'The need of the hour is for Spirit-filled, Christ-centred, Father-glorifying, Bible-based, fruitful individuals and churches. This book can only help towards that goal.' In A Fruitful Life we ponder the teaching of Jesus in John chapter 15, the famous 'vine' passage. He is preparing his disciples for his departure and describing how they can be effective witnesses in a hostile world. Just as his instructions revolutionised their lives, so a proper understanding of what he is saying can revolutionise our lives also. It is the heart of the gospel message: the only way to live the Christian life is to allow Jesus to live his life in us and through us. This book includes material for individual reflection and questions for group discussion.

The parables of Jesus have undergone different transmutations in the long history of their transmission. The events surrounding his death and resurrection as well as the new situations his followers were confronted with after these events led to the parables of Jesus being given new accentuations according to the needs of the reflecting community. This is evident in Matthew's treatment of the parable trilogy of Mt 21:28-22:14. This work shows how Matthew has used the dominical parables and sayings found in his tradition to serve the needs of his community, especially in its struggles with the official Jewish leaders of his time. Through these parables, which he presented as a three-pronged attack against the Jewish leaders, Matthew shows his community as the true Israel, called to produce the fruits of righteousness. In this regard, the Jewish leaders stand for the members of Matthew's community lacking in the actions that define belongingness to the chosen people. This group has no part in the eschatological banquet.

This synoptic history of the life and teachings of Christ was originally published in 1890 as an aid for clergymen and other instructors in biblical texts. James combines the four gospel accounts of the life of Jesus into one useful text with scriptural references in the margins for accurate study and quotation, complete with a list of individual variations among the sources. Written in the language of the Revised Version, this book will be useful to anyone involved in Bible study or with an interest in Christian theology.

Walk the path of holiness, stir your faith in God, and break free from the bonds of a sinful nature with Joyce Meyer's Galatians commentary, featuring inspiring questions and space for your reflections. Paul's letter to the church at Galatia speaks largely to how important it was to Paul that the people embrace unity in Christ, no matter their differences. Galatians teaches that we're only justified by faith in Christ only and encourages us to pursue a life of holiness, not in our own strength, but in the knowledge of God's empowering grace in our lives. In this comprehensive study tool, Joyce Meyer offers an in-depth look at Galatians and emphasizes that we are not only saved by faith, we must learn to live by faith as well.

"You are the salt of the earth . . . You are the light of the world." Matthew 5:13-14 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church." Matthew 16:18 The world tries to define us in different ways. We try to define ourselves one way or another. But who are we really? How does God define us? The Gospel of Matthew was written to a group of Christians who didn't yet know who they were. They were faithful Jews in the synagogue community in Galilee who had found the Messiah. Jesus had changed everything. But how should they think of themselves now, as Jewish or Christian? What did it all mean? Matthew writes his Gospel to help his readers define their new identity as followers of Jesus the Messiah. Michael Card unpacks how Matthew's emphasis on fulfillment confirms their Jewish connection to the Torah, while his focus on the kingdom helps them understand their new identities in Christ. Matthew presents this process of redefinition as an exercise of the imagination, in which Jesus reshapes who we are in light of who he is. Come alongside Matthew in this pilgrimage, and discover how your new identity in Christ fulfills all that you are meant to be.

Parables and Conflict in the Hebrew Bible examines the intimate relationship between parables and conflict in the Hebrew Bible. Challenging the scholarly consensus, Jeremy Schipper argues that parables do not function as appeals to change their audience's behavior. Nor do they serve to diffuse tensions in regards to the various conflicts in which their audiences are involved. Rather, the parables function to help create, intensify, and justify judgments and hostile actions against their audiences. In order to examine how the parables accomplish these functions, this book pays particular attention to issues of genre and recent developments in genre theory, shifting the central issues in the interpretation of Hebrew Bible parables.

Canonizing Paul explores how ancient editorial practices utilized in the publication of corpora (e.g. preparation of texts, selection and arrangement of tracts, and composition and deployment of paratexts) were not only employed to shape editions of Paul's letters (i.e. the Marcionite, Euthalian, and Vulgate), but also their interpretation. By considering the deployment of ancillary materials alongside other editorial practices and exploring the interpretive interplay (and sometimes uneasy negotiation) of text and paratexts, this study fills an often overlooked gap in the field of New Testament textual criticism. Investigation into the Marcionite edition shows how its paratexts introduced Marcion's hermeneutic and, in some measure, justified his editorial principles. The Euthalian edition preferred instead a catechetical and pedagogical goal extending from the deployment of paratexts to the organization of the tracts and a textual arrangement for ease of comprehension. The exploration of text and sometimes disparate paratexts culminates in an investigation of Codex Fuldensis, which transmits the Vulgate textual revision of Paul's letters and its Primum Quaeritur prologue alongside numerous other paratexts such as the Marcionite prologues, Old Latin capitula, capitula drawn from the Euthalian edition, and sundry other paratexts. The incorporation of such diverse paratexts, loosed from their original editions and juxtaposed with later editorial products founded on alternative hermeneutical presuppositions, resulted in interpretive tensions that testify to the physical manuscript as a locus of authority, over which many early Christians were trying to gain interpretive control, if not by altering the text, then by furnishing paratexts. By demonstrating how these practices and interpretive concerns left their mark on these editions of the Corpus Paulinum, this study reveals that editorial practices and hermeneutics were deeply, sometimes inextricably, intertwined.

The question of how to interpret scripture and whether there is a distinctively Anglican approach to doing so is one of the leading theological questions in the Anglican Communion. An Anglican Hermeneutic of the Transfiguration analyzes major Anglican interpretations of the Transfiguration from the eighth century to the present and suggests that Anglicans do in fact have a distinctive hermeneutical approach to this event. Moreover, this approach may point to larger trends in the interpretation of Scripture overall, but especially the Gospels. With respect to the Transfiguration, Anglicans interpret the event within the biblical context, assume its basic historic character, and juxtapose high Christology with the human limitations of Jesus' self-understanding. Furthermore, Anglicans draw pastoral implications for the lives of Jesus and the disciples from the Transfiguration and assert that the glory manifested on the mountain supports a partially realized eschatology. Finally, Anglicans write for well-educated, non-specialists in theology.

This book is a controversial new biography of the apostle Paul that argues for his inclusion in the pantheon of key figures of classical antiquity, along with the likes of Socrates, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra and Augustus. It first provides a critical reassessment of the apostle's life in its historical context that focuses on Paul's discourse of authority, which was both representative of its Roman context and provocative to his rivals within Roman society. It then considers the legend that developed around Paul as the history of his life was elaborated and embellished by later interpreters, creating legends that characterized the apostle variously as a model citizen, an imperial hero, a sexual role model, an object of derision and someone to quote from. It is precisely this rewriting of Paul's history into legend that makes the apostle a key transformative figure of classical antiquity.

Jesus was condemned . . . so we could be set free. He was wounded . . . so we can be healed. He died . . . so we might have life. The cross has lost much of its appeal as a symbol of Christianity. Yet what Christ did at the cross remains central to our faith. In this richly designed book, Michael Card reflects on what it means for Christians that we meet our savior at a cross. Card combs the Old Testament prophecies and Gospel accounts of Jesus' self-sacrifice, seeking a renewed vision of the cross-the inconceivable meeting place of violence and grace.

In a series of exchanges with the Corinthians in the mid-50s AD, Paul continually sought to define the meaning of his message, his body and his letters, at times insisting upon a literal understanding, at others urging the reader to move beyond the words to a deeper sense within. Proposing a fresh approach to early Christian exegesis, Margaret M. Mitchell shows how in the Corinthian letters Paul was fashioning the very principles that later authors would use to interpret all scripture. Originally delivered as The Speaker's Lectures in Biblical Studies at Oxford University, this volume recreates the dynamism of the Pauline letters in their immediate historical context and beyond it in their later use by patristic exegetes. An engagingly written, insightful demonstration of the hermeneutical impact of Paul's Corinthian correspondence on early Christian exegetes, it also illustrates a new way to think about the history of reception of biblical texts.

This volume was first published as part of the Cambridge Miscellany series in 1935. It was intended to address the demand for portions of the Bible to be printed 'like an ordinary book'. Chapter and verse divisions in the text have been abandoned, but references to them are provided in the page-headings. Although the paragraphing follows that of the Revised Version, the text is that of the Authorised Version of 1611.

This book explores the meaning and genesis of the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel. It was first published in 1917 although many of the articles that appear were originally printed in the Expositor. The author, J. Rendel Harris (1852-1941) was a biblical scholar and curator of manuscripts and this book will be of value to anyone with an interest in theology and biblical exegesis.

This book constructs a profile of the Matthean Community by using insights from sociology and studies of oral and chirographic cultures, together with a careful investigation of the material unique to the Gospel of Matthew. A picture emerges of a self-regulating, independent community with the kind of strong self-definition and tension with its surrounding society characteristic of a sect. It had a high regard for law and practiced Sabbath-observance, as well as observing the distinction between clean and unclean foods. The community viewed its members as saved sinners who should conduct themselves in a manner appropriate to those who await the soon return of their Lord. Somewhat provocatively, this book argues that the Matthean Community was likely to be mainstream in early Christianity, not marginal.

'Dying to Live' is a radical exploration of the life of Jesus through the memories of Peter the Apostle and his translator Mark. It is a journey, not a destination. It is a continuing quest not in search of integrity but to preserve it. This book offers glimpses of a deeper relevant spirituality for today. The starting point is that the 'Gospel' of Mark was written as an interpretive biography, not as sacred text. To over-spiritualise the reading of Mark is to miss the real Jesus contained within its pages. To follow Jesus is not so much concerned with 'right belief' as it is about how one lives. Jesus accepted people as they were and especially offered the outsider and the rejected dignity and a sense of personal worth. Churches have rightly encouraged charitable giving, especially to the poor and the outcast, but its creeds and doctrines have misrepresented the transformational life and teaching of Jesus, masking the hard cost of discipleship required to address the underlying root causes of violence, hunger and poverty in a world of plenty.

The twin sisters Agnes Lewis (1843 1926) and Margaret Gibson (1843 1920) were pioneering biblical scholars who became experts in a number of ancient languages. Travelling widely in the Middle East, they made several significant discoveries, including one of the earliest manuscripts of the Four Gospels in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language probably spoken by Jesus himself. Their chief discoveries were made in the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai. This text is a transcription of an Arabic manuscript discovered at the monastery and translated by Margaret Gibson. First published in 1899, the text includes sections of the New Testament as well as a short moral parable, some religious aphorisms and an essay on the nature of God. Illustrated with reproductions of the manuscript pages, this book is a useful text in the study of Arabic Christianity as well as an interesting resource for theological scholars.

The Gospels record that Jesus purported to forgive sins. What significance would such a claim have had for his contemporaries and what would the implications have been for his identity as a first-century popular prophet? Tobias Hagerland answers these questions and more as he investigates the forgiveness of sins in the mission of the historical Jesus. The Gospels are interpreted within the context of first-century Judaism as part of a broader reconstruction of Jesus' career as a healer and prophet, and rhetorical criticism is introduced as a tool for explaining how the gospel tradition about Jesus and forgiveness developed. Hagerland combines detailed exegesis and rigorous methodology with a holistic view of the historical Jesus, evaluating recent scholarship about first-century Jewish prophets and utilizing previously neglected textual evidence to present a thorough investigation of the theology of forgiveness in early Judaism and primitive Christianity.

First published in 1938, this book reopened a question generally held to have been settled: the sources from which St John derived the material for his gospel. The accepted view, that he was familiar with the narratives of Mark and Luke and made use of these as sources, Mr Gardner-Smith finds not proved, and he examines the whole gospel afresh in order to test this theory and to find out if there is any evidence that tells against it.

In the wake of the Holocaust, a number of influential scholars argue for a "bi-covenantal" or "two-covenant" approach to Paul's view of Israel and the Gentiles. They maintain that Israel has always been right with God apart from Jesus Christ, and that the death of Jesus is salvifically relevant only for the Gentiles. Through Him the Gentiles can receive the same blessings the Jewish people possess by virtue of the Law of Moses. The Sonderweg proponents argue that the Jewish people need Jesus, but the future conversion of all Israel mentioned in Romans 11:25-27 takes place when the Lord himself preaches the gospel to Israel at the second coming. The church need not evangelize the Jewish people. But neither of these positions does justice to Paul's letters, where he teaches that the Jewish people need Jesus for their justification, and God will use the evangelistic efforts of the church to bring it about.