An examination of the final form of Hosea within the socio-historical context of Persian period Judah, making use of insights from historical-critical and reader-oriented perspectives. The amalgamation of these two seemingly divergent approaches creates a framework within which the setting and interpretive practices of both the modern critic and the ancient reader(s) can be taken seriously. The resulting examination proposes a reading of Hosea shaped, as far as possible, by the reading conventions and socio-religious concerns of Persian period Judahites.>

Justin Marc Smith argues that the gospels were intended to be addressed to a wide and varied audience. He does this by considering them to be works of ancient biography, comparative to the Greco-Roman biography. Smith argues that the earliest Christian interpreters of the Gospels did not understand their works to be sectarian documents. Rather, the wider context of Jesus literature in the second and third centuries points toward the broader Christian practice of writing and disseminating literary presentations of Jesus and Jesus traditions as widely as possible. Smith addresses the difficulty in reconstructing the various gospel communities that might lie behind the gospel texts and suggests that the 'all nations' motif present in all four of the canonical gospels suggests an ideal secondary audience beyond those who could be identified as Christian.

This is the deluxe study version of the modern New Testament as translated from the Aramaic.

Previous attempts to critique the canonical approach of Brevard Childs have remained largely theoretical in nature. One of the weakness of canonical criticism, then, is its failure to have generated new readings of extended biblical passages. Reviewing the hermeneutics and the praxis of Childs's approach, Lyons then turns to the Sodom narrative (Gen 18-19) as a test of a practical exegesis according to Childs' principles, and then to reflect critically upon the reading experience generated. Surprisingly, the canonical reading produced is a wholly new one, centred around the complex, irreducible - even contradictory - request of Abraham for Yahweh to do justice (18:23-25).

This book examines the educated elite in 1 Corinthians through the development, and application, of an ancient education model. The research reads PaulGCOs text within the social world of early Christianity and uses social-scientific criticism in reconstructing a model that is appropriate for first-century Corinth. Pauline scholars have used models to reconstruct elite education but this study highlights their oversight in recognising the relevancy of the Greek Gymnasium for education. Topics are examined in 1 Corinthians to demonstrate where the model advances an understanding of PaulGCOs interaction with the elite Corinthian Christians in the context of community conflict. This study demonstrates the important contribution that this ancient education model makes in interpreting 1 Corinthians in a Graeco-Roman context. This is Volume 271 of JSNTS.

Paul's reading of the Old Testament continues to witness to the significance of reading the Old Testament in a Christian way. This study argues that a theological approach to understanding Paul's appeal to and reading of the Old Testament, especially Isaiah, offers important insights into the ways in which Christians should read the Old Testament and a two-testament canon today. By way of example, this study explores the ways in which Isaiah 40-66's canonical form presents the gospel in miniature with its movement from Israel to Servant to servants. It is subsequently argued that Paul follows this literary movement in his own theological reflection in 2 Corinthians 5:14-6:10. Jesus takes on the unique role and identity of the Servant of Isaiah 40-55, and Paul takes on the role of the servants of the Servant in Isaiah 53-66. From this exegetical exploration conclusions are drawn in the final chapter that seek to apply a term from the history of interpretation to Paul's reading, that is, the plain sense of Scripture. What does an appeal to plain sense broker? And does Paul's reading of the Old Testament look anything like a plain sense reading? Gignilliat concludes that Paul is reading the Old Testament in such a way that the literal sense and its figural potential and capacity are not divorced but are actually organically linked in what can be termed a plain sense reading.

Modern Israel and its relations with its Arab neighbors has been conspicuously in the daily news ever since World War II. Until that time, the concept of Israel and a continuing Jewish people had been hovering in the distant background of Christian thought and doctrine since the post-apostolic era. In this important work, Dr. Diprose demonstrates the uniqueness of Israel and its special place in the divine plan. By carefully reviewing relevant New Testament and post-apostolic writings, the author traces the origin and development of Replacement Theology--the concept that the Church has completely and permanently replaced ethnic Israel in the outworking of God's plan throughout history--challenging its origin and role in the development of Christian thought on the future of ethnic Israel.

There is an increasing hunger among Catholics to study the Bible in depth and in a way that integrates Scripture with Catholic doctrine, worship, and daily life. "Second Corinthians" is the fourth of seventeen volumes in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS), a new series that will cover the entire New Testament and interprets Scripture from within the living tradition of the Church. This volume, like each in the series, is supplemented by features designed to help readers understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively.

For some years the view has become established that the Book of the Twelve is a systematically structured literary unity. An exegesis which takes the final canonical text seriously undertakes to understand the structure and theological intention of this unity. The papers collected here attempt to reveal significant structures which overarch the individual components. Particular emphasis is placed on the reconstruction of thematic threads which are created when individual prophets take up topics from their predecessors (e.g. Jehovah's Day, conversion, role of the peoples) and intensify them. The papers were written between 1999 and 2002 under the aegis of the Society of Biblical Literature's Working Group on The Formation of the Book of the Twelve.