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 well-written book fills a very important niche in our appreciation of the Gospels. Healy combines literary sensitivity with theological vigor, resulting in a reading of Mark that puts a compelling face on the message of this Gospel."--Gary Anderson, University of Notre Dame

"Mary Healy skillfully and insightfully moves her readers to plumb the spiritual depths of Mark's Gospel. I have found her commentary a boon in homily preparation. If the other volumes in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture live up to the high standard that Healy has attained, Catholic Christians will be enriched and grateful."--Robert J. Karris, OFM, The Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure University

Praise for the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture

"Coinciding with the Bishops' Synod on 'The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church, ' this seventeen-volume commentary on the New Testament represents a much-needed approach, based on good scholarship but not overloaded with it. The frequent references to the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" help us to read Holy Scripture with a vivid sense of the Living Tradition of the Church."--Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, Archbishop of Vienna

"This series richly provides what has for so long been lacking among contemporary scriptural commentaries. Its goal is to assist Catholic preachers and teachers, lay and ordained, in their ministry of the word. Moreover, it offers ordinary Catholics a scriptural resource that will enhance their understanding of God's word and thereby deepen their faith. Thus these commentaries, nourished on the faith of the Church and guided by scholarly wisdom, are both exegetically sound and spirituallynourishing."--Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM Cap, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

"The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture is a landmark achievement in theological interpretation of Scripture in and for the Church. Everything about it is inviting and edifying, from the format, photos, background notes, and cross-references to the rich exposition of the text, quotations from the Church's living tradition, and reflections for contemporary life. It is a wonderful gift to the Catholic Church and a model for the rest of us. Highly recommended for all!"--Michael J. Gorman, St. Mary's Seminary and University, Baltimore

Indirect evidence, in the form of early translations ('versions') and biblical quotations in ancient writers ('patristic citations'), offers important testimony to the history and transmission of the New Testament. In addition to their value as early evidence for the Greek New Testament, versions have a textual tradition of their own which is often of considerable historical, theological and ecclesial significance. This volume brings together a series of original contributions on this topic, which was the focus of the Eleventh Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament. The research described here illustrates not just the ongoing importance and variety of this material, but also the way in which it may shape the theory and practice of text-critical scholarship and lead to new insights about this vast and rich tradition.

A series of short, question-based study guides based around the New Testament For Everyone series. The series is intended to encourage church (and other) groups to study the Bible using the For Everyone model. Experienced Bible study writers have selected excerpts and written questions that guide users through the thought of Tom Wright on each passage. These have been reviewed, edited and approved by Tom Wright. Creation is in anguish. Paul's letter to the Romans, as well as the merest glance at our world, shows this clearly. The Church shares in the suffering, groaning in the tension between the 'already' of possessing the fruit of the Spirit and the 'not yet' of our present existence. Paul, however, also makes it abundantly clear that God doesn't stand apart from the pain. Rather, he entered it through Jesus and dwells in the middle of it in the Spirit. These studies present the whole picture of a suffering, sinful world and God's deep love, still working today to reconcile that world to himself.

This monograph explores the joy theme in Luke- Acts as it relates to the dynamics of rhetoric, narrative and emotion. The Gospel of Luke has been called the "gospel of joy", and the joy theme has also been recognised in Acts. This theme, though, has received relatively little attention in NT scholarship. Joy in Luke-Acts examines the joy theme from a socio-rhetorical vantage point, showing that the joy theme empowers the Lukan rhetoric of reversal. The theme is a primary method in which the narrator seeks to persuade the reader to enter into the values and beliefs that characterise the 'upside-down' world in which YHWH has visited his people in Jesus.

Writing in an accessible and anecdotal style, Tom Wright helps us to approach the rich and many-sided story of the book of Acts. Wright shows how the book builds on Luke's gospel, laying out the continuing work and teaching of the now risen and ascended Jesus in the power of the Spirit. His writing captures the vivid way in which Luke's work draws us all into the story, while leaving the ending open and challenging, inviting Christians today to pick up and carry on the story as we in turn live our lives in the service of Jesus. Tom Wright has undertaken a tremendous task to provide guides to all the books of the New Testament, and to furnish them with his own fresh translation of the entire text. Each short passage is followed by a highly readable discussion, with background information, useful interpretation and explanation, and thoughts as to how it can be relevant to our lives today. No knowledge of technical jargon is required. The series is suitable for personal or group use. The format makes it appropriate also for daily study.

This book extends scholarly debate beyond the analysis of pure historical debates and concerns to focus on the associations between Acts and the diverse contemporaneous texts, writers, and broader cultural phenomena in the second-century world of Christians, Romans, Greeks, and Jews.

The author of Hebrews calls God 'Father' only twice in his sermon. This fact could account for scholarship's lack of attention to the familial dynamics that run throughout the letter. Peeler argues, however, that by having God articulate his identity as Father through speaking Israel's Scriptures at the very beginning and near the end of his sermon, the author sets a familial framework around his entire exhortation. The author enriches the picture of God's family by continually portraying Jesus as God's Son, the audience as God's many sons, the blessings God bestows as inheritance, and the trials God allows as pedagogy. The recurrence of the theme coalesces into a powerful ontological reality for the audience: because God is the Father of Jesus Christ, they too are the sons of God. But even more than the model of sonship, Jesus' relationship with his Father ensures that the children of God will endure the race of faith to a successful finish because they are an integral part of comprehensive inheritance promised by his Father and secured by his obedience. Because of the familial relationship between God and Jesus, the audience of Hebrews - God's children - can remain in the house of God forever.

Stefanos Mihalios examines the uses of the hour in the writings of John and demonstrates the contribution of Danielic eschatology to Johns understanding of this concept. Mihalios begins by tracing the notion of an eschatological time in the Old Testament within expressions such as in that time and time of distress, which also appear in the book of Daniel and relate to the eschatological hour found in Daniel. Mihalios finds that even within the Jewish tradition there exists an anticipation of the fulfillment of the Danielic eschatological time, since the eschatological hour appears in the Jewish literature within contexts that allude to the Danielic end-time events. Mihalios moves on to examines the Johannine eschatological expressions and themes that have their source in Daniel, finding evidence of clear allusions whenever the word hour arises. Through this examination, he concludes that for the Johannine Jesus use of the term hour indicates that the final hour of tribulation and resurrection, as it is depicted in Daniel, has arrived.

Jesus Becoming Jesus, Volume 3 follows upon the previous two volumes of this series entitled Jesus Becoming Jesus. Volume 1 was a theological interpretation of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and volume 2 was a theological interpretation of the Prologue and Book of Signs of John's Gospel (chapters 1-12). Unlike many conventional biblical commentaries, Weinandy concentrates on the theological content contained within John's Gospel. This is accomplished through a close reading of John's Gospel, theologically interpreting each chapter of the Gospel sequentially. In so doing he also takes into account the Johannine corpus as a whole. He also relates John's Gospel to relevant material found within the Synoptic Gospels, the Pauline Corpus and other New Testament writings. In this present volume, Weinandy's original theological interpretation focuses first on the Evangelist's narrative of the Last Supper, which includes Jesus' washing of his disciples' feet, followed upon his lengthy farewell address and his ensuing High Priestly Prayer (chapter 13-17). Although Jesus speaks of his leaving his disciples, yet their hearts should not be troubled, for he is going to prepare a place for them in his Father's house, and he will also send them another Counselor, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not only convict the world sin, but he will also empower the disciples to profess their faith in Jesus as the Father's Son, even in the midst of persecution. All that Jesus tells his disciple in his final discourse, he then prays that his Father will accomplish through his forthcoming death and resurrection-above all that his disciples will share in the same oneness of love that he and his Father possess. Weinandy masterfully treats John's Passion and Resurrection Narratives. He not only theologically interprets the uniqueness of the Evangelist's narratives, but also how his narratives insect with the Synoptic accounts. Moreover, Weinandy's theological reading of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection weaves together John's soteriology, ecclesiology, and sacramentality-all of which are founded upon the Incarnation, that Jesus is the Father's Spirit-filled incarnate Son. As the title suggests, Jesus, being named Jesus, in his death and resurrection, definitively enacts his name and so becoming who he is-YHWH-Saves.

Making use of his true scholar's understanding, yet writing in an approachable and anecdotal style, Tom Wright captures the dauntless power of these letters. They were written by Paul while in prison facing the possibility of imminent death, yet burn with undimmed passion. Paul seeks to help direct the growing faith where his influence might prove crucial, and writes a very personal letter to a slave-owner on behalf of a runaway.

This text brings together in one volume two previous books that laid the groundwork for the construction of the entries in Diccionario Griego-Espanol del Nuevo Testamento (Greek-Spanish Dictionary of the New Testament), namely Metodo de Analisis semantico aplicado al griego del Nuevo Testamento (Method of Semantic Analysis applied to the Greek of the New Testament) and Metodologia del Diccionario Griego Espanol del Nuevo Testamento (Methodology of the Greek Spanish Dictionary of the New Testament), by Juan Mateos and Jesus Pelaez. In the introduction and first part of the text, the concepts of dictionary and meaning are defined and a critical analysis of the dictionaries of F. Zorell, W. Bauer (Bauer-Aland) and Louw-Nida is conducted. Their methodologies are examined with the purpose of then presenting a method of semantic analysis and the steps for establishing the semantic formula of the various classes of lexemes, which functions as the basis for determining lexical and contextual meaning. In the second part the necessary steps for composing the dictionary's entries are proposed. The text concludes with an analysis of related lexemes in order to demonstrate the accuracy of the suggested method. For the first time, a carefully developed method of semantic analysis and the corresponding methodology are presented before the construction of the dictionary's entries.

New Testament Theology in a Secular World is an important and original new work in Christian apologetics. It is the first book to apply constructivist theory to biblical studies.
Biblical Studies scholar Peter Lampe tackles head on such questions as: What do we understand by "reality?" How does this relate to what theology calls the "reality of God" or the "reality of resurrection?" How can we account for the concept of "revelation"? Lampe argues that in talking about "reality" theologians must make an effort to engage with the concept of "reality" as it is discussed in the fields of philosophical epistemology and sociology of knowledge. However, as Lampe shows, Theology has so far hardly or only reluctantly participated in this dialogue.

Sung Cho addresses the seeming contradiction of Herod the Great's massacre in Matthew 2:16-18, questioning why such a tragedy had to occur, why it was included in the good news of Jesus, and what connection it has to ancient prophecies. In creating a reception history of the Massacre of the Innocents, Cho progresses through two millennia worth of interpretation and depiction to highlight key works for discussion. Beginning with a close reading of Matthew 2:16-18, Cho moves to analyse depictions of the tragedy in the Early Patristic Tradition, from the sixth century to the early modern period, and thus to the present day; complete with an examination of visual interpretations of the massacre. Cho's examination provides a positive step to understanding the depths of human suffering with the help of many diverse perspectives.

Tom Wright's own translation of the Letter to the Hebrews is combined, section by section with a highly readable discussion, with background information, useful explanation and interpretation, and thoughts as to how it can be relevant to our lives today. No knowledge of technical jargon is required.

In this addition to the well-received Paideia series, a respected New Testament scholar examines cultural context and theological meaning in First, Second, and Third John. Paideia commentaries explore how New Testament texts form Christian readers by attending to the ancient narrative and rhetorical strategies the text employs, showing how the text shapes theological convictions and moral habits, and making judicious use of maps, photos, and sidebars in a reader-friendly format.

In recent decades, the church and academy have witnessed intense debates concerning the concept of penal substitution to describe Christ's atoning sacrifice. Some claim it promotes violence, glorifies suffering and death, and amounts to divine child abuse. Others argue it plays a pivotal role in classical Christian doctrine. Here world-renowned New Testament scholar Simon Gathercole offers an exegetical and historical defense of the traditional substitutionary view of the atonement. He provides critical analyses of various interpretations of the atonement and places New Testament teaching in its Old Testament and Greco-Roman contexts, demonstrating that the interpretation of atonement in the Pauline corpus must include substitution.