This book argues for the integrity of the Pauline Corpus as a complex, composite text. Martin Wright critiques the prevailing tendency to divide the Corpus in two, separating the undoubtedly authentic letters from those of disputed authorship. Instead, he advocates for a renewed canonical hermeneutic in which the Corpus as a whole communicates Paul's legacy, and the authorship of individual letters is less important, stressing that that current preoccupations with authorship have a distorting effect on exegesis, and need to be reconsidered. Wright uses Ephesians as a focal text to illustrate the exegetical potential of this approach. He critically investigates the history of the prevailing hermeneutics of pseudonymity, with particular attention to the theological and confessional partiality with which it is often inflected. And constructively, he proposes a new hermeneutical model in which the Pauline Corpus is read as a continuous interpretative dialogue, leaving the question of authorship to one side. In two substantial exegetical studies, Wright offers new readings of passages from Ephesians and other Pauline letters, amplifying the proposed approach and illustrating its value.

'The followers of Jesus are to be different,' writes John Stott, 'different from both the nominal church and the secular world, different from both the religious and the irreligious. The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete delineation anywhere in the New Testament of the Christian counter-culture. Here is a Christian value-system, ethical, standard, religious devotion, attitude to money, ambition, lifestyle and network of relationships - all of which are totally at variance with those in the non-Christian world. And this Christian counter-culture is the life of the Kingdom of God, a fully human life indeed but lived out under the divine rule.' In his careful exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, John Stott accurately expounds the biblical text and relates it to life today. Above all, the author says, he wants to let Christ speak this sermon again, this time to the modern world.

In this study Yongbom Lee re-examines the old Jesus-Paul debate with insights from current studies on intertextuality in Paul. Lee identifies Paul's typical ways of handling authoritative traditions in a number of cases providing a set of expectations as to how his use of them elsewhere might look. Lee begins by investigating the use of the Scriptures in the Rule of the Community and the Damascus Document. He then examines five cases of Paul's use of the Scriptures and contemporary Jewish exegetical traditions and three cases of his use of the Jesus tradition. Despite the skepticism concerning Paul's knowledge and appreciation of the Jesus tradition, the fact that his use of the Jesus tradition is similar to that of the Scriptures and contemporary Jewish exegetical traditions-with respect to its presumption of authority, various citation methods, and its creative application to the situation of his readers-provides the evidence for its importance to him.

Antonios Finitsis provides a distinctive view social worldview and message of Zechariah. Zechariah 1-6 is unlike most of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible. He is pro-establishment and he conveys his message mostly with visions. These observations have led to scholarly disagreements as to how one should understand his role. Antonios Finitsis mediates this disagreement by triangulating the relationship of Zechariah's visionary mode of expression, his message and his function. Zechariah has often been seen as a link between prophecy and apocalypticism. However, Finitsis argues again assuming the presence of this link - warning against the potential for reductionist thinking. Furthermore, Proto-Zechariah's viewpoint is particular to the post-exilic social setting. His visions are influenced by the social circumstances in which they are expressed. Proto-Zechariah refers to the near future using elements from the community's present. Therefore, Finitsis defines the message of Proto-Zechariah one of restoration eschatology, suggesting that the text is addressed to a small province plagued by inner-community conflicts. The text succeeds in alleviating social discord by empowering the people to rebuild their community. This presents a unique and challenging understand of Zechariah's prophetic role. "The Library of Second Temple Studies" is a premier book series that offers cutting-edge work for a readership of scholars, teachers, postgraduate students and advanced undergraduates in the field of Second Temple studies. All the many and diverse aspects of Second Temple study are represented and promoted, including innovative work from historical perspectives, studies using social-scientific and literary theory, and developing theological, cultural and contextual approaches.

Scholars have often read the book of Revelation in a way that attempts to ascertain which Old Testament book it most resembles. Instead, we should read it as a combined and imitative text which actively engages the audience through signalling to multiple texts and multiple textual experiences: in short, it is an act of pastiche. Fletcher analyses the methods used to approach Revelation's relationship with Old Testament texts and shows that, although there is literature on Revelation's imitative and multi-vocal nature, these aspects of the text have not yet been explored in sufficient depth. Fletcher's analysis also incorporates an examination of Greco-Roman imitation and combination before providing a better way to understand the nature of the book of Revelation, as pastiche. Fletcher builds her case on four comparative case studies and uses a test case to ascertain how completely they fit with this assessment. These insights are then used to clarify how reading Revelation as imitative and combined pastiche can challenge previous scholarly assumptions, transforming the way we approach the text.