Who Should Be King in Israel? attempts to link common messianic issues found in some Dead Sea Scrolls with the Gospel of John. These messianic issues are studied in relation to the political situation facing the Johannine community in dealing with the Roman empire. The readers/hearers of the Fourth Gospel had to deal with different challenges from the Roman government and the non-Christian Jewish community in the era between the Jewish Revolt and the Bar-Kochba Revolt. Jesus is presented as the new David, the Son of God, who is the solution to all of humanity's problems. The fall of the Temple in 70 CE had created a political and religious situation that meant early Christians of the post-70 CE socio-political environment had to deal with Roman suspicion and Jewish disappointment. The Fourth Gospel uses vocabulary and imagery designed to communicate the message that Jesus is the Christ without inflaming either Roman or Jewish sensibilities. This book is written in a manner designed to deal intelligently with that difficult era in Christian history.

Spirit Christology has emerged as an important focus in recent theology. It offers new perspectives on Christology and Pneumatology. Can these new perspectives lead to advances in trinitarian theology itself? The classical theologies of both East and West tended to express great reserve about moving too easily from the economy of salvation to ideas about God in se. In the twentieth century, Karl Rahner's argument that the 'economic' Trinity is the 'immanent' Trinity and vice versa helped lead to a significant erosion of this reserve, though not without controversy. The work of David Coffey represents a significant contribution to reflection on this nexus of questions. This book examines his treatment of the relation of Spirit Christology to Logos Christology, his reformulation of Rahner's axiom, and his suggestion that Spirit Christology offers an 'ascending' basis for a 'mutual love' Pneumatology, in the service of a renewed trinitarian theology. It presents an analysis of Coffey's achievement in its various contexts, historical and contemporary. It highlights his methodological balance and argues that his theology represents an important development within the tradition, casting new light on issues of pressing contemporary interest.

This volume, which collects together the work of several established scholars attempts to situate the Apostle Paul, the Pauline writings, and the earliest Christian Gospels together in the context of early Christianity. It addresses the issue of how the Christianity depicted in and represented by the individual Gospels relates to the vision of Christianity represented by Paul and the Pauline writings.This raises such questions as to what extent did Paul influence the canonical and non-canonical Gospels? In what way are the Gospels reactions to Paul and his legacy? A comparison of the Gospels and Paul on topics such as Old Testament Law, Gentile mission, Christology, and early church leadership structures represents a fruitful area of study. While a number of volumes have appeared that attempt to assess the relationship between the historical Jesus and the Apostle Paul relatively few studies on Paul and the Gospels have been published. This volume excellently fills this gap in New Testament Studies and makes a valuable contribution to studies on Christian Origins, Pauline research, and the Gospels.

The work analyses the current state of research on the problem of the relationship of the Fourth Gospel to the Synoptic Gospels. It proves that the Fourth Gospel, which was written c. AD 140-150, is a result of systematic, sequential, hypertextual reworking of the Acts of the Apostles with the use of the Synoptic Gospels, more than ten other early Christian writings, Jewish sacred Scriptures, and Josephus' works. The work also demonstrates that the character of the 'disciple whom Jesus loved' functions in the Fourth Gospel as a narrative embodiment of all generations of the Pauline, post-Pauline, and post-Lukan Gentile Christian Church. These features of the Fourth Gospel imply that it was intended to crown and at the same time close the canon of the New Testament writings.

Reading the New Testament offers an exciting and contemporary approach to New Testament Studies, which have changed dramatically in the past thirty years. James Crossley combines an introduction to traditional methods of source, form and social-scientific criticism with postcolonial, gender and political frameworks. He discusses reception-history, covering areas such as popular culture, party politics, historical theology and the politics of contemporary scholarship. He discusses Paul and Christian origins in continental philosophy, as well as offering a more traditional analysis of Paul's theology and the quest for the historical Jesus. A selection of readings from contemporary scholarship is provided in the final chapter of the book.

Reading the New Testament has been carefully designed to help students think critically and in wide-ranging ways about the texts of the New Testament and will prove a valuable resource for everyone engaged in serious study of the Bible.

The study analyses the current state of research on the synoptic problem and proves that the Synoptic Gospels were written in the Mark, Luke, Matthew order of direct literary dependence. Moreover, the work demonstrates that the Synoptic Gospels are results of systematic, sequential, hypertextual reworking of the contents of the Pauline letters. Accordingly, the so-called 'Q source' turns out to be an invention of nineteenth-century scholars with their Romantic hermeneutic presuppositions. Demonstration of the fact that the Gospels are not records of the activity of the historical Jesus but that they narratively illustrate the identity of Christ as it has been revealed in the person and life of Paul the Apostle will certainly have major consequences for the whole Christian theology.

Reading the New Testament offers an exciting and contemporary approach to New Testament Studies, which have changed dramatically in the past thirty years. James Crossley combines an introduction to traditional methods of source, form and social-scientific criticism with postcolonial, gender and political frameworks. He discusses reception-history, covering areas such as popular culture, party politics, historical theology and the politics of contemporary scholarship. He discusses Paul and Christian origins in continental philosophy, as well as offering a more traditional analysis of Paula (TM)s theology and the quest for the historical Jesus. A selection of readings from contemporary scholarship is provided in the final chapter of the book.

Reading the New Testament has been carefully designed to help students think critically and in wide-ranging ways about the texts of the New Testament and will prove a valuable resource for everyone engaged in serious study of the Bible.

In the Pauline literature of the New Testament, the characteristics of the Spirit and Christian life are described through the use of metaphor. An interpreter of Paul must understand his metaphors in order to arrive at a complete understanding of the Pauline pneumatological perspective. Thus, The Pauline Metaphors of the Holy Spirit examines how the Pauline Spirit metaphors express the intangible Spirit's tangible presence in the life of the Christian. Rhetoricians prior to and contemporary with Paul discussed the appropriate usage of metaphor. Aristotle's thoughts provided the foundation from which these rhetoricians framed their arguments. In this context, The Pauline Metaphors surveys the use of metaphor in the Greco-Roman world during the NT period and also studies modern approaches to metaphor. The modern linguistic theories of substitution, comparison, and verbal opposition are offered as representative examples, as well as the conceptual theories of interaction, cognitive-linguistic, and the approach of Zoltan Koevecses. In examining these metaphors, it is important to understand their systematic and coherent attributes. These can be divided into structural, orientational, and ontological characteristics, which are rooted in the conceptual approach of metaphor asserted by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. This book evaluates these characteristics against each of the Pauline Spirit-metaphors.

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.

The New Testament is a book of great significance in Western culture yet is often inaccessible to students because the modern world differs so significantly from the ancient Mediterranean one in which it was written. It is imperative to develop a cross-cultural understanding of the values of the ancient Mediterranean society from which the New Testament arose in order to fully appreciate the documents and the communities that they represent.

Dietmar Neufeld and Richard E. DeMaris bring together biblical scholars with expertise in the social sciences to develop interpretative models for understanding such values as collectivism, kinship, memory, ethnicity, and honour, and to demonstrate how to apply these models to the New Testament texts. Kinship is illuminated by analysis of the Holy Family as well as to early Christian organisations; gender through a study of Paul 's view of women; and landscape and spatiality through a discussion of Jesus of Nazareth. This book is the ideal companion to study of the New Testament.

Post-Metaphysics and the Paradoxical Teachings of Jesus: The Structure of the Real uncovers the authentic voice-print of Jesus' teachings on the Kingdom of God and thereby outlines a new approach to theological language after the end of metaphysics.

By showing that the paradoxical deep structure of Jesus most radical teachings survives the Death of God and the deconstruction of metaphysics in twentieth-century continental philosophy, this book aims to reconstruct the original teachings of Jesus in a way that can begin a new conversation on what it means to be a Christian in a post-Christian world, while drawing on a remarkable range of supporting material, including John D. Caputos' award-winning theological appropriation of Derridas deconstruction, the pioneering work of John Dominic Crossan on the parables of Jesus, and the novel insights of Jesus Seminar scholars Robert Funk and Branden Scott.

Beginning with questions surrounding the end of metaphysics in Martin Heideggers existentialist philosophy and moving on to the ethico-political dimensions of Derridas work, this volume examines Nicholas of Cusas' notion of God as the coincidence of opposites, Buddhist genius Nagarjunas' dialectic of Emptiness, and the Hindu concept of non-duality in raising the possibility of a post-metaphysical theology.

Following an original unpacking of the parables of Jesus, the central thesis is woven together with reference to Moltmanns important work on the crucified God, as well as Kierkegaard and the Absolute Paradox, negative/mystical theology in the Christian tradition, twentieth-century Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitaro, and aspects of Nietzsche, Thomas Aquinas, Plato, Aristotle, Meister Eckhart, G. K. Chesterton, Slavoj Zizek, and Ken Wilber.

The first basic thesis of Anti-Roman Cryptograms in the New Testament: Hidden Transcripts of Hope and Liberation is that the Jesus of history and his earliest and closest followers during his lifetime and during the decades after he had been crucified by the Romans had not only a deep longing for eternal life with God beyond the limits of this world, but also a strong desire for liberation from Roman political, economic, and social oppression. The second basic thesis of Anti-Roman Cryptograms in the New Testament is that within the Christian Scriptures there are more hidden transcripts, coded messages (anti-Roman cryptograms) of hope and liberation, for « freedom now within this life, than we have realized throughout most of the history of interpretation. Hidden transcripts of hope and liberation are coded so that oppressed people are able to communicate to their fellow oppressed people in ways in which their message and their intent are shielded from the perceptions of their oppressors. These messages by the Jesus of history and by the writers of New Testament and related literature use the language of faith, of salvation, of Deity, and of adversaries of Deity, giving words that are commonly used by the oppressed people new and double meanings. Within interaction with other scholars who are publishing studies of hidden transcripts, this book is an analysis of hidden transcripts within each of the New Testament documents. The book is designed to be used in New Testament Studies courses at undergraduate and/or graduate levels, by study groups, and by all persons who desire a more adequate understanding of the Jesus of history, his closest followers, and their oral and written communications during the first three centuries C.E.

The New Testament is a book of great significance in Western culture yet is often inaccessible to students because the modern world differs so significantly from the ancient Mediterranean one in which it was written. It is imperative to develop a cross-cultural understanding of the values of the ancient Mediterranean society from which the New Testament arose in order to fully appreciate the documents and the communities that they represent.

Dietmar Neufeld and Richard E. DeMaris bring together biblical scholars with expertise in the social sciences to develop interpretative models for understanding such values as collectivism, kinship, memory, ethnicity, and honour, and to demonstrate how to apply these models to the New Testament texts. Kinship is illuminated by analysis of the Holy Family as well as to early Christian organisations; gender through a study of Paul s view of women; and landscape and spatiality through a discussion of Jesus of Nazareth. This book is the ideal companion to study of the New Testament.

The Gospel of Luke tells the story of Jesus from a perspective unlike any other. Pastor John MacArthur will take you through Luke's account of the gospel, passage by passage, so that you can better understand everything from Luke's specific audience to the detailed portrayal of Jesus' ministry. As a physician, Luke presents a detailed account of Jesus' conception and birth. As a meticulous historian, he highlights Jesus' parables, teachings, healings, and compassion to the outcasts in Israel. He follows Christ on His journey to the cross, recounts His last days that led to His crucifixion and burial, and documents Christ's victory over the grave. From the beginning of Jesus' public ministry to the Lord's final words, Luke stresses Jesus' willingness to go to the cross to complete His ultimate mission-to be the Savior of all the world. -ABOUT THE SERIES- The MacArthur Bible Study series is designed to help you study the Word of God with guidance from widely respected pastor and author John MacArthur. Each guide provides intriguing examinations of the whole of Scripture by examining its parts and incorporates: Extensive, but straight-forward commentary on the text. Detailed observations on overriding themes, timelines, history, and context. Word and phrase studies to help you unlock the broader meaning and apply it to your life. Probing, interactive questions with plenty of space to write down your response and thoughts.

The Shepherd-Flock Motif in the Miletus Discourse (Acts 20:17-38) Against Its Historical Background provides a comprehensive survey of the use of the shepherd-flock motif in the ancient world for the readers of the New Testament. This review of Ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, Greco-Roman, and Christian sources is guided by a motific approach that integrates the concept of metaphor, Semantics, and the comparative method. A chief concern of this study is to apply this knowledge to the study of Luke-Acts, especially the Miletus Discourse (Acts 20:17-38). The shepherd-flock motif appears to be central in this speech and helps to integrate other motifs and themes in this discourse, such as the kingship motif. The Shepherd-Flock Motif in the Miletus Discourse (Acts 20:17-38) Against Its Historical Background is indispensable to the study of motifs in the New Testament and contributes meaningfully to the scholarly research on Luke-Acts.

Despite famously small numbers, Christians have had a distinctive presence in modern Japan, particularly for their witness on behalf of democracy and religious freedom. A translation of Ken'i to Fukuju: Kindai Nihon ni okeru Roma-sho Jusan-sho (2003), Authority and Obedience is "a personal pre-history" of the postwar generation of Japanese Christian intellectuals deeply committed to democracy. Using Japanese Christians' commentary on Paul's injunction in Romans 13: 1-7, the counsel to "let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God...", Miyata offers an intellectual history of how Japanese Christians understood the emperor-focused modern state from the time of the first Protestant missionaries in the mid-nineteenth century through the climax and demise of fascism during the Pacific War. Stressing verse 5's admonition to "conscience" as the reason for obedience, Miyata provides a clear and political perspective grounded in his lifelong engagement with German political thought and theology, particularly that of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as he calls for a conscientious citizenry in his modern society. Showing both Christians' complicity with the state and the empire - including the formation of a unified church, the Nihon Kirisuto Kyodan - and their attitude toward Christians in Asia, and the complexity of the critical voices of Christians like Uchimura Kanzo, Kashiwagi Gien, Nanbara Shigeru, and many others less well known - Miyata's work aims not at exposing cultural particularity but at showing how the modern Japanese Christian experience can give meaning to a theology and a political theory of how to live within the "freedom of religious belief".

This is a clearly written and extremely helpful introduction to many different approaches to the interpretation of the New Testament. Experts from around the world and across many disciplines contribute specialised explanations, while Paula Gooder's excellent discussions apply each form of criticism to actual New Testament textual examples. It will become an indispensable tool and is greatly to be welcomed' Richard A. Burridge Dean of King's College London and Professor of Biblical Interpretation This book introduces readers to the different methods used when interpreting the New Testament. Although there are other books on the market that introduce the various techniques they are often very theoretical and it is hard for readers to see what difference the methods of interpretation make in practice to how a passage might be understood. Here, Paula Gooder responds to this gap in the market by giving practical textual examples of how a text might be interpreted using a broad range of interpretational methods. She also explores techniques that are often omitted from books on biblical interpretation, such as textual criticism and post-colonial criticism. The emphasis throughout is on what difference the method of interpretation makes for understanding the text. The text is mainly written by Paula Gooder but includes short contributions from world class scholars who offer nuggets of wisdom on their particular area of expertise.

The Christian Gospel and Its Jewish Roots goes against the tendency to interpret Scripture in ways that separate Christianity and Judaism. Through a redaction-critical analysis of the two sayings on the "new" and the "old" (Mark 2:21-22), the author argues that Mark does not leave his readers with a complete break between Jesus and his Jewish heritage. Rather, the Evangelist opens a ray of hope that the gospel and its Jewish soil are ultimately reconcilable, not fatally antagonistic. With thorough and incisive study, this work reaches the conclusion that standing at the literary center of the controversy series (Mark 2:1-3:6), the location of the two sayings on "new" and "old" (Mark 2:21-22) corresponds to their function of making a condensed statement for Mark, the Evangelist, of the meaning and impact of the whole conflict section.

«My Share of God's Reward refers to a quote from Ignatius of Antioch, speaking of the desired compensation for his impending martyrdom. The author investigates the roles and widely varying conceptions of the afterlife presented in early Christian martyrdom accounts and concludes that personal immortality is integral to the functioning of these texts, as the anticipated reward for a martyr's death. Accordingly, the very diverse conceptions of the afterlife presented in them are indicative of the frequently ignored theological diversity and experimental spirit prevalent in both early Christianity and late Second Temple Judaism. The discussion also incorporates a unique definition of martyrdom that recognizes the genealogical and developmental connections between Christian martyrdom and its antecedents.

As the vigorous debate over the New Perspective on Paul will only be decided by means of careful consideration of the relevant Scripture passages, Romans 4 and the New Perspective on Paul makes a significant contribution to the discussion. Interpretations by scholars promoting the New Perspective approach are reviewed in detail and contrasted with those of scholars who are critical toward this method. A detailed analysis of the context and exegesis of Romans 4 completes the work. By suggesting a more nuanced exegesis of Romans 4, this book is able to offer a careful critique of the New Perspective while still noting the positive aspects of the latter approach.

New Testament studies are witnessing many exciting developments, and Douglas Campbell's groundbreaking publications offer an important contribution to future discussions about Paul. Campbell tackles familiar problems relating to justification, 'old' and 'new' perspectives, and much more besides, in fresh and exciting ways. In doing so he sets down one profound challenge after another to all those involved in Pauline studies. As a consequence, his work demands extended and serious deliberation. This book seeks to facilitate academic engagement with Campbell's work in a unique way. It contains chapters summarizing key themes in his thinking, reflections from friendly critics that aim to challenge or extend his ideas, and his own response to these interlocutors. In this way, the book allows readers to be drawn into a vitally important conversation. It is academic theology in the making and constitutes a cutting edge in Pauline studies.

For hundreds of years, scholars have debated the meaning of Jesus' central theological term, the 'kingdom of God'. Most of the argument has focused on its assumed eschatological connotations and Jesus' adherence or deviation from these ideas. Within the North American context, the debate is dominated by the work of Norman Perrin, whose classification of the kingdom of God as a myth-evoking symbol remains one of the fundamental assumptions of scholarship. According to Perrin, Jesus' understanding of the kingdom of God is founded upon the myth of God acting as king on behalf of Israel as described in the Hebrew Bible. Moving Beyond Symbol and Myth challenges Perrin's classification, and advocates the reclassification of the kingdom of God as metaphor. Drawing upon insights from the cognitive theory of metaphor, this study examines all the occurrences of the 'God is king' metaphor within the literary context of the Hebrew Bible. Based on this review, it is proposed that the 'God is king' metaphor functions as a true metaphor with a range of expressions and meanings. It is employed within a variety of texts and conveys images of God as the covenantal sovereign of Israel; God as the eternal suzerain of the world, and God as the king of the disadvantaged. The interaction of the semantic fields of divinity and human kingship evoke a range of metaphoric expressions that are utilized throughout the history of the Hebrew Bible in response to differing socio-historical contexts and within a range of rhetorical strategies. It is this diversity inherent in the 'God is king' metaphor that is the foundation for the diversified expressions of the kingdom of God associated with the historical Jesus and early Christianity.

The idea of God the Father has attracted scholarly attention for centuries, especially in terms of the revelation of God's fatherhood through the Son. 'The Father Who Redeems and the Son Who Obeys' balances the Christological perspective on God's nature with the image of God the Father that has its roots in the Old Testament, and is more prominent in the Second Temple period than sometimes acknowledged. For Paul, God is the Father who redeems. The Old Testament imagery that shaped the Israelites' conception of God's interaction with them (and which was a basis for God's future restoration of the nation, despite their unfaithfulness) is central to Paul's explanation of the new salvific act of God the Father in Christ, the faithful and obedient Son.

Rather than viewing the Apostle Paul's many references to peace and non-retaliation as generalized ethical principles drawn from Paul's background, Jeremy Gabrielson argues that peace and non-retaliation should be understood in relation to Paul's history of being a violent persecutor of Jesus' followers. After his 'Damascus road' experience, Paul zealously announced the gospel and abandoned his violent ways. His apostolic vocation included calling and equipping assemblies of people whose common in life was ordered by a politics characterized by peaceableness. This political dimension of Paul's gospel, in continuity with the earliest evidence we possess regarding Jesus and his disciples, stands in stark contrast to the politics of both the contemporary Roman imperial power and those who would seek to replace Rome by violent means.