In this unique collection of daily meditations, theologian and psychologist Rev Dr Simon Gibson brings together spiritual wisdom and psychological insight to create a powerful resource for living life to the full and making every day count!

This collection of eighteen essays addresses critical theological and ethical issues in the book of Job: (1) Prologue: From Eden to Uz; (2) Job and His Friends: "What Provokes You that You Keep on Talking?"; (3) Job and the Priests: "Look At Me and Be Appalled;" (4) Traumatizing Job: "God Has Worn Me Out;" (5) Out of the Whirlwind: "Can You Thunder with A Voice Like God's?"; (6) Preaching Job and Job's God: "Listen Carefully to My Words;" (7) Epilogue: "All's Well That Ends Well" ... or Is it? The lead essay raises the question that lingers over the entire book: What are we to think of a God who is complicit in the death of seven sons and three daughters "for no reason"?

The eighty lexical entries exemplify a diachronic investigation of Late Biblical Hebrew, which reflects the transition period from the Hebrew Bible to Talmudic literature. Together with relevant bibliography for each entry, the Lexicon serves as an indispensable tool for understanding the emergence and development of Late Biblical Hebrew neologisms.

Recognizing the Stranger is the first monographic study of recognition scenes and motifs in the Gospel of John. The recognition type-scene (anagnorisis) was a common feature in ancient drama and narrative, highly valued by Aristotle as a touching moment of truth, e.g., in Oedipus' tragic self-discovery and Odysseus' happy homecoming. The book offers a reconstruction of the conventions of the genre and argues that it is one of the most recurrent and significant literary forms in the Gospel. When portraying Jesus as the divine stranger from heaven, the Gospel employs and transforms the formal and ideological structures of the type-scene in order to show how Jesus' true identity can be recognized behind the half-mask of his human appearance. Originally published in hardcover.

This is an up-to-date and engaging introduction to the study of Paul offering prompting fresh interpretations of this crucial figure in biblical studies. The Apostle Paul is the most influential theologian in the Christian tradition while also being the most controversial and probably the least understood. He has been regarded simultaneously as an anti-Semite, a figure who would surely support the state of Israel, a misogynist, a feminist, a conservative, and a radical. Just as at various times over the last two millennia, Paul is again at the center of a range of controversies, beginning especially with E. P. Sanders' ground-breaking work in the late 1970's on Paul's relationship to Judaism. Since then, the field of Pauline studies has been a hot-bed of vigorous and creative debate. This book will serve as an upper-undergraduate level engagement with these various controversies and debates, introducing students to the historical and hermeneutical dynamics that have given rise to the variety of discussions before then rigorously working through them. The book will begin by placing Paul historically in his first-century context and throughout church history. Gombis will then introduce the most significant debates in the study of Paul, drawing out the lines of argument of the major players in Pauline studies before then commending a way of processing the issues involved. The format of discussions, then, will be somewhat of a broad survey of advanced discussions, but will include Gombis's own advocacy of a preferred view in each case. Continuum's "Guides for the Perplexed" are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging - or indeed downright bewildering. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to grasp, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material.