Mark's Gospel tells the complete story of the 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.

What does it look like to read the texts we now call the gospels like first- and second-century readers? There is no evidence of anyone regarding the gospel as a book published by an author until the end of the second century. So, put differently, what does it mean to read the gospels "before the book"? For centuries, the ways people discuss the gospels have been shaped by later ideas that have more to do with the printing press and modern notions of the author than ancient writing and reading practices. In Gospels before the Book, Matthew D. C. Larsen challenges several subtle yet problematic assumptions about authors, books, and publication at work in early Christian studies. He then explores a host of under-appreciated elements of ancient textual culture such as unfinished texts, accidental publication, post-publication revision, and the existence of multiple authorized versions of the same work. Turning to the gospels, he argues that the earliest readers and users of the text we now call the Gospel according to Mark treated it not as a book published by an author, but as an unfinished, open, and fluid collection of notes (hypomnmata). In such a scenario, the Gospel according to Matthew would not be regarded as a separate book published by a different author, but as a continuation of the same unfinished gospel tradition. Similarly it is not the case that, of the five different endings in the textual tradition we now call the Gospel according to Mark, one is "right" and the others are "wrong." Rather each represents its own effort to fill a perceived deficiency in the gospel. Larsen offers a new methodological framework for future scholarship on early Christian gospels.

Recent scholars have tended to interpret 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 as an attempt to belittle ecstatic experiences, such as Paul's ascent to paradise, in favor of suffering in the service of the gospel. This study offers an alternative. An analysis of ascent traditions in the Greco-Roman and Jewish worlds investigates ascent as both a literary motif and a religious practice. This analysis probes several issues relevant to 2 Cor 12:1-10, including dynamics of ascent and suffering. The study turns next to religious experiences Paul believes he and his communities have undergone. A pattern emerges in which extraordinary experiences provide the basis for suffering and service. Moreover, Paul expects his communities to have had experiences similar to, if less dramatic than, his ascent to heaven. The author argues that in its context in 2 Corinthians, Paul's ascent should be understood as an encounter with Christ that transcends human language and endows Paul with divine power, which must be refined through suffering. With the help of four premodern interpreters, the study further explores the theological relevance of Paul's ascent. For Paul, mystical encounter with Christ forms the precondition for suffering and service because it enables self-transcending love for God and neighbors.

This reception history of the Gospel of Matthew utilizes theoretical frameworks and literary sources from two typically distinct disciplines, patristic studies and Valentinian (a.k.a. "Gnostic") studies. The author shows how in the second and third centuries, the Valentinians were important contributors to a shared culture of early Christian exegesis. By examining the use of the same Matthean pericopes by both Valentinian and patristic exegetes, the author demonstrates that certain Valentinian exegetical innovations were influential upon, and ultimately adopted by, patristic authors. Chief among Valentinian contributions include the allegorical interpretation of texts that would become part of the New Testament, a sophisticated theory of the historical and theological relationship between Christians and Jews, and indeed the very conceptualization of the Gospel of Matthew as sacred scripture. This study demonstrates that what would eventually emerge from this period as the ecclesiological and theological center cannot be adequately understood without attending to some groups and individuals that have often been depicted, both by subsequent ecclesiastical leaders and modern scholars, as marginal and heretical.

Based on recent studies in intercultural communication Kathy Ehrensperger applies the paradigm of multilingualism, which includes the recognition of cultural distinctiveness, to the study of Paul. Paul's role as apostle to the nations is seen as the role of a go-between - as that of cultural translator. This role requires that he is fully embedded in his own tradition but must also be able to appreciate and understand aspects of gentile culture. Paul is viewed as involved in a process in which the meaning of the Christ event is being negotiated 'in the space between' cultures, with their diverse cultural coding systems and cultural encyclopaedias. It is argued that this is not a process of imposing Jewish culture on gentiles at the expense of gentile identity, nor is it a process of eradication of Jewish identity. Rather, Paul's theologizing in the space between implies the task of negotiating the meaning of the Christ event in relation to, and in appreciation of both, Jewish and gentile identity.

The richly varied collection of 15 essays in this volume showcase the afterlife of the Book of Revelation. It is a biblical book that has left its mark in many fields of intellectual endeavour: literature, film, music, philosophy, political theology, and religious ideology. It is perhaps paradoxical that this book, which promises God's punishment upon anyone expanding on its contents, has nevertheless accumulated to itself over two millennia vast amounts of commentary, exposition, and appropriation. Offered at the close of the 'Blair/Bush years', this volume also exposes and highlights the often deeply ironic resonances generated while studying the reception history of Revelation during a period when the book has both significant public currency and a potentially terrifying global impact. Contents. Decoding, Reception History, Poetry: Three Hermeneutical Approaches to the Apocalypse (Jonathan Roberts); Self-Authorization in Christina Rossetti's The Face of the Deep (Jo Carruthers); Revelation, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Alison Jack); Revelation and Film (Melanie J. Wright); The Apocalypse according to Johnny Cash (William John Lyons); The Johannine Apocalypse and the Risk of Knowledge (James E. Harding); Revelation, Violence, and War (Heikki Raisanen); The Reception of Revelation, c. 1250-1700 (Anke Holdenried); A Seventeenth-Century Particular Baptist on Revelation 20.1-7 (Simon Woodman); The Book of Revelation, the Branch Davidians and Apocalyptic (Self-)destruction? (Kenneth Newport); Ecological Readings of the Apocalypse of John in Contemporary America (Michael S. Northcott); Feminist Reception of the Book of Revelation (Hanna Stenstrom); Revelation as Form and Content in the Works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (Jorunn Okland)

The guides in this series by Tom Wright can be used on their own or alongside his New Testament for Everyone commentaries. They are designed to help you understand the Bible in fresh ways under the guidance of one of the world's leading New Testament scholars.

This collection examines the allusions to the Elijah- Elisha narrative in the gospel of Luke. The volume presents the case for a "maximalist" view, which holds that the Elijah-Elisha narrative had a dominant role in the composition of Luke 7 and 9, put forward by Thomas L. Brodie and John Shelton, with critical responses to this thesis by Robert Derrenbacker, Alex Damm, F. Gerald Downing, David Peabody, Dennis MacDonald and Joseph Verheyden. Taken together the contributions to this volume provide fascinating insights into the composition of the gospel of Luke, and the editorial processes involved in its creation. Contributions cover different approaches to the text, including issues of intertextuality and rhetorical-critical examinations. The distinguished contributors and fast-paced debate make this book an indispensable addition to any theological library.

Study Hebrews in its Second Temple Context Following the proven model established in Reading Romans in Context, Reading Mark in Context, and Reading Revelation in Context, this book brings together a series of accessible essays that compare and contrast the theology and hermeneutical practices of the book of Hebrews with various early Jewish literature. Going beyond an introduction that merely surveys historical events and theological themes, this textbook examines individual passages in Second Temple Jewish literature in order to illuminate the ideas and emphases of Hebrews' varied discourses. Following the rhetorical progression of Hebrews, each chapter in this textbook: pairs a major unit of Hebrews with one or more sections of a thematically related Jewish text introduces and explores the historical and theological nuances of the comparative text shows how the ideas in the comparative text illuminate those expressed in Hebrews In addition to the focused comparison provided in the essays, Reading Hebrews in Context offers other student-friendly features that help them engage broader discussions, including an introductory chapter that familiarizes students with the world and texts of Second Temple Judaism and a glossary of important terms. The end of each chapter contains a list of other thematically-relevant Second Temple Jewish texts recommended for further study and a focused bibliography pointing students to critical editions and higher-level discussions in scholarly literature they might use to undertake their own comparative studies.

Who was Luke? Was he one of Paul's companions? Was he a doctor? We do know that he was educated and cultured, writing for people far away from where Jesus lived. In his Gospel, we find the foundation of our Christmas stories and the best-loved parables, those of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan. We see Jesus' concern for the poor and the marginalized, especially women and children. And it's Luke who tells us of the repentant thief on the cross and of the risen Jesus accompanying the people on the road to Emmaus. In these twenty-six studies, we discover Luke's aim - to present the good news of Jesus as clearly and unambiguously as he can.

Jin Young Choi rereads discipleship in the Gospel of Mark from a postcolonial feminist perspective, developing an Asian and Asian American hermeneutics of phronesis. Colonized subjects perceive Jesus' body as phantasmic. Discipleship means embodying the mystery of this body while engaging with invisible, placeless and voiceless others.

Whether the Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians is a single document or a compilation of two or more, and the question of Paul's relations with the Corinthian church between the despatch of the First and the composition of the Second letter (or letters), have been matters of debate since the eighteenth century.Margaret Thrall's commentary engages with these and all the other issues associated with 2 Corinthians. There follows a detailed verse-by-verse exegesis of chapters 1-7, which attempts to understand the viewpoint of the original readers of the text as well as Paul's own.This volume covers many of Paul's writings which have evoked considerable scholarly interest in recent years. This is an exemplary addition to the ICC series.>

This volume brings together an international group of scholars on Mark and Paul, respectively, who reopen the question whether Paul was a direct influence on Mark. On the basis of the latest methods in New Testament scholarship, the battle over Yes and No to this question of literary and theological influence is waged within these pages. In the end, no agreement is reached, but the basic issues stand out with much greater clarity than before. How may one relate two rather different literary genres, the apostolic letter and the narrative gospel? How may the theologies of two such different types of writing be compared? Are there sufficient indications that Paul lies directly behind Mark for us to conclude that through Paul himself and Mark the New Testament as a whole reflects specifically Pauline ideas? What would the literary and theological consequences of either assuming or denying a direct influence be for our reconstruction of 1st century Christianity? And what would the consequences be for either understanding Mark or Paul as literary authors and theologians? How far should we give Paul an exalted a position in the literary creativity of the first Christians? Addressing these questions are scholars who have already written seminally on the issue or have marked positions on it, like Joel Marcus, Margaret Mitchell, Gerd Theissen and Oda Wischmeyer, together with a group of up-coming and senior Danish scholars from Aarhus and Copenhagen Universities who have collaborated on the issue for some years. The present volume leads the discussion further that has been taken up in: "Paul and Mark" (ed. by O. Wischmeyer, D. Sim, and I. Elmer), BZNW 191, 2013.

In this addition to the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS), a seasoned scholar interprets First Corinthians for pastoral ministers and lay readers alike. The CCSS series, which will cover the entire New Testament, relates Scripture to life, is faithfully Catholic, and 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.
Praise for the CCSS
"A landmark achievement in theological interpretation of Scripture in and for the Church. Highly recommended for all "--Michael J. Gorman, St. Mary's Seminary and University, Baltimore

This engaging commentary on the Gospel of Matthew is the fifth of seventeen volumes in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS), which will cover the entire New Testament. This volume, like each in the series, relates Scripture to life, is faithfully Catholic, and is supplemented by features designed to help readers understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively.
Praise for the CCSS:
"These commentaries are both exegetically sound and spiritually nourishing. They are indispensable tools for preaching, catechesis, evangelization, and other forms of pastoral ministry."--Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM Cap, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops