New Testament

An Introduction to the Catholic Epistles

This book introduces the Epistles and discusses the different interpretive approaches which have been used to gain a clearer understanding of them. An introductory chapter defines the Epistles and describes the history of their canonization, following chapters are devoted to each of the texts with each chapter including: 1) historical-cultural background; 2) the social-scientific context; 3) social-rhetorical purposes; 4) narrative discourse; 5) postcolonial and 6) feminist insights; and finally 7) theological perspectives. At the end of each chapter there are suggestions for further reading and a list of reflection questions. A final chapter takes up the relationship between the Pauline Epistles and the Catholic Epistles within the New Testament.

Christianity in the Greco-Roman World: A Narrative Introduction

A creative introduction to the world of the New Testament. Background becomes foreground in Moyer Hubbard’s creative introduction to the social and historical setting for the letters of the Apostle Paul to churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Hubbard begins each major section with a brief narrative featuring a fictional character in one of the great cities of that era. Then he elaborates on various aspects of the cultural setting related to each particular vignette, discussing the implications of those venues for understanding Paul’s letters and applying their message to our lives today. Teachers, students, and laypeople alike will appreciate Hubbard’s unique, illuminating, and well-researched approach to the world of the early church.

Cosmology and New Testament Theology

Cosmology and New Testament Theology systematically examines the NT documents to show how cosmological language and concepts inform, interact with, and contribute to the specific theological emphases of the various NT books. In some NT books, the importance of cosmology can be easily discerned, while in others what is required is a new and close examination of key cosmological terms (e.g., heaven, earth, world, creation) with an eye to the themes and theology of the book.

Engaging Jesus with Our Senses: An Embodied Approach to the Gospels

Engaging Jesus with Our Senses: An Embodied Approach to the Gospels offers a fresh way to read the Gospels with an emphasis on embodiment, focused on a life abiding in Christ. The goal is a greater, more tangible knowledge of God. Jeannine Hanger points to the importance of engaging our physical senses in Bible reading, shows an approach to doing so with an emphasis on sparking the imagination, and looks at how utilizing our primary senses plays out in reading the Gospels. Each chapter includes sensory practices and questions for personal reflection.

Ephesians: Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

Designed for pastors, students, and Bible teachers, the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament examines the biblical text in its original context. Written by scholars who carefully attend to and build their interpretation on grammatical detail, literary context, rhetorical flow, theological nuance, and historical setting in their interpretation, the ZECNT series is ideal for the task of exegesis and constructing expository sermons. Analysis of the text is also aided by graphic representations of discourse analysis and an exegetical outline.

Faith as Participation: An Exegetical Study of Some Key Pauline Texts

In recent years, three particular debates have risen to the fore of Pauline Studies: the question of the centre of Pauline theology, how to interpret the mula, and the relationship between divine and human agency. In the present study, Jeanette Hagen Pifer contends that several of the apparent conundrums in recent Pauline scholarship turn out to derive from an inadequate understanding of what Paul means by faith. By first exploring the question of what Paul means by faith outside of the classic justification passages in Romans and Galatians, she reveals faith as an active and productive mode of human existence. Yet this existence is not a form of human self-achievement. On the contrary, faith is precisely the denial of self-effort and a dependence upon the prior gracious work of Christ. In this way, faith is self-negating and self-involving participation in the Christ-event.

Following Jesus, the Servant King: A Biblical Theology of Covenantal Discipleship

What does the Bible say about who Jesus is and what he asks of us, his followers? In Following Jesus, the Servant King, Jonathan Lunde makes plain how having a strong understanding of covenantal theology opens us to greater discipleship. From the angle of biblical teaching, Lunde tackles some of the most poignant questions about being a disciple of Christ: What does it mean to follow Jesus? What does God expect from his followers? How can we be and do what is required? While answering these essential questions, Lunde thoroughly details God’s covenants throughout the whole of Scripture, explaining what this means in terms of our relationship with God and how Jesus fulfills each of them in turn.

Following Jesus, the Servant King: A Biblical Theology of Covenantal Discipleship – Unabridged Audible Audiobook

What does the Bible say about who Jesus is and what he asks of us, his followers? In Following Jesus, the Servant King, Jonathan Lunde makes plain how having a strong understanding of covenantal theology opens us to greater discipleship. From the angle of biblical teaching, Lunde tackles some of the most poignant questions about being a disciple of Christ: What does it mean to follow Jesus? What does God expect from his followers? How can we be and do what is required? While answering these essential questions, Lunde thoroughly details God’s covenants throughout the whole of Scripture, explaining what this means in terms of our relationship with God and how Jesus fulfills each of them in turn.

God’s Goodness for the Chosen: An Interactive Bible Study (Season 4)

God’s Goodness for the Chosen is an eight-lesson Bible study for individuals or groups that follows each episode of Season 4 of The Chosen. This study teaches readers how to reframe their hardships and see them as fertile soil for God’s goodness to grow in their lives. We see it over and over again in the Bible: God brings good things out of bad things for the sake of His people and for His glory. But truth be told, when we personally experience suffering, we have a difficult time actually believing it. Yet, life is challenging even for the followers of Jesus, and hardship in the twenty-first century is no exception. God’s Goodness for the Chosen takes readers through eight lessons which reveal how God uses suffering to bring about good things in the lives of those He loves.

Hebrews in Contexts (Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity) – Hardcover

Scholars of Hebrews have repeatedly echoed the almost proverbial saying that the book appears to its reader as a “Melchizedekian being without genealogy”. For such scholars the aphorism identified prominent traits of Hebrews, its enigma, its otherness, its marginality. Hebrews in Contexts, edited by Gabriella Gelardini and Harold W. Attridge, is an expression of this interest. It gathers authors who explore extensively on Hebrews’ relations to other early traditions and texts (Jewish, Hellenistic, and Roman) in order to map Hebrews’ historical, cultural, and religious identity in greater, and perhaps surprising detail.

James: Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

Designed for the pastor and Bible teacher, the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament examines the biblical text in its original environment. Notable evangelical scholars carefully attend to grammatical detail, literary context, rhetorical flow, theological nuance, and historical setting in their interpretation. Critical scholarship informs each step, but does not dominate the commentary, allowing readers to concentrate on the biblical author’s message as it unfolds. While primarily designed for those with a basic knowledge of biblical Greek, all who strive to understand and teach the New Testament will find this series beneficial. The general editor for this enterprising series is Clinton E. Arnold.

Letters for the Church: Reading James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, and Jude as Canon

The Catholic Epistles often get short shrift. Tucked into a few pages near the back of our Bibles, these books are sometimes referred to as the “non-Pauline epistles” or “concluding letters,” maybe getting lumped together with Hebrews and Revelation. Yet these letters, Darian Lockett argues, are treasures hidden in plain sight, and it’s time to give them the attention they deserve. In Letters for the Church, Lockett reveals how the Catholic Epistles provide a unique window into early Christian theology and practice. Based on evidence from the early church, he contends that the seven letters of James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude were accepted into the canon as a collection and should be read together. Here Lockett introduces the context and content of the Catholic Epistles while emphasizing how all seven letters are connected. Each chapter outlines the author, audience, and genre of one of the epistles, traces its flow of thought, and explores shared themes with the other Catholic Epistles.

Letters from the Pillar Apostles: The Formation of the Catholic Epistles as a Canonical Collection

Rather than reading the Catholic Epistles in isolation from each other–understanding their individual historical situations as the single, determinative context for their interpretation–this study argues that a proper understanding of these seven letters must equally attend to their collection and placement within the New Testament canon. Resisting the judgment of much of historical-critical analysis of the New Testament, namely, that the concept of canon actually obscures the meaning of these texts, it is the canonical process by which the texts were composed, redacted, collected, arranged, and fixed in a final canonical form that constitutes a necessary interpretive context for these seven letters. This study argues that through reception history and paratextual and compositional evidence one can discern a collection consciousness within the Catholic Epistles such that they should be read and interpreted as an intentional, discrete canonical sub-collection set within the New Testament. Furthermore, the work argues that such collection consciousness, though not necessarily in the preview of the original authors (being perhaps unforeseen, yet not unintended), is neither anachronistic to the meaning of the letters nor antagonistic to their composition.

New Creation in Paul’s Letters and Thought

M.V. Hubbard offers a full investigation of St. Paul’s understanding of “new life” and “new creation”, working closely with the language of his letters to unpack, in socio-anthropological context, the images and metaphors he uses. Professor Hubbard examines other approaches and literature on the topic, providing an important new perspective on the Pauline oeuvre and its meaning.

Overcoming: Encountering Jesus in the Gospel of John and Today

How can we overcome our pain, wounds and struggles in order to find hope, joy, peace and purpose? This book contains engaging, relevant, authentic stories about people who have overcome anger, eating disorders, unforgiveness, shame, bitterness, sexual sin, low self-esteem, divorce, alcohol and drug addiction, abuse, physical disabilities, and consuming guilt through healing prayer. These powerful, engaging prayer encounters will serve as a guide to show us how we can also overcome our hurts, habits and hang-ups.

Paul, the Stoics, and the Body of Christ

At first glance, Paul’s words to the Corinthians about being the body of Christ seem simple and straightforward. He compares them with a human body so that they may be encouraged to work together, each member contributing to the good of the whole according to his or her special gift. However, the passage raises several critical questions which point to its deeper implications. Does Paul mean that the community is ‘like’ a body or is he saying that they are in some sense a real body? What is the significance of being specifically the body of Christ? Is the primary purpose of the passage to instruct on the correct use of spiritual gifts or is Paul making a statement about the identity of the Christian community? Michelle Lee examines Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 12-14 against the backdrop of Hellenistic moral philosophy, and especially Stoicism.

Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh: New Clues for an Old Problem

Paul’s enigmatic “thorn in the flesh” in 2 Corinthians has baffled interpreters for centuries. Many offer suggestions as to the identity of Satan’s messenger; others despair that the puzzle is unsolvable. In Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh: New Clues for an Old Problem, Kenneth Berding reopens the case. He follows a trail of clues that includes ancient beliefs about curses, hints in Paul’s letters, similarities with Jesus’s suffering, and the attempts of the earliest Christian interpreters. Berding offers twenty criteria—some familiar, others neglected—that any proposals must explain.

Polycarp and Paul

Polycarp and Paul: An Analysis of Their Literary and Theological Relationship in Light of Polycarp’s Use of Biblical and Extra-Biblical Literature (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, No. 62). This volume carefully analyses Polycarp of Smyrna’s literary dependencies, paying special attention to Polycarp’s verbal and conceptual relationships to the Apostle Paul and his writings.

Power and Magic: The Concept of Power in Ephesians

Power and Magic is one of the few books which literally cannot be ignored by any serious Bible student. In fact, it makes the classical commentaries on Ephesians that I am familiar with virtually obsolete. Clinton Arnold has done us all a great favor by throwing vital new light on our understanding of what really motivated the Apostle Paul to write one of his most important epistles.

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