Ian E. Rock demonstrates that the Letter to the Romans may be seen as an attempt by a subordinate group to redress actual and potential issues of confrontation with the Empire and to offer hope, even in the face of death. Paul demonstrates that it is God's peace and not Rome's peace that is important; that loyalty to the exalted Jesus as Lord and to the kingdom of God - not Jupiter and Rome - leads to salvation; that grace flows from Jesus as Christ and Lord and not from the benefactions of the Emperor. If the resurrection of Jesus - the crucified criminal of the Roman Empire - demonstrates God's power over the universe and death, the very instrument of Roman control, then the Christ-believer is encouraged to face suffering and death in the hope of salvation through this power. Paul's theology emerges from, and is inextricably bound to, the politics of his day, the Scriptures of his people, and to the critical fact that the God who is One and Lord of all is still in charge of the world.

* Proof humor and the gospel are not mutually exclusive * Adds visual interest to bulletins and other printed materials * New from popular illustrator The second in a series of three books brings weekly gospel readings to life. Each week, a cartoon illustration and text of the gospel creates a lighthearted opportunity for individual reflection, or an enjoyable addition to study materials and church bulletins. These amusing and original reflections deepen scriptural literacy and engagement among mem-bers of the Episcopal Church, including youth groups, and will inspire some fun in the process.

The Gospel of John has been examined from many different perspectives, but a comprehensive treatment of the theme of worship in this Gospel has not yet appeared. John Paul Heil offers a contribution toward a remedy of this deficiency by analyzing the entire Gospel of John from the perspective of its various dimensions of worship. The aim is to illustrate that three different but complementary dimensions of worship - confessional, sacramental, and ethical - dominate this Gospel. Indeed, these different types of worship represent the ways one expresses and demonstrates the faith that includes having divine life eternal, which is the stated purpose for writing the signs Jesus did in this Gospel - "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you may have life in his name" ( John 20:31).

The Greek New Testament, Produced at Tyndale House, Cambridge edited by Dr. Dirk Jongkind and Dr. Peter Williams, is a critical Greek text reflecting decades of scholarly advances and groundbreaking scribal habit studies.

Aimed at both biblical scholars and those interested in linguistic theory, this book makes use of insights from a modern theory of communication, Relevance Theory in examining the function of the particle. Margaret Sim sheds a new light onto the interpretation of certain key texts in the Gospels. In so doing, she shows how the ideas of theoretical pragmatics can be brought to bear on the study of other fields to enable new and exciting perspectives to be opened up on difficult problems of translation and interpretation. Marking Thought and Talk in New Testament Greek claims that the particle does not have a lexical meaning of "in order that," contrary to accepted wisdom, but that it alerts the reader to expect an interpretation of the thought or attitude of the implied speaker or author. Evidence is adduced from pagan Greek and in particular the writings of Polybius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Epictetus, as well as the New Testament. The implications of this claim give an opportunity for a fresh interpretation of many problematic texts.

In recent decades, the church and academy have witnessed intense debates concerning the concept of penal substitution to describe Christ's atoning sacrifice. Some claim it promotes violence, glorifies suffering and death, and amounts to divine child abuse. Others argue it plays a pivotal role in classical Christian doctrine. Here world-renowned New Testament scholar Simon Gathercole offers an exegetical and historical defense of the traditional substitutionary view of the atonement. He provides critical analyses of various interpretations of the atonement and places New Testament teaching in its Old Testament and Greco-Roman contexts, demonstrating that the interpretation of atonement in the Pauline corpus must include substitution.

In this lively introduction, J. Nelson Kraybill shows how the book of Revelation was understood by its original readers and what it means for Christians today. Kraybill places Revelation in its first-century context, opening a window into the political, economic, and social realities of the early church. His fresh interpretation highlights Revelation's liturgical structure and directs readers' attentions to twenty-first-century issues of empire, worship, and allegiance, showing how John's apocalypse is relevant to the spiritual life of believers today. The book includes maps, timelines, photos, a glossary, discussion questions, and stories of modern Christians who live out John's vision of a New Jerusalem.

Thomas Merton led numerous conferences during his decade (1955-1965) as novice master at the Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemani. In A Monastic Introduction to Sacred Scripture, Patrick F. O'Connell presents one of these, a wide-ranging introduction to biblical studies. Drawing on church tradition, teaching of recent papal documents, and scholarly resources of the time, Merton reveals the central importance of the Scriptures for the spiritual growth of his listeners. For Merton, at the heart of any meaningful reading of the Scriptures, not only for monks but for all Christians, is the invitation to respond not just intellectually but with the whole self, to recognize the gospel as 'good news', as a saving, liberating, consoling, challenging word, reflecting his fundamental belief that 'the Holy Spirit enlightens us, in our reading, to see how our own lives are part of these great mysteries - how we are one with Jesus in them'. O'Connell's extensive introduction situates this reflection in the context of Merton's evolving engagement with the Bible from his own days as a student monk through the mature reflections from his final years on the biblical renewal in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.

Can the different pictures of Jesus in the New Testament be reconciled? Or are they simply simulations, the products of a virtual Gospel? 'Simulating Jesus' argues that the gospels do not represent four versions of one Jesus story but rather four distinct narrative simulacra, each of which is named "Jesus". The book explores the theory and evidence justifying this claim and discusses its practical and theological consequences. The simulations of Jesus in each of the gospels are analysed and placed alongside Jesus simulacra elsewhere in the Bible and contemporary popular culture. 'Simulating Jesus' offers a radical understanding of Scripture that will be of interest to students and scholars of biblical studies.

Can the different pictures of Jesus in the New Testament be reconciled? Or are they simply simulations, the products of a virtual Gospel? Simulating Jesus argues that the gospels do not represent four versions of one Jesus story but rather four distinct narrative simulacra, each of which is named "Jesus". The book explores the theory and evidence justifying this claim and discusses its practical and theological consequences. The simulations of Jesus in each of the gospels are analysed and placed alongside Jesus simulacra elsewhere in the Bible and contemporary popular culture. Simulating Jesus offers a radical understanding of Scripture that will be of interest to students and scholars of biblical studies.

The Gospel of John has long been recognized as being distinct from the Synoptic Gospels. John among the Apocalypses explains John's distinctive narrative of Jesus's life by comparing it to Jewish apocalypses and highlighting the central place of revelation in the Gospel. While some scholars have noted a connection between the Gospel of John and Jewish apocalypses, Reynolds makes the first extensive comparison of the Gospel with the standard definition of the apocalypse genre. Engaging with modern genre theory, this comparison indicates surprising similarities of form, content, and function between John's Gospel and Jewish apocalypses. Even though the Gospel of John reflects similarities with the genre of apocalypse, John is not an apocalypse, but in genre theory terms, John may be described as a gospel in kind and an apocalypse in mode. John's narrative of Jesus's life has been qualified and shaped by the genre of apocalypse, such that it may be called an 'apocalyptic' gospel. In the final two chapters, Reynolds explores the implications of this conclusion for Johannine Studies and New Testament scholarship more broadly. John among the Apocalypses considers how viewing the Fourth Gospel as apocalyptic Gospel aids in the interpretation of John's appeal to Israel's Scriptures and Mosaic authority, and examines the Gospel's relationship with the book of Revelation and the history of reception concerning their writing. An examination of Byzantine iconographic traditions highlights how reception history may offer a possible explanation for reading John as apocalyptic Gospel.

In his sixth satire, Juvenal deplores the pastimes of Roman women, foremost of which is superstition. Speculating about how wives busy themselves while their husbands are away, the poet introduces a revolving door of visitors who include a eunuch of the eastern goddess Bellona, an impersonator of Egyptian Anubis, a Judean priestess, and Chaldean astrologers. From these religious experts women solicit services ranging from dream interpretation and purification to the coercion of lovers or wealthy acquaintances. Juvenal's catalogue captures not only the popularity of these "freelance" experts at the turn of the second century, but also their familiarity among his Roman audiences, whom he could expect to get the joke. Heidi Wendt investigates the backdrop of this enthusiasm for exotic wisdom and practices by examining the rise of self-authorized experts in religion during the first century of the Roman Empire. Unlike members of civic priesthoods and temples, freelance experts had to generate their own legitimacy, often through demonstrations of skill and learning out on the streets, in marketplaces, and at the temple gates. While historically these professionals have been studied separately from the development of modern conceptions of religion, Wendt argues that they, too, participated in a highly competitive form of religious activity from which emerged the modern-day characters not just of religious experts but specialists of philosophy, medicine, and education as well. Wendt notes affinities across this wider class of activity, but focuses on those experts who directly enlisted gods and similar beings. Over the course of the first century freelance experts grew increasingly influential, more diverse with respect to the skills or methods in which they claimed expertise, and more assorted in the ethnic coding of their wisdom and practices. Wendt argues that this class of religious activity engendered many of the innovative forms of religion that flourished in the second century, including but not limited to phenomena linked with Persian Mithras, the Egyptian gods, and the Judean Christ. The evidence for self-authorized experts in religion is abundant, but scholars of ancient Mediterranean religion have only recently begun to appreciate their impact on the Empire's changing religious landscape. At the Temple Gates integrates studies of Judaism, Christianity, mystery cults, astrology, magic, and philosophy to paint a colorful portrait of religious expertise in early Rome.

This giant-print edition brings the New Testament to many who might not otherwise be able to read it because of failing eyesight. An essential resource for a church, or a thoughtful gift for an individual. The print is extra-large and bold, with just 23 lines to a page, with generous spacing between the lines for ease of reading. It is bound in black hardback.

* Companion to N. T. Wright's critically acclaimed Paul and the Faithfulness of God (SPCK 2013) * Covers all the major studies to appear in the past fifty years, including landmark works by Krister Stendahl (1963), E. P. Sanders (1977), J. Christiaan Beker (1980), J. Louis Martyn (1997) and James D. G. Dunn (1998) * Essential reading for all with a serious interest in Paul and his continuing relevance for today.

Although traditionally accepted by the church down through the centuries, the longer ending of Mark's Gospel (16:9-20) has been relegated by modern scholarship to the status of a later appendage. The arguments for such a view are chiefly based upon the witness of the two earliest complete manuscripts of Mark, and upon matters of language and style. This work shows that these primary grounds of argumentation are inadequate. It is demonstrated that the church fathers knew the Markan ending from the very earliest days, well over two centuries before the earliest extant manuscripts. The quantity of unique terms in the ending is also seen to fall within the parameters exhibited by undisputed Markan passages. Strong indications of Markan authorship are found in the presence of specific linguistic constructions, a range of literary devices, and the continuation of various themes prominent within the body of the Gospel. Furthermore, the writings of Luke show that the Gospel of Mark known to this author contained the ending.Rather than being a later addition, the evidence is interpreted in terms of a textual omission occurring at a later stage in transmission, probably in Egypt during the second century.

Die vorliegende Studie erkundet die Moeglichkeiten, kognitions- und neurowissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse, insbesondere im Bereich der veranderten Bewusstseinszustande, auf biblische Visionserzahlungen am Beispiel der Verklarung anzuwenden. _____________________________________ This book explores the possibilities to integrate recent findings from cognitive and neurosciences into biblical exegesis, especially in the field of vision narratives and altered states of consciousness using the example of the Transfiguration .

'Acknowledging the Divine Benefactor' is a socio-rhetorical interpretation of the Second Letter of Peter. Using multiple interpretive perspectives and emphasising the pictorial dimensions of 2 Peter, Terrance Callan shows that the letter makes the following argument: since Jesus Christ has given his followers benefits, including the promise of sharing in divine nature, they need to make a proper return for these benefits by living virtuously; and this in turn will enable them to receive the fulfilment of the promise. The occasion of the letter is that Peter's death is near. He writes so the addressees can remember his teaching after his death. The author expounds this teaching because some people do not await the future fulfilment of Christ's promises and so do not emphasise the need for virtuous living.

Interpreting a Chinese Pastors Intersujective Experience of Shi Engaging Yzhun and Pauline Texts. The aim of this thesis is to unfold the multilayered intersubjective experience of the author himself, a Chinese pastor. The author postulates himself as the subject in whom the said experience was evident, so that it can be analyzed and interpreted. The author argues for a cultural-linguistic experience of sh as the locus at which the intersubjective experience takes place. He then shows that such experience embodies a Chinese Christians two texts inheritance, and argues that it is through unfolding or revealing of such experience that

Brings together N.T. Wright's most important and influential articles on Paul over the last 35 years. Includes previously unpublished exegetical essays on Paul's letters, specially written for this book.

Now available for the first time in English, Karl Ludwig Schmidt's The Framework of the Story of Jesus (Der Rahmen der Geschichte Jesu) has been a foundation of New Testament studies. Through meticulous analysis, Schmidt demonstrates that the Synoptic Gospels are collections of individual stories that circulated orally and independently in the earliest Christian communities. Schmidt shows persuasively how, in their oral forms, most of these traditions existed apart from any sequence or specific temporal or geographic location, and that the chronology and locations now evident in the Gospels were applied by the evangelists while collecting and recording the oral traditions. Across much of the twentieth century and even into the present day, Schmidt's thesis has undergirded Gospel interpretation. Yet as long as The Framework of the Story of Jesus remained untranslated, Schmidt's ideas have been open to neglect and misinterpretation among Anglophone scholars. Discussion of the Synoptic Gospels and broader New Testament study will be enriched by engagement with the evidence and argument as originally presented.

The book of Revelation unveils Jesus Christ in his glory and victorious return. And yet no other New Testament book of the Bible poses more serious and difficult interpretative challenges. John MacArthur will take you through the book, passage by passage, so that you can better understand everything from the historical context to the coming of Christ's Kingdom. The apostle John wrote this letter to the churches in Asia Minor who were feeling the overwhelming effects of persecution from all sides. It was a reminder to them that God saw their hardships, cared about them, and would reward them for their faithfulness. Through the use of vivid imagery, John writes Revelation to reveal the end of human history, the return of Christ, and the establishment of a new heaven and a new earth. John's message of hope in Revelation assures Christians that God is in sovereign control of all past, present, and future events. He encourages believers to trust that Jesus Christ will judge the lost and will rule in ultimate victory over all human and demonic opposition. -ABOUT THE SERIES- The MacArthur Bible Study series is designed to help you study the Word of God with guidance from widely respected pastor and author John MacArthur. Each guide provides intriguing examinations of the whole of Scripture by examining its parts and incorporates: Extensive, but straight-forward commentary on the text. Detailed observations on overriding themes, timelines, history, and context. Word and phrase studies to help you unlock the broader meaning and apply it to your life. Probing, interactive questions with plenty of space to write down your response and thoughts.

This book looks at the Acts of the Apostles through two lenses that highlight the two topics of masculinity and politics. Acts is rich in relevant material, whether this be in the range of such characters as the Ethiopian eunuch, Cornelius, Peter and Paul, or in situations such as Timothy's circumcision and Paul's encounters with Roman rulers in different cities. Engaging Acts from these two distinct but related perspectives illuminates features of this book which are otherwise easily missed. These approaches provide fresh angles to see how men, masculinity, and imperial loyalty were understood, experienced, and constructed in the ancient world and in earliest Christianity. The essays present a range of topics: some engage with Acts as a whole as in Steve Walton's chapter on the way Luke-Acts perceives the Roman Empire, while others focus on particular sections, passages, and even certain figures, such as in an Christopher Stroup's analysis of the circumcision of Timothy. Together, the essays provide a tightly woven and deeply textured analysis of Acts. The dialogue form of essay and response will encourage readers to develop their own critiques of the points raised in the collection as a whole.

Pastor John MacArthur will take you through the book of Hebrews, passage by passage, so that you can better understand the author's message, the cultural context, and the perfect sufficiency of Christ. The early Jewish believers had come from a background of legalism and works. When God came to earth in human flesh as the New Covenant, these believers discovered the freedom they could have in Jesus and the relationship they could enjoy with Him. Yet in the midst of persecution and rejection, they were often tempted to hold on to the former symbols, rituals, and traditions grounded in the requirements of the Old Covenant. The unknown author of Hebrews sought to address this problem by contrasting the Old and New Covenants, brilliantly showing that Christ is higher than any Old Testament character, priest, ritual, or sacrifice. Because of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, He is the perfect sacrifice and our own High Priest. And He has given all believers unfettered access to God! -ABOUT THE SERIES- The MacArthur Bible Study series is designed to help you study the Word of God with guidance from widely respected pastor and author John MacArthur. Each guide provides intriguing examinations of the whole of Scripture by examining its parts and incorporates: Extensive, but straight-forward commentary on the text. Detailed observations on overriding themes, timelines, history, and context. Word and phrase studies to help you unlock the broader meaning and apply it to your life. Probing, interactive questions with plenty of space to write down your response and thoughts.

Wei Hsien Wan builds on the work of David Horrell and Travis Williams for his argument that the letter of 1 Peter engages in a subtle, calculated form of resistance to Rome, that has often gone undetected. Whilst previous discussion of the topic has remained largely focused on the letter's stance toward specific Roman institutions, such as the emperor, household structures, and the imperial cults, Wan takes the conversation beyond these confines and examines 1 Peter's critique of the Roman Empire in terms of its ideology or worldview. Using the work of James Scott to conceptualize ideological resistance against domination, Wan considers how the imperial cults of Anatolia and 1 Peter offered distinct constructions of time and space-that is, how they envisioned reality differently. Insofar as these differences led to divergent ways of conceiving the social order, they acquired political power and generated potential for conflict. Wan thus argues that 1 Peter confronts Rome on a cosmic scale with its alternative construal of time and space, and examines the evidence that the Petrine author consciously, if cautiously, interrogated the imperial imagination at its most foundational levels, and set forth in its place a theocentric, Christological understanding of the world.