Christianity Today 2018 Book Award Winner Respected New Testament scholar Cynthia Long Westfall offers a coherent Pauline theology of gender, which includes fresh perspectives on the most controverted texts. Westfall interprets passages on women and men together and places those passages in the context of the Pauline corpus as a whole. She offers viable alternatives for some notorious interpretive problems in certain Pauline passages, reframing gender issues in a way that stimulates thinking, promotes discussion, and moves the conversation forward. As Westfall explores the significance of Paul's teaching on both genders, she seeks to support and equip males and females to serve in their area of gifting.

This volume presents a dialogue between historians, exegetes, and theologians on the background and key themes of the atonement in Hebrews. Presenting a range of differing perspectives and contributing to the renewed conversation between biblical and theological scholarship, the argument is structured in two parts: contexts and themes within Hebrews. Focusing on atonement not only in the Old Testament but also in the Greco-Roman world, and touching on themes such as sacrifice, plight and solution, and faith, these contributions shed light on the concept of the atonement in a directly scriptural way. The whole is a definitive collection of studies on the atonement in Hebrews that will be of service well beyond the confines of Hebrews' specialists, a collection as important for what it says about the atonement and the 21st century church as for what it says about Hebrews.

This study attempts to analyse the text of Hebrews with a method of discourse analysis primarily based on a form of systemic functional linguistics developed for Hellenistic Greek, but it is also informed by other linguistic studies. It begins with a general survey of the literature that is either influential or representative of approaches to the structure of Hebrews. The survey is followed by an introduction to the terminology and definitions of discourse analysis, as well as the theory behind the methodology, and describes a procedure for analysing text. Hebrews is treated as having three sections. The first section of Hebrews (1:1-4:16) demonstrates the organization of the units, the topic of the units, the prominent text, and the relationship of the first section with the rest of the discourse. The second section of Hebrews (4:11-10:25) is described in two parts (4:11-7:28 and 8:1-10:25) because of its length. There is an overlap between the first and second sections in 4:11-16 and between the second and third sections in 10:19-25. Both of these passages have a concluding function for the preceding co-text and a staging function for the following co-text, so that they look backwards and forwards. The third and final section in 10:19-13:25 contains the climax or discourse peak. The study is concluded with a description of the coherence of the discourse and a presentation of a mental representation of the text. JSNTS and Studies in New Testament Greek subseries

Description: The church is one of the most intriguing and significant institutions on earth. Because its essence and character are so widely misunderstood, this is a timely book. The church is not a mere human institution, though it is made up of human beings in community. Its roles and responsibilities are momentous, but all the elements of its organization came about as the church developed and attempted to fulfill its divine mandate, not as forms given at its founding. These papers from a Bingham Colloquium at McMaster Divinity College treat the church "then" in studies of the church in the various parts of the New Testament canon, followed by a historical study of the church under attack in places where it did not survive. The latter part of the book contains essays by several church practitioners from "now" who discuss their insights about and experiences with postmodern society, home churches, megachurches, and the missional church. Such a combination of biblical theology, history, and practice makes this a valuable book for scholars and practitioners, in fact, for all thinking members of the church founded by Jesus Christ. Endorsements: "We are living in a time of crisis in worldwide Christianity, combining vituperative attacks and persecution in several hotspots with a diminution of vision and understanding on the part of the church itself. This book comes at a critical time and addresses these needs. It provides both an excellent study of the NT witness as to what a church should be and penetrating insight into what churches actually are and what they are facing in our time . . . a must-read for church leaders and laypeople alike." --Grant Osborne Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Author of Matthew (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary Series, 2010) About the Contributor(s): Stanley E. Porter is President and Dean and Professor of New Testament at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario. His publications include eighteen books and over 250 journal articles, chapters, and related publications; he has also edited over seventy volumes. Cynthia Long Westfall is Assistant Professor of New Testament at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario. She is the author of A Discourse Analysis of the Structure of Hebrews: The Relationship between Form and Meaning (2006).

Synopsis: How did a first-generation Jewish messianic movement develop the momentum to become a dominant religious force in the Western world? The essays here first investigate the roots of God's mission and the mission of his people in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism, specifically in the Psalms, Isaiah, and Daniel. The contributions then discuss the mission of Jesus, and how it continued into the mission of the Twelve, other Jewish believers (in the Gospels, General Epistles, and Revelation), and finally into Paul's ministry to the Gentiles documented in the book of Acts and his epistles. These essays reach backward into the background of what was to become the Christian mission and forward through the New Testament to the continuing Christian mission and missions today. Endorsements: "For too long now biblical scholarship and missiology have been progressing in splendid isolation with little reference to each other. This sparkling collection of essays not only demonstrates the interdependence of these disciplines but also takes seriously the Hebrew Scriptures and Second Temple Judaism as fertile soil in which the seeds for Christian mission were sown, came to flower in the New Testament, and continue to bear fruit in the ongoing global mission of the church at the beginning of the twenty-first century." --Trevor J. Burke author of Adopted into God's Family: Exploring a Pauline Metaphor "Biblical scholars and missiologists have much to learn from each other. This work, with contributions from notable scholars, offers some fresh biblical insights for thinking about Christian mission." --Craig Keener author of Romans: A New Covenant Commentary (Cascade 2009) "We have needed a work that presents the development of Mission from Israel to the early church. These essays, written by leading scholars in both fields, admirably accomplish that goal. Here is a work that covers the field, presents missional roots as well as strategy, is very readable, and would serve as a fine textbook both for courses and personal study. I highly recommend this book." --Grant Osborne author of The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation Author Biography: Stanley E. Porter is President, Dean, and Professor of New Testament, at McMaster Divinity College. He has published extensively in the area of New Testament and Greek language and linguistics, including New Testament Greek Papyri and Parchments (with Wendy Porter, 2008). Cynthia Long Westfall is Assistant Professor of New Testament at McMaster Divinity College. She is the author of A Discourse Analysis of Hebrews (2006).

This volume presents a dialogue between historians, exegetes, and theologians on the background and key themes of the atonement in Hebrews. Presenting a range of differing perspectives and contributing to the renewed conversation between biblical and theological scholarship, the argument is structured in two parts: contexts and themes within Hebrews. Focusing on atonement not only in the Old Testament but also in the Greco-Roman world, and touching on themes such as sacrifice, plight and solution, and faith, these contributions shed light on the concept of the atonement in a directly scriptural way. The whole is a definitive collection of studies on the atonement in Hebrews that will be of service well beyond the confines of Hebrews' specialists, a collection as important for what it says about the atonement and the 21st century church as for what it says about Hebrews.

How does a Christian render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is God's? This book is the result of the Bingham Colloquium of 2007 that brought scholars from across North America to examine the New Testament's response to the empires of God and Caesar. Two chapters lay the foundation for that response in the Old Testament's concept of empire, and six others address the response to the notion of empire, both human and divine, in the various authors of the New Testament. A final chapter investigates how the church fathers regarded the matter. The essays display various methods and positions; together, however, they offer a representative sample of the current state of study of the notion of empire in the New Testament.