This Cambridge Companion offers an up-to-date and accessible guide to the fast-changing discipline of biblical studies. Written by scholars from diverse backgrounds and religious commitments - many of whom are pioneers in their respective fields - the volume covers a range of contemporary scholarly methods and interpretive frameworks. The volume reflects the diversity and globalized character of biblical interpretation in which neat boundaries between author-focused, text-focused, and reader-focused approaches are blurred. The significant space devoted to the reception of the Bible - in art, literature, liturgy, and religious practice - also blurs the distinction between professional and popular biblical interpretation. The volume provides an ideal introduction to the various ways that scholars are currently interpreting the Bible. It offers both beginning and advanced students an understanding of the state of biblical interpretation, and how to explore each topic in greater depth.

The Book of Revelation has fired the imaginations of theologians, preachers, artists, and ordinary Christians across the centuries. The resulting number of commentaries on the book is enormous, and most studies can only touch upon, at most, a representative sample of this vast literature. As a consequence, many focus largely on the interpretation of the Apocalypse only within specific periods, such as the patristic period or during the Reformation. One result of this severe limitation given the vast literary corpus is how historical interpretations in critical commentaries of the Book of Revelations tend to prioritize authors from the modern period. In The Book of Revelation and Its Interpreters: Short Studies and an Annotated Bibliography, editors Richard Tresley and Ian Boxall fill a significant gap in the scholarly literature. At its heart is an extensive annotated bibliography, covering commentaries on the book up to 1700, including most of the early illuminated Apocalypses. Supporting the presentation of this survey of the historical interpretations of the Book of Revelation is an extended overview of Revelation's often-colorful reception history by Christopher Rowland, together with a number of short studies on various aspects of the book. These include discussions of specific commentators, such as Sean Michael Ryan's look at Tyconius and Francis X. Gumerlock exploration of Chromatius of Aquileia, alongside a more general treatment of Revelation's impact on the figure of John of Patmos in an essay by Ian Boxall and the visual reception of Revelation in Natasha O'Hear's article. The Book of Revelation and Its Interpreters provides a valuable bibliographical resource for those working in the field of Biblical Studies, history of Christianity, eschatology and apocalyptic studies. The accompanying essays orient the authors recorded in the bibliography within a larger context, offering specific examples of the Apocalypse's capacity to speak in fresh and often surprising ways to diverse audiences throughout history.

This introduction to the interpretation of Matthew aims to encourage in-depth study of the text, and genuine grappling with the theological and historical questions raised, by providing a 'map' to the Gospel as a whole, and to key interpreters and interpretative debates.

This Cambridge Companion offers an up-to-date and accessible guide to the fast-changing discipline of biblical studies. Written by scholars from diverse backgrounds and religious commitments - many of whom are pioneers in their respective fields - the volume covers a range of contemporary scholarly methods and interpretive frameworks. The volume reflects the diversity and globalized character of biblical interpretation in which neat boundaries between author-focused, text-focused, and reader-focused approaches are blurred. The significant space devoted to the reception of the Bible - in art, literature, liturgy, and religious practice - also blurs the distinction between professional and popular biblical interpretation. The volume provides an ideal introduction to the various ways that scholars are currently interpreting the Bible. It offers both beginning and advanced students an understanding of the state of biblical interpretation, and how to explore each topic in greater depth.

Student-friendly introduction to the Gospel of Matthew In this introduction to the story that Matthew tells, Ian Boxall deftly guides readers through the sources, origins, themes, and main characters of the first Gospel. The book's short chapters enable coverage of a wide range of topics, presenting the issues and scholarly debates surrounding the Gospel of Matthew in an accessible yet nuanced manner. Like the first Discovering Biblical Texts volume, on the Gospel of John, Discovering Matthew offers a guide to key issues and questions raised by the text to enable readers to come to their own conclusions. Encouraging in-depth study of the text and genuine grappling with pertinent theological and historical questions, this book is an ideal introduction to the interpretation of Matthew.

This is a new commentary on the 'Book of Revelation' for the 'Black's New Testament Commentary' series. George Caird's Black's commentary on Revelation was a masterpiece of clarity and accessibility. However, Revelation scholarship has moved on since Caird wrote, and Ian Boxall's new commentary engages with these more recent developments. Much work has been done on the nature of apocalyptic, which has shifted the emphasis away from eschatology to the revelation of heavenly mysteries. Boxall's book contains a more substantial introduction which explores the nature of Revelation as a visionary text, emphasises the author's Patmos context, and pays more attention to the overall structure of the work. It also engages with the Apocalypse's rich and varied reception history. Following the example of Morna Hooker on Mark, Ian Boxall also includes excurses tackling subjects such as numerology, the number of the beast, and the portrayal of Revelation's female figures. Here is a commentary which is fully up-to-date and which brings fresh understanding to a most controversial book on the Bible.

This monograph explores the significance accorded to John's island of Patmos (Rev. 1:9) within the wider reception history of the Apocalypse. In contrast to the relatively scant attention paid to John's island in modern commentaries, this reception-historical survey reveals both the greater prominence accorded to Patmos by earlier interpreters, and the richer diversity of readings the text has provoked. These include interest in the physical character of Patmos and its significance as an island; the date and reason for John's sojourn there; attempts to locate Patmos in a geography which is sometimes more mythical than literal; the meaning of the name 'Patmos' in the context of a biblical book which treats other place-names symbolically. This diversity is supported by a close reading of Rev. 1:9, which highlights the extent to which even its literal sense is highly ambiguous. Ian Boxall brings together for the first time in a coherent narrative a wide range of interpretations of Patmos, reflecting different chronological periods, cultural contexts, and Christian traditions. Boxall understands biblical interpretation broadly, to include interpretations in biographical traditions about John, sermons, liturgy, and visual art as well as biblical commentaries.He also considers popular and marginal readings alongside magisterial and centrist ones, and draws analogies between similar hermeneutical strategies across the centuries. In the final chapter Boxall explores the wider implications of his study for biblical scholarship, advocating an approach which encourages use of the imagination and reader participation, and which works with a broader concept of 'meaning' than traditional historical criticism.

This is a new commentary on the 'Book of Revelation' for the 'Black's New Testament Commentary' series. George Caird's Black's commentary on Revelation was a masterpiece of clarity and accessibility. However, Revelation scholarship has moved on since Caird wrote, and Ian Boxall's new commentary engages with these more recent developments. Much work has been done on the nature of apocalyptic, which has shifted the emphasis away from eschatology to the revelation of heavenly mysteries. Boxall's book contains a more substantial introduction which explores the nature of Revelation as a visionary text, emphasises the author's Patmos context, and pays more attention to the overall structure of the work. It also engages with the Apocalypse's rich and varied reception history. Following the example of Morna Hooker on Mark, Ian Boxall also includes excurses tackling subjects such as numerology, the number of the beast, and the portrayal of Revelation's female figures. Here is a commentary which is fully up-to-date and which brings fresh understanding to a most controversial book on the Bible.