Search results for ""JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck)""

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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N. T. Wright's Paul and the Faithfulness of God is the culmination of his long, influential, and often controversial career - a landmark study of the history and thought of the Apostle Paul, which attempts to make fresh suggestions in a variety of sub-fields of New Testament studies. This volume brings together a group of international scholars to critically weigh and assess an array of issues in Wright's work, including methodology, first-century contextual factors, exegetical findings, and theological implications. In so doing, the volume's contributors bring these facets of Paul and the Faithfulness of God into dialogue with the current state of scholarship in both Anglophone and German contexts. It thus offers both a critical evaluation of Wright's accomplishment as well as an excellent overview of and introduction to issues that are hotly debated within contemporary Pauline studies.

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Courtney J. P. Friesen explores shifting boundaries of ancient religions by way of the reception of a popular tragedy, Euripides' Bacchae. As a play staging political crises provoked by the arrival of the "foreign" god Dionysus and his ecstatic cult, audiences and readers found resonances with their own cultural moments. This dramatic deity became emblematic of exuberant and liberating spirituality and, at the same time, a symbol of imperial conquest. Thus, readings of the Bacchae frequently foreground conflicts between religious autonomy and political authority, and between ethnic diversity and social cohesion. This cross-disciplinary study traces appropriations and evocations of this drama ranging from the fifth century BCE through Byzantium not only among "pagans" but also Jews and Christians. Writers variously articulated their religious visions over against Dionysus, often while paradoxically adopting the god's language and symbols. Consequently, imitation and emulation are at times indistinguishable from polemics and subversion.This work was awarded the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise 2016.

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In this monograph Peter Dubovský explores the biblical and extra-biblical material in order to determine whether the pre-exilic temple underwent any reconstructions. The study of ancient Near Eastern material provides a background to how and why temples changed. The author's work is dedicated to the study of notes and comments spread over various parts of the Bible. He argues that there is enough evidence to prove that the pre-exilic temple of Jerusalem underwent important changes. What then can we say about 1 Kings 6-8 that attribute the construction of the temple in its full glory to Solomon? Thumbing through the commentaries on 1 Kings is sufficient to persuade even the most casual reader that the text is full of problems. The syntax is often incomprehensible, the grammar is unclear, and above all the different manuscripts disagree on the description of the first temple. Peter Dubovský's basic presupposition is that since the temple represented the most important building/institution in ancient Israel, it was only natural that the texts describing the temple underwent several redactions and were often glossed. He synthetizes the results and proposes a chronological development of the temple of Jerusalem as well as a minimalist version and also ventures to offer a more nuanced model. This conclusion, on the one hand, should be ultimately confronted with the results of archaeological excavation once they become available; on the other hand, this study can point to some nuances that only a text can preserve and no archaeologist can ever unearth.

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Repetition has had a chequered and often negative reception in Christian history, especially in connection with ritual and liturgy, and the Letter to the Hebrews lies at the heart of this contested understanding. Nicholas Moore shows that repetition in Hebrews does not operate in uniform contrast to the once-for-all death of Christ but rather functions in a variety of ways, many of them constructive. The singularity of the Christ event is elucidated with reference to the once-yearly Day of Atonement to express all-surpassing theological sufficiency, and repetition can contrast or coexist with this unique event. In particular, Moore argues that the daily Levitical sacrifices foreshadow the Christian's continual access to and worship of God. This reappraisal of repetition in Hebrews lays foundations for renewed appreciation of repetition's importance for theological discourse and religious life.

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In the middle decades of the second century AD the acclaimed orator Aelius Aristides wrote a number of prose hymns to traditional Greek gods and thereby demonstrated that the cults of these gods had not yet become obsolete and were more than just a topic of backward-looking paideia. This volume presents four of these texts, specifically those that focus on the god of healing, Asclepius, together with a new edition of the Greek text, a new English translation with commentary, and a number of essays shedding additional light on these texts from various perspectives. All in all, the volume wants to show how in these texts of Aristides the author's rhetorical skills, his outlook on the world and his personal religiosity come together to form a remarkable whole.

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Derek R. Brown sheds new light on a subject often overlooked in New Testament studies - the references to the figure of Satan in the undisputed Pauline letters. He contends that the references to Satan are best understood when considered in light of Paul's apocalyptic theology and apostolic responsibility to his churches. Drawing on an analysis of these two interpretive categories - as well as a discussion of the various images of "Satan" in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Jewish traditions - the author concludes that Paul fundamentally characterizes Satan in his letters as the apocalyptic adversary who opposes his apostolic labor (κόπος), which, critically, includes his churches. Paul does so, it is argued, because he believes that the success of his apostleship is pivotal for the spreading of the gospel at a crucial point in salvation history.

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Much attention has been devoted to Paul's quotations from the Old Testament, but little attention has been given to Paul's use of biblical narratives. The most extensive use of scripture in 1 Corinthians involves an allusion to Israel's exodus (10:1-22), which contains only one quotation (1 Cor 10:7). Since there is much debate on how to identify scriptural allusions, Carla Works examines two passages where there is overwhelming scholarly consensus regarding the presence of exodus imagery: 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 and 10:1-22. These passages, therefore, provide an ideal place to consider how Paul is using Israel's exodus traditions to instruct a predominantly non-Jewish congregation. The author argues that the exodus tradition, a tradition used to bolster Israel's identity and to teach Israel about the identity of God, is reinterpreted by Paul in light of Christ and is employed to foster the identity formation of the Corinthians as the church of "one God and one Lord" (1 Cor 8:6).

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The contributors of this volume address the question of identity among Christ-believers from the viewpoint of prayer. Prayer brings into the discussion several dimensions that make up religious identity. It is attested rather early that prayer was theology performed, and thus intertwined with emerging theologies. Furthermore, prayer was Christocentric in orientation and focus. As of yet, these aspects have not received due attention in scholarly discussions. Christian identity, albeit fragile and complex, was taking shape already in the first century and found itself on the verge between textual phenomenon and social realities. The texts had an impact on those who were exposed to them, in creating representations of social reality, but were not to be identified with that reality. Texts on prayer are prescriptive in that they recommend certain notions of Christian identity, with the addressees invited to embrace certain ways of thinking and acting. The present volume looks into that process.

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This collection of essays contains the papers given at the Sixth International East-West Symposium of New Testament Scholars in Belgrade, Serbia. The symposium was a project of the Eastern Europe Liaison Committee of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas. Main subject matters of the volume are the Holy Spirit in New Testament writings (particularly Luke-Acts, the Gospel of John and Paul), the reception and interpretation of biblical texts about the Holy Spirit in patristic theology, ancient Christian liturgy and iconography, and reflection on the role of the Holy Spirit in church life. Contributions from seminars are devoted to extra-biblical ancient Jewish and early Christian sources. All topics are discussed from a "Western" (Protestant and Roman-Catholic) theological and exegetical perspective as well as from an Orthodox point of view. An introduction reflects the results of the symposium, sketches recent research on the Holy Spirit in the New Testament scholarship and briefly points to texts and problems belonging to the topic but not dealt with in the volume.

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Bradley W. Root offers a thorough re-examination of the relevant literary and archaeological evidence for first century Galilee. Root argues that previous scholarship on Galilee has generally failed to make appropriate distinctions between the different sources of information for the region's history. He therefore adopts a strict method of historical inquiry, evaluating each of the relevant literary sources and the archaeological evidence discretely before interpreting the evidence collectively. Root concludes with a historical reconstruction of first century Galilee, arguing that the region was politically stable until the Great Revolt of 66 CE. He also illustrates that Galilean culture was substantially influenced by Judean culture and that Galilee had significantly fewer socio-economic problems than Judea. He contends that the Jewish communities along the Sea of Galilee developed their own distinct regional culture.

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The authors of this volume explore various instances of theo-political visions of authoritative texts in Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism, and Early Christianity, and as such offer a broader perspective on the topos "sacred texts in their context." Instead of a narrow exploration of the "political intent" of a singular text or group of texts, the volume contains the treatment of a wide range of texts, out of different corpora, with their discrete contexts. Their juxtaposition, as well as that of the respective scholarly approaches of the essays, offers fresh insights on the matter. Each of the essays in the collection addresses the issue of oppressive imperial ideology and the extent to which the authors of sacred texts engaged their political contexts, and eight of the essays specifically present reactions to the Roman Empire.

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Pyrrhonian skepticism has gradually gained a stellar reputation. Rather than being dismissed as extremist and evidently implausible, as it often was in the past, it is now recognized as a philosophically sophisticated outlook, sympathetic to today's commitment to science as a long-term enterprise. Ancient skepticism is now seen as an important position in the history of philosophy and as addressing core questions in epistemology. It is worthwhile to be studied by anyone interested in the nature of investigation, knowledge, belief, language and action. Leading experts contribute to this volume, which offers a philosophical introduction, translation and commentary as well as scholarly essays on one of the most important texts about Pyrrhonian skepticism, Diogenes Laertius' report about Pyrrho and Timon in his Lives of Eminent Philosophers.

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Over the last decades, private international law has become the target of intense codification efforts. Inspired by the stimulating initiatives taken by some European countries, by the Brussels Convention and the Rome Convention, numerous countries in other regions of the world started to enact comprehensive legislation in the field. Among them are Taiwan and mainland China. Both adopted statutes on private international law in 2010. In light of the rising significance of the mutual economic and societal relations between the jurisdictions involved and of the legal innovations laid down in the new instruments, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law convened scholars to present the conflict rules adopted in Europe, in mainland China and in Taiwan across a whole range of private law subjects. This book collects the papers of the conference and presents them to the public, together with English translations of the acts of Taiwan and mainland China.

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William D. Barker analyzes a wide array of possible ancient Near Eastern backgrounds to Isaiah 24-27. He finds that there is a uniquely Ugaritic background to the chapters, with evidence of a literary framework and narrative progression that has been intentionally adopted and creatively adapted from either the Ba'al Myth (KTU 1.1-1.6) itself or a shared tradition between ancient Ugarit and ancient Israel. Barker also closely examines Isaiah 24-27 in the light of the Ugaritic material and thereby contributes to the resolution of some of the historic questions about the interpretation, genre, dating, and function of Isaiah 24-27. A new epithet for the chapters is also proposed.

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What is the relationship between the preeminent, cosmos-reconciling 'Christ' of Col 1:15-20 and the imprisoned 'Paul' of 1:24-29, who enigmatically 'completes' the former's afflictions as he declares to 'every person' the mystery, long concealed but only now revealed by Israel's God to his holy ones? After finding solid exegetical ground through an unprecedented and exhaustive study of the rare verb antanaplēroō (in 1.24), Bruce Clark tackles this most intriguing, if challenging question. He argues that Col 1, in accord with 2 Cor 5:18-6:4, presents Paul as the utterly unique diakonos ('minister') of the universal ekklēsia and, therefore, as one whose afflictions uniquely complete Christ's own, so that together, revealing the righteousness of God, they initiate the divine reconciliation of 'all things.'

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In this book, Robert J. Foster explores James' use of his four characters from Jewish history and tradition (Abraham, Rahab, Job and Elijah) and considers their collective as well as individual functions in the composition. He concludes that each of the four exemplars was tested to the extreme (albeit in very different ways) yet remained wholly-committed to God. By reason of that commitment each exemplar became an outsider in both their cultural and historical contexts. 'James' urges his audience to emulate these exemplars in their less extreme tests of daily life by rejecting the values of the world and living according to the reinterpreted Torah of Jesus Christ.

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Traditions about Jesus in the early Christian sources (primarily the canonical gospels, but also in Paul's letters, non-canonical gospels and other texts) can provide valuable information about Jesus; but they can also show us how early Christians used these traditions to inform and address their own situations and contexts. The 28 essays by Christopher Tuckett collected in this volume represent a number of studies, originally published over a period of 30 years, seeking to throw light on the way in which Jesus traditions were developed and used in early Christianity. In the first four essays the author focuses on a number of aspects of the Synoptic Problem, seeking to defend a form of the Two Source Theory. A substantial part of the book comprises over 10 essays about the Sayings Source "Q", discussing its existence, its possible pre-history, its language, as well as key features and theological aspects of the material it contains. Three essays discuss Jesus traditions found in Paul's letters, asking what light they might throw on similar material also contained in the gospel tradition. Two essays focus on the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas, its possible relationship to the canonical gospels and issues about how much light it might shed on the historical Jesus. A number of essays in the final part of the volume discuss different aspects of the individual synoptic gospels. A feature of many of the essays in the collection here is to focus on the question of Christology in general, and the use of the term "Son of Man" in particular.

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The Dead Sea Scrolls include many texts that were produced by a sectarian movement (and also many that were not). The movement had its origin in disputes about the interpretation of the Scriptures, especially the Torah, not in disputes about the priesthood as had earlier been assumed. The definitive break with the rest of Judean society should be dated to the first century BCE rather than to the second. While the Scrolls include few texts that are explicitly historical, they remain a valuable resource for historical reconstruction. John J. Collins illustrates how the worldview of the sect involved a heightened sense of involvement in the heavenly, angelic world, and the hope for an afterlife in communion with the angels. While the ideology of the sect known from the Scrolls is very different from that of early Christianity, the two movements drew on common traditions, especially those found in the Hebrew Scriptures.

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The story of how humans and all living things came into existence is told in two widely believed versions: the Book of Genesis and Darwin's Origin of Species. It was the philosopher Karl Popper who presented us with a third story, no less important. His New Interpretation of Darwinism denies the creative power of blind chance and natural selection and establishes knowledge and activity of all living beings as the real driving forces of evolution. Thus, spiritual elements are back in the theory of evolution, and in Popper's view "the entire evolution is an adventure of the mind."In this book, Hans-Joachim Niemann establishes Karl Popper as an eminent philosopher of biology. In the first chapter, biographical details are unearthed concerning how Popper's biological interests were inspired by a biological meeting in the old windmill at Hunstanton in 1936. The second chapter focusses on the year 1986 when Popper, in several lectures, summarized the results of his life-long biological thinking. The most important of these, the Medawar Lecture given at the Royal Society London, was lost for a long time and is now printed in the Appendix. A new world view begins to emerge that is completely different from Creationism or Darwinism.Twenty years after Popper's death, the last chapter looks back on his biological thoughts in the light of new results of molecular biology. His attack at that time on long-lasting dogmas of evolutionary theory turned out to be largely justified. The new biology seems even well suited to support Popper's endeavour to overcome the gloomy aspects of Darwinism that have made organisms passive parts of a machinery of deadly competition. Neither blind chance nor natural selection are the creative forces of all life, but rather knowledge and activity. How they came into existence is still a secret and a worthwhile research programme.

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Ezekiel studies are flourishing. The 27 essays collected in this volume were first presented at two symposia on the theme "Ezekiel in International Perspective" at the Society of Biblical Literature conferences in St Andrews and Vienna. The principal aim was to widen contact, cultivate understanding, and foster collaboration between international colleagues who, though working on the same ancient text, possess diverse points of view and operate from different methodological frames. The meetings allowed moments of introspection, providing the freedom and opportunity to reflect on questions of appropriate evidence, suitable methodology, and argumentative plausibility by juxtaposing papers from diverse perspectives. The resulting collection is a portrait of the discipline in the present and a prospectus for future research.

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The mythical story of fallen angels preserved in 1 Enoch and related literature was influential during the Second Temple period. This myth, initially attested in the Enochic Book of Watchers and picked up in further parts of 1 Enoch, was received in writings composed in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek, and had a profound impact on streams of religious thought in the western and oriental world, as well as in Africa. This volume collects studies by Loren T. Stuckenbruck that explore aspects of this influence in some of the literature and demonstrate how it was reused and adapted to address new cultural and religious contexts ( Book of Giants, Book of Jubilees, Dead Sea Scrolls, Book of Tobit, Book of Daniel, Genesis Apocryphon, Philo). In addition, apart from whether influence of the fallen angels' tradition can be established, Stuckenbruck analyses the degree to which it offers a theological framework through which to reconsider theological approaches to several New Testament texts (Synoptic Gospels, Gospel of John, Acts, Pauline texts, and the Book of Revelation). Themes covered in the essays include demonology, prominent evil figures, giants, exorcism, petitionary prayer, the birth and activity of Jesus, the holy Spirit, conversion of Gentiles, "apocalyptic" and the understanding of time, and theological anthropology.

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The Documentary Hypothesis, which in the 20th century was the standard theory to explain the development of the Pentateuch, has been challenged from different angles. One important text corpus where new proposals have been brought into the debate is the Book of Numbers. The articles in this volume address the formation of the Book of Numbers from the earliest to the latest strata. They focus on topics like the source-critical placement of the texts in Deuteronomy that retell events from Numbers, the status of the late priestly halakhic legal adaptations and their relation to the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the search for the redactor(s) who combined the Priestly and the non-priestly material, the relation to the Book of Joshua, and the status of the very late additions that formed the Pentateuch as Torah for the community. Thus, the volume contributes to the discussion on the normative background and identity formation in the late Persian period. Special attention is also given to the composition of the final text of the Book of Numbers and its understanding of law and narrative.The authors, among them outstanding researchers in the field, partially contributed to a symposium on the topic "Torah in the Book of Numbers" at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, held on April 12-13, 2011.

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The Greek word ekklesia originally meant the civic assembly of all citizens in the classical Greek democracy. Young-Ho Park argues that the strong civic connotation of this term continued to operate in the political culture of the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The use of ekklesia in second-temple Judaism should also be understood as part of this political culture in which the Jews were substantially incorporated. By adopting this civic term in his letters to his local Gentile congregations, Paul effectively created a symbolic universe in which the Christ worshippers saw themselves as the honorable citizens who represented the city before God. This civic nature of the community was also used as Paul's solution to the Corinthian problem, especially with regard to the Lord's Supper, and provided an organizational principle for the local communities.

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The Patriarchs of the Jews were remarkable not only because they governed much of Palestine in late antiquity, collected taxes from and sent emissaries to Jews across the Roman Empire, acted as the representative of both Palestinian and diaspora Jewry to the Roman imperial government, and achieved great prominence in Roman society. They were remarkable also because they led the Jews for more than two centuries while maintaining the Patriarchate as a family affair. This book is the first examination of the Patriarchate as a hereditary dynasty, a series of men in a specific social structure rather than an institution or office. Alan Appelbaum draws on Jewish, Christian and pagan sources, including Roman law, which has not previously been utilized as it is here. To uncover the origins of the Patriarchate's dynastic features, the author starts by considering when and how the position and the roles of the Patriarchs began. Using comparative material about succession to high office as a framework, he then examines available sources to reconstruct the dynasty of the Patriarchs and the relationships among them Patriarch by Patriarch, providing data about actors and events as well as about the Patriarchate's dynastic structure. In the course of this examination, Appelbaum makes the first sustained inquiry in over a century into the supposed Davidic and Hillelite ancestry of the dynasty, and refutes the claim that there were two Patriarchs named Judah Nesiah. Finally, he compares the Patriarchate to other real and supposed dynasties in order to locate it among the various family arrangements of its period.

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This collection of Daniel Boyarin's previously uncollected essays on the Talmud represents the different methods and lines of inquiry that have animated his work on that text over the last four decades. Ranging and changing from linguistic work to work on sex and gender to the relations between formative Judaism and Christianity to the literary genres of the Talmud in the Hellenistic context, he gives an account of multiple questions and provocations to which that prodigious book gives stimulation, showing how the Talmud can contribute to all of these fields. The book opens up possibilities for study of the Talmud using historical, classical, philological, anthropological, cultural studies, gender, and literary theory and criticism. As a kind of intellectual autobiography, it is a record of the alarums and excursions of a life in the Talmud.

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This volume gathers contributions from both junior and senior scholars whose studies have developed in dialogue with Elaine Pagels' work on Nag Hammadi literature and ancient heresiology. Published initially in 1979, Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels represents a landmark of scholarship in religious studies. It not only made the Nag Hammadi writings and Gnosticism popular topics in modern culture, it also invited scholars to rethink early Christianity from new perspectives. What were previously seen as dry theological arguments and intricate Gnostic mythologies received new interpretations in the Gnostic Gospels as echoes of political debates about orthodoxy and heresy, clerical authority, martyrdom and gender.After The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels extended her research in various directions, from perceptions of sexuality in early Christianity and identity politics in the Christian creation of the "Satan figure" to ancient biblical interpretations, ritual in Nag Hammadi texts, and, recently, the Gospel of Judas and ancient apocalypses. The studies included in this volume engage each stage of Pagels' vast trajectory, and provide critical evaluations of the field of "Gnosticism studies" as it has developed over the past four decades, in the subfields of the "Sethian" and "Valentinian" schools, and beyond. The studies include new interpretations of the Nag Hammadi texts and fresh analyses of ancient heresiological literature.

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Mark A. Awabdy provides a nuanced and extensive understanding of the noun גר ( gēr, engl. immigrant) in the book of Deuteronomy (D). He argues that a precise reconstruction of the historical referents of D's gēr is impossible and has led scholars to misread or overlook literary, theological, and sociological determinants. By analyzing D's gēr texts and contexts, evidence emerges for: the non-Israelite and non-Judahite origins of D's gēr ; the distinction between the gēr in D's prologue-epilogue and legal core; and the different meanings and origins of D's "gēr -in-Egypt" and "'ebed -in-Egypt" formulae. Awabdy further contends that D's revision of Exodus' Decalogue and Covenant Code and independence from H reveal D's tendencies to accommodate the gēr and interface the gēr with YHWH's redemption of Israel. He concludes by defining how D integrates the gēr into the community of YHWH's people.

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Volker Rabens answers the question of how, according to the apostle Paul, the Holy Spirit enables religious-ethical life. In the first part of the book, the author discusses the established view that the Spirit is a material substance which transforms people ontologically by virtue of its physical nature. In order to assess this "Stoic" reading of Paul, the author examines all the passages from the Hebrew Bible, early Judaism, Hellenism and Paul that have been put forward in support of this concept of ethical enabling. He concludes that there is no textual evidence in early Judaism or Paul that the Spirit was conceived as a material substance. Furthermore, none of these or any of the Graeco-Roman writings show that ethical living derives from the transformation of the "substance" of the person that is imbued with a physical Spirit. The second part of the study offers a fresh approach to the ethical work of the Spirit which is based on a relational concept of Paul's theology. Rabens argues that it is primarily through initiating and sustaining an intimate relationship with God the Father, Jesus Christ, and with the community of faith that the Spirit transforms and empowers people for ethical living. The author establishes this thesis on the basis of an exegetical study of a variety of passages from the Pauline corpus. In addition, he demonstrates that Paul lived in a context in which this dynamic of ethical empowering was part of the religious framework of various Jewish groups.Reviews of the first edition:"Rabens's book is a model of thorough research, lucid argument, and careful exegesis."Peter Orr in Themelios 35 (2010), pp. 452-455"Overall Rabens has provided us with a fascinating and convincing account of how the process of 'walking in the Spirit' takes place."Gary W. Burnett in Journal for the Study of the New Testament 33.5 (2011), p. 84"To conclude, I recommend this monograph for three reasons. One, it is truly a 'model' thesis in that it accomplishes its aims with clarity and simplicity. Secondly, it provides an excellent survey of Pauline pneumatology and ethics. Lastly, another benefit of this monograph is the intentional bridging of continental and English NT scholarship."Carsten Lotz in LST - InSight Spring 2011, p. 17"This is a beautifully written book, detailed, stimulating and fresh. Its central thesis is strongly argued and makes an important contribution to understanding Paul's ethics, theology and pneumatology."Jane Heath in The Expository Times 123 (2011), p. 138"R.'s study is remarkably comprehensive and well-informed."Gitte Buch-Hansen in Theologische Revue 108 (2012), pp. 118-119"Rabens's relational approach is carefully argued and will be of particular use to specialists in Pauline pneumatology and ethics, although the implications [...] will cause this study to be of interest to other specializations within Pauline studies in particular and biblical studies in general (e.g., cosmology, anthropology, soteriology)."Matthew P. O'Reilly in Religious Studies Review 38 (2012), pp. 20-21"And here is the strength Rabens' work offers us. Not only is The Holy Spirit and Ethics in Paul the work of a competent Neutestamentler who is able to realistically place Paul in both his traditional and contemporary context, but it is also a model of what effective biblical theology can offer the Church in a wider conversation."Mark Saucy in Journal of Biblical and Pneumatological Research 4 (2012), pp. 109-122"Overall, R. provides a fascinating and convincing account of the work of the Spirit in the ethical transformation of the individual."Archie T. Wright in Journal for the Study of Judaism 44 (2013), pp. 117-118"Systematisch klar, begrifflich hochpräzise und mit einem Interesse weckenden Spannungsbogen im Aufbau seiner Arbeit nähert sich Rabens einem 'Glaubensthema' und beschreitet dabei den Weg von der Frage zu den Texten. […] Von der Gründlichkeit des Autors zeugt schließlich ein über 50-seitiger Appendix, der die Forschungsgeschichte der letzten 140 Jahre zum Thema 'Paulus und Ethik' aufarbeitet." Hildegard Scherer in Biblische Zeitschrift 56 (2012), S. 306"In der Paulus-Forschung wird die Beziehungs-Dimension in jüngerer Zeit zu Recht stärker wahrgenommen. In diesem Rahmen bietet Rabens' Arbeit eine wichtige und meines Erachtens notwendige Auseinandersetzung mit einem Paradigma der Paulus-Forschung, die zu Korrekturen nötigt."Stefan Schreiber in Biblische Notizen 152 (2012), S. 141

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Many consider the gospel of Matthew to be one of the most "Jewish" texts of the New Testament. Luke-Acts, on the other hand, has traditionally been viewed as a very "Greek" and Gentile-Christian text. Isaac W. Oliver challenges this dichotomy, reading Matthew and Luke-Acts not only against their Jewish "background" but as early Jewish literature. He explores the question of Torah praxis, especially its ritual aspects, in each writing. By assessing their attitude toward three central markers of Jewish identity - Sabbath, kashrut, and circumcision - Oliver argues that both Matthew and Luke affirm the perpetuation of Torah observance within the Jesus movement, albeit by differentiating which Mosaic commandments are incumbent upon Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus. Luke proves to be just as "Jewish" as his cousin Matthew in so far as his affirmation of the Mosaic Torah is concerned. The evidence in both Matthew and Luke-Acts suggests that Jewish practices such as the Sabbath and even circumcision continued to enjoy a prominent status in the Jesus movement even after 70 CE, and that Jewish followers of Jesus played an important and integral role in the formation of the ekklesia well throughout the latter third of the first century CE.

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Over the course of his distinguished career, the late Graham Stanton, former Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, wrote extensively on New Testament and early Christian themes. This volume presents a collection of twenty-six essays, including one previously unpublished, and encompasses some of his most prominent contributions to scholarship. Stanton's work as an interpreter of the Gospel of Matthew is well known, and thus Part I includes seven essays on Matthew. Part II ('New Testament Studies') collects twelve studies on various New Testament themes, ranging from the exegetical to the methodological and programmatic. Toward the end of his life, Stanton was engaged in writing a book on Justin Martyr in the context of early Christian and Jewish dialogue. Though he did not live to complete the project, he published a number of preliminary studies that are included in Part III, together with a previously unpublished paper investigating 'Justin on Martyrdom and Suicide'.

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This volume is the result of an interdisciplinary study that delves into both ancient historiography and the New Testament. DooHee Lee surveys characteristics of the 'tragic history' style employed by ancient Greek, Jewish, and Latin historians such as Herodotus, Thucydides, Phylarchus, Polybius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Josephus, Livy and more. Readers will learn what the 'tragic history' style is about and how popular it was among ancient historians. After this, the author examines how Luke-Acts adopts this particular historiographical style as an effective means of communication of the Gospel message to the world. Overall, this book will enable its readers to experience history and the New Testament simultaneously. Many stories excerpted and described by DooHee Lee will be interesting to readers in general as well as to researchers of Greco-Roman historiography and the New Testament.

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Gunnar Samuelsson investigates the philological aspects of how ancient Greek, Latin and Hebrew/Aramaic texts depict crucifixions. A survey of the texts shows that there has been too narrow a view of the "crucifixion" terminology. The various terms do not only refer to "crucify" and "cross." They are used much more diversely. Hence, most of the crucifixion accounts that scholars cite in the ancient literature have to be rejected, leaving only a few."Gunnar Samuelsson has a rare distinction, for his work received attention, perhaps even notoriety, prior to its publication. Apart from the reports on subject specific blogs, the content of this thesis was being communicated through global media outlets such as CNN and Pravda. […] The breadth of primary data assembled will be of great benefit to subsequent generations of scholars."Paul Foster in The Expository Times 123 (3) 2011, 122-124

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Scheduled to appear in 10 volumes, the scholarly edition of Cotton Mather's Biblia Americana (1693-1728) makes available for the first time the oldest comprehensive commentary on the Bible composed in British North America. Combining encyclopaedic discussions of biblical scholarship with scientific speculations and pietistic concerns, the Biblia represents one of the most significant untapped sources in American religious and intellectual history. Mather's commentary not only reflects the growing influence of Enlightenment thought (Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, and Newton) and the rise of the transatlantic evangelical awakening; it also marks the beginnings of historical criticism of the Bible as text in New England. The third volume of the Biblia Americana contains some 1250 of Mather's "illustrations," as he called them, on the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. It follows volumes presenting Mather's extensive commentaries on Genesis (vol. 1) and on Exodus through Deuteronomy (vol. 2, will be published in 2016), both edited by Reiner Smolinski. These entries reveal Mather as a sacred historian, marshaling an array of approaches and disciplines to illuminate and defend the Scripture accounts. He revisits certain themes throughout such as idols and idolatry, parallels between the Hebrew Bible and the history and mythology of "pagan" cultures, and typological significations of events and characters. Other topics warranted sustained attention in a long entry or a series of entries, such as accounts of when the sun stood still, human sacrifice, as instanced in Jephthah's vow, the building, running, and destruction of Solomon's Temple, the nature of prophecy, the dispersion of the Israelites in captivity, and the timing of their eventual return.

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Devotion to Artemis dominated the religious culture of ancient Ephesos. But she was not alone. The city of Ephesos and its environs offered a rich panoply of religious options, domestic and public. Structures, statutes, coins, inscriptions, and texts testify to the remarkable diversity of religious ideas and practices in Ephesos. Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Jewish religious traditions found loyal adherents among residents and visitors. Gods, goddesses, heroes, and emperors were worshipped. The contributions in this volume demonstrate that ancient Ephesos was a vibrant and competitive religious environment.

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Lorne R. Zelyck explores the influence of the Fourth Gospel on the extra-canonical gospels from the second and third centuries CE, and evaluates how these other gospels used the Gospel of John. First he provides a succinct demarcation of the extra-canonical gospel corpus and introduces a critical methodology for measuring the influence of the Fourth Gospel. Then he measures its influence on the narrative, sayings, and dialogue/discourse gospels. Lastly the author concludes that the majority of extra-canonical gospels indicate a probable or plausible measure of influence from the Gospel of John: they have lengthy and shorter parallels with the Fourth Gospel, quote and exegete this work, and provide traditional interpretations of the Fourth Gospel that are evident in other early Christian literature.

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Synesius' essay De insomniis ('On Dreams') - written soon after 400 AD by a man who was not only a highly educated Greek intellectual but also (in the last years of his life) a Christian bishop of the city of Ptolemais (Cyrenaica) - inquires into the ways and means by which a human being, while sleeping and dreaming, may make contact with higher spheres, and it does so in the light of a clearly recognizable Neo-Platonic concept of the soul and its salvation. Synesius' thoughts are thus an important contribution of Later Antiquity on topics - the place of man within the universe and his means of communication with higher powers - that not only were of high concern for his contemporaries, but still are today for religiously- and philosophically-minded people. Besides introduction and translation (with notes), several essays shed light on the work from the perspective of various disciplines.

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Paul's view of the church as the temple and his concern about its purity in 1-2 Corinthians has traditionally been interpreted from the perspective of a Jewish background. However, Yulin Liu reveals that the pagans were very aware of temple purity when visiting some temples in the Greco-Roman world, and the purification concerns of three pagan temples in Corinth are documented in his work. The author affirms that the Gentile believers among the Corinthian community were able to grasp Paul's message because of it. Also, Liu investigates Paul's use of temple purity to address the necessity of unity, holiness and faithfulness of the Corinthian Christians in an eschatological sense. Moral and faithful purity needed to be practiced and maintained by the community so that the community could be sanctified as the dwelling place of God. The separation of God's people from profane matters actually points to a new exodus and a progressive consummation of the construction of the eschatological temple-community.

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In this volume, Lars Hartman deals with several major topics. Some of the essays are devoted to exegetical and hermeneutical issues, beginning with the theoretical considerations concerning what it means to write a commentary. These are followed by detailed studies on various aspects of text analysis as a preparation for his commentary on the Gospel of Mark. Furthermore, Hartman has written groundbreaking articles on baptism, especially in regard to the name formula. The final essays deal with the Hellenistic context of various New Testament texts and topics, for instance the study of "Hellenistic Elements in Apocalyptic Texts". This volume is an appropriate complement to Lars Hartman's earlier collection on text-centered New Testament studies, which was published in 1997.

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The Protevangelium of James is arguably the earliest surviving source that exhibits profound interest in Mary, the mother of Jesus. Although frequently cited for later Christian reflections about Mary, gender, and virginity and its influence on popular Christian art, music, and literature, it is not well known outside academic circles and is rarely studied for its own sake. Lily C. Vuong offers a sustained analysis of the text's narrative and literary features in order to explore the portrayal and characterization of Mary through a focus on the theme of purity. By tracing the various ways purity is described and presented in the text, the author contributes to discussions on early Jewish and Christian ideas about purity, representations of women in the ancient world, the early history of Mariology, and the place of non-canonical writings in the history of biblical interpretation.

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Did new senses of the self emerge in the High Roman Empire, and if so what were the religious corollaries? Were such changes connected to processes of institutional change? Could they usefully be described as "individualisation"? These are the key concerns of the authors of this volume. They address the field of Hellenistic philosophy, medical texts and the literature of the so-called Second Sophistic, which all have been recruited to this debate. Most important, however, religious phenomena are included and brought to the fore. Thus the analysis of concepts of the self in Plutarch and Epictetus is followed by studies of the "Shepherd of Hermas," Clement of Alexandria and Ptolemaeus of Rome, Justin Martyr and the Corpus Hermeticum. Notions of the "self" are traced in concepts of body and soul, I and god(s), but also in practices like dressing and ideas about political identity. Lucian of Samosata, a central author of the Second Sophistic, is shown to be involved in such discourses and practices in a sequence of studies. It is this kind of institutional setting which turns out to have been of central importance for the development of concepts of the "self" in the period under consideration. Thus, in a final section, the authors address philosophical advice on dealing with sick friends, the individuality implied in votive practices, and institutions for religious educations within the field of Christian practices.

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Ancient Jewish letter writing is a neglected topic of research. Lutz Doering's new monograph seeks to redress this situation. The author pursues two major tasks: first, to provide a comprehensive discussion of Jewish letter writing in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods and, second, to assess the importance of ancient Jewish letter writing for the emergence and early development of Christian epistolography. Although individual groups of Jewish letters have been studied before, the present monograph is the first one to look at Jewish letters comprehensively across the languages in which they were written and/or handed down (chiefly Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek). It operates with a broad concept of "letter" and deals with documentary as well as literary and embedded letters. The author highlights cross-linguistic developments, such as the influence of the Greek epistolary form on Aramaic and Hebrew letters or the non-idiomatic retention of Semitic "peace" greetings in some letters translated into Greek, which allowed for these greetings to be charged with new meaning. Doering argues that such processes were also important for early Christian epistolography. Thus, Paul engaged creatively with Jewish epistolary formulae. Frequent address of communities rather than individuals and the quasi-official setting of many Jewish letters would have provided relevant models when Paul developed his own epistolary praxis. In addition, the author shows that the concept of communication with the "Diaspora", in both halakhic-administrative and prophetic-apocalyptic Jewish letters, is adapted by a number of early Christian letters, such as 1 Peter, James, Acts 15:23-29, and 1 Clement. Ancient Jewish and early Christian letters also share a concern with group identity and cohesion that is often supported by salvation-historical motifs. In sum, Lutz Doering addresses the previously under-researched text-pragmatic similarities between Jewish and Christian letters.

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This volume contains 15 papers written by Christoph Levin between 2001 and 2011, four of them unpublished. One main focus is on the Pentateuch, mainly on the oldest comprehensive narrative source, the Yahwist, which was written at the beginning of the Jewish diaspora. One paper gives an outline of the features of this source as they emerge resulting from an inquiry into their redaction history. In addition the full text of the Yahwist's history is given in an English translation, the sources used by the editor being distinguished from the editorial text. Other papers deal with single stories of the Yahwist's history, such as the narrative of creation and fall in Gen 2-3, the story of Joseph's fate in Egypt in Gen 39, the story of the call of Moses in Exod 3, and the story of the miracle at the sea in Exod 14. A second focus is on the books of Kings, on their chronological structure as well as on the final two chapters 2 Kgs 24-25. The author deals with the prophetical books, in particular with the theology of the word of God in the book of Jeremiah and with the day of Yahweh within the book of Zephaniah. He also studies the Israelite religion in the time of the monarchy, the origins of biblical Covenant theology, and the Old Testament attitude to poverty. All the papers are based on a detailed investigation into the literary growth of the biblical text. The author shows that the Old Testament as we know it originated from a process of continual re-reading during the Second Temple period.

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In this volume, biblical scholar and theologian François Bovon provides nineteen essays on topics of interest in the New Testament and early Christianity. Examining textual and iconographic witnesses ranging from the earliest Christian writings to a Byzantine icon from Cyprus, Bovon addresses critical issues in New Testament studies including early Christologies, notions of immortality and resurrection, ancient reception of Christian scripture, orthodoxy and heresy, manuscripts in the digital era, and others. Four of the essays appear for the first time in an English translation in this volume - two of which include the original Greek and critical apparatuses for two fragments of ancient apocryphal works. Bovon's careful treatment of the topics at hand makes this volume a reliable guide for scholars and students who wish to deepen their understanding of early Christianity.

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This volume contains a critical edition and translation of the Coptic texts on Abraham of Farshut, the last Coptic orthodox archimandrite of the Pachomian federation in Upper Egypt. While past studies have focused on the origins and early years of this, the first communal monastic movement, James E. Goehring turns to its final days and ultimate demise in the sixth century reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. He examines the literary nature of the texts, their role in the making of a saint, and the historical events that they reveal. Miracle stories and tendentious accounts give way to the reconstruction of internal debates over the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon, political intrigue, and the eventual reordering of the communal monastic movement in Upper Egypt.

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This collection contains a selection of essays by the late Professor Kurt Lipstein, who emigrated from Germany to Cambridge in 1934. It focuses on his central works on the general principles of private international law, which are characterized by his comparative approach and his attention to the many relationships between conflicts of law and questions of public international and European law. It includes Lipstein's first studies of the conflict of laws as well as his powerful Hague lecture on the basic principles of private international law and his influencing articles on the development of the conflict of laws through international courts and arbitral tribunals.

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Matthew Lynch examines ways that the one God became known and experienced through institutions according to the book of Chronicles. Chronicles recasts Israel's earlier histories from the vantage point of vigorous commitments to the temple and its supporting institutions (the priesthood and royal house), and draws out the numerous ways that those institutions mediate divine power and inspire national unity. By understanding and participating in the reestablishment of these institutions, Chronicles suggests that post-exilic Judeans could reconnect to the powerful God of the past despite the appallingly impoverished state of post-exilic life. However, Chronicles contends that God was not beholden by those participating in the temple system. As such, it constitutes a via media between two regnant perspectives on the relationship between biblical monotheism and particularism, one which sees in monotheism an inherent move beyond particularism, and another which sees a problematic appeal to monotheism to legitimate powerful institutions. While Chronicles gives expression to the profound resonances between institutional and divine greatness, it is also careful to resist linking divine power and institutional power in absolute terms.

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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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