Search results for ""author paul f."

This collection of essays contains the papers given at the Fifth International East-West Symposium of New Testament Scholars in Minsk (Belarus). The symposium was a project of the Eastern Europe Liaison Committee of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas. Main subject matters of the volume are the history and methodological questions of modern Jesus research, approaches to the Jesus of history in ancient and modern Christian exegesis, Jesus as a Jew in ancient and modern exegesis, and the portraits of Jesus in Luke and John. The authors of these papers deal with the parables of Jesus, with his Galilean ministry, with the passion narrative in Mark and with the death of Christ according to Paul's letters. All topics are discussed from a "Western" (Protestant and Roman-Catholic) exegetical perspective as well as from an Orthodox point of view. A concluding report recapitulates the group discussions and seminar sessions of the symposium. Contributors: Charalampos Atmatzidis, Reimund Bieringer, Predrag Dragutinović, Carl R. Holladay, Christos Karakolis, Dominika A. Kurek-Chomycz, Ulrich Luz, Joel Marcus, Vasile Mihoc, Tobias Nicklas, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, Marius Reiser, Armand Puig i Tàrrech, Sviatoslav Rogalsky, Ekaterini G. Tsalampouni, Konstantinos Th. Zarras

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This volume of Kleine Schriften reflects François Bovon's two major fields of research: Luke-Acts on the one hand, and early Christian Apocrypha on the other. He insists on the ethical and missionary practices of the early Christian communities. The apostle Paul's ethical concern is presented not as an opposition between good and evil, but as a crescendo from the good to the best. The authority of John, the author of the Book of Revelation, is described in a nonhierarchical way as the care of a brother for his brothers and sisters rather than of a father. Women ministry is attested in recently discovered portions of the Acts of Philip. This collection of essays shows also how doctrinal positions were reached in the middle of strong tensions. Such is the witness of the Fragment Oxyrhynchus 840 in favor of a spiritual purification. François Bovon is also attentive to the reception of the earliest Christian documents in the Late Antiquity period. As a whole he describes aspects of early Christianity in its variety but also in its unity.

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The book Arts from the Scholar’s Studio has long been out-of-print. In light of increasing demands from collectors, and in the hope of stimulating further interest and scholarship in the field, the book was reprinted and now available for sale. It is the catalogue of an exhibition jointly presented by the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and the Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong held from 24 October to 13 December 1986. The exhibition illustrated the life of the Chinese scholar as seen through their arts, and, through the medium of certain objects, to demonstrate their attitude to life and connoisseurship. The book includes an introductory essay and descriptive captions of 277 exhibits by Gerald Tsang and Hugh Moss. Text in English and Chinese.

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Der Band versammelt wichtige veröffentlichte und bisher unveröffentlichte Aufsätze des im Oktober 2012 unerwartet verstorbenen Neutestamentlers und Judaisten Friedrich Avemarie. Vor dem Hintergrund exzellenter Kenntnis der rabbinischen Literatur und in dezidiert theologischem Interesse am Neuen Testament entwickeln die Beiträge neue Perspektiven auf Themen und Methoden frühjüdischen und frühchristlichen Denkens und Arbeitens. Mit seinen Arbeiten zur rabbinischen Schriftauslegung, zum frühjüdischen Selbstverständnis und zu jüdischer Theologie sowie mit Arbeiten zu Paulus, zur Apostelgeschichte und zur Jesusüberlieferung hat Friedrich Avemarie der neutestamentlichen und judaistischen Forschung wichtige Impulse gegeben. Themenschwerpunkte der hier versammelten Aufsätze sind die rabbinische Martyriumstheologie, rabbinische und neutestamentliche Soteriologie und Anthropologie, sozialgeschichtliche Studien zu Jesus und seinen Gleichnissen, Studien zum historischen Hintergrund der Apostelgeschichte, zur paulinischen Rechtfertigungslehre in Auseinandersetzung mit der sogenannten 'New Perspective on Paul', zur Israelfrage in der paulinischen Theologie, und zur Frage nach der Heilsgeschichte bei Paulus. Der Band enthält erstmals auch fünf bisher unveröffentlichte Aufsätze: Freier Wille und Gnadenwahl nach dem Römerbrief; Rabbinic Literature and the Study of Paul; Die Martyrien des antiken Judentums und der Kreuzestod Jesu; Wiedergeburt: Implikationen und Paradoxien eines biblischen Hoffnungsbildes; Erlösungshoffnung und Lebensgestaltung nach dem Neuen Testament.

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In this book, John Frederick compares the words and the governing ethical pattern of thought in the catalogue of virtue and vice in Colossians 3:5, 8, 12-17 with contemporaneous Greco-Roman and Jewish texts. He critiques the arguments of scholars who have proposed that Paul is operating from a Stoic, Cynic, or Aristotelian ethical pattern of thought. On the basis of these comparisons the author argues that the ethical terms and concepts of Colossians are most directly influenced by the words and concepts found in the texts of the Jewish traditions. Also, several of the ethical terms and concepts in Colossians are absent and/or uncommon in the Greco-Roman sources surveyed but widely attested in the Jewish sources. Colossians presents ethical material in the Jewish Two Ways tradition that is driven by a governing pattern of thought which focuses on Christ-like transformation through the enactment and reception of cruciform love.

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Abraham, whom the apostle Paul calls the "father of us all" (Rom 4:16), was a central figure in Judaism from the outset and came to be important in Christianity and Islam. The Abraham tradition is an issue of narrative and counter-narrative, memory and counter-memory. Moreover, Abraham's family is brought in as a network of meaning to express opposition, antithesis or common ground within and between different religious movements. The contributions to this volume discuss the presentation and reception of Abraham's family in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The topics cover Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Second Temple writings, New Testament, Rabbinic literature, Greek, Latin and Syriac church fathers, as well as Jewish medieval interpretation and a twelfth-century Arabic travel report of a pilgrimage to Mecca.

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Christopher G. Foster identifies Jewish mystical elements in the Dead Sea Scrolls and compares them with analogous features in the Corinthian correspondence to illuminate through differences and similarities how Paul advocates a mystical and communal participation in the Spirit. After defining early Jewish mysticism and introducing the method of heuristic comparison, Part I identifies and investigates mystical elements in Dead Sea Scrolls. Part II compares these findings with corresponding aspects in 1 and 2 Corinthians to demonstrate the largely corporate tenor of participation and transformation in and by the spirit for Paul.

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First published in 1990. Although one of Jules Verne's lesser known novels, as part of his 'Extraordinary Voyages' collection, there is still much to enjoy about 'The Floating Island'*. Written in 1895 towards the end of his career this is an adventure novel with elements of sci-fi. A French string quartet traveling from San Francisco to their next engagement in San Diego, is diverted to Standard Island. Standard Island is an immense man-made island designed to travel the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The wealth of residents of the island can only be measured in millions. The quartet is hired to play a number of concerts for the residents during their tour of the islands (Sandwich, Cook, Society, etc.) of the South Pacific. The island seems an idyllic paradise; however, it is an island divided in two. The left half's population is led by Jem Tankerdon and is known as the Larboardites. The right half's population is led by Nat Coverley and is known as the Starboardites. Despite the obstacles encountered on their journey, the two parties have a disagreement that threatens the future of the island itself.

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First published in 1996. The emergence of Pakistan as an independent nation in 1947 was one of the major historical events of the twentieth century. There are few parallels in history where freedom has been achieved not with swords or on the battlefield, but with diplomacy, negotiations and unwavering conviction and effort. One of the central figures in the events surrounding the establishment of Pakistan was Altaf Husain, the Editor of the English-language newspaper Dawn. Dawn was created by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, leader and founder of Pakistan, to counter the anti-Muslim propaganda by the largely Hindu Press of India during the crucial power battle between the All India Congress Party and the Muslim League. Dawn became the voice of millions of Muslims in undivided India, a unique publication that played a gigantic role in the birth of Pakistan and enjoyed an excellent international reputation. As a fearless Editor, Altaf Husain projected his political viewpoints, aspirations and ideals through Dawn to the Muslim League leaders striving against the British Ray and their Hindu political opponents. His Dawn editorials during the crucial 1945-1947 period were inspired by Jinnah's Two Nations theory, and the belief that Indian Muslims should have a homeland of their own - Pakistan. In Dawn, Altaf Husain provided incisive political guidance - a role he continued to fill throughout his life. From Mutiny to Mountbatten combines history, biography and extracts and quotations from Altaf Husain's articles and writings. It gives a unique insight into a major political event of our era, and the part played in that event by a remarkable editor and a remarkable newspaper. It also gives many insights into the major players of the events of the time. Above all, it provides an understanding of the mood of the Muslims of undivided India and their dream of a separate homeland.

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First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

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First published in 1986. This book looks at the World Oil industry before OPEC, the emergence of international oil companies, pricing, and the development of OPEC, the Organisation and Petroleum-Exporting Countries.

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In this volume, C. L. Crouch and Jeremy M. Hutton offer a data-driven approach to translation practice in the Iron Age. The authors build on and reinforce Crouch's conclusions in her former work about Deuteronomy and the Akkadian treaty tradition, employing Hutton's "Optimal Translation" theory to analyze the Akkadian-Aramaic bilingual inscription from Tell Fekheriyeh. The authors argue that the inscription exhibits an isomorphic style of translation and only the occasional use of dynamic replacement sets. They apply these findings to other proposed instances of Iron Age translation from Akkadian into dialects of Northwest Semitic, including the relationship between Deuteronomy and the Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon and the relationship between the treaty of Aššur-nerari V with Matiʾilu and the Sefire treaties. The authors then argue that the lexical and syntactic changes in these cases diverge so significantly from the model established by Tell Fekheriyeh as to exclude the possibility that these treaties constitute translational relationships.

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First published in 1999. This study starts with the reasons underlying that apparent bias of loan agreements to which developing country borrowers were parties and then develops to look at the issue of the potential benefits of having documentation evidencing developing country indebtedness provide for contractual relief for borrowers in case of adverse changes in circumstances.

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First published in 1985. Typee, originally published in 1846, was Melville's first book. Full of romance and adventure, it is also largely autobiographical. It was an immensely popular and controversial book in its day and made Melville the literary discoverer of Polynesia. It tells the story of Tommo, a sailor, and his adventures on the Marquesas Islands. The book contains much romance and action packed events in a location that is totally exotic and sensuous. There is a serious background to.the work. When Melville was in Polynesia the missionaries had already begun their work and the colonists were hard on their heels. Melville's views on the influence of the two groups and his fair portrayal of the Polynesians were the centre of the controversies which raged over its publication and led to the book's ultimate censorship in America

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First published in 1986. Fanon: In Search of the African Revolution is different from other books on Fanon in that it approaches him as both a political philosopher and political sociologist of the African experience. It suggests that Fanon's political writings be viewed in terms of his concern with how relations are structured in colonial and post-colonial Africa and the implications of those structural arrangements for political conflict in Africa. Fanon's attempt to explain the pathologies and contradictions of African politics in terms of class and the historical processes that influence and constrain class political behavior is provocative and insightful. But the moral dimension that informs Fanon's theoretical perspectives is no less important, if only because it attests to his strong advocacy of the need for revolutionary change as a condition for the restructuring of African political systems.

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The present volume aims at a comparative study of the processes of reception, rewriting and interpretation between canonical and apocryphal texts in early Jewish and early Christian literature. A closer look at the respective developments in both corpora of literature can open up new perspectives for understanding the developments and changes between texts that were already considered authoritative, and their reception in new, 'parabiblical' or 'apocryphal' compositions. The way of reception may also influence the perspective on canonical texts. The range of texts considered includes the LXX, Targumim and Pesharim, books such as Jubilees, the Genesis Apocryphon, the Gospel of Thomas, and Apocryphal Acts, traditions about Esther, Ezra, Manasseh, Peter and Paul, depictions of hell from Enoch to the Apocalypse of Paul, and the development of miracle stories.

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In this study, Robert B. Foster explores the intersection between the interpretation of Scripture and the construction of communal identities. He argues that in Rom 9, Paul applies prophetic texts from Malachi, Hosea, and Isaiah to the story of Abraham's children in Genesis. These interpretive maneuvers enable Paul to extrapolate from the patriarchal narratives a specific construal of election: it is the ironic privilege of being simultaneously God's chosen and rejected people. This understanding of election he in turn applies to Gentile Christ-followers, the remnant, and all Israel in order to build for them an all-encompassing yet differentiated Abrahamic identity for the messianic age.

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How do the truth claims of the gospel of Christ square with the biblical testimony to God's abiding election of the Jewish people? In Romans 9-11, the apostle Paul reflects deeply on this fundamental theological question. The interpretation of these chapters has long been contested, however. The present volume assesses the current state of research and opens up fresh lines of inquiry, taking into account insights generated both by the "New Perspective on Paul" and by ongoing Jewish-Christian dialogue. Twenty-six essays in English and German - representing the fields of Biblical Studies, Judaic Studies, Systematic Theology and Practical Theology - examine the theological horizons, history of interpretation, literary contexts, argumentative structure, theological themes and contemporary significance of Paul's arguments. With contributions by:Friedrich Avemarie, John M. G. Barclay, William S. Campbell, Susan Eastman, Reinhard Feldmeier, Beverly Roberts Gaventa, A. Katherine Grieb, Klaus Haacker, Wolfgang Kraus, Mark D. Nanos, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, Enno Edzard Popkes, Mark Reasoner, Wolfgang Reinbold, Martin Rothgangel, Dieter Sänger, Berndt Schaller, Frank Schleritt, Notger Slenczka, Katherine Sonderegger, R. Kendall Soulen, Christoph Stenschke, Annette Steudel, J. Ross Wagner, Florian Wilk, N. Thomas Wright

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First published in 1985. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

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One of the remarkable anomalies of Egyptian History is that the source material for the study of one of the country's principal settlements sites and one of the greatest cities of antiquity-Memphis-is comparatively scarce. The Memphite cemeteries, however, have yielded up masses of material, particularly for the Archaic Period and the Old Kingdom. In the New Kingdom, with which we are concerned in this volume, Memphis was a city of immense administrative and cultural importance, as well as being the seat of the royal court, and there seems little reason to doubt that many of the great officials and courtiers of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and to some extent the Twentieth Dynasties were buried in Saqqara, the Memphite necropolis.

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Following a scholarly conference given in honor of Adela Yarbro Collins, this collection of essays offers focused studies on the wide range of ways that women and gender contribute to the religious landscape of the ancient world. Experts in Greek and Roman religions, Early Christianity, Ancient Judaism, and Ancient Christianity engage in literary, social, historical, and cultural analysis of various ancient texts, inscriptions, social phenomena, and cultic activity. These studies continue the welcomed trend in scholarship that expands the social location of women in ancient Mediterranean religion to include the public sphere and consciousness. The result is an important and lively book that deepens the understanding of ancient religion as a whole. With contributions by:Patricia D. Ahearne-Kroll, Loveday Alexander, Mary Rose D'Angelo, Stephen J. Davis, Robert Doran, Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Carin M. C. Green, Fritz Graf, Jan Willem van Henten, Paul A. Holloway, Annette B. Huizenga, Jeremy F. Hultin, Sarah Iles Johnston, James A. Kelhoffer, Judith L. Kovacs, Outi Lehtipuu, Matt Jackson-McCabe, Candida R. Moss, Christopher N. Mount, Susan E. Myers, Clare K. Rothschild, Turid Karlsen Seim

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When was Christianity born? When was it that Christianity, born as a particular current within Judaism, constituted itself as a religion different and separate from the Jewish religion? The question has been asked, and the problem has therefore been considered, since the historical-critical investigation of Christian origins began. However the problem has become acute only in the last few decades, because of the occurrence of a whole series of circumstances and of reflections that have deeply changed the historiographic understanding regarding Judaism in the first century, and thus the origins of Christianity as well. Traditional opinion considered the founders of Christianity to be Jesus of Nazareth and Paul of Tarsus. Recent studies however affirm that a Christian religion as distinct from the Jewish religion can be spoken of only much later, and that for the entire first century, and for at least a part of the second century, Christianity was nothing more than a sect within Judaism. Dealing with the problem from an historical point of view, and thus considering not only Christianity of Jewish origin but also that of gentile origin, Giorgio Jossa demonstrates that the birth of a Christian identity as distinct from Jewish identity must actually be dated back to the first period of life of the community of Jesus.

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Zahlreiche Bundeseinrichtungen erfüllen historisch traditionsreiche Aufgaben der Ressortforschung im Gesundheitsbereich. Sie nehmen als Teile der Bundesverwaltung komplexe Relaisfunktionen zwischen Wissenschaft, Politik sowie administrativer Rechtsanwendung wahr. Manche Einrichtungen wie das Robert Koch- oder das Paul-Ehrlich-Institut haben in der Corona-Pandemie als Akteure staatlicher Wissensgenerierung breite Bekanntheit erlangt. Aber auch andere - wie das Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut oder die Bundesinstitute für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte und für Risikobewertung - verfügen über leistungsstarke Forschungsabteilungen und agieren durch Forschung und Publikation als aktive Teilnehmer im Wissenschaftsprozess. Die Untersuchung spürt der Geschichte der Einrichtungen, ihrer Funktion im demokratischen Rechtsstaat, ihrer Unabhängigkeit und ihrer Bedeutung für rechtliche Entscheidungsverfahren nach.

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Marius Heemstra argues that the "harsh" administration of the Fiscus Judaicus under the Roman emperor Domitian (81-96) and the reform of this Fiscus under the emperor Nerva (96-98), accelerated the parting of the ways between Judaism and Christianity, resulting in two separate religions.From 96 CE onwards, Roman authorities used a more pointed definition of "Jew", which made it easier for them to distinguish between Judaism (an accepted religion within the empire) and Christianity (an illegal religious movement). This parting should primarily be interpreted as a break between Jewish Christians and mainstream Judaism. Both parties claimed to be the true representatives of the continuing history of Israel. In this study, the author pays special attention to the Roman and Jewish context of the Book of Revelation, the Letter to the Hebrews, and the Gospel of John, including the debate about the birkat ha-minim.

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E.A. Judge's collection of Augustan and New Testament essays explores the intersection of the social practices of the first Christians in the eastern Mediterranean basin with the Roman world. In the first part of the collection, Judge examines the Augustan principate against the competitive culture of the republican noble houses. Because of the unparalleled ascendancy of the Julian house, Augustus progressively acquired an eschatological aura as a ruler. The imperial propaganda emphasized more his status than his official rank and presented him as the culmination of the famous republican houses, replenishing their leadership with new blood. These historical studies on Augustus and his times are invaluable not only for ancient historians but also for New Testament scholars wishing to situate Paul's letters in their Julio-Claudian context. The remainder of the collection is devoted to the collisions and social perceptions that emerged as the first Christians encountered their Jewish, Roman and Greek neighbours in various situations. Tensions and misunderstandings were inevitable because of the distinctive ethos of the first believers, the 'novelty' of their beliefs and practices, and the transformative impact of the house churches upon contemporary educational ideals and social relations.

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This book deals with issues relating to the formation of early Christian identity in the city of Ephesus, one of the major centres of the early Christian movement towards the end of the first century and the beginning of the second century CE. How diverse was the early Christian movement in Ephesus? What were its main characteristics? What held this movement together? Taking these questions as a starting point, Mikael Tellbe focuses on the social and theological diversity of this early Christian movement, the process of "the parting of the ways" - i.e. issues of ethnicity - , the influence of "deviating" groups and the quest for authority and legitimacy, as well as issues of commonality and theological unity. The author argues for a textual approach and the impact of various textual "prototypes" in the task of analyzing the process of early Christian identity formation in Ephesus.

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In this study, Jacob A. Rodriguez investigates which gospels tended to keep company with one another in early Christian reading practices. By engaging the dynamics of gospel combinations in the Gospel of Thomas, the Epistula Apostolorum, the Diatessaron, second-century Christian authors ranging from Papias to Clement of Alexandria, and early gospel manuscripts, Rodriguez identifies a center of gravity in early Christian gospel reading consisting of the Synoptics and John. While second-century Christians do not use the terms "canonical” or "noncanonical,” the gospels we now know as canonical captivated their literary imagination in a manner unparalleled by any other Jesus books. The author offers a rigorous philological, literary-critical, text-critical, artifactual, and theological reconstruction of early Christian gospel-reading culture.

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Robert Phenix investigates the collection of twelve Syriac poetic sermons recounting the story of Joseph in Genesis 37 and 39-50. The authorship of these poems has been disputed, but this is the first study to attempt to argue from all aspects of the evidence that Balai of Qenneshrin is the author. The study then examines all of the data that can be associated with Balai: the religious environment of Qenneshrin and nearby Aleppo, Balai's connections with the "monk-bishops" of central Syria in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, particularly Acacius of Beroea/Aleppo and Rabbula of Edessa, the status of chorbishops, and the presence of Syriac speakers. Since it is argued in this study that Balai's source for the Sermons on Joseph was a Jewish text, this section also carefully examines the evidence for the Jewish community in Qenneshrin. As part of the background of the author, links between characters and the physical setting of the Sermons on Joseph and Qenneshrin are investigated. The relationship of the Sermons on Joseph to other Syriac Joseph sources and Joseph material in the Pseudepigrapha and at Qumran is discussed, followed by the question of the origin of the story, which is located in a lost Greek Jewish composition. The last section of the work examines the author's use of Hellenistic rhetoric and literary themes. The many speeches in the Sermons on Joseph reveal rhetorical arrangements that are strikingly close to the models of arrangement found in Late Antique handbooks, such as the Hermogenic Corpus. Several of these arguments are examined, as are the elaborate prefaces that introduce some of the individual Sermons on Joseph. The literary themes and motifs of the Sermons on Joseph are explored. It can be shown that some motifs known only in Syriac religious literature are employed in the Sermons on Joseph in non-religious literary contexts.

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In spite of the plethora of Bonhoeffer studies there is a large lacuna regarding studies that have addressed Bonhoeffer's intellectual grounding in a thorough, comprehensive and methodical manner. Scholarly attention to this important subject matter has indeed been scarce. However, without an attempt to examine, trace, and weigh these influences in Bonhoeffer's theological formation it is hardly possible to gain a comprehensive and complete understanding of his thought. In the studies, the different authors seek to address the decisive questions and issues in this regard.As such, the essays collected in this volume have the one focal point and common scope in the thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In each of the essays, the authors discuss one or two philosophers or theologians and demonstrate how specific ideas penetrated and shaped Bonhoeffer's intellectual formation. These various studies converge on the thought of Bonhoeffer as a whole in such a way as to illuminate the growth and maturation of his own intellect vis-à-vis the philosophical and theological ideas articulated in the thinkers discussed in the essays. Put differently, the objective of the essays is to open up the intellectual window of Bonhoeffer's thought, as it were, and thereby allow more light to fall on the structure, extension and formation of that thought.

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In this study, Michael Tuval examines the religion of Flavius Josephus diachronically. The author suggests that because Diaspora Jews could not participate regularly in the cultic life of the Jerusalem Temple, they developed other paradigms of Judaic religiosity. He interprets Josephus as a Jew who began his career as a Judean priest but moved to Rome and gradually became a Diaspora intellectual. Josephus' first work, Judean War, reflects a Judean priestly view of Judaism, with the Temple and cult at the center. After these disappeared, there was not much hope left in the religious realm. Tuval also analyzes Antiquities of the Jews, which was written fifteen years later. Here the religious picture has been transformed drastically. The Temple has been marginalized or replaced by the law which is universal and perfect for all humanity. The book is optimistic about the future of Judaism, and does not hint that the absence of the Temple hinders human-divine communication. Paradoxically, in later years Josephus continued to emphasize his priestly identity. The explanation offered for this anomaly is a complex one. The author also argues that Josephus continued to see the priests as the natural leaders of post-destruction Judaism.

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It is impossible not to discuss the question of time, at least for the philosophy of religion. However, to discuss the question of time is equally impossible, as the various perspectives presented in this volume show. Then what is time? Time is not, and yet everything is within time. Time is, but neither substance nor pure form. Being a dimension of all Being, not even God could or would withdraw from time. The authors of the contributions to this volume discuss the unavoidability of time and its paradoxes, not the least with the purpose of giving time, as a recurring topic for the philosophy of religion.

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Ein ausführlicher Überblick über die Forschung seit 1930 zeigt einerseits, dass in der Paulusforschung seit längerem die Annahme vorherrscht, Paulus habe keine in sich konsistente Lehre vom Endgericht vertreten, sondern je nach Kontext auf unterschiedliche, einander teilweise widersprechende Motive zurückgegriffen. Andererseits spielt das Endgericht in der Paulusdarstellung der "New Perspective on Paul" kaum eine Rolle. Christian Stettler zeigt zunächst durch die Analyse von paulinischen Schlüsseltexten, dass Paulus nicht von unterschiedlichen oder gar widersprüchlichen "Gerichtskonzeptionen", sondern von einer in sich konsistenten Gerichtserwartung ausging. Sodann analysiert der Autor sämtliche paulinischen Aussagen und Anspielungen mit Bezug auf das Endgericht mit Hilfe der neueren kognitiven Semantik, insbesondere der Frame-Semantik, die Sprache als Zugang zu enzyklopädischen Wissenskonzepten versteht. Dadurch wird es ihm möglich, die von Paulus in seinen Anspielungen vorausgesetzte Konzeption von Endgericht detailliert zu rekonstruieren und mit anderen frühjüdischen und urchristlichen Konzeptionen zu vergleichen. In einem dritten Schritt vertieft der Autor die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse durch weitere exegetische Analysen, welche sich kritisch mit Ergebnissen der konfessionellen Paulusexegese und der "New Perspective" auseinandersetzen und zu einer differenzierteren Sicht führen.

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Between the first and sixth centuries C.E., a group of sages that scholars refer to as the rabbinic community systematized their ideas about Judaism in works such as the Mishnah and the Talmud. David M. Grossberg offers a new approach to thinking about this community's formation. Rather than seeking an occasion of origin, he examines the gradual development of the idea of an authorized rabbinic collective. The classical rabbinic texts imagine a diverse setting of Sadducees, Pharisees, sinners, and sectarians interacting in complex and changing ways with pious sages, teachers, and judges. Yet this representation aligns only vaguely with the social reality in which these ancient sages actually lived and operated. The author contends that these texts' primary aim was not to describe real rabbinic opponents but to create and enforce boundaries between piety and impiety and between legitimate and illegitimate teachings. In this way, the emerging rabbinic movement set standards of inclusion and exclusion in the community of righteous Israel and established the bounds of the community aspiring to lead them, the rabbinic community itself.

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In what sense, if any, can one speak of Jesus' divinity in Mark's Gospel? Traditional approaches to this subject have been preoccupied with questions about historical precedents in the Greco-Roman imperial cult, the intertextuality of the gospels, the status of the so-called intermediary figures, and the strict or flexible nature of Jewish monotheism without a conceptual framework for examining identity uniqueness and unity of identity. In this interdisciplinary monograph, Beniamin Pascut employs a theory from the social sciences to re-evaluate a long-standing debate about Jesus' divinity and authority to forgive sins, arguing that Mark's Jesus is not just a divine being, but one who is included in the identity of the One God. This argument unfolds along five chapters that explore YHWH's divine identity in ancient Judaism, philosophical insights about forgiveness, the link between YHWH's divinity and authority to forgive, the possibility of third-party forgiveness in other Jewish primary sources, and Jesus' authority to forgive in Mark 2:1-12.

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The columns referred to as Jachin and Boaz are certainly one of the most controversial features of the First Temple of Jerusalem. In this volume, Daniel Prokop examines the appearance and the meaning of the twin pillars by approaching them from different perspectives. He investigates the epigraphic evidence from Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Syria-Palestine, defines the relationship between the six different descriptions in the Hebrew Bible, and compares the most important textual witnesses of 1 Kgs 7,15-22, which will provide insight into the narrative development and transmission history of the texts. Studying iconographic data, the author explores a unique way to achieve a better understanding of the material, dimensions, names, location, and decoration of the pillars.

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Using the method of narrative analysis, Nicolas Farelly examines the characterisation of the disciples in the Fourth Gospel, focusing on their faith and understanding. After studying the disciples as a group in the sequence of the narrative, he focuses on five individual disciples (Peter, Judas, the Beloved Disciple, Thomas, and Mary Magdalene), and concludes that the disciples are portrayed as believing and as having life from early on in the narrative, but as struggling to understand the identity, words, and mission of Jesus until the pivotal event of his glorification. The author shows that the characterisation of the disciples plays an important role in communicating the rhetorical purpose of the Fourth Gospel. Through a process of identification with the disciples, the implied readers' faith and understanding are nurtured in order to better equip them for their own witnessing activity.

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The authors of this volume rethink our usual understanding of the relationship between faith, belief and skepticism. For some, "skeptical faith" is an oxymoron and faith and skepticism are mutually exclusive states or attitudes. Others argue that there is no proper faith without skepticism about faith. Taking John Schellenberg's recent work on the possibility of a "skeptical faith" as a starting point, the authors respond to and in some cases seek to go further than Schellenberg. In a variety of ways, the papers take up the following questions: How are we to construe the relationship between faith, belief, and skepticism if we seek to understand what is characteristic of a life of faith, or of unfaith? Is belief in God necessary for faith in God to be possible? Does one need to have sufficient reasons for believing something before one is rationally entitled to having faith in something? In short, what is the relationship between faith and belief, belief and understanding, understanding and experience, and experience and skepticism?

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This collection of essays is partly the product of a symposium that took place at Humboldt University, Berlin in July 2010. It was supplemented by other articles which contributed further relevant aspects to the overall topic. The aim of the conference was to explore the longstanding conundrum of the rapid rise and growth of Christianity in the first three centuries CE. This well-studied question finds a special home in the city of Berlin where, at the beginning of the last century, Adolf von Harnack, Professor at Friedrich Wilhelms University (today Humboldt University) Berlin carried out what was arguably its most famous treatment. According to Harnack, early Christian history began in the missionary activity of contemporary Judaism. The movement spread as the result of a combination of deliberate syncretism with a measure of simplicity in the cultural and political unity of the Roman Empire. Over the past thirty years, scholars such as Ramsey MacMullen and Rodney Stark have questioned some of Harnack's conclusions. Arising from outside of the field of New Testament Studies (Ancient History and Sociology of Religion, respectively), both MacMullen's and Stark's approach remained at some distance from specialist understandings of, for example, complex theological and rhetorical aspects of early Christian texts. Therefore, in the wake of these important studies, a variety of new strategies have emerged taking these and other vital concerns into account. The essays in this volume represent these assorted approaches. Methodological rigor is the only unambiguous theme running throughout this otherwise diverse collection. The essays are collected under two broad sub-headings: Cultural Milieu and Texts. Topics treated include Paul, Jesus and the Gospels, other New Testament texts, the Apocryphal Acts, and the expansion of Christianity in the second and third centuries.

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In this study, Jonathan S. Milgram demonstrates that the transformation of inheritance law from the biblical to the tannaitic period is best explained against the backdrop of the legal and social contexts in which the tannaitic laws were formulated. Employing text and source critical methods, he argues that, in the absence of the hermeneutic underpinnings for tannaitic innovations, the laws were not the result of the rabbinic imagination and its penchant for inventive interpretation of Scripture. Turning to the rich repositories in biblical, ancient near eastern, Second Temple, Greek, Elephantine, Judean desert, and Roman sources, the author searches for conceptual parallels and antecedents as well as formulae and terminology adopted and adapted by the tannaim. Since the tannaitic traditions reflect the social and economic contexts of the tannaitic period - the nuclear family on privatized landholdings in urban centers - the author also considers the degree to which tannaitic inheritance laws may have emerged out of these contexts.

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This volume is the first to explore ancient and Byzantine Greek emotions from a comparative and synoptic perspective. A distinguished international cast of 17 authors deploys the methodologies of Classics, Byzantine Studies, and emotion history to uncover the complex interactions between ancient and Byzantine emotionology. Its wide-ranging chapters shed new light on the Byzantine emotional universe and its impact on medieval and early modern culture and explore the reception and influence of ancient emotion concepts in Byzantine sources. Textual sources are given due prominence, but the volume also investigates wider phenomena such as visual and material culture, performance, ritual, and the creation of emotional landscapes.

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Faith, freedom, and family together form the bedrock of a good life and a just society. But this foundation has suffered seismic shocks from vibrant religious pluralism, profound political changes, and new conceptions of marriage. This volume retrieves the major legal and theological teachings that have shaped these institutions and suggests ways to strengthen and integrate them anew. Part I highlights the work of several scholars of law and religion who have defined and defended the place of faith in law, politics, and society. Part II documents the development of freedom in the West and parries the attacks of skeptics of modern rights. Part III reaffirms the family as a cornerstone of faith and freedom historically and today, even while defending some modern marital reforms. Opening essays by the editors and closing interviews of the author place Witte's work in biographical and intellectual context and map some of the new frontiers and challenges of faith, freedom, and family around the globe.

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Andrea Vestrucci presents a pioneering perspective on Luther and Erasmus's theological dispute on freedom. He argues that Luther's "De servo arbitrio" does not simply negate Erasmus's concept of freedom; rather, and more profoundly, Luther's work questions and modifies the logical foundations of Erasmus's position. As a result, theology is the freedom to challenge the formal conditions of meaning. In accordance with this new perspective, the author introduces groundbreaking analyses of central theological issues, such as God's hiddenness ( Deus absconditus), justification, predestination, and theodicy. Moreover, he addresses topics of current debate, from the relationship between Luther and Kant to the ontological interpretation of Luther, to the existentialist approach in theology.

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Björn P. Ebert analyses forum shopping in international investment law. He focuses on investment treaty and investment contract arbitration, and concludes that forum shopping is legal and legitimate as long as it is not subject to particular limitations derived from applicable law. He assumes that forum shopping is generally a legitimate procedural technique that both parties to the dispute may employ in order to maximise the protection offered to international investment by international law. To validate the underlying thesis, the author analyses and differentiates between different manifestations of forum shopping. The main manifestations are categorised in three categories: forum planning, forum enhancement, and facilitation of procedure. Each category contains different forum shopping techniques. Björn P. Ebert examines and defines limitations for each category, as well as the manifestations of forum shopping that are assigned to them. He thereby addresses several issues of international investment arbitration that are essential to the perceived problem of forum shopping.

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