How did authority function before the bible as we know it emerged? Lee Martin McDonald examines the authorities that existed from the Church's beginning: the appeal to the texts containing the words of Jesus, and that would become the New Testament, the not yet finalized Hebrew Scriptures (referred to mostly in Greek) and the apostolic leadership of the churches. McDonald traces several sacred core traditions that broadly identified the essence of Christianity before there was a bible summarized in early creeds, hymns and spiritual songs, baptismal and Eucharistic affirmations, and in lectionaries and catalogues from the fourth century and following. McDonald shoes how those traditions were included in the early Christian writings later recognized as the New Testament. He also shows how Christians were never fully agreed on the scope of their Old Testament canon (Hebrew scriptures) and that it took centuries before there was universal acceptance of all of the books now included in the Christian bible. Further, McDonald shows that whilst writings such as the canonical gospels were read as authoritative texts likely from their beginning, they were not yet called or cited as scripture. What was cited in an authoritative manner were the words of Jesus in those texts, alongside the multiple affirmations and creeds that were circulated in the early Church and formed its key authorities and core sacred traditions.

In this book, Katherine M. Hockey explores the function of emotions in the New Testament by examining the role of emotions in 1 Peter. Moving beyond outdated, modern rationalistic views of emotions as irrational, bodily feelings, she presents a theoretically and historically informed cognitive approach to emotions in the New Testament. Informed by Greco-Roman philosophical and rhetorical views of emotions along with modern emotion theory, she shows how the author of 1 Peter uses the logic of each emotion to value and position objects within the audience's worldview, including the self and the other. She also demonstrates how, cumulatively, the emotions of joy, distress, fear, hope, and shame are deployed to build an alternative view of reality. This new view of reality aims to shape the believers' understanding of the structure of their world, encourages a reassessment of their personal goals, and ultimately seeks to affect their identity and behaviour.

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This book addresses two crucial, related questions in current research on the Epistle to the Hebrews: when and where did Jesus offer himself? And what role does Jesus' death play both in Hebrews' soteriology as a whole, and specifically in Jesus' high-priestly self-offering? The work argues that the cross is not when and where Jesus offers himself, but it is what he offers. After his resurrection, appointment to high priesthood, and ascent to heaven, Jesus offers himself to God in the inner sanctum of the heavenly tabernacle, and what he offers to God is the soteriological achievement enacted in his death. Hebrews figures blood, in both the Levitical cult and the Christ-event, as a medium of exchange, a life given for life owed. Represented as blood, Christ's death is both means of access and material offered: what he achieved in his death is what he offered to God in heaven.

When Dr. David Jeremiah prepares a sermon or teaching, at the forefront of his mind
is helping people understand what the Bible says, what it meant to the people at the
time it was written, and what is means to us today. The Jeremiah Bible Study Series
captures Dr. Jeremiah's forty years of teaching employing this approach and will lead
readers through each book of the New Testament, one chapter at a time. Along the
way, readers will gain insights into the text, identify the key stories and themes, and
be challenged to correctly apply the truths and meanings they find to their own lives.

Sections in each lesson include:

• Getting Started: An opening question to introduce readers to the lesson
• Setting the Stage: A short reflection to explain the context of the study
• Exploring the Text: The Scripture reading for the lesson with related study questions
• Reviewing the Story: Questions to help readers identify key points in the Scripture reading
• Applying the Message: Questions to help readers apply the key ideas to their lives
• Reflecting on the Meaning: A closing reflection on the key teachings in the lesson
• Each of the Bible studies in this series will help readers understand what the Bible says-particularly in its original context-and how to apply its teachings to their lives.

Romans is Paul's most thorough presentation of the good news he preached. Writing to a church he had not yet met, Paul lets them know that both Jews and Gentiles need to be rescued from death, and the crucified and risen Jesus is the Savior they need. In Romans Verse by Verse, Grant R. Osborne shows readers what Romans meant to its original audience and what it means today. Throughout, he keeps scholarly discussions in the background so he can shine a light on the text itself in a way that non-scholars can understand. The Osborne New Testament Commentary Series is a set of commentaries on every New Testament book for people who are looking for a straightforward explanation of the text. In them, today's readers gain fuller access to the riches of each book from a master teacher who loves God's Word.

This commentary on Paul s highly autobiographical letter to the Galations traces the history of the book s reception through the ages. * Explores the influence and history of this important New Testament book * Demonstrates the crucial role that Galatians has played in the development of very diverse forms of Christian spirituality * Considers the influence of Galatians on a wide range of theological figures, including Chrysostom, Augustine, and Luther * Examines the ways in which Galatians has influenced images of Paul, suggesting that it is the indeterminacy and complexity of his text that cause it to be interpreted in such widely differing ways * Focuses on verses, themes or arguments that have been the subject of particularly influential readings * Published in the innovative and stimulating Wiley-Blackwell Bible Commentaries reception history series, which focuses on the broad spectrum of interpretations rather than the traditional verse by verse analysis typically found in commentaries.

Inventing Hebrews examines a perennial topic in the study of the Letter to the Hebrews, its structure and purpose. Michael Wade Martin and Jason A. Whitlark undertake at thorough synthesis of the ancient theory of invention and arrangement, providing a new account of Hebrews' design. The key to the speech's outline, the authors argue, is in its use of 'disjointed' arrangement, a template ubiquitous in antiquity but little discussed in modern biblical studies. This method of arrangement accounts for the long-observed pattern of alternating epideictic and deliberative units in Hebrews as blocks of narratio and argumentatiorespectively. Thus the 'letter' may be seen as a conventional speech arranged according to the expectations of ancient rhetoric (exordium, narratio, argumentatio, peroratio), with epideictic comparisons of old and new covenant representatives (narratio) repeatedly enlisted in amplification of what may be viewed as the central argument of the speech (argumentatio), the recurring deliberative summons for perseverance. Resolving a long-standing conundrum, this volume offers a hermeneutical tool necessary for interpreting Hebrews, as well as countless other speeches from Greco-Roman antiquity.

How can we understand God's revelation to us? Throughout the church's history, theologians have often answered this question by appealing to a doctrine of illumination whereby the Holy Spirit shapes our knowledge and understanding of Scripture. Without denying the role of the Holy Spirit or the cognitive role of illumination, Ike Miller casts a broader vision of divine illumination and its role in the Christian life. In his constructive approach, Miller argues for a fully trinitarian view of illumination that forms not just our intellect, but also appeals to the affections and encourages our ethical action. In order to develop this theology of illumination, Miller explores both Augustine's and Karl Barth's readings of the Gospel and Epistles of John, including Barth's previously untranslated lectures on the Gospel of John. In the light of his careful study of both the Johannine literature and the theologies of two giants from Christian history, Miller contends for a doctrine of illumination whereby we are enabled to know God and participate in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

An expert Bible teacher unpacks key passages from Romans.

The end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries have involved much discussion on overhauling and refining a scholarly understanding of the verbal system for first-century Greek. These discussions have included advances in verbal aspect theory and other linguistic approaches to describing the grammatical phenomena of ancient languages. This volume seeks to apply some of that learning to the narrow realm of how prohibitions were constructed in the first-century Greek of the New Testament. Part 1 "The Great Prohibition Debate" seeks to demonstrate that verbal aspect theory has a better explanation than traditional Aktionsart theory for authorial choices between the negated present imperative and the negated aorist subjunctive in expressing prohibitions in the Greek New Testament. Part 2 "All the Prohibitions in the Greek NT" continues to examine prohibitions, but is more of an exercise in functional linguistics. That is, rather than apply verbal aspect theory to the grammar of prohibition constructions, Part 2 seeks only to survey the (initially surprising) wide variety of ways prohibitions can be expressed in koine Greek: more than a dozen different constructions. To do this, the NT prohibitions are grouped in their varying grammatical-syntactical and/or pragmatic constructions, all of which function - in varying degrees - in a prohibitory fashion. This taxonomy may prove to be the beginnings of further investigations into how biblical Greek communicates commands.

While there exist a variety of editions of the New Testament Apocrypha in English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian, the actual Greek texts have remained difficult to access until now. This book brings together these Greek non-canonical Christian texts from the pre-canonical period in an accurate and comprehensive collection. Including over 200 high quality images of the papyri and indicating where they are housed in the world today, this volume provides a highly valuable reference to facilitate the study of these fascinating texts.

Many scholars in Biblical and Revelation studies have written at length about the imperial and patriarchal implications of the figure of the Whore of Babylon. However, much of the focus has been on the links to the Roman Empire and ancient attitudes towards gender. This book adds another layer to the conversation around this evocative figure by pursuing an ideological critique of the Great Whore that takes into account contemporary understandings of sexuality, and in so doing advances a de-moralization of apparent sexual deviancy both in the present and in the past. Offering an emancipatory reading of Revelation 17-18 using Foucauldian, postcolonial and queer historiographies, this study sets out alternative paths for identity construction in Biblical texts. By using these alternative critical lenses, the author argues that the common neglect of the ethical and political impact of Biblical texts in the present can be overcome. This, in turn, allows for fresh reflection on the study of the Bible and its implications for progressive politics. Situated at the intersection of Revelation Studies, Biblical Studies and Hermeneutics, as well as Contextual/Liberationist Theologies and Queer and Postcolonial Criticism, this is a cutting edge study that will be of keen interest to scholars of Theology and Religious Studies.

The place of the Law and its relationship to religious observance and faith is a contested topic in the study of both the Old and New Testament. In Law and Religion, members of the Erhardt Seminar group provide an insight into the debate, probing key topics and offering new contributions to the subject. Their essays are grouped into three sections, focussing in turn on the Law's place in Israelite religion, in the Jesus tradition, and in Paul and the Apostolic tradition. Thus, the foundation of the connection between law and religion in ancient Israel is explored, along with the decisive influence of the Deuteronomic reform and the radical new understanding now emerging of the later development in Judaism of the New Testament Period. So, also, the contemporary challenge to the conventional picture of Jesus and the Law is addressed, the attitude of Paul is shown in new light, and post-Pauline developments are examined. Readers will find in this symposium a refreshing breadth of opinion on a debate that spans the gamut of disciplines within Biblical studies.

The gospel writers were masters of 'Midrash', a popular literary technique in the ancient Jewish world. Midrash enables authors to promote their ideas by weaving them into well known biblical themes. The gospels contain coded, midrashic, messages that would have resonated with their contemporary Jewish audience. Approaching the "New Testament" from a midrashic perspective leads to a radically new picture of Jesus as a political leader. Not, as is often claimed a revolutionary against Roman occupation. One prominent theme, that of the Holy Grail, which is central to an understanding of the revolutionary agenda, was virtually (but not quite) written out the gospels, only to resurface in medieval Christian folk lore. The failure of Jesus' revolution came about, not with his crucifixion, but long before with the imprisonment and subsequent execution of John the Baptist, the only qualifying candidate for high office in the revolutionary scheme. From this time forward Jesus and his disciples faced an uphill struggle. Their ultimate demise was inevitable, and Jesus knew this, as the narrative bears out.

A New Testament Bible to help you grow in the Spirit and access biblical truth for life's questions--on the go Small enough to fit in a pocket or handbag yet filled with helpful outlines and study notes, "The Christian Life New Testament" is a great way to keep God's Word close at hand. Whether exploring on your own or sharing with others, the tools in this valuable resource will give you confidence and understanding in what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Included throughout the Bible text are easy-to-understand outlines of the New Testament's major teachings, written by Porter Barrington, who has been an evangelistic pastor all of his adult life.

Features include:

• Presentation page
• Master outlines
• Study notes
• In-text subject headings
• Decision record
• Certificate of Baptism
• Prayer list

Type Size: 7 point

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The hypothesis that the Gospel of Mark was heavily influenced by Pauline theology and/or epistles was widespread in the nineteenth century, but fell out of favour for much of the twentieth century. In the last twenty years or so, however, this view has begun to attract renewed support, especially in English language scholarship. This major and important collection of essays by an international team of scholars seeks to move the discussion forward in a number of significant ways- tracing the history of the hypothesis from the nineteenth century to the modern day, searching for historical connections between these two early Christians, analysing and comparing the theology and christology of the Pauline epistles and the Gospel of Mark, and assessing their reception in later Christian texts. This major volume will be welcomed by those who are interested in the possible influence of the apostle to the Gentiles on the earliest Gospel.

This fresh look at the Gospel of Matthew highlights the unique contribution Matthew's rich and multilayered portrait of Jesus makes to understanding the connection between the Old and New Testaments. Patrick Schreiner argues that Matthew obeyed the Great Commission by acting as scribe to his teacher Jesus in order to share Jesus's life and work with the world, thereby making disciples of future generations. The First Gospel presents Jesus's life as the fulfillment of the Old Testament story of Israel and shows how Jesus brings new life in the New Testament.

Biblical Foundations Book Awards Finalist Through all of John's works, a consistent message is woven: being a Christian is about abiding in Christ and in his words. The Gospel of John, the epistle of 1 John, and the Apocalypse all begin in the same way: by pointing to the importance of knowing the Word, both written and incarnate. Using an artistic, storytelling approach to spirituality, John relies heavily on readers' imaginations to help them see what it takes to become disciples by abiding in Jesus. Rodney Reeves combines exegesis with spiritual reflection to explore how the only biblical writer to employ three different genres presents a consistent vision of Christian spirituality. Rather than focusing on detailed instructions, John uses evocative metaphors and illustrations so that readers can envision how to follow Jesus-as disciples, in community, and even at the end of the world. Filled with stories and implications for today's readers, Spirituality According to John provides an accessible introduction to the rich spiritual world of the Johannine literature that makes up much of the New Testament. In John's era and now, anyone who has ears to hear can learn to truly abide in Christ.

Feasting on the Gospels is a new seven-volume series that follows up on the success of the Feasting on the Word series to provide another unique preaching resource, this time on the most prominent and preached upon New Testament books, the four Gospels. With contributions from a diverse and respected group of scholars and pastors, Feasting on the Gospels will include completely new material that covers every single passage in the New Testament Gospels, making it suitable for both lectionary and non-lectionary use. Moreover, these volumes will incorporate the unique format of Feasting on the Word, with four perspectives for preachers to choose from for each Gospel passage: theological, pastoral, exegetical, and homiletical. Feasting on the Gospels will provide a special resource for all who preach, either continuously or occasionally, on the Gospels.

In the course of his pioneering work in The Christian Community, Emil Bock made many studies of different aspects of the Gospels. Bringing his wide knowledge of the history of that time together with his deep insights in anthroposophy, he brings a fresh view of the familiar stories of the New Testament. Volume 1 looks particularly at the relationship of the New Testament to the Old, at St Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount, Judas and Peter, concluding with Simon of Cyrene and Joseph of Arimathea.