For a hundred years, the million dollar question has been, What was the nature and state of the tradition between Jesus and the gospels? Eve surveys the major proposals, offers critical and constructive commentary, and makes appropriately nuanced suggestions of his own. On this topic, his work is now the place to start' Dale C. Allison, Jr. Professor of New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary 'Eric Eve has written a magnificent guide to one of the most exciting areas in Gospels studies today - oral tradition and memory theory. With clear writing and judicious assessment, he covers the important personalities and ideas in the search to get behind the Gospels, from form criticism to the present. I highly recommend this book to scholars and students alike' Chris Keith, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, St Mary's University College, London 'Eric Eve gives a balanced and lucid account of all attempts to reconstruct the oral tradition behind the written Gospels . . . Eve's judgments on these questions are fair, his arguments convincing. This is a foundational book both for Jesus research and for our understanding of the literary history of the New Testament' Gerd Theissen, Professor Emeritus of New Testament, University of Heidelberg.

The subject of the Bible's last book is often met with fear, awe, and fascination. In fact, the true meaning of Revelation is so often interpreted or speculated on by authors, ministers, or academics, that very few individuals actually study the book themselves. The literal meaning of Revelation, in Greek, is 'an unveiling.' Allow yourself to be engaged in God's vision of hope and promise for the faithful, obedient Christian and discover what truths Revelation will unveil in your own life. Part 1 contains the first 11 chapters of the book. Part 2 contains the last 11. Paper.

Every Sunday, the Lord's Prayer echoes in every Church around the world. It is an indispensable element of the faith. It is the way Jesus taught his followers to pray, and encapsulates the essential beliefs and attitudes to which all Christians aspire. Here, John Dominic Crossan, one of the world's leading experts on Jesus and his times, explores this foundational prayer line by line. This is quintessential Crossan, providing just the right amount of historical detail and literary insight to enhance our understanding, and drawing out the enduring richness and relevance of Jesus' words for today.

A new and better society has been the constant dream of men and women. Responding to this dream, John Stott has been attracted back again and again by Paul's letter to the young church at Ephesus. It portrays a new society of Christ's making that stands out in bright relief against our colourless world of oppression, heartache, separation and division. Paul's letter, with its exultant vision of a renewed human community, has, says John Stott, 'stirred me deeply'. John Stott expounds Paul's theme of uniting all things in Christ by uniting his church and breaking down all that separates us from God, one ethnic group from another, husband from wife, parent from child, master from slave. Paul's insights are for all who want to build the church into the new society God has planned it to be.

Paul as Pastor demonstrates the critical nature of Paul's pastoral care to his identity and activities. Despite the fact that Paul never identifies himself as a pastor, there is much within the Pauline letters that alludes to this as a possible aspect of Paul's vocation and commitments, and this has been a topic of relative scholarly neglect. The contributors to this volume consider the household setting of Paul's pastoral practice, the evidence of Acts and a survey of themes in each of the letters in the traditional Pauline corpus. Additionally, three chapters supply case studies of the Wirkungsgeschichte of Paul's pastoral practice in the pastoral offices of the Anglican Communion in the denomination's Ordinal, and in the lives and thought of Augustine of Hippo and George Whitfield. As such Paul as Pastor provides a stimulating resource on a neglected and critical dimension of Paul and his letters and an invaluable tool for those in pastoral ministry and those responsible for their training.

Paul and the Greco-Roman Philosophical Tradition provides a fresh examination of the relationship of Greco-Roman philosophy to Pauline Christianity. It offers an in-depth look at different approaches employed by scholars who draw upon philosophical settings in the ancient world to inform their understanding of Paul. The volume houses an international team of scholars from a range of diverse traditions and backgrounds, which opens up a platform for multiple voices from various corridors. Consequently, some of the chapters seek to establish new potential resonances with Paul and the Greco-Roman philosophical tradition, but others question such connections. While a number of them propose radically new relationships between Paul and GrecoRoman philosophy, a few seek to tweak or modulate current discussions. There are arguments in the volume which are more technical and exegetical, and others that remain more synthetic and theological. This diversity, however, is accentuated by a goal shared by each author - to further our understanding of Paul's relationship to and appropriation of Greco-Roman philosophical traditions in his literary and missionary efforts.

In this addition to the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, two well-respected New Testament scholars interpret the Gospel of John in its historical and literary setting as well as in light of the Church's doctrinal, liturgical, and spiritual tradition. They unpack the wisdom of the Fourth Gospel for the intellectual and spiritual transformation of its readers and connect the Gospel with a range of witnesses throughout the whole history of Catholicism. This volume, like each in the series, is supplemented by features designed to help readers understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively in teaching, preaching, evangelization, and other forms of ministry.

Are the Thomas references in the Gospel of John, the Thomas compositions, and the early Thomas traditions in northwestern and southern India purely legendary as biblical scholars have assumed or do they preserve unexamined historical traditions intermittently as the Thomas Christians in India have believed? Didymus Judas Thomas is one of the most misunderstood characters from the beginning of the New Testament history and interpretation. In this study, Thomaskutty addresses the following questions: whether Thomas was merely a 'doubting Thomas' or a 'genuine Thomas'? Can we understand Thomas comprehensively by bringing the New Testament, apocrypha, and historical traditions together? How was Thomas connected to eastern Christianity and how does the Thomas literature support/not support this connectivity? Can we understand the Thomas traditions related to Judea, Syria, and India with the help of canonical, extra canonical, and traditio-historical documents? Thomaskutty investigates the development of the Thomas literature right from the beginning, examining and questioning the approaches and methodologies that have been employed in interpreting these documents, and analyzes the Thomas literature closely in order to understand the character, his mission involvements, and the possible implications this may have for understanding early Christianity in the east.

For two centuries scholars have sought to discover the historical Jesus. Presently such scholarship is dominated not by the question 'Who was Jesus?' but rather 'How do we even go about answering the question, "Who was Jesus?"?' With this current situation in mind, Jonathan Bernier undertakes a two-fold task: one, to engage on the level of the philosophy of history with existing approaches to the study of the historical Jesus, most notably the criteria approach and the social memory approach; two, to work with the critical realism developed by Bernard Lonergan, introduced into New Testament studies by Ben F. Meyer, and advocated by N.T. Wright in order to develop a philosophy of history that can elucidate current debates within historical Jesus studies.

This book provides a literary analysis of New Testament texts on marriage, sex, family, and celibate ideals. It seeks to explore if, how, and eventually to what extent the New Testament favors sexual abstinence. The core of this study consequently consists of fresh perspectives on the issue of sexual abstinence in the New Testament through close readings of 1 Cor 7, Gal 3:28, Matt 19:10-12, and Mark 12:18-27/Matt 22:23-33/Luke 20:27-40, with a keen eye to the many ambassadors of abstinence in the texts-characters exhibiting sexual abstinence given a favorable characterization and function. As a comprehensive literary analysis of these texts from this perspective lacks precedent in contemporary biblical scholarship, the study is a valuable contribution to the ongoing scholarly debate on the biblical views on sex and marriage.

Mark, Manuscripts, and Monotheism is organized into three parts: Mark's Gospel, Manuscripts and Textual Criticism, and Monotheism and Early Jesus-Devotion. With contributors hailing from several different countries, and including both senior and junior scholars, this volume contains essays penned in honor of Larry W. Hurtado by engaging and focusing upon these three major emphases in his scholarship. The result is not only a fitting tribute to one of the most influential New Testament scholars of present times, but also a welcome survey of current scholarship.