Too small to be important, too different to be trusted. The New Testament's Catholic letters have suffered neglect when compared to the attention lavished upon Jesus, the Gospels, and Paul. Jude and 2 Peter, especially, have been ignored. JArg Frey remedies this dearth with this full-scale commentary on Jude and 2 Peter. Frey's meticulous, sustained verse-by-verse interpretation highlights the theological achievements of the two canonical writings without sidestepping any of the open historical and literary questions plaguing these two pseudepigraphal letters. The Letter of Jude and the Second Letter of Peter investigates the historical location of the two writings, the literary context, the shape of their arguments, and the profile of the respective opponents that are the central concern of each epistle. The analysis also explores Jude and 2 Peter's use of biblical, Second Temple Jewish, and apocalyptic traditions, the long-recognized interrelation between the two letters, and the difficult text-critical issues that haunt both. Frey's careful interpretation points to the theological work each letter performs. Jude takes part in a critical debate within the Pauline and post-Pauline communities, while 2 Peter becomes a testimony to the theological discussions of the second century. Far from insignificant or irrelevant, the epistles provide invaluable insight into the growth and consolidation of early Christian tradition. With this groundbreaking commentary, Frey rightly draws our attention back to these texts' important role within the canon and early Christianity.

The Fourth Gospel is deeply shaped by its remarkably high Christology. It depicts the earthly Jesus, the incarnate one, as fully divine. This unrelenting Christology has led interpreters, both ancient and modern, to questionthe historical value of John's Gospel. For many, the Gospel is just theology. It is to the vexed relationship between history and theology that JArg Frey turns in Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel . John's theological obsession with Christology might suggestthat history counts for little in the Gospel. But, as Frey argues, the Gospel's clear andcentralclaim is that John narrates the story of Jesus of Nazareth, his ministry, and his death, as "factual," and that this narrated "history" is foundational for the Christian message.Frey tracesthe Gospel's use of the available historical tradition by chiefly drawing from Mark and the Johanninecommunity. Even if the Gospel ofJohn used this receivedwitness in a remarkably free manner,replotting and renarrating traditional episodes and even creatively staging new episodes, Frey contends thatthe historical life and person ofJesus remain central to John's enterprise. In the end, Frey warns that Johannine interpretation will miss the intention of the Gospel and the interpretive perspective of the evangelist if it remains preoccupiedmerely withquestions ofhistorical accuracy. The interpretivegoalis to "let John be John," and, as Frey shows, readers will always yield to the priority of theology over history in the Fourth Gospel. In John's telling of the Christ story, the significance of history lies precisely in its disclosure of theological meaning, just as the significance of the historical Jesus is only understood in the theological language of Christology.

Early Christian claims to the Holy Spirit arose in a vibrant cultural matrix that included Stoicism, Jewish mysticism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Greco-Roman medicine, and the perspectives of Plutarch. In a range of articles, this multidisciplinary volume discovers in these texts rich cultural connections related to inspiration and the Holy Spirit. Essential reading for scholars of Judaism and the New Testament, as well as classicists and theologians.

Early Christian claims to the Holy Spirit arose in a vibrant cultural matrix that included Stoicism, Jewish mysticism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Greco-Roman medicine, and the perspectives of Plutarch. In a range of articles, this multidisciplinary volume discovers in these texts rich cultural connections related to inspiration and the Holy Spirit. Essential reading for scholars of Judaism and the New Testament, as well as classicists and theologians.

The quality of contributions in this volume reflects the eminence of Sandy Wedderburn, who taught at St Andrews before moving to Durham and finally to Munich to succeed Ferdinard Hahn. The topics addressed reflect Wedderburn's interests and include a comparison of the Lord's Supper with cultic meals in Qumran and in Hellenistic cults, glossolalia in Acts, the Lukan prologue, 'new creation' in Paul, and Adam and Christ in Romans. The contributors include David Aune, Richard Bauckham, Richard Bell, James Dunn, Ferdinand Hahn, Christina Hoegen-Rohls, Robert Jewett, Hans Klein, H.-W. Kuhn, David Moessner, Stanley Porter, Heikki Raisanen, Margaret Thrall, Oda Wischmeyer and Chrisitian Wolff. This is volume 217 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series.

Among the archaeological discoveries of the modern era, the Qumran site and the Dead Sea Scrolls are some of the most significant. These finds offer rich understanding of not only Judaism but also the Christian New Testament. Joerg Frey, through careful study and insight, illuminates these texts for the modern reader. Qumran and Christian Origins examines the hermeneutical framework of Qumran scholarship, patterns for relating the Scrolls to early Christianity, and the methodological challenges faced by comparisons between Qumran texts and New Testament writings. In a critical evaluation of earlier views, Frey provides a summary of the Scrolls' impact on our views of the historical Jesus, Paul and his language, and the Johannine literature. Frey then considers how the Scrolls inform our understanding of the origins and meaning of apocalypticism, ancient concepts of scriptural authority, and the growth of the biblical canon. The final chapters discuss the relationship between the Qumran texts and ancient testimonies about the Essenes and the connection between the Scrolls and the archaeological site of Qumran. Drawing on several decades of Frey's research, this book demonstrates why students of the New Testament must study early Jewish texts, and in particular the Qumran corpus, and how these texts can be aptly applied. In the end, the hope is that we will have learned to see the New Testament more in terms of contemporary Judaism. Such insights are of profound theological importance, enabling us to pay attention to a feature of Christianity that was fundamental in its beginnings and is still significant today.

Noting that a traditional understanding of Paul as "convert" from Judaism has fueled false and often dangerous stereotypes of Judaism, and that the so-called "new perspective on Paul" has not completely escaped these stereotypes, Frantisek Abel has gathered leading international scholars to test the hypotheses of the more recent "Paul within Judaism" movement. Though hardly monolithic in their approach, these scholars' explorations of specific topics concerning Second Temple Judaism and Paul's message and theology allow a more contextually nuanced understanding of the apostle's thought, one free from particular biases rooted in unacknowledged ideologies and traditional interpretations transmitted by particular church traditions. Contributors include Frantisek Abel, Michael Bachmann, Daniel Boyarin, William S. Campbell, Kathy Ehrensperger, Paula Fredriksen, Joerg Frey, Joshua Garroway, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, Isaac W. Oliver, Shayna Sheinfeld, and J. Brian Tucker.

The history and writings of the Samaritans remain an often overlooked subject in the field of biblical studies. This volume, which assembles papers presented at a 2010 symposium held in Zurich, illuminates the history of the Samaritans as well as passages that address them in biblical sources. Through a subsequent comparison to perspectives found in Samaritan sources concerning biblical, early Jewish, and early Christian history, we are presented with counterpoising perceptions that open up new opportunities for discourse.

This collection offers an extensive framework of comparative and individual studies assessing the place of Luke-Acts in the historiography of ancient Judaism and the Greco-Roman world, whilst also examining further developments in early Christian historiography up to Eusebius and Theodoret. Additional contributions concentrate on systematic questions concerning the literary genre and conception of Luke-Acts.

St. Thomasa (TM)s Gospel is one of the most hotly debated documents from Early Christianity. No other piece of extra-canonical scripture has given rise to such controversy about whether it presents Jesusa (TM) message in a more original and less theologically sophisticated form than the New Testament Gospels. The papers collected in the present volume give an insight into the present state of research and demonstrate new perspectives on the question of the status of the various texts and traditions of St. Thomasa (TM)s Gospel in the history of religion.

Metaphors are of particular significance for Christ's discourse in the New Testament and in the history of theology. The present studies examine the forms and functions of meta-phorical Christology in the New Testament, Christ metaphors in late classical antiquity, in Tauler's mysticism, in Luther's writings, or in the 19th century. Systematic papers discuss Christ's words as the "word of God," the relationship of meta-phor and experience, together with fundamental questions of the metaphoric nature of Christological discourse. Topics investigated also include Christ metaphors in lyric poetry and the significance of metaphor for the treatment of Christ's words in religious education.

Diplomarbeit aus dem Jahr 2000 im Fachbereich BWL - Wirtschaftspolitik, Note: 1,3, Technische Universitat Dortmund (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften), Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Inhaltsangabe: Einleitung: Der Entwicklungstrend in der Industrie ist: Immer grosser, immer schneller, immer innovativer. Genau dieser Trend geht auch nicht spurlos an den steuer- und wirtschaftsberatenden Berufen vorbei. Immer grosser werdender Beratungsbedarf der am Wirtschaftsablauf beteiligten Akteure stellt eine immer grossere Herausforderung fur den Berufsstand der Steuerberater und Wirtschaftsprufer dar. Spezifisch soll in dieser Diplomarbeit auf die Beratungsleistung fur klein- und mittelstandische Unternehmen, im nachfolgenden KMU genannt, eingegangen werden. Denn durch den aufkommenden Internationalisierungsdruck in zumeist regionaler Abhangigkeit mussen hier Wettbewerbsfaktoren und Standortfaktoren herausgearbeitet werden. Doch wer soll diese Aufgabe ubernehmen, wer kann Synergien erkennen, wer kann Daten so auswerten, dass Vorteile am Standort Deutschland sichtbar werden? Gang der Untersuchung: Es soll in drei Schritten eine Beispiellosung fur den Standort Deutschland hergeleitet werden. Dabei wird es notig sein, in einem ersten Schritt auf den Globalisierungsaspekt einzugehen: Wie ist die Globalisierung historisch gewachsen, welche Formen von Kooperationen gibt es bisher, in welchen Intervallen, beginnend mit der industriellen Revolution. Hier wird gezeigt werden mussen, wie Erkenntnisse aus der Industrie auf den Dienstleistungsbereich transformiert werden konnen bzw. gegenwartig transformiert werden mussen. Da die deutsche Steuer- und Wirtschaftsberatung gesetzlichen Vorgaben unterliegt, wird in einem zweiten Schritt auf einen Vergleich der deutschen vs. osterreichischen Steuerberatung, eingegangen werden mussen. Hierbei werden zum einen arbeitsmarktpolitische Moglichkeiten fur den Standort Deutschland aufgezeigt werden konnen, andererseits wird sich aber auch zeig