Biblical Studies -- New Testament: Useful E-Books

Aernie examines the prophetic material in the Old Testament and its relationship with the prophetic material in Second Temple Judaism, Hellenism, and the early Christian movement. The subsequent analysis of 1 Corinthians constitutes an investigation of the effect of the Old Testament prophetic tradition on Paul's self-presentation in 1 Cor 9.15-18, and the rhetorical framework in 1 Cor 14.20-25 as a methodological foundation for the exegetical analysis of 2 Corinthians. Aernie explores the influence of the Old Testament prophetic tradition on Paul's apostolic self-presentation and rhetoric in 2 Corinthians. The analysis of Paul's self-presentation examines the apostle's relationship with Moses, the Isaianic servant, and Jeremiah in order to define Paul's position with regard to the preceding prophetic tradition. Aernie analyses Paul's argument in 2 Cor 2.14-16; 4.1-6; 6.14-7.1; 12.1-10, and then seeks to examine the influence of the Old Testament prophetic tradition on the formation of Paul's rhetorical framework. Aernie's intention is to provide support for the notion that the particularly prophetic nature of Paul's apostolic persona affects both his self-presentation and rhetorical agenda in 2 Corinthians.

In Second Corinthians, Paul responds to reports of the Corinthian congregation questioning his competency as a divinely sent messenger. Through apologetic demegoria and the use of graphic imagery related to triumphal processions, siege warfare, and emissary travels and negotiation, Paul defends his constancy, persona, and speaking abilities as he extends the offer of clemency and reconciliation to his auditors. Oropeza combines rhetorical pictures (rhetography) with interpretative layers (literary features, intertextuality, socio-cultural, ideological, and sacred textures) to arrive at the rhetorical impact of Paul's message for ancient Mediterranean discourse.

Cavan W. Concannon makes a significant contribution to Pauline studies by imagining the responses of the Corinthians to Paul's letters. Based on surviving written materials and archaeological research, this book offers a textured portrait of the ancient Corinthians with whom Paul conversed, argued, debated, and partnered, focusing on issues of ethnicity, civic identity, politics, and empire. In doing so, the author provides readers a unique opportunity to assess anew, and imagine possibilities beyond, Paul's complicated legacy in shaping Western notions of race, ethnicity, and religion.]

This convenient text utilizes material from the award-winning Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible (DTIB) to introduce students to the Bible and theological interpretation through a comprehensive book-by-book survey of the New Testament. The articles, authored by respected scholars, make unique contributions to the study of theological interpretation of Scripture.

This lively, engaging introduction to the New Testament is critical yet faith-friendly, lavishly illustrated, and accompanied by a variety of pedagogical aids, including sidebars, maps, tables, charts, diagrams, and suggestions for further reading. The full-color interior features art from around the world that illustrates the New Testament's impact on history and culture. The first edition has been well received (over 60,000 copies sold). This new edition has been thoroughly revised in response to professor feedback and features an updated interior design. It offers expanded coverage of the New Testament world in a new chapter on Jewish backgrounds, features dozens of new works of fine art from around the world, and provides extensive new online material for students and professors.

The first detailed exegetical treatment of Paul?s letters from the emerging discipline of missional hermeneutics, Michael Gorman's Becoming the Gospel argues that Paul?s letters invite Christian communities both then and now to not merely believe the gospel but to become the gospel and, in doing so, to participate in the life and mission of God.

Showing that Pauline churches were active public participants in and witnesses to the gospel, Gorman reveals the missional significance of various themes in Paul?s letters. He also identifies select contemporary examples of mission in the spirit of Paul, inviting all Christians to practice Paul-inspired imagination in their own contexts.

This companion volume to Paul and the Faithfulness of God and Paul and His Recent Interpreters brings together N.T. Wright's most important and influential articles on Paul over the last 35 years. This text includes previously unpublished exegetical essays on Paul's letters, specially written for this book. The book begins with N. T. Wright's auspicious essay of 1978, when as a young, aspiring scholar he gave the annual Tyndale lecture in Cambridge, and proposed, for the first time, 'a new perspective' on Pauline theology. The book ends with an expanded version of a paper he gave in Leuven in 2012, when as a seasoned scholar at the height of his powers he explored the foundational role of Abraham in Romans and Galatians. In all, the thirty-three articles published here provide a rich feast for all students of Paul, both seasoned and aspiring. Each one will amply reward those looking for detailed, incisive and exquisitely nuanced exegesis, resulting in a clearer, deeper and more informed appreciation of Paul's great theological achievement.

Pauline scholarship has typically interpreted 2 Corinthians as a later editorial composite of several letters. Fredrick Long situates the text within Classical literary and rhetorical conventions and argues for its unity based upon numerous parallels with ancient apology in the tradition of Andocides, Socrates, Isocrates and Demosthenes. He provides a comprehensive survey and rigorous genre analysis of ancient forensic discourse in support of his claims, and demonstrates how the unified message of Paul's letter can be recovered.

Scott S. Elliott reconsiders the autobiographical statements Paul makes throughout his letters (particularly Philippians 3:4b-6; Romans 7:14-25; 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 and 2 Corinthians 12:1-10) in light of the theoretical work of Roland Barthes.

Elliott draws particularly on Barthes' later poststructuralist writings, many of which touch either directly or indirectly on self-narration (e.g., Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes, Mourning Diary, Camera Lucida, and A Lover's Discourse: Fragments). These provide fruitful dialogue partners with which Elliott can interrogate and examine Paul's own writings and consider the ways in which Paul saw himself and how the application of this theory can yield a greater understanding of Paul's letters.

This comprehensive, widely used text by Michael Gorman presents a theologically focused, historically grounded interpretation of the apostle Paul and raises significant questions for engaging Paul today. After providing substantial background information on Paul's world, career, letters, gospel, spirituality, and theology, Gorman covers in full detail each of the thirteen Pauline epistles. Enhancing the text are questions for reflection and discussion at the end of each chapter as well as numerous photos, maps, and tables throughout. The new introduction in this second edition helpfully situates the book within current approaches to Paul. Gorman also brings the conversation up-to-date with major recent developments in Pauline studies and devotes greater attention to themes of participation, transformation, resurrection, justice, and peace.

Moving past earlier descriptions of first-century Christ groups that were based on examining the New Testament in isolation from extant sources produced by analogous cult groups throughout Mediterranean antiquity, this book engages with underexplored epigraphic and papyrological records and situates the behaviour of Paul's Corinthian ekklēsia within broader patterns of behaviour practised by Greco-Roman associations. Richard Last's comparative analysis generates highly original contributions to our understanding of the social history of the Jesus movement: he shows that the Corinthians were a small group who had no fixed meeting place, who depended on financial contributions from all ten members in order to survive, and who attracted recruits by offering social benefits such as crowns and office-holding that made other ancient cult groups successful. This volume provides a much-needed robust alternative to the traditional portrayal of Pauline Christ groups as ecclesiastically egalitarian, devoid of normative honorific practices, and free for the poor.

Decades after setting the study of Paul on a profoundly new footing with Paul and Palestinian Judaism (Fortress Press, 1977), E.P. Sanders now offers an expansive introduction to the apostle, navigating some of the thorniest issues in scholarship in language accessible to the novice and seasoned scholar alike. Always careful to distinguish what we can know historically from what we may only conjecture, and these from dogmatically driven misrepresentations, Sanders sketches a fresh picture of the apostle as an ardent defender of his own convictions, ever ready to craft the sorts of arguments that now fill his letters but--as Sanders carefully argues--were not the basis for his own beliefs and attitudes. He also gives sustained attention to a historical sketch of Paul's context, particularly Second Temple Judaism, in order to set comparisons of Paul and that context on solid ground. Here are familiar themes from Sanders's earlier work--the importance of works in Paul's thought, the relationship of "plight" and "solution"--In a presentation that reveals a career's reflection, along with new thinking regarding development in Paul's thought. All of the letters are carefully introduced in a text that will prove a worthy guide to the student and interested reader