive it. In his private ministry, Jesus bears witness to a nuanced world, tasking his disciples with preaching and expanding the love of Christ to all. Jesus' all-embracing mission is sustained by the Spirit, who models, through the disciples, the reality and promise of the world that is to come. Sosa Siliezar shows how John, though deeply indebted to Judaism, crafts a universal Gospel precisely because his Jesus is deeply rooted in the particularity of monotheism. John portrays Jesus, a Jew from Nazareth, as the world's Savior, the one sent by the one God to bring light into a universe of darkness.

In this bold, momentous work, Joseph Ratzinger-in his first book written since he became Pope-seeks to salvage the person of Jesus from recent "popular" depictions and to restore Jesus' true identity as discovered in the Gospels. Through his brilliance as a theologian and his personal conviction as a believer, the Pope shares a rich, compelling, flesh-and-blood portrait of Jesus and invites us to encounter, face-to-face, the central figure of the Christian faith.

Insights into John's Gospel and Jesus from a renowned scholar. The culmination of a lifetime of work on the Gospel of John, William Loader's Jesus in John's Gospel explores the Fourth Gospel as a whole, focusing on ways in which attention to the structure of Christology in John allows for greater understanding of Johannine themes and helps resolve long-standing interpretive impasses. Following an introductory examination of the profound influence of Rudolf Bultmann on Johannine studies, Loader takes up the central interpretive issues and debates surrounding Johannine Christology and explores the death of Jesus and the salvation event in John. With an exhaustive bibliography and careful, well-articulated conclusions that take into account the latest research on John, this volume will be useful to scholars and students alike.

We have grown used to the battles over Jesus--whether he was human or divine, whether he could do miracles or just inspire them, whether he even existed. Much of the church defends tradition, while critics take shots at the institution and its beliefs. But what if these debates have masked the real story of Jesus? What if even Jesus's defenders have been so blinded by their focus on defending the church's traditions that they have failed to grapple with what the New Testament really teaches?

Bible scholar, Anglican bishop, and bestselling author N. T. Wright summarizes a lifetime of study of Jesus and the New Testament in order to present for a general audience who Jesus was and is. In Simply Jesus, we are invited to hear one of our leading scholars introduce the story of the carpenter's son from Nazareth as if we were hearing it for the first time.

"Jesus--the Jesus we might discover if we really looked," explains Wright, "is larger, more disturbing, more urgent than we had ever imagined. We have successfully managed to hide behind other questions and to avoid the huge, world-shaking challenge of Jesus's central claim and achievement. It is we, the churches, who have been the real reductionists. We have reduced the kingdom of God to private piety; the victory of the cross to comfort for the conscience; Easter itself to a happy, escapist ending after a sad, dark tale. Piety, conscience, and ultimate happiness are important, but not nearly as important as Jesus himself." As the church faces the many challenges of the twenty-first century, Wright has presented a vision of Jesus that more than meets them.

St Paul was a pivotal and controversial figure in the fledgling Jesus movement of the first century. The New Cambridge Companion to St Paul provides an invaluable entryway into the study of Paul and his letters. Composed of sixteen essays by an international team of scholars, it explores some of the key issues in the current study of his dynamic and demanding theological discourse. The volume first examines Paul's life and the first-century context in which he and his communities lived. Contributors then analyze particular writings by comparing and contrasting at least two selected letters, while thematic essays examine topics of particular importance, including how Paul read scripture, his relation to Judaism and monotheism, why his message may have been attractive to first-century audiences, how his message was elaborated in various ways in the first four centuries, and how his theological discourse might relate to contemporary theological discourse and ideological analysis today.

The Uncovering is a book that is unique because it uncovers hidden secrets that were hidden from the masses for thousands of years. Very few people on this planet are aware of the knowledge that is about to be exposed. By tying together Mythologies of the past and Biblical verse in a unique way Gerald Vano uncovered a message that has been in the collective sub consciousness of man for thousands of years. This message is about an event that will happen in the year 2012. The Mayan prophecies say this event will raise the consciousness of man on this planet and people are excited about this. What is shown in this book with undeniable evidence is that the Mayan along with other myths and Biblical scripture when fully decoded show that the rise of consciousness is due to an unexpected bending or speeding up of time caused by an apocalyptic shift in the polar axis of Earth. There is also a chapter in this book that exposes the truth about a very controversial subject hot in the media today. It involves the "Da Vinci Code" book written by Dan Brown who in his book proposes that the bloodline of Jesus was carried on through Mary Magdalene and goes on today physically in the world. It is shown in this chapter that the bloodline of Jesus is not a physical line as he proposes, but is a spiritual line carried on through the Holy Spirit. The challenging evidence shown in this chapter will prove to be undeniable.

"When studying Romans, I usually reach for Shedd first. Highly valued in past generations, Shedd's careful treatment of the original text is succinct and yet richly suggestive of profitable lines of exposition. A must have for serious study of Paul's most important letter." Dr. Robert P. Martin, Pastor, Emmanuel Reformed Baptist Church, Seattle, Washington, Editor, Reformed Baptist Theological Review

The New Testament Library offers authoritative commentary on every book and major aspect of the New Testament, as well as classic volumes of scholarship. The commentaries in this series provide fresh translations based on the best available ancient manuscripts, offer critical portrayals of the historical world in which the books were created, pay careful attention to their literary design, and present a theologically perceptive exposition of the text. The editorial board consists of C. Clifton Black and John T. Carroll. The first New Testament Library volume to focus on a Gospel, this commentary offers a careful reading of the book of Mark. Internationally respected interpreter M. Eugene Boring brings a lifetime of research into the Gospels and Jesus into this lively discussion of the first Gospel. Like all NTL volumes, this volume provides state-of-the-art biblical scholarship along with theological sensitivity.

The first two chapters of Paul's first epistle to the Christians of Corinth, written in the fifth decade of the first century, have played a significant role in the history of Christian theology. Interpreting the central event in Christianity, namely the crucifixion of Jesus, Paul reflects on the wisdom and foolishness of God, which he opposes to the world's wisdom. According to Paul, the "word of the cross," which is "foolishness" to some and "scandal" to others, leads to an upheaval in one's way of thinking. For two millenia, theology has often turned to these passages in order to sustain its reflection. Many central questions emerge from Paul's text on the meaning of a crucified Messiah, on God's omnipotence, weakness, and suffering. This volume hopes to achieve two things by seeking to place exegetes, historians, philosophers, and theologians in conversation: to better understand Paul's text and its reception and also to examine the ways in which it can nourish our theological reflection today.

What vision of biblical authority arises from Scripture's own use of Scripture? This question has received surprisingly little attention from theologians seeking to develop a comprehensive doctrine of Scripture. Today When You Hear His Voice by Gregory W. Lee fills this gap by listening carefully to the Epistle to the Hebrews. Lee illuminates the unique way that Hebrews appropriates Old Testament texts and considers the theological relationship between salvation history and scriptural interpretation. He illustrates these dynamics through extended treatments of Augustine and Calvin, whose contrasting perspectives on the covenants, Israel, and the literal and figural senses provide theological categories for appreciating how Hebrews innovatively presents Scripture as God's direct address in the contemporary moment. "Marvelous. . . This audacious book operates on many levels - Lee's criticisms of Augustine will in themselves provoke fruitful debate - but its most enduring contribution will surely be its eye-opening insistence that the church must relearn from Hebrews how to hear God's scriptural voice." - Matthew Levering, Mundelein Seminary

Many texts in the New Testament do more than simply explain the main tenets of the Christian faith; they invite believers to imagine and experience their theological claims. In Not with Wisdom of Words Gary Selby examines how the New Testament writers shift their mode of discourse from explaining or arguing points of doctrine to representing those doctrines poetically, bringing the realities of the faith, as the ancient writers put it, "before the eyes" of their audience. Bridging the disciplines of rhetorical studies, biblical studies, and theology, Selby draws on two central concepts from the classical tradition of poetics - mimesis, or representation, and phantasia, or visualization - to demonstrate how the New Testament writers understood the connection between faith and visionary, poetic language. This unique perspective on reading New Testament texts will be important not only for scholars and students but also for homiletic and liturgical practice in the contemporary church. "Gary Selby is well-read in classical rhetoric and the New Testament. . . . This work offers much-needed recognition of the dramatic and imaginative world of Paul's rhetoric." - Anthony C. Thiselton, University of Nottingham

The chief feature of this volume is that it makes available in convenient form the "Notes on Biblical Exposition" which Dr. J. Gresham Machen published in the earlier 'Christianity Today' from January 1931 to February 1933. Students at Westminster Seminary have made profitable use of these Notes on Galatians 1:1 - 3:14 by following them, with minor inconveience, through bound periodical volumes; but for many others who might greatly benefit from them, they have long been inaccessible. Here you will find a master exegete opening up important and essential meterial to help undertsand the import of the great Apoostle on this vital portion of Scripture. "Machen wrote on Galatians to inform his students and to help Sunday School teachers. It is written with delightful clarity and incidentally introduces us to what Machen did very well, teach the New Testament to students at Princeton and Westminster Seminaries. It is wonderfully lucid; a pleasure to read; a model for anyone who preaches the Bible." - Geoff Thomas

Frederick William Danker, a world-renowned scholar of New Testament Greek, is widely acclaimed for his 2000 revision of Walter Bauer's "A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. "With more than a quarter of a million copies in print, it is considered the finest dictionary of its kind.

Danker's "Concise Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament "will prove to be similarly invaluable to ministers, seminarians, translators, and students of biblical Greek. Unlike other lexica of the Greek New Testament, which give only brief glosses for headwords, "The Concise Greek-English Lexicon "offers extended definitions or explanations in idiomatic English for all Greek terms.

Each entry includes basic etymological information, short renderings, information on usage, and plentiful biblical references. Greek terms that could have different English definitions, depending on context, are thoughtfully keyed to the appropriate passages. An overarching aim of "The Concise Greek-English Lexicon "is to assist the reader in recognizing the broad linguistic and cultural context for New Testament usage of words.

"The Concise Greek-English Lexicon "retains all the acclaimed features of "A Greek-English Lexicon "in a succinct and affordable handbook, perfect for specialists and nonspecialists alike.

This collection pulls together sermons from Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the book of Hebrews, giving readers a deeper look at this important book of the Bible and helping them understand how it applies to their lives.

In this volume Stanley Porter tackles a wide variety of important and often highly contentious topics within John's Gospel as a means of defining and capturing the distinctive Johannine voice. Topics discussed include John's Gospel in relation to competing Gospels, the public proclamation of Jesus in John, the sources of John's Gospel, John's prologue, the "I Am" sayings, the notion of truth, the Passover theme, and the ending of John's Gospel. Each chapter, besides surveying representative research, puts forward new and insightful proposals regarding the topics concerned. Porter does not shy away from topics that have often perplexed Johannine scholars, and he confronts some of the viewpoints that have led to confusion in the field. Significantly, each chapter considers the Johannine voice as it represents, presents, and treats Jesus, grounding the book in the wider field of Gospel and New Testament investigation.

Traditional Christian art depicts Paul the letter writer, pen in hand, attentive to the Spirit. We might think we know better and imagine him pacing in agitation as he rapidly dictates to a secretary his letter to the Galatians. But in reality neither of these pictures is accurate. In Paul's day, producing a letter was a time-consuming and costly business. And we have ample resources from the ancient world to piece together what it must have been like. A secretary was usually part of the picture. But so were notes, drafts, corrections and careful rewrites, not to speak of scratchy pens, sooty ink and coarse papyrus. Interestingly, there is evidence that Paul involved his missionary team in the writing of letters. And then came the delivery over land and sea, the reading and circulation, as well as the epistolary afterlife of copying, collecting and storing. E. Randolph Richards has extensively studied ancient letter writing and secretaries. Informed by the historical evidence and with a sharp eye for telltale clues in Paul's letters, he takes us into this world and places us on the scene with Paul the letter writer. What first appears to be just a study of secretaries and stationery turns out to be an intriguing glimpse of Paul the letter writer that overthrows our preconceptions and offers a new perspective on how this important portion of Christian Scripture came to be.

After a flurry of heated debates in the mid-twentieth century over the relationship between faith and history, the dust seems to have settled. The parties have long since dispersed into their separate camps. The positions are entrenched and loyalties are staked out. This New Explorations in Theology volume is a deliberate attempt to kick up the dust again, but this time as a constructive development of what is now being called "apocalyptic theology." Samuel Adams argues that any historiography interested in contributing to theological knowledge must take into consideration, at a methodological level, the reality of God that has invaded history in Jesus Christ. He explores this idea in critical dialogue with the writings of New Testament historian and theologian N. T. Wright, whose work has significantly shaped the current conversation on this problem. The Reality of God and Historical Method is a fresh, bold, and interdisciplinary exploration of the question: How is it possible to say that a particular historical person is the reconciliation of the world? Featuring new monographs with cutting-edge research, New Explorations in Theology provides a platform for constructive, creative work in the areas of systematic, historical, philosophical, biblical, and practical theology.