Jesus of Nazareth is arguably the most famous and influential human being who has ever lived on earth. In the Historical Dictionary of Jesus, author Daniel J. Harrington delves into the ancient literary sources about Jesus, modern methods of approaching these sources, the major events in Jesus' life, persons and places associated with him, the form and content of his teachings, what can be said about his death and the claim that he was raised from the dead, and the contributions of major modern scholars to the quest of the historical Jesus. The book consists of three parts: an introduction to the major topics pertaining to Jesus as a historical figure; a cross-referenced dictionary containing 400 entries on a range of topics, including things Jesus did and said, ancient sources of historical data, and modern scholarship and interpretation; and a bibliography listing some of the most important books related to Jesus and the world in which he lived. This concise and objective reference work provides a clear and accurate introduction to the study of Jesus as a historical figure.

The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes are often considered significant texts for the Christian moral life. However, most interpretations of these passages either focus on the original meaning of the text or how the texts should impact ordinary living today. In The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes Yiu Sing Lucas Chan brings together biblical studies and Christian ethics to look at these foundational texts in a new way. For each passage Chan asks both what the texts meant and what they mean today. He helps readers to carefully study the text's original meaning, then interpret the text within a sound ethical framework. The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes is an excellent introduction to key concepts in biblical studies and Christian ethics that combines sound study with warmth and wisdom.

Matthew wrote his Gospel from his perspective as a Jew. It is with sensitivity to this perspective that Father Harrington undertakes this commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. After an introduction, he provides a literal translation of each section in Matthew's Gospel and explains the textual problems, philological difficulties, and other matters in the notes. He then presents a literary analysis of each text (content, form, use of sources, structure), examines the text against its Jewish background, situates it in the context of Matthew's debate with other first-century Jews, and reflects on its significance for Christian theology and Christian-Jewish relations. Bibliographies direct the reader to other important modern studies.

The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes are often considered significant texts for the Christian moral life. However, most interpretations of these passages either focus on the original meaning of the text or how the texts should impact ordinary living today. In The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes Yiu Sing Lucas Chan brings together biblical studies and Christian ethics to look at these foundational texts in a new way. For each passage Chan asks both what the texts meant and what they mean today. He helps readers to carefully study the text s original meaning, then interpret the text within a sound ethical framework. The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes is an excellent introduction to key concepts in biblical studies and Christian ethics that combines sound study with warmth and wisdom.

Do Catholics really read the Bible? If so, how do they read it and is there anything unique about their approach? What role does the Bible play in Catholic life, teaching, and culture? As a leading Scripture scholar who also teaches students and preaches to everyday people, Fr. Daniel Harrington, S.J., has made it his life's mission to answer these and many related questions about the Bible and its relationship to Catholic life. Accessibly written, How Do Catholics Read the Bible? blends biblical scholarship with compelling personal anecdotes to equip readers with the tools they need to more fully engage Scripture and the Catholic tradition. With chapters on how the Catholic canon came to be, what the Church teaches about the Bible, appropriate methods for analyzing Scripture passages, and how to incorporate the Bible into everyday life, this book is ideal for individual or group use in parishes and classrooms. Each chapter concludes with questions for reflection and recommendations for further reading.

Can the Bible be approached both as sacred scripture and as a historical and literary text? For many people, it must be one or the other. How can we read the Bible both ways? The Bible and the Believer brings together three distinguished biblical scholars-one Jewish, one Catholic, and one Protestant-to illustrate how to read the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament critically and religiously. Marc Zvi Brettler, Peter Enns, and Daniel J. Harrington tackle a dilemma that not only haunts biblical scholarship today, but also disturbs students and others exposed to biblical criticism for the first time, either in university courses or through their own reading. Failure to resolve these conflicting interpretive strategies often results in rejection of either the critical approach or the religious approach-or both. But the authors demonstrate how biblical criticism-the process of establishing the original contextual meaning of biblical texts with the tools of literary and historical analysis-need not undermine religious interpretations of the Bible, but can in fact enhance them. They show how awareness of new archeological evidence, cultural context, literary form, and other tools of historical criticism can provide the necessary preparation for a sound religious reading. And they argue that the challenges such study raises for religious belief should be brought into conversation with religious tradition rather than deemed grounds for dismissing either that tradition or biblical criticism. Guiding readers through the history of biblical exegesis within the Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant faith traditions, The Bible and the Believer bridges an age-old gap between critical and religious approaches to the Old Testament.

When is a letter not a letter? When it is the Letter to the Hebrews. Daniel J. Harrington describes this text as the greatest Christian sermon ever preached or written" and its author as "the patron saint of preachers." The basic theological point of the sermon is that Christ is both the perfect sacrifice for sins and the priest who offers himself as a sacrifice. The anonymous author of this work addresses Jewish Christians who had embraced Christianity with enthusiasm but were becoming discouraged and falling away in the face of suffering. The biblical text and Harrington's uncomplicated commentary are ideal components for individual and group study. Reading and reflection will produce a renewed appreciation of the saving work of Jesus. Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, PhD, is professor of New Testament at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and editor of the Sacra Pagina series, published by Liturgical Press. "

These accounts of the Maccabean revolt, by which the sons of Mattathias reclaimed the temple of Jerusalem, tell an important story of the founding of the Jewish people. The Hammerers" is the meaning of the nickname "Maccabees," given to Mattathias's sons, who lived in a time of revolution. Empires struggled for control of Greece, Egypt, and Asia, and the small population of Jews tried to preserve their claim to Judea. The five brothers also made heroic contributions to the practice of Judaism. Their rededication of the temple establishes the annual celebration of Hanukkah, and the martyr stories in Second Maccabees emphasize faithfulness to the law of Moses.

The books of First and Second Maccabees are also important for Christians, as in them is told how the Jewish people established the political and religious culture into which Jesus was born. The martyr stories inform the early Christian martyrdoms, and the books are written in Greek, the language in which the Jews of Jesus' time read the Scriptures. As Father Harrington notes, without the Maccabees "the fate of Judaism (and with it Christianity and Islam) was uncertain."

"Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, is professor of New Testament at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. He has a doctorate in biblical languages and literatures from Harvard University. A past president of the Catholic Biblical Association, he has written many books on the Old and New Testament, including the New Collegeville Bible Commentary on "The Letter to the Hebrews "(Liturgical Press, 2006).""

In this follow-up to his popular book What Are We Hoping For? New Testament Images, Daniel J. Harrington extends his reflections on hope in the Scriptures. He draws us into the striking images of the psalms--the mountain, the sun, refuge, the kingdom, sheltering wings, the olive tree, and the shepherd--to lead us to the discovery that hope is the predominant image of the book of Psalms. Even in their darkest laments, the psalmists remind us that God hears us and will never abandon us. In these brief essays, Harrington opens up the language of forty psalms, explores their literary and historical context, and then ties the psalm to our reading as Christians whose ultimate hope is in Jesus Christ. As we read and reflect on the psalms with Harrington's guidance, we call to mind the ways we experience God and our hopes, both daily and for all time. Drawn into the world of the psalmist and discovering how our experiences often mirror theirs, we too will express our hope in God's love and mercy and in the coming of God's kingdom.

Jesuit father Daniel J. Harrington has taken fifteen Sunday readings from each of the three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) and looked at them through the lens of how they could be misconstrued as anti-Semitic and/or anti-Judaic texts. Each section concludes with three study questions keyed to the Lectionary readings and Fr. Harrington's interpretation of them. Here is a book for the pastor, the parishioner, seminarians and ALL Christians of good will who wish to better understand the Scriptures in their context so that anti-Semitism does not seep in. It is an excellent teaching and preaching/homiletic resource replete with a glossary and bibliography.

Crisis in the church is not a new phenomenon. In fact, the church has always been 'and probably always will be 'involved in some kind of crisis. Even in the apostolic period, which is regarded by many as the church's golden age, there were serious crises coming both from the outside, as in 1 Peter, and from the inside, as in Jude and 2 Peter. The three short New Testament letters treated in "1 Peter, Jude and 2 Peter" illustrate the problems early Christians faced as well as the rhetorical techniques and theological concepts with which they combated those problems.

In the first part of this volume, Donald Senior views 1 Peter as written from Rome in Peter's name to several churches in northern Asia Minor 'present-day Turkey 'in the latter part of the first century CE. The new Christians addressed in 1 Peter found themselves aliens and exiles in the wider Greco-Roman society and suffered a kind of social ostracism. But they are given a marvelous theological Vision of who they have become through their baptism and pastoral encouragement to stand firm. They are shown how to take a missionary stance toward the outside world by giving the witness of a holy and blameless life to offset the slander and ignorance of the non-Christian majority and possibly even to lead them to glorify God on the day of judgment.

In the second part of this volume, Daniel Harrington interprets Jude and 2 Peter as confronting crises in the late first century that were perpetrated by Christian teachers who are described polemically as intruders in Jude and as false teachers in 2 Peter. In confronting the crises within their churches, the authors appeal frequently to the Old Testament and to early summaries of Christian faith. While Jude uses other Jewish traditions, 2 Peter includes most of the text of Jude as well as many distinctively Greek terms and concepts. It is clear that for the authors, despite their different social settings, what was at stake was the struggle for the faith.

"Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, is a professor of New Testament at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has written numerous works, including "What Are We Hoping For? New Testament Images, Why Do We Hope? Images in the Psalms, and Jesus Ben Sira of Jerusalem: A Biblical Guide to Living Wisely, " al published by Liturgical Press. Harrington is editor of the "Sacra Pagina" series, for which he also authored "The Gospel of Matthew" and coauthored "The Gospel of Mark."

"Donald Senior, CP, is president of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where he is also a member of the faculty as professor of New Testament. He is the general editor of the acclaimed "Catholic Study Bible" (Oxford University Press, rev. ed., 2006), coeditor of "The New Interpreters Study Bible "(Abingdon Press, 2003), and editor-in-chief of"The Bible Today." His publications include the four-volume "The Passion series" (Liturgical Press), "Jesus: A Gospel Portrait" (Paulist Press, rev. ed., 1994), "What Are They Saying About Matthew?" (Paulist Press, rev. ed., 1996), and a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew ("Matthew." Abingdon Press, 1998). He is past president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America. In 2001 Pope John Paul II appointed him as a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and he was reappointed in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI."

Presented by an international team of Catholic biblical scholars, Sacra Pagina is a fresh series of translations and expositions of the books of the New Testament. The volumes provide basic information as well as sound, critical analysis in a highly readable manner -- yet remain sensitive to religious meaning. Each author has adopted a specific methodology while focusing on the issues raised by the New Testament compositions themselves. The expression "Sacra Pagina" ("Sacred Page") refers to the text of Scripture. In the Middle Ages it also described the study of Scripture to which the interpreter brought the tools of grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, and philosophy. Thus, Sacra Pagina encompasses both the text and the act of interpretation.

The "very soul of sacred theology" (Dei Verbum 24). That's how the Second Vatican Council described the study of the "sacred page". These volumes open up the riches of the New Testament and invite all Christians to study seriously the "sacred page".

Matthew wrote his Gospel from his perspective as a Jew. It is with sensitivity to this perspective that Father Harrington undertakes this commentary on the Gospel of Matthew.

Questions of vocation and character formation become important to students as they continue to receive higher education. Jesus Ben Sira combines secular wisdom from Near Eastern wisdom sources and divine revelations from the Hebrew Bible to create the Book of Sirach. By applying form criticism to Ben Sira's book, Daniel J. Harrington provides students with historical information of the psychological and sociological context underlying Ben Sira's teachings, as well as an understanding of how Ben Sira's ancient wisdom can contribute to personal and social formation in the 21st century. Chapters include Ben Sira and His Book, Ben Sira and Other Wisdom Books, Reading Ben Sira's Book, Ben Sira's Ways of Teaching, Ben Sira's Social World, Ben Sira's Abiding Wisdom, as well as references, suggestions for further study, and an index. Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., Ph.D., is a professor of New Testament at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has written numerous scholarly works, including Paul on the Mystery of Israel, The Gospel of Matthew, and The Gospel According to Matthew published by the Liturgical Press. This book is part of the series Interfaces.

In The Gospel of Mark Fathers Donahue and Harrington use an approach that can be expressed by two terms currently used in literary criticism: intratextuality and intertextuality. This intratextual and intertextual reading of Mark's Gospel helps us to appreciate the literary character, its setting in life, and its distinctive approaches to the Old Testament, Jesus, and early Christian theology. "Intratextuality" means we read Mark as Mark and by Mark. Such a reading expresses interest in the final form of the Gospel (not its source or literary history) and in its words and images, literary devices, literary forms, structures, characterization, and plot. Reading Mark by Mark gives particular attention to the distinctive vocabulary and themes that run throughout the Gospel and serve to hold it together as a unified literary production. "Intertextuality" comprises the relation between texts and a textual tradition, and also referring to contextual materials not usually classified as texts (e.g., archaeological data). "Intertextuality" is used to note the links of the text of Mark's Gospel to other texts (especially the Old Testament) and to the life of the Markan community and of the Christian community today. Chapters are "The Prologue: The Beginning of the Good News (1:1-13)," "Transitional Markan Summary: Proclamation of the Kingdom (1:14-15)," "The Call of the First Disciples (1:16-20)," "A Paradigmatic Day Begins the Ministry of Jesus (1:21-34)," "Highpoints of Jesus' Work in Galilee (1:35-45)," "The Healing of the Paralyzed Man (2:1-12)," "The Call of Levi and Meals with Tax Collectors and Sinners (2:13-17)," "Fasting, Torn Garments, and New Wineskins (2:18-22)," "Plucking Grain of the Sabbath (2:23-28)," "Healing on a Sabbath (3:1-6)," "Transitional Markan Summary: Healing Beside the Sea (3:7-12)," "Choosing the Twelve (3:13-19)," "The Beelzebul Controversy and the True Family of Jesus (3:20-35)," "The Parable of the Sower, Sayings on the Mystery of the Kingdom of God, and the allegory of the Seeds (4:1-20)," "Four Sayings on Revelation and Two Kingdom Parables (4:21-34)," "Jesus 'Power Over the Wind and Waves (4:35-41)," "The Exorcism of the Gerasene Demoniac (5:1-20)," "The Daughter of Jairus and the Woman with the Hemorrhage (5:21-43),""The Rejection at Nazareth (6:1-6a)," "The Mission Charge to the Twelve (6:6b-13)," "The Identity of Jesus and the Execution of John the Baptist (6:14-29)," "The Feeding of the 5000 by the Sea of Galilee (6:30-44)," "Jesus Walks on the Water and Astounds the Disciples (6:45-52)," "A Markan Summary of the Healing Power of Jesus (6:53-56)," "The Dispute over Clean and Unclean (7:1-23)," "The Syrophoenician Woman (7:24-30)," "Jesus Restores Hearing and Speech to a Suffering Man (7:31-37)," "The Second Feeding Narrative: The 4000 (8:1-10)," "Pharisees and Scribes Seek a Sign (8:11-13)," "A Further Misunderstanding by the Disciples and the Conclusion of the Bread Section (8:14-21)," "The Gradual Healing of a Blind Man (8:22-26)," "Peter's Confession, the First Passion Prediction, Peter's Misunderstanding, and the Demands of Discipleship (8:27-38)," "The Transfiguration (9:1-13)," "Healing a Possessed Boy (9:14-29)," "A Second Passion Prediction and More Instructions for Disciples (9:30-50)," "Marriage and Divorce (10:1-12)," "Jesus Blesses Children (10:13-16)," "Riches and Poverty (10:17-31)," "A Third Passion Prediction and More Instructions for Disciples (10:32-45)," "The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus (10:46-52)," "Jesus 'Entry into Jerusalem (11:1-11)," "The Fig Tree and the Temple (11:12-25)," "The Authority of Jesus (11:27-33)," "The Parable of the Vineyard (12:1-12)," "Taxes to Caesar (12:13-17)," "The Debate about Resurrection (12:18-27)," "The Great Commandment(s) (12:28-34)," "The Messiah and the Son of David (12:35-37)," "The Scribes and the Widow (12:38-44)," "Jesus 'Eschatological Discourse (13:1-37)," "Contrasting Beginnings of Jesus 'Last Days (14:1-11)," "Jesus 'Final Meal with His Disciples (14:12-25),""Prediction of Peter's Denial (14:26-31)," "Jesus in Gethsemane (14:32-42)," "The Arrest of Jesus (14:43-52)," "Jesus Before the Sanhedrin and the Denial by Peter (14:53-72)," "Jesus Before Pilate (15:1-20)," "The Crucifixion of Jesus (15:21-32)," "The Death of Jesus (15:33-41)," "The Burial of Jesus (15:42-47)," "The Empty Tomb (16:1-8)," "Later Endings (16:9-20)."

In this volume a leading biblical scholar helps readers rediscover the ancient books of the Old Testament Apocrypha. Invitation to the Apocrypha provides a clear, basic introduction to these important-but often neglected-ancient books. Using the latest and best scholarship yet writing for those new to the Apocrypha, Daniel Harrington guides readers through the background, content, and message of each book. A distinctive feature of this primer is that it focuses throughout on the problem of suffering, highlighting what each book of the Apocrypha says about this universal human experience.

Interpreting the Old Testament addresses literary, historical, form, source and redaction, and textual criticism, each in separate chapters. Other chapters concern words and motifs, archaeology and parallels, the Old Testament in Christian worship, and a post-script on canonical criticism and the social sciences as new methods of approach to the study of Scripture.

This introduction to New Testament exegesis helps readers by explaining in a simple and brief way the basic literary methods used in studying the New Testament today: textual criticism, translations, words and motifs, source criticism, form criticism, historical criticism, redaction criticism, and parallels. It is a beginner's book, designed to make explicit some of the procedures now used by the commentators who have had formal exegetical training.

In Paul and Virtue Ethics, Daniel Harrington and James Keenan build upon their successful collaboration Jesus and Virtue Ethics to discuss the apostle Paul's teachings as a guide to interpret theology and ethics today. Examining Paul's writings, the authors investigate what they teach about the basic questions of virtue ethics: Who am I?; Who do I want to become?; And how do I get there? Their intent is not to provide stringent rules, but to awaken discovery and encourage dialogue. The book first considers the concept of virtue ethics_an approach to ethics that emphasizes moral character_and Paul's ethics in particular. Next, the authors focus on the virtues of faith, love/charity, and hope as treated by Paul and Thomas Aquinas. Closing the book with reflections on the roles of other virtues (and vices) in individual and communal Christian life, the authors discuss various issues in social ethics and sexual morality as they are dealt with in Paul and in Christian virtue ethics today.