Saul of Tarsus is one of the best known and most beloved figures of Christianity. This man, later known as St. Paul, set the tone for Christianity, including an emphasis on celibacy, the theory of divine grace and salvation, and the elimination of circumcision. It was Paul who wrote a large part of the New Testament, and who called it euangelion, "the gospel." There is another side of Paul, however, that has been little studied and that is his connection to the Roman military establishment and its intelligence arm. While other scholars and writers have suggested the idea that Paul was cooperating with the Romans, this is the first book-length study to document it in detail. By looking at the traditional story through a new lens, some of the thorniest questions and contradictions in Paul's life can be unravelled. How did he come to work for the Temple authorities who collaborated with the Romans? How was he able to escape from legal situations in which others would have been killed? Why

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

Allen Hilton examines how pagan critics ridiculed the early Christians for being uneducated, and how a few literate Christians took up pen to defend the illiterate members of their churches. Hilton sheds light on the peculiarity of this "defense", in which the authors openly admit that the critics have the facts on their side, noting that the Book of Acts even calls two of its heroes, Peter and John, illiterates. Why did the authors of these biblical texts, intent on presenting Christianity in a positive light, volunteer such a negative detail? The answer to this question reveals a fascinating social exchange that first surrounded education levels in antiquity, and proceeded to make its way into the New Testament. This volume provides context for pagan education as opposed to early Christian illiteracy - touching upon the methods of ancient learning and the relationship between Christian and pagan schools - and analyses the 'uneducated virtue' of the Apostles. Hilton provides a useful window onto the social construction of ancient education and ushers readers into the everyday experience of ancient Christians, and those who disdained and defended them.

Do you not understand this parable? is a question Jesus posed to his disciples (Mark 4:13). Just as the first disciples often did not understand Jesus ' many parables, so it is for listeners and readers nearly two thousand years later. In Parables of the Kingdom, Mary Ann Getty-Sullivan helps readers to hear and see and understand the parables of Jesus. She offers a general introduction to the use of parables in the life and ministry of Jesus and the early church. In addition, Getty-Sullivan helps readers learn to interpret parables, to enter into what the parables can reveal about Jesus and his audience, about the evangelists and their communities, and about how we are to understand the Kingdom of God today. Parables of the Kingdom helps us hear and see Jesus ' parables with new eyes and renewed hearts 'thereby allowing the parables to transform our lives and help us respond with new conviction to the gospel's power in our world. Mary Ann Getty-Sullivan holds an S.T.D. from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. She has been teaching New Testament courses in colleges and seminaries for more than thirty years and has recently retired from teaching full time to devote more time to writing and lecturing. Mary Ann has written several commentaries on the Letters of Saint Paul. Her recent books include Women in the New Testament published by Liturgical Press.

Jesus is the most influential person of human history. "Jesus never became a political, military or government leader; he never wanted to. He never owned a multinational corporation or acquired any wealth to speak of; he didn't need it. He never wrote a book, never staged a concert tour, never appeared on television and never had a radio talk show--or even his own blog. . . . What's so special about Jesus?" (from the introduction) Most of us know something about Jesus and are intrigued by him. Perhaps as a child we attended Sunday school, or when flipping channels we've heard TV preachers talk about Jesus. We may have even thought, I'd like to find out for myself what Jesus said and did so I can come to my own conclusions about him. But we haven't had the opportunity to take a closer look. The Essential Jesus by Whitney T. Kuniholm will help you discover who Jesus is and why he is so significant--even life-transforming. Through both Old and New Testament readings you will discover why God sent Jesus, what Jesus taught, how he treated people, why he did miracles, the meaning of his death, the significance of his resurrection, what the Bible says about his second coming and much more. Whether alone or in a group setting, you can discover for yourself what makes Jesus so special.

A genre-breaking work readily encouraging and lending itself to comparison and contrast with the Holy Bible, the Holy Qur'an, and the Holy Tanakh as well as with the principal philosophical Taoist texts, namely the Tao Te Ching and The Chuang-Tzu....Essentially a contemplative work, written as it is to be interpreted both exoterically and esoterically is an attempt to restore to the bright - the light, the memory, and the power of insight, dream, and intuition....A necessary caveat respectfully to the reader: neither the Jesus of the Gospels nor the Isa (Arabic for Jesus) of the Qur'an exists here within no more....Rather what exists here within is a Jesus of Richard's own inspiration, and, who to his own heart is eminently credible, enjoyable, and profound....The work traverses the lands we in modern times would refer to as the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria....See Preface for more.

Conflict stories appear throughout the Synoptic Gospels, and although they are familiar and dramatic, the stories are particularly challenging for pastors to interpret and teach. In this book, David Buttrick delves into each conflict story, analyzing the particular controversy at hand and highlighting problems that these passages pose for preachers--including anti-Jewish attitudes in the text. As he moves through each story, he helps readers correct long-standing biases, shows how many of these controversies are still with us, and provides sample sermons to demonstrate how these stories might be preached more effectively.

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

In this series of reflections on the mystery of Jesus and the questions that surround him, noted New Testament scholar Wayne Meeks redirects the course of the Jesus debates. Insisting that we cease focusing on who the historical Jesus was and ask instead, who is Christ? Meeks demonstrates with electric and lucid prose that Jesus is not a permanent artifact whose precise nature can be traced back through history but, rather, a figure whose identity continues to emerge as contemporary persons engage him in their daily lives.

Originally published in 1926, this classic investigation into the question of the historicity of Jesus by Maurice Goguel, Professor of New Testament Criticism at the University of Paris, is considered one of the most important rebuttals of the 'Myth Theory' of Christian origins. Advocated by a number of scholars, the theory maintained that Christianity evolved as an amalgam of salvation myths in circulation during the early Roman Empire. The corollary of the theory is that Jesus never existed. The author first examines the meagre non-Christian evidence from antiquity that attests to the existence of Christianity. He then devotes considerable attention to the letters of Paul, pointing out the points of reference in Paul that make it highly probable that Jesus was an actual religious leader. Finally, he examines the four Gospels. This classical text is essential reading for anyone interested in the modern quest for the historical Jesus.

Was Leonardo Da Vinci a member of the 'Priory of Sion', a secret society reaching all the way back to the Crusades" Does his famous painting, "The Last Supper", contain a hidden code about this society's most precious secret? Did Jesus father children by Mary Magdalene? What was the Holy Grail? The best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown has stirred the popular imagination by cleverly interweaving theories about such questions with a fast-paced fictional narrative. Many readers have been so swept away by the drama of this murder mystery that they have accepted Brown's fictional reconstruction of Christian origins and medieval history as established fact. New Testament scholar Robert M. Price, a member of the prestigious Jesus Seminar, examines the creative uses of history in Brown's novel, showing that, however intriguing Brown's fictional speculations may be, the real facts behind the novel are even more fascinating. What does the best historical evidence say about the possibility that Jesus might have survived the crucifixion? How did the Gospels come to be accepted as the established accounts of Jesus' life and why were other Gnostic traditions suppressed? How did the Roman Emperor Constantine figure in the development of Christian dogma? What was Mary Magdalene's role in early Christianity and how was it adapted in later attempts to develop a 'sacred feminine' element in Christianity? These are some of the important questions about Christianity that Dr. Price pursues in this engrossing discussion of Christian history. Price combines sophisticated historical analysis with completely accessible and witty prose in this enlightening, factually based analysis of Brown's speculative bestseller.

Among the classics of ancient Greek and Jewish literature, the story of Luke-Acts has few rivals. Yet we moderns miss much of the meaning of Luke's two-part drama because we read it like any other text and not as it would have been "heard" by ancient listeners -- in public performance by a skilled storyteller.

"The Way according to Luke" unlocks the big picture of Jesus' mission by attending to the repetition, patterns, and other clues of oral narrative. In this single volume Paul Borgman lays out a holistic view of the organic unity between Luke and Acts while demonstrating that the meaning of Luke-Acts is uniquely embedded in its narrative. Borgman's distinctive work makes available both the satisfying pleasure of reading the Bible as great literature and the rewarding insight gained from receiving Scripture as it was originally delivered.

This introductory textbook on the history of Judaism, written by one of the foremost scholars in the field, is ideal for college freshmen and high school seniors. The book includes chapters on the Pentateuch and the definition of Israel, the Torah and the Mishnah and Judaism's way of life, the Talmud and Judaism's worldview, and the definition and nature of God in Judaism. The book concludes with a discussion of why Judaism has succeeded through centuries of competition with Christianity and Islam, and a chapter on exemplary figures in the emergence of Judaism. The book also includes a bibliography, glossary of terms, and many important primary documents, including the Mishnah, the Tosefta, the Talmud of the Land of Israel, the Talmud of Babylonia, Genesis and Genesis Rabbah, the Fathers (Abot) and the Fathers according to Rabbi Nathan.

Herzog is writing an introduction for seminary and college students to the discussion about the historical Jesus. He reports on the findings of the Jesus Seminar and also traces other scholarly work in Jesus studies, but with an eye to the theological. He asks what difference the Historical Jesus makes in our understanding of the Gospels - and what difference this Jesus should make in our lives today. This volume takes the results of Herzog's two Jesus books and, in summary fashion, makes them available in an introductory textbook. Herzog integrates his study of the words of Jesus (parables) with that of Jesus' deeds (miracle stories) to present a holistic picture that will go toe to toe with Crossan, Borg and Wright for the intro market. This book offers very accessible and clear connection to what the Gospels are saying.

Historical-Jesus research continues to captivate the interests of scholars, and recently, there has been renewed discussion of the criteria for authenticity. The first half of this volume reviews the state of play in historical-Jesus research and examines the criteria in particular. One chapter is devoted to the so-called 'Quests', and a second critically charts the development of the criteria in the light of form criticism. One of the conclusions of this part of the volume is that several criteria, especially those based on linguistics, need re-evaluation. The second half of the volume proposes three new criteria, based upon use of the Greek language. These criteria are: Greek language and its context; textual variance; and discourse features. The criteria are proposed as a way forward in historical-Jesus research.

The twelve essays in this volume explore, through various approaches, not only the biblical portraits of Mary but also both "the quest for the historical Mary" and the understandings of those portraits through the centuries. Valerie Abrahamsen, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, John Dominic Crossan, Mary F. Foskett, Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Deirdre Good, Jorunn Okland, Jane Schaberg, George H. Tavard, John van den Hengel, Pieter W. van der Horst, and George T. Zervos offer contributions that address such topics as the understandings of sexuality, the divine feminine, soteriology, first-century social history, christology, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox hermeneutics, ecumenical and interfaith relations, and the meaning of "virginity."Volume 10 of the Feminist Companions to the Bible Series

The twelve essays in this volume explore, through various approaches, not only the biblical portraits of Mary but also both 'the quest for the historical Mary' and the understandings of those portraits through the centuries. The expert contributors address such topics as the understandings of sexuality, the divine feminine, soteriology, first-century social history, christology, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox hermeneutics, ecumenical and interfaith relations, and the meaning of 'virginity'. This is Volume 10 of the Feminist Companions to the New Testament & Early Christian Literature series.

Manichaeism was a dualistic religious system with Christian, Gnostic and pagan elements, founded in Persia in the third century by Manes. This is the first full-length study of the Manichaean Jesus, since the publication of several major Manichaean texts such as the Homilies, Psalm Book and Kephalaia in the 1930s and 1940s. A knowledge of Manichaean Christology is important for any understanding of the development of Christologies in the early cen-turies CE, whether within mainstream Christianity or within associated het-erodox groups. This book undertakes a comprehensive study of six distinct figures of Jesus that can be found in both Eastern and Western Manichaean lit-erature. Previous partial studies of Manichaean Christology have tended to restrict their focus to texts from either Eastern or Western traditions alone. Majella Franzmann argues that a single Manichaean Jesus can be discerned behind the many different representations to be found.

Dorothy Lee argues passionately for restoring the study of The Transfiguration to the centre of the theological stage, and she succeeds triumphantly. Whereas a theology of transfiguration has long been an essential part of the Eastern theologoical tradition, it has often seemed strange to our Western rational minds. The book argues that the transfiguration functions as an epiphany revealing Jesus' true identity and also an apocalyptic vision, depicting God's transforming future. A chapter is devoted to each of the four New Testament narratives of the transfiguration, setting the story within the wider literary and theological framework of the text. Traces of the transfiguration are examined in other parts of the New Testament, particularly in The Gospel of John, where the symbolism is close to that of the transfiguration. Finally, the author draws out the symbolism and theological implications of the transfiguration for an understanding of Christ, God's radical future and the transformation of all creation, drawing on the icons of Eastern Christianity and Western theologies of beauty. This book is a small masterpiece and a model of clarity and lucid exposition.

In his latest book, Sean Freyne draws on his detailed knowledge of Galilean society in the Roman period, based on both literary and archaeological sources, to give a fresh and provocative reading of the Jesus story within its Galilean setting. Jesus, a Jewish Galilean focuses on the religious as well as the social and political environment and examines the ways in which the Jewish religious experience had expressed itself in Galilee. It considers the ways in which the Jewish tradition in both the Pentateuch and the Prophets had constructed notions of an ideal Galilee. These provided the raw material for Jesus' own response to the issues of the day, from which he fashioned his own distinctive views of Israel's restoration and his own role in that project. Although Freyne is in touch with all recent scholarship about the historical Jesus, he brings his own distinctive take on the issues both with regard to Galilean society and Jesus' grounding in his own religious tradition. His Jesus is both Jewish and yet distinctive in his concerns and the ways in which he responds to the ecological, social and religious issues of his own time and place. Freyne seeks to retrieve the theological importance of Jesus' own message, something that has been lost sight of in the trend to present him primarily as a social reformer, while acknowledging the dangers of modernizing Jesus.

Delivers a fresh statement on an ancient theme: how we can reproduce the life and mission of Jesus in others. This book states that while the teaching of Jesus convey a message of truth for the whole world, equally important are the relationships Jesus had with his followers. They model a method of ministry as vital as the message He taught.

The Lenten tree contains eighty-two Lenten devotions for children and adults that will enable individuals and families to travel on a meaningful journey through Lent, the season before Easter. Each devotion reveals who Jesus Christ is and what He has done. In addition to these devotions, this book contains illustrations, which may be used to create a special "Lenten tree." Each of the forty-one days has prayers, a memory verse, questions for children, and hymns or songs to coincide with the symbol for the day. Lenten activities are suggested for families to do together during Lent.

The book investigates the life and motives of the man who played a pivotal role in the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, and argues that the historical figure of Caiaphas has been distorted and demonized by Christian tradition, looking at his portrayal in later legend and modern literature.

Walk With Jesus During His Last Week on Earth

On March 29, AD 33, Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem and boldly predicted that he would soon be put to death--executed on a cross, like a common criminal. So began the most important week of the most important person who ever lived.

Nearly 2,000 years later, the events that took place during Jesus's last days still reverberate through the ages. Designed as a day-by-day guide to Passion Week, The Final Days of Jesus leads us to reexamine and meditate on the history-making, earth-shaking significance of Jesus's arrest, trial, crucifixion, and empty tomb.

Combining a chronological arrangement of the Gospel accounts with insightful commentary, charts, and maps, this book will help you better understand what actually happened all those years ago--and why it matters today.