Purpose and Community in Paul's Letter to Philemon
The Letter to Philemon has been read by generations of interpreters, including towering figures such as John Chrysostom, as having to do with Paul returning the fugitive slave Onesimus to his master. Hence the letter, at best, was made complicit in the institution of slavery and, at worst, was foundational for the view that slavery was God ......
Perhaps the most important discovery in the long history of research on the Gospel of Matthew is that the book represents a self-contained literary whole as it participates in a vibrant intertextual network. Scripture illuminates the gospel story at every step, from the appearance of Jesus to the resistance of the authorities who oppose him. The ......
How did early Christians remember Jesus--and how did they develop their own "Christian" identities and communities? In this accessible and revelatory book, Greg Carey explores how transgression contributed to early Christian identity in the Gospels, Acts, Letters of Paul, and Revelation. Carey examines Jesus as a friend of sinners, challenger of ......
Oscar Cullmann's 1962 revision of Peter in turn carefully treats the "Historical Question" and the "Exegetical and Theological Question" of the apostle Peter. While Cullmann cannot decisively confirm some of the details of Peter's life-his residence in Rome and the location of his grave, in particular-other details are described as more ......
In this volume Mikeal C. Parsons provides an overview of Luke and Acts, reading Luke and Acts in the context of ancient rhetorical criticism as practiced in the Hellenistic world. Parsons first compares Luke's storytelling with narrative techniques of ancient rhetoric. He next compares Luke's interpretation of Jewish sources within the social ......
A Companion to the New Testament draws readers deep inside the New Testament by providing a basic orientation to its literary contours and its ways of talking about theological matters. Designed especially for students learning to navigate the Bible as Christian Scripture, the Companion serves as an accessible, reliable, and engaging guide to ......
The Educational Value of Suffering in the New Testament and in Its Milieu
From the various biblical explanations of suffering, this volume chooses to focus on one: suffering sometimes possesses an educational value. It explores the differing versions of this view in Paul, James, 1 Peter, Hebrews, and Luke-Acts, and sets these Christian perspectives against the backdrop of similar explanations in Jewish and Greco-Roman ......
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 ......
The Historiographical Jesus introduces a new theory and approach for studying the life of Jesus. Anthony Le Donne uses the precepts of social memory theory to identify ""memory refraction"" in the Jesus tradition--the refocusing distortion that occurs as the stories and sayings of Jesus were handed down and consciously and unconsciously framed in ......
