This volume brings together an international group of scholars on Mark and Paul, respectively, who reopen the question whether Paul was a direct influence on Mark. On the basis of the latest methods in New Testament scholarship, the battle over Yes and No to this question of literary and theological influence is waged within these pages. In the end, no agreement is reached, but the basic issues stand out with much greater clarity than before. How may one relate two rather different literary genres, the apostolic letter and the narrative gospel? How may the theologies of two such different types of writing be compared? Are there sufficient indications that Paul lies directly behind Mark for us to conclude that through Paul himself and Mark the New Testament as a whole reflects specifically Pauline ideas? What would the literary and theological consequences of either assuming or denying a direct influence be for our reconstruction of 1st century Christianity? And what would the consequences be for either understanding Mark or Paul as literary authors and theologians? How far should we give Paul an exalted a position in the literary creativity of the first Christians? Addressing these questions are scholars who have already written seminally on the issue or have marked positions on it, like Joel Marcus, Margaret Mitchell, Gerd Theissen and Oda Wischmeyer, together with a group of up-coming and senior Danish scholars from Aarhus and Copenhagen Universities who have collaborated on the issue for some years. The present volume leads the discussion further that has been taken up in: "Paul and Mark" (ed. by O. Wischmeyer, D. Sim, and I. Elmer), BZNW 191, 2013.

Having presented a brief history of research on 2 Corinthians, Eve-Marie Becker outlines the process of Paul's communication with the Corinthian community and considers letter-production and letter-reception at the time. She develops a "literary-historical" model for reconstructing the original separate letters (1.1-7.4; 7.5-16; 8--9; 10--13) which were later compiled to form the canonical letter. She defines - by means of linguistics and communication theory - the central theoretical elements for Pauline letter-hermeneutics. There is a thorough exegesis of those parts of 2 Corinthians in which Paul formulates aspects of his hermeneutics, based on the theory of letter-hermeneutics and on the results of the "literary-historical" reconstruction of the original form of 2 Corinthians. There is also an examination of the reception and interpretation of 2 Corinthians in the early church. This is volume 279 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series.

Das Handbuch bietet eine umfassende Einfuhrung in die historischen, literatur- und religionsgeschichtlichen Zusammenhange, in denen eminente religioese und literarische Texte in der Antike kanonisiert wurden. Es diskutiert zugleich die entscheidenden Faktoren, Grunde und wirkungsgeschichtlichen Folgen dieser Kanonisierungsprozesse: Es werden u.a. Homer und Vergil, die Septuaginta und Qumran, einzelne fruhchristliche Texte und das Neue Testament in Hinblick auf ihre Kanonizitat miteinander in Beziehung gesetzt. Indem die genannten Textsammlungen aus den Bereichen der griechischen, lateinischen, judischen und fruhchristlichen Textkultur gewahlt werden, wird ein vergleichender und multiperspektivischer Einblick in die Konstruktion, Autorisierung und Interpretation von Texten und Autoren, die Teil kanonisch gewordener Textcorpora geworden sind, moeglich. So bietet das Handbuch eine differenzierte Zusammenschau zur Erfassung und Beschreibung der vielfaltigen Aspekte antiker religioeser und literarischer Kanonisierungsprozesse. Es nimmt dabei besonders die soziale Konstruktion und Funktion von kanonischen Textsammlungen in den Blick und fragt nach moeglichen kanonspezifischen Formen von literarischer und religioeser Kommunikation. Zugleich werden auf der Grundlage der modernen Text-, Kultur-, Literatur- und Medienforschung wichtige hermeneutische Fragen zur Rezeptionsgeschichte, Deutung und moeglichen Fortschreibung dieser Textsammlungen bis in die gegenwartige Kanondebatte hinein diskutiert.

Die Beitrage zielen darauf, die historischen und politischen, kulturellen, literatur- und religionsgeschichtlichen sowie theologischen Aspekte, die mit den Anfangen von Historiographie in der Antike verbunden sind, zu benennen und in einem Kultur- und Literaturvergleich gegenuberzustellen. Die Diskussionen zum Begriff des Anfangs werden zudem wissenschaftsgeschichtlich reflektiert und verortet. Einzelne Beitrage befassen sich mit historiographischen Sonderformen (Apokalyptik, Biographie, Listen).

Already Scripture asks many questions regarding anthropological problems. In the 20th century, the scholarly field of anthropology has become a lot more complex heuristically, methodically and hermeneutically. Therefore, modern research needs to answer arisen questions considering a wide range of disciplines: Sociology, Philosophy, Ethics and also Empirical Research. This volume is an interdisciplinary project within theology. Contributions seek to not only reflect the state of the art in anthropological research from a theological point of view, but also provide a theological interpretation of one virulent question: What is a Human?

John's Transformation of Mark brings together a cast of internationally recognised biblical scholars to investigate the relationship between the gospels of Mark and John. In a significant break with the prevailing view that the two gospels represent independent traditions, the contributors all argue that John both knew and used the earlier gospel. Drawing on recent analytical categories such as social memory, 'secondary orality,' or 'relecture,' and ancient literary genres such as 'rewritten Bible' and bioi, the central questions that drive this volume focus on how John used Mark, whether we should speak of 'dependence,' 'familiarity with,' or 'reception,' and whether John intended his work to be a supplement or a replacement of Mark. Together these chapters mount a strong case for a reassessment of one of the key tenets of modern biblical criticism, and open up significant new avenues for further research.

The study of Mark and Matthew from a comparative perspective has a long history. Ever since the theory of Markan priority became firmly established in the 19th century however, many studies, especially commentaries on either Mark or Matthew, make observations related primarily to one of the Gospels only. Thus the most frequent result of studying Mark and Matthew is that one Gospel is overshadowed by the other. This collection of papers employs a sustained multiperspectival comparative approach which contributes simultaneously to the synoptic problem discourse and sheds light on the individual Gospels in their first century setting(s), a procedure that reveals new questions and discoveries. This highlights new aspects of the Gospels which are critical for our understanding of the rise and development of Gospel literature in the first century C.E. Contributors: Barbara Aland, David E. Aune, Wayne Baxter, Eve-Marie Becker, Cilliers Breytenbach, Warren Carter, Sean Freyne, Morten Horning Jensen, John S. Kloppenborg, Stanley E. Porter, Anders Runesson, David C. Sim, Lorenzo Scornaienchi, Tommy Wasserman, Oda Wischmeyer, Adela Yarbro Collins, Linden Youngquist

John's Transformation of Mark brings together a cast of internationally recognised biblical scholars to investigate the relationship between the gospels of Mark and John. In a significant break with the prevailing view that the two gospels represent independent traditions, contributors argue that John both knew of and used the earlier gospel to write his own text. Drawing on recent analytical categories such as social memory, 'secondary orality,' or 'relecture,' and ancient literary genres such as 'rewritten Bible', historiography and bioi, the central questions that drive this volume focus on how John used Mark, whether we should speak of 'dependence,' 'familiarity with,' or 'reception,' and whether John intended his work to be a supplement to or a replacement of Mark. Together these contributions mount a strong case for a complete reassessment of one of the key tenets of modern biblical criticism, opening up significant new avenues for future research.

Humility in the modern world is neither well understood nor well received. Many see it as a sign of weakness; others decry it as a Western construct whose imposition onto marginalized persons only perpetuates oppression. This skepticism has a long pedigree: Aristotle, for instance, pointed to humility as a shameless front. What then are we to make of the New Testament's valorization of this trait? Translated from German into English for the first time, Paul on Humility seeks to reclaim the original sense of humility as an ethical frame of mind that shapes community, securing its centrality in the Christian faith. This exploration of humility begins with a consideration of how the concept plays into current cultural crises before considering its linguistic and philosophical history in Western culture. In turning to the roots of Christian humility, Eve-Marie Becker focuses on Philippians 2, a passage in which Paul appeals to the lowliness of Christ to encourage his fellow Christians to persevere. Becker shows that humility both formed the basis of the ethic Paul instilled in churches and acted as a mimetic device centered on Jesus' example that was molded into the earliest Christian identity and community. Becker resists the urge to cheapen humility with mere moralism. In the vision of Paul, the humble individual is one immersed in a complex, transformative way of being. The path of humility does not constrain the self; rather, it guides the self to true freedom in fellowship with others. Humility is thus a potent concept that speaks to our contemporary anxieties and discomforts. Not for sale in Europe.

Translated from German into English for the first time, this monograph seeks to reclaim the original sense of humility as an ethical mindset that is of community-building value. This exploration of humility begins with a consideration of how the concept plays into current cultural crises before considering its linguistic and philosophical history in Western culture. In turning to the roots of Christian humility, Eve-Marie Becker focuses on Philippians 2, a passage in which Paul appeals to the lowliness of Christ to encourage his fellow Christians to persevere. She shows that humility both formed the basis of the ethic Paul instilled in Christ-believing communities and acted as a mimetic device centered on Jesus' example that was molded into the earliest Christian identity and community.

This volume brings together an international group of scholars on Mark and Paul, respectively, who reopen the question whether Paul was a direct influence on Mark. On the basis of the latest methods in New Testament scholarship, the battle over Yes and No to this question of literary and theological influence is waged within these pages. In the end, no agreement is reached, but the basic issues stand out with much greater clarity than before. How may one relate two rather different literary genres, the apostolic letter and the narrative gospel? How may the theologies of two such different types of writing be compared? Are there sufficient indications that Paul lies directly behind Mark for us to conclude that through Paul himself and Mark the New Testament as a whole reflects specifically Pauline ideas? What would the literary and theological consequences of either assuming or denying a direct influence be for our reconstruction of 1st century Christianity? And what would the consequences be for either understanding Mark or Paul as literary authors and theologians? How far should we give Paul an exalted a position in the literary creativity of the first Christians? Addressing these questions are scholars who have already written seminally on the issue or have marked positions on it, like Joel Marcus, Margaret Mitchell, Gerd Theissen and Oda Wischmeyer, together with a group of up-coming and senior Danish scholars from Aarhus and Copenhagen Universities who have collaborated on the issue for some years. The present volume leads the discussion further that has been taken up in: "Paul and Mark" (ed. by O. Wischmeyer, D. Sim, and I. Elmer), BZNW 191, 2013.

This volume takes up the current scholarly debate on the literary profile and the author of the Letter of James. The approach reaches beyond the conventional historical quest for James' epistolary authorship and intellectual provenance by combining observations about the explicit, the implicit, the historical, and the literary author with studies on style, rhetoric, literary criticism, genre criticism and literary history, religious profiles, literary patterns of authorship, and communicative structures. The essays of this volume present new insights into James' literary concept and multifaceted authorial profile based on the latest research in ancient (epistolary) author-literature, provide new methodological perspectives on early Christian epistolary authorship, and situate the Letter of James within the context of an emerging Christ-believing literary culture.

Sustained, comparative Synoptic studies do not stand alone methodologically in the humanities, but belong to a more general trend within cultural studies as well as in the humanities more broadly. Textual interpretation involves approaching specific texts composed more often than not by individual authors. In these texts, however, are embedded a myriad of conscious and unconscious relationships to historical and contemporary events, people, and other texts likewise connected historically and contemporaneously. In-depth understanding of a text evolves, therefore, almost by necessity from multi-perspectival comparative approaches rather than from readings taking a more isolated focus as point of departure. The Mark and Matthew project, of which the present study is the second volume, aims at taking seriously such more general insights and applying them to the earliest Gospels in order to stimulate new research and a deeper understanding of these two texts individually and as parts of a common discursive setting. In the present volume, the goal has been to shed light on the interpretation and use of the earliest Gospels from the first to the twenty-first century, with special focus on cultural hermeneutics and theology. The dynamics of interpretation, including the role played by history, methodology, religion, and politics, are taken into consideration, shedding light on distinctive aspects of the human endeavour to understand and use sacred text in context. One of the characteristics of the interpretive effort that is highlighted through this approach is the fact that texts are silent until we, their readers, give them voice; that meaning and use happen in the interplay between history and the present, residing never in one place alone, but rather in the dynamic space embracing both text and reader.

Der vorliegende Band geht der Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Platonismus und Christentum in der Spätantike im Blick auf die Themen Gottesbild, Weltentstehung, Schöpfung, Providenz und Freiheit nach. Wieweit sind antik-christliche Autoren von platonischem Denken geprägt? Wo und wie nehmen sie es gar als hermeneutischen Schlüssel zur Welterklärung? Wieweit wirken christliche Schriftsteller auf den Neuplatonismus zurück? Die Beiträge von Christoph Markschies, Holger Strutwolf, Christian Pietsch und Alfons Fürst wurden bei einem Kolloquium zum 85. Geburtstag von Barbara Aland vorgestellt und sind im vorliegenden Band samt einer Replik der Jubilarin und einer kurzen Einführung von Eve-Marie Becker versammelt.