No portion of Scripture deals more clearly with the vitality of faith than Hebrews 11. "This chapter is to faith what the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is to love, " writes Richard Phillips. "Hebrews 11 is the work of a master teacher and loving pastor who is convinced that the fate of his readers hinges on their faith." Like the first audience of the Book of Hebrews the church today faces mounting opposition--even persecution--and the danger of falling away from the truth. Faith Victorious opens the fascinating world of Old Testament men and women whose vision of a sure hope beyond their struggles led them to acts of great courage. It likewise calls us to persevere in faith and to spur each other on to love and good deeds. "Rick Phillips combines in one person an extraordinary range of gifts and experiences: disciplined military training and teaching, deep personal commitment to Christ, a well-groomed understanding of Scripture, and a powerful enthusiasm for the spread of the gospel. Together these qualities leave a distinctive mark on his work."--Sinclair B. Ferguson

The Fourth Gospel is deeply shaped by its remarkably high Christology. It depicts the earthly Jesus, the incarnate one, as fully divine. This unrelenting Christology has led interpreters, both ancient and modern, to questionthe historical value of John's Gospel. For many, the Gospel is just theology. It is to the vexed relationship between history and theology that JArg Frey turns in Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel . John's theological obsession with Christology might suggestthat history counts for little in the Gospel. But, as Frey argues, the Gospel's clear andcentralclaim is that John narrates the story of Jesus of Nazareth, his ministry, and his death, as "factual," and that this narrated "history" is foundational for the Christian message.Frey tracesthe Gospel's use of the available historical tradition by chiefly drawing from Mark and the Johanninecommunity. Even if the Gospel ofJohn used this receivedwitness in a remarkably free manner,replotting and renarrating traditional episodes and even creatively staging new episodes, Frey contends thatthe historical life and person ofJesus remain central to John's enterprise. In the end, Frey warns that Johannine interpretation will miss the intention of the Gospel and the interpretive perspective of the evangelist if it remains preoccupiedmerely withquestions ofhistorical accuracy. The interpretivegoalis to "let John be John," and, as Frey shows, readers will always yield to the priority of theology over history in the Fourth Gospel. In John's telling of the Christ story, the significance of history lies precisely in its disclosure of theological meaning, just as the significance of the historical Jesus is only understood in the theological language of Christology.

Have you ever wondered why Paul leaves the resurrection discussion in 1 Corinthians 15 for the end of the letter? Have you pondered how 1 Corinthians 15 functions as the climax to 1 Corinthians? This book answers those questions by exploring insinuatio, the Greco-Roman rhetorical convention used to address prejudiced or controversial topics-like resurrection-at the end of a discourse. This is the most thorough treatment of insinuatio in Biblical and Classical studies to date. It examines the Greco-Roman rhetorical handbooks and speeches on insinuatio, compares them to what Paul does in 1 Corinthians 15, and finds that this was precisely Paul's rhetorical strategy in 1 Corinthians.

Jarvis J. Williams argues that the Jewish martyrological ideas, codified in 2 and 4 Maccabees and in selected texts in LXX Daniel 3, provide an important background to understanding Paul's statements about the cursed Christ in Gal. 3.13, and the soteriological benefits that his death achieves for Jews and Gentiles in Galatians. Williams further argues that Paul modifies Jewish martyrology to fit his exegetical, polemical, and theological purposes, in order to persuade the Galatians not to embrace the 'other' gospel of their opponents. In addition to providing a detailed and up to date history of research on the scholarship of Gal. 3.13, Williams provides five arguments throughout this volume related to the scriptural, theological and conceptual, lexical, grammatical and polemical points of contact, and finally the discontinuities between Galatians and Jewish martyrological ideas. Drawing on literature from Second Temple traditions to directly compare with Gal. 3.13, Williams adds new insights to Paul's defense of his Torah-free-gentile-inclusive gospel, and his rhetoric against his opponents.