Outline: A History of Biblical Interpretation provides detailed and extensive studies of the interpretation of the Scriptures by Jewish and Christian writers throughout the ages. Written by internationally renowned scholars, this multivolume work comprehensively treats the many different methods of interpretation, the many important interpreters from various eras, and the many key issues that h…
Outline: This insightful book examines nine case studies in the history of exegesis in order to demonstrate the valuable insights into Scripture that we can gain not only from what individual commentators say but from fifteen centuries' cumulative witness to the meaning of Scripture in the life of the church.
Outline: For Jesua and His Contemporaries, what we now know as the Old Testament was simply the Scriptures - and it was the fundamental basis of how people understood their relationship with God. In this book John Goldingay uncovers five major ways in which the New Testament uses the Old Testament. His discussion paves the way for contemporary readers to understand and appreciate the Old Testam…
Outline: The premier Dead Sea Scrolls primer ever since its original publication in 1994, James VanderKam's Dead Sea Scrolls Today won the Biblical Archaeology Society's Publication Award in 1995 for the Best Popular Book on Biblical Archaeology. In this expanded and updated edition the book will continue to illuminate the greatest archaeological find in modern times.
Outline : "Messiah" is one of the most contested terms in Christian reflection, with many people reading the concept back into early Old Testament texts. In The One Who Is to Come Joseph Fitzmyer contradicts that misreading, carefully tracing the emergence of messianism in Judaism to a much later date -- the second century B.C.
Outline: This original work of scholarship clarifies how, in light of Matthew's Gospel, the first Christians understood and claimed Israel's messianic mission to people of every ethnic group immediately after Jesus' death and resurrection. In Part 1 James LaGrand examines the Hebrew Bible and other ancient documents to uncover the meaning in Matthew's time of the terms 'Israel' and 'the nations…
Outline : This survey textbook is grounded in the view that the prophetic book of the Old Testament should be read as Christian Scripture. Although it covers critical issues such as authorship, background, and history, its primary focus is on the message and theology of the prophetic books and the contribution they make to the Christian canon. The prophetic books covered are Isaiah, Jeremiah, L…
Outline: Old Testament Use of Old Testament by Gary Edward Schnittjer surveys hundreds of Old Testament allusions within the Old Testament and provides hermeneutical guidance for interpreting these interrelated Scriptures. The handbook takes an easy-to-navigate, book-by-book approach. Schnittjer provides a list of scriptural allusions for each book and follows with an interpretive profile of ho…
Outline: Stanley E. Porter focuses upon the depiction of Paul in the book of Acts from literary-critical, rhetorical, and theological perspectives, among several others. The essays within this volume examine various topics related to the Paul of Acts such as the "we" passages of Acts as a source regarding Paul, and the theology and perspective of these passages in terms of their portrait of him…
Outline : Recent years have seen renewed interest in divine action, but much of the literature tends to focus on the science-theology discussion. Resulting from the multiyear work of the Scripture and Doctrine Seminar, part of the Kirby Laing Centre's Scripture Collective, this book explores the many different ways in which divine action is foregrounded and portrayed in one major biblical text,…
Outline: The books of Daniel and Revelation have been the subjects of critical debate for centuries. Their content and meaning have confused readers, and the dogmatism of some interpreters has accomplished little more than to cloud the important issues and to deter serious students. A. Berkley Mickelsen clearly defines the meaning of each book by showing how Daniel and Revelation point to a pre…
Outline: N. T. Wright is widely regarded as one of the most influential commentators and interpreters of Paul alive today, and Paul's letter to the Romans is often thought of as the gospel in condensed form and his greatest writing. Moreover, within Romans itself, chapter 8 is arguably one of the most spectacular pieces of writing found in the entire New Testament. Its thrust is clear, but its …
Outline: "A master class in how to read the Bible directly and accurately" Biblical Reasoning shows how Christology and the doctrine of the Trinity are grounded in Scripture and how knowledge of these topics is critical for exegesis.
Outline: The biblical story begins and ends with God as king. Human beings rebel, however, rather than fulfill their royal calling to rule creation on behalf of their Sovereign - and the world became enslaved to the rule of a serpentine lord. In this volume of IVP Academic's Essential Studies in Biblical Theology, Stephen Dempster traces the themes of kingship and kingdom throughout Scripture, …
Outline : HOW TO STUDYTHE OLD TESTAMENT FOR SIGNS OF CHRIST Since the majority of the Bible was written before Jesus's life and death on the cross, the Old Testament is often used for historical context and moral guidance alone. When studied in detail, however, we see how even the Old Testament reveals Christ as the center of God's plan for redemption. In this book, biblical scholar Vern S. Po…
History and Interpretation is a collection of seventeen essays on the Old Testament and the history of ancient Israel and commemorates the sixtieth birthday of John H. Hayes, Professor of Old Testament at Candler School of Theology (Emory University). All the contributors were Hayes's doctoral students at Emory, and their essays cover a wide range of topics that reflect their teachers own schol…
This book examines how the priestly editors of the book of Numbers created a narrative of the forty-year journey through the wilderness to achieve their agenda. The book also focuses on politics, collective memory and transmission of tradition.
A central figure in the reconception of early Christian history over the last three decades, Wayne A. Meeks offers here a selection of his most influential writings on the New Testament and early Christianity. His essays illustrate recent changes in our thinking about the early Christian movement and pose provocative questions regarding the history of this period.Meeks explores a fascinating ra…
This study draws upon the biblical books of Kings, First Isaiah and Chronicles, in conjunction with Assyrian records and ancient Near Eastern archaeology, in order to provide an updated historical reconstruction of the influential Judean monarch Hezekiah.
This groundbreaking work by Darrell Bock thoroughly explores the theology of Luke's gospel and the book of Acts. In his writing, Luke records the story of God working through Jesus to usher in a new era of promise and Spirit-enablement so that the people of God can be God's people even in the midst of a hostile world. It is a message the church still needs today. Bock both covers major Lukan th…
This is a detailed examination of Proverbs 1-9, an early Jewish poetic work and an example of Wisdom literature. The author shows that certain parts of it, profoundly influential on the development of both Judaism and Christianity, belong to a much broader and more intricate set of ideas than older scholarship allowed.
In Jesus and the Ossuaries, Craig A. Evans helps all readers, expert and layperson alike, understand the importance this recent find might have for the quest for the historical Jesus and any historical reconstruction of early Christianity. Evans does this by providing an overview of the most important archaeological discoveries, before examining nine other inscriptions (six on ossuaries, three …
For the first time in one volume, this book presents contributions to the textual criticism of the New Testament made over the past twenty years by Bart Ehrman, one of the premier textual scholars in North America. The collection includes fifteen previously published articles and six lectures (delivered at Duke University and Yale University) on a range of topics of central importance to the fi…
This is a detailed examination of Proverbs 1-9, an early Jewish poetic work and an example of Wisdom literature. The author shows that certain parts of it, profoundly influential on the development of both Judaism and Christianity, belong to a much broader and more intricate set of ideas than older scholarship allowed.
Christian exegesis of the Song of Songs has long interacted creatively with - and, more recently, reacted critically against - the allegorical interpretation developed by Origen of Alexandria (c.185-c.254) in his Commentary and two Homilies on the Song of Songs. Interest in Origen's exegesis of the Song's narrative elements has dominated past scholarship, which has almost entirely ignored how O…
Explores the historical reasons for the creation of the book of James and the implications for the creation of the Christian canon. Nienhuis makes a compelling case that James was written in the mid-second century and is, like 2 Peter, an attempt to provide a distinctive shape to the emerging New Testament.
In this completely revised and updated edition, François Bovon provides a critical assessment of the last fifty-five years of scholarship on Luke-Acts. The study divides thematically, with individual chapters covering the subjects of history and eschatology, the role of the Old Testament, Christology, the Holy Spirit, conversion, and the church. Each chapter begins with a consideration of the…
The main lines of inquiry pursued in this book are nearly all foreshadowed in the lengthy, wide-ranging Chapter 2, ‘Jesus and Gospel’. Here I explore the origin and the varied meanings of the ‘gospel’ word group all the way from its use by Jesus to refer to his own proclamation to its use as the title of a ‘book’ containing an account of the words and deeds of Jesus.
Through the ages no literary work has received so much attention as the Bible, which has been handed down from generation to generation so carefully, studied so diligently and commented upon so thoroughly. Many avenues of its writings have been explored and numerous aspects investigated in detail. Especially during the past century biblical scholars have devoted much time and energy in addressi…
THIS BOOK IS about the young Kant. It is an investigation of the first two decades of his philosophical life, from the Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces (1746/7) to the Dreams of a Spirit-Seer (1766). I examine the rise and fall of the ‘‘precritical’’ theories and place them in their historical and topical context—exploring how Kant resolved problems his predecessors an…
Most significant problems of contemporary life have their origins in nihilism and its paradoxical logic, which is simultaneously destructive to, and constitutive of, society. Yet, in social theory, nihilism is a surprisingly under-researched topic.
This edition presents for the first time "all the non-biblical Qumran texts classified according to their genres, together with English translations. Of these texts, some twenty were not previously published. The Hebrew-Aramaic texts in this edition are mainly based on the FARMS database of Brigham Young University, which, in its turn, reflects the text editions of the ancient scrolls (mainly "…
This edition presents for the first time "all the non-biblical Qumran texts classified according to their genres, together with English translations. Of these texts, some twenty were not previously published. The Hebrew-Aramaic texts in this edition are mainly based on the FARMS database of Brigham Young University, which, in its turn, reflects the text editions of the ancient scrolls (mainly "…
This edition presents for the first time "all the non-biblical Qumran texts classified according to their genres, together with English translations. Of these texts, some twenty were not previously published. The Hebrew-Aramaic texts in this edition are mainly based on the FARMS database of Brigham Young University, which, in its turn, reflects the text editions of the ancient scrolls (mainly "…
The Expanded Bible: New Testament reflects the latest scholarship, current English, and the needs of contemporary students of the Bible. This new testament includes a multitude of study aids right in line with the text. Expanded translations and other helps make it possible for you to study the Bible while you read Expanded translations bring out the meaning of words and offer alternatives. …
The New Testament book known as The First Letter of Peter describes how Christians should relate to the world. Specifically, it suggests how Christians should define themselves against a powerful and sometimes hostile culture. Written to first-century Christians in Asia Minor who were suffering from religious persecution, this letter brings Biblical and extra-Biblical traditions together to for…
"The Bible and the social and moral consequences that derive from its interpretation are all too important to be left in the hands of the pious or the experts, and too significant to be ignored and trivialized by the uninformed and indifferent.
One of the general or catholic epistles near the end of the New Testament, this letter traditionally attributed to the apostle Peter contains important ideas and reveals a fascinating relationship to the surrounding literary world. The book shows what problems Christians faced at the time the epistle was written and how the author addressed them. The commentary discusses the Greek original, wit…
When the ancients talked about "messiah", what did they picture? Did that term refer to a stately figure who would rule, to a militant who would rescue, or to a variety of roles held by many? While Christians have traditionally equated the word "messiah" with Jesus, the discussion is far more complex. This volume contributes significantly to that discussion. Ten expert scholars here address …
For centuries the story of Adam and Eve has resonated richly through the corridors of art, literature and theology. But for most moderns, taking it at face value is incongruous. And even for many thinking Christians today who want to take seriously the authority of Scripture, insisting on a "literal" understanding of Genesis 2–3 looks painfully like a "tear here" strip between faith and scien…
Thomas Schreiner, a respected scholar and a trusted voice for many students and pastors, offers a substantial and accessibly written overview of the whole Bible. He traces the storyline of the scriptures from the standpoint of biblical theology, examining the overarching message that is conveyed throughout. Schreiner emphasizes three interrelated and unified themes that stand out in the biblica…
Myth is that most elusive of cultural forms—forever avoiding the constraints of definition and analysis; yet always attesting, through its protean persistence, to an indomitable grip upon the human imagination. Call myth what you will, others will certainly put it differently and claim good grounds for their standpoint. For those bred in the West, the ancient Greek patrimony casts a long shad…
Ronald S. Hendel offers a careful and thorough re examination of the text of Genesis 1 11. He takes a strongly positive position on the value of the Septuagint as a reliable translation of its Hebrew parent text. This position is contrary to that taken in most existing studies of the text of Genesis, including some in standard editions and reference works. Nevertheless, Hendel shows, there is a…
Written by the Orthodox historian Rabbi Berel Wein, The Oral Law of Sinai is an extraordinary and beautifully illustrated book that explores the Talmud—a law book that is a faithful transmission of the Oral Law of Sinai. As Rabbi Wein explains, the Talmud is two separate books comprising the Oral Law. This work offers an explanation of the first book of the Talmud, the Mishnah
Three decades ago, renowned literary expert Robert Alter radically expanded the horizons of biblical scholarship by recasting the Bible as not only a human creation but a work of literary art deserving studied criticism. In The Art of Biblical Poetry , his companion to the seminal The Art of Biblical Narrative , Alter takes his analysis beyond narrative craft to investigate the use of Hebrew po…
In a history of a religiously controversial subject, of which the Book of Mormon is a premiere example, the disputability of the facts is too obvious to bear repeating on every page. I have therefore avoided constructions like “Joseph Smith’s alleged vision,” or “the purported visit of Moroni,” as they would become tiresome and pedantic if repeated on every page. My focus in any case …
Richard Bauckham expounds the theology of the Book of its understanding of God, Christ and the Spirit, the role of the Church in the world, and the hope of the coming of God's universal kingdom. Close attention is paid both to the literary form in which the theology is expressed and to the original context to which the book was addressed. Contrary to many misunderstandings of Revelation, it is …
R. C. Sproul helps us dig out the meaning of Scripture for ourselves. He lays the groundwork by discussing why we should study the Bible and how our own personal study relates to interpretation. Then he presents in simple, basic terms the science of interpretation and gives practical guidelines for applying this science. Here is a basic book for both beginning Bible readers and those who have b…