Receptions of Paul during the First Two Centuries: Exploration of the Jewish Matrix of Early Christianity examines the historical context of Paul and the way Paul’s Jewish heritage was received. Contributors take into consideration the aftermath of the Jewish War and its impact on the development of the Jesus movement and early Christian-Jewish relations in the following period. The chapters come to the conclusion that after the Jewish War, the reception of the authentic Paul was transformed more and more into the tradition about Paul, based and established by the second and third generations of Jesus-believing Gentiles, which perceived Paul as a convert from what is labeled “Judaism� (Ἰουδαϊσμός) to the complete opposite of it, “Christianity� (Χ�ιστιανισμός).

This book provides various perspectives of leading contemporary scholars concerning Paul's message, particularly his expressed expectation of the end-time redemption of Israel and its relation to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish nations, in the context of Jewish eschatological expectation. The contributors engage the increasingly contentious enigmas relating to Paul's Jewishness: had his perception of living in a new era in Christ and anticipating an imminent final consummation moved him beyond the bounds of what his contemporaries would have considered Judaism, or did Paul continue to think and act "within Judaism"?

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, František �bel 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 contextually more 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 František �bel, Michael Bachmann, Daniel Boyarin, William S. Campbell, Kathy Ehrensperger, Paula Fredriksen, Jörg Frey, Joshua Garroway, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, Isaac W. Oliver, Shayna Sheinfeld, and J. Brian Tucker.

The structural mechanics of proteins that fold into functional shapes, polymers that aggregate and form clusters, and organic macromolecules that bind to inorganic matter can only be understood through statistical physics and thermodynamics. This book reviews the statistical mechanics concepts and tools necessary for the study of structure formation processes in macromolecular systems that are essentially influenced by finite-size and surface effects. Readers are introduced to molecular modeling approaches, advanced Monte Carlo simulation techniques, and systematic statistical analyses of numerical data. Applications to folding, aggregation, and substrate adsorption processes of polymers and proteins are discussed in great detail. Particular emphasis is placed on the reduction of complexity by coarse-grained modeling, which allows for the efficient, systematic investigation of structural phases and transitions. Providing insight into modern research at this interface between physics, chemistry, biology, and nanotechnology, this book is an excellent reference for graduate students and researchers.

Several modern interpretations of Paul's letter to the Galatians claim to uncover an underlying attitude of anti-Judaism. Michael Bachmann refutes those claims with his own detailed exegesis and astute examination of comparative material from the religious environment of that day, revealing instead how Paul embraces both Jews and Gentiles. Bachmann holds that, in the determination of meaning, the literary context of Galatians should be considered over historical background. / Nonetheless, he does engage parallels in Qumran material and archaeology as secondary methods to confirm his exegetical arguments. Through his rigorous examination, Bachmann shows that Galatians exhibits evidence of anti-Judaism not in itself, but only in its reception. / Rich in scholarship and sound exegesis, Anti-Judaism in Galatians? is an ideal text for scholars and students seeking the whole truth about Paul.

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.