The New Beacon Bible Commentary is an engaging, indispensable reference tool to aid individuals in every walk of life in the study and meditation of God's Word. Written from the Wesleyan theological perspective, it offers insight and perceptive scholarship to help you unlock the deeper truths of Scripture and garner an awareness of the history, culture, and context attributed to each book of study. Readable, relevant, and academically thorough, it offers scholars, pastors, and laity a new standard for understanding and interpreting the Bible in the 21st century.Each volume features: Completely New Scholarship from notable experts in the Wesleyan traditionConvenient Introductory Material for each book of the Bible including information on authorship, date, history, audience, sociological/cultural issues, purpose, literary features, theological themes, hermeneutical issues, and moreClear Verse-by-verse Explanations, which offer a contemporary, Wesleyan-based understanding derived from the passage's original languageComprehensive Annotation divided into three sections, which cover background elements behind the text; verse-by-verse details and meanings found in the text; and significance, relevance, intertextuality, and application from the textHelpful Sidebars, which provide deeper insight into theological issues, word meanings, archeological connections, historical relevance, cultural customs, and moreExpanded Bibliography for further study of historical elements, additional interpretations, and theological themes

This 6-page, laminated guide contains the key facts on the new testament. This guide covers: The books of the New Testament, historical & literary overview, sources for the synptic gospels, glossary of terms and much more!

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.

Luke's Gospel tells the complete story of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Accurate and readable, the NIV (New International Version) is the world's most popular modern English Bible translation.

New Testament I and II represents Vol. I/15 and I/16 in the Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century. The present volume contains the translations of four works, all of which are exegetical treatises of one sort or another: The Lord's Sermon on the Mount, Agreement among the Evangelists, Questions on the Gospels and Seventeen Questions on Matthew. Each of the four works are accompanied by its own introduction, general index, and scripture index. The Lord's Sermon on the Mount (translated by Michael Campbell, OSA) is an exegesis of chapters five through seven of Matthew's Gospel, but Augustine's explanation of the Sermon is more a charter of Christian morality and spirituality than mere exegesis of the text and brings a unity to the lengthy discourse that goes far beyond an account of what the text says. Augustine wrote Agreement among the Evangelists in 400, contemporaneously with the composition of his Confessions (397 - 401).The treatise, translated by Kim Paffenroth, is an attempt to defend the veracity of the four evangelists in the face of seeming incompatibilities in their record of the gospel events, especially against some pagan philosophers who raised objections to the gospel narratives based on alleged inconsistencies. Questions on the Gospels and Seventeen Questions on Matthew are translated by Roland Teske, SJ. Questions on the Gospels is a record of questions that arose when Augustine was reading the Gospels of Matthew and Luke with a disciple. The answers to the questions are not intended to be commentaries on the Gospels in their entirety but merely represent the answers to the questions that arose for the student at the time. Seventeen Questions on Matthew is similarly in the question-and-answer genre and is most likely by Augustine, but it includes some paragraphs at the end that are certainly not his. For all those who are interested in the greatest classics of Christian antiquity, Augustine's works are indispensable. This long-awaited translation makes Augustine's monumental work approachable.ABOUT THE AUTHOR Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the Western world. After he converted to Christianity he became bishop of Hippo in North Africa, where he was influential in civil and church affairs. His writings have had a lasting impact on Western philosophy and culture.

Pastoring is tough. The challenges are many, expectations are high, and tasks are wide ranging.

Pastoral Practices is a guide to help pastors draw on the insights of Wesleyan theology and incorporate them into their ministries. Whatever the task may be--preaching, discipling, evangelizing, or administrating--this book will shed light on the way Wesleyan theology refines, informs, and enhances the theories and methods of each pastoral practice.

Not only will pastors and their associates find this book a worthwhile asset, but lay leaders, small-group facilitators, and others doing ministry in the church will also benefit from its invaluable insight and well-reasoned advice.

What did Jesus think of himself? How did he face death? What were his expectations of the future? In this volume, now in paperback, internationally renowned Jesus scholar Dale Allison Jr. addresses such perennially fascinating questions about Jesus. The acclaimed hardcover edition received the Biblical Archaeology Society's "Best Book Relating to the New Testament" award in 2011.
Representing the fruit of several decades of research, this major work questions standard approaches to Jesus studies and rethinks our knowledge of the historical Jesus in light of recent progress in the scientific study of memory. Allison's groundbreaking alternative strategy calls for applying what we know about the function of human memory to our reading of the Gospels in order to "construct Jesus" more soundly.

Margaret Froelich examines the Gospel of Mark using political and empire-critical methodologies, following postcolonial thinkers in perceiving a far more ambivalent message than previous pacifistic interpretations of the text. She argues that Mark does not represent an entirely new way of thinking about empire or cosmic structures, but rather exhibits concepts and structures with which the author and his audience are already familiar in order to promote the Kingdom of God as a better version of the encroaching Roman Empire. Froelich consequently understands Mark as a response to the physical, ideological, and cultural displacement of the first Roman/Judean War. By looking to Greek, Roman, and Jewish texts to determine how first-century authors thought of conquest and expansion, Froelich situates the Gospel directly in a historical and socio-political context, rather than treating that context as a mere backdrop; concluding that the Gospel portrays the Kingdom of God as a conquering empire with Jesus as its victorious general and client king.

The theme of heaven and earth is a much-overlooked aspect of the Gospel of Matthew. In this work, rising scholar Jonathan Pennington articulates a fresh perspective on this key interpretive issue, challenging both the scholarly and popular understandings of the meaning of Matthew's phrase, "kingdom of heaven."
Pennington argues that rather than being a reverent way of referring to God as is typically assumed, "heaven" in Matthew is part of a highly developed discourse of heaven and earth language. Matthew's way of using heaven language serves one overriding theological purpose: to highlight the tension that currently exists between heaven and earth or God and humanity, while looking forward to its eschatological resolution. This affordable North American paperback edition was previously published in hardcover by Brill.

The present study represents the first attempt to expand the methodological and practical framework of textual scholarship on the Greek New Testament from an Orthodox perspective. Its focus is on the Antoniades edition of 1904, commonly known as the Patriarchal Edition. The examination of the creation and reception of this edition shows that its textual principles are often misrepresented. In particular, it is shown to be more closely related to the Textus Receptus than to lectionary manuscripts. This is confirmed by an analysis of lectionary manuscripts using the Text und Textwert methodology and a detailed comparison of the Antoniades edition with the recent Editio Critica Maior of the Catholic Epistles. A textual commentary is provided on key verses in order to formulate guidelines for preparing an edition of the Greek New Testament that would satisfy the needs of Orthodox users in different contexts. This study offers a foundation for the further development of New Testament textual scholarship from an Orthodox perspective, informed both by modern critical scholarship and Orthodox tradition. It also provides a fresh translation of Antoniades' introduction in an Appendix.

In The Interpersonal Metafunction in 1 Corinthians 1-4, James D. Dvorak offers a linguistic-critical discourse analysis of 1 Cor 1-4 utilizing Appraisal Theory, a model rooted in the modern sociolinguistic paradigm known as Systemic-Functional Linguistics. This work is concerned primarily with the interpersonal meanings encoded in the text and how they pertain to the act of resocialization. Dvorak pays particular attention to the linguistics of appraisal in Paul's language to determine the values with which Paul expects believers in Christ to align. This book will be of great value to biblical scholars and students with interests in biblical Greek, functional linguistics, appraisal theory, hermeneutics, exegesis, and 1 Corinthians.