The Apostolic Tradition: A Commentary

 

Paul F. Bradshaw, Maxwell E. Johnson, L. Edward Phillips, Harold W. Attridge

Fortress Press, 2002 - 249 pages

 

"The anonymous early church order that became known as the Apostolic Tradition and conventionally attributed to Hippolytus of Rome has generated enormous scholarly discussion since its discovery in the nineteenth century. Surprisingly, however, there has never before been a comprehensive commentary on it such as there is for other patristic works. We have here attempted to remedy this defect, and at the same time we have offered the first full synoptic presentation in English of the various witnesses to its text. We have also taken the opportunity to develop our argument that it is neither the work of Hippolytus nor of any other individual. Instead, we believe that it is a composite document made up of a number of layers and strands of diverse provenance and compiled over a period of time, and therefore not representing the practice of any one Christian community."? from the Preface This Hermeneia volume provides an important contribution to New Testament research as well as the study of the patristic era.

 

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Leadership Succession in the World of the Pauline Circle

 

Perry Leon Stepp

Sheffield Phoenix Press Limited, 2006-06-30 - 227 pages

Since New Testament times, the discussion of leadership succession in the church has always been polemical. But what the New Testament, especially in the Pastoral Epistles, means in speaking of succession deserves a more sober investigation in the light of the literary tradition about succession in the ancient Mediterranean world. How is succession actually depicted in Graeco-Roman texts and in Jewish and early Christian texts of that world? This book undertakes, for the first time, a thoroughgoing analysis of the evidence, deftly laying out the data from a wide range of Greek and Roman writers. The question then becomes how the early readers of the New Testament, conditioned by prior knowledge of such epistolary and other literary conventions, would have interpreted Paul's relationship with his delegates like Timothy and Titus, and how they would have conceived the ministry portrayed in the Pastorals as passing from a leader to a successor. Stepp's study has important implications both for our understanding of the ancient Mediterranean world and for our conceptions of ordination and ministry in the New Testament.

 

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To the Hebrews

George Wesley Buchanan

Doubleday, 1972 - 271 pages

The New Testament letter to the Hebrews carried much-needed encouragement and advice for Jewish converts to Christianity in the late first century. Composed in an exquisite style, Hebrews urged new Christians to hold fast to their new faith lest they lose their opportunity to witness the long-awaited fulfillment of God's covenant with Israel. The sage and persuasive Christian writer draws analogies between the heroes and drama of Jewish sacred Scriptures and first-century Christian experience. With the rich heritage of Jewish Christians in mind, he implores his readers not to lose faith during trials and tribulations. The unswerving faith of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and the prophets serves as an example for them not to forsake God's covenant and incur God's judgment. He praises Jesus as the ultimate, once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the world, the means of a renewed relationship with God.

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Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible

Brevard S. Childs

Fortress Press, 2011-04-01 - 774 pages

This monumental work is the first comprehensive biblical theology to appear in many years and is the culmination of Brevard Child's lifelong commitment to constructing a biblical theology that surmounts objections to the discipline raised over the past generation.Childs rejects any approaches that overstress either the continuity or discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments. He refuses to follow the common pattern in Christian thought of identifying biblical theology with the New Testament's interest in the Old. Rather, Childs maps out an approach that reflects on the whole Christian Bible with its two very different voices, each of which retains continuing integrity and is heard on its own terms.

 

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The Pauline Epistles

 

John Muddiman, John Barton

Oxford University Press, 2010-04-22 - 292 pages

 

The Oxford Bible Commentary is a Bible study and reference work for 21st century students and readers that can be read with any modern translation of the Bible. It offers verse-by-verse explanation of every book of the Bible by the world's leading biblical scholars. From its inception, OBC has been designed as a completely non-denominational commentary, carefully written and edited to provide the best scholarship in a readable style for readers from all different faith backgrounds. It uses the traditional historical-critical method to search for the original meaning of the texts, but also brings in new perspectives and insights - literary, sociological, and cultural - to bring out the expanding meanings of these ancient writings and stimulate new discussion and further enquiry. Newly issued in a series of part volumes, the OBC is now available in an affordable and portable format for the commentaries to the Pauline Epistles. Includes a general introduction to using the Commentary, in addition to an introduction to study of the New Testament, and to the Pauline Corpus in particular.

 

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Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity

 

Luke Timothy Johnson

Yale University Press, 2009-11-10 - 461 pages

The question of Christianity’s relation to the other religions of the world is more pertinent and difficult today than ever before. While Christianity’s historical failure to appreciate or actively engage Judaism is notorious, Christianity’s even more shoddy record with respect to “pagan” religions is less understood. Christians have inherited a virtually unanimous theological tradition that thinks of paganism in terms of demonic possession, and of Christian missions as a rescue operation that saves pagans from inherently evil practices.

In undertaking this fresh inquiry into early Christianity and Greco-Roman paganism, Luke Timothy Johnson begins with a broad definition of religion as a way of life organized around convictions and experiences concerning ultimate power. In the tradition of William James’s Variety of Religious Experience, he identifies four distinct ways of being religious: religion as participation in benefits, as moral transformation, as transcending the world, and as stabilizing the world. Using these criteria as the basis for his exploration of Christianity and paganism, Johnson finds multiple points of similarity in religious sensibility. 

Christianity’s failure to adequately come to grips with its first pagan neighbors, Johnson asserts, inhibits any effort to engage positively with adherents of various world religions.  This thoughtful and passionate study should help break down the walls between Christianity and other religious traditions.

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Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus

Peter Lampe

Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006-06-30 - 528 pages

 Investigating the rise and shape of the earliest churches in Rome, Lampe integrates history, archaeology, theology, and social analysis. He also takes a close look at inscriptional evidence to complement the reading of the great literary texts: from Paul's letter to the Romans to the writings of Clement of Rome, Justin Martyr, Montanus, and Valentinus. Lampe deals with the shape of leadership and the followers of Christ in relation to the Judeans living in Rome.

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The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts: A Literary Interpretation, Volume 2

 

Robert C. Tannehill

Fortress Press, 1994 - 412 pages

Demonstrates how the repetitions of ideas and formal structures function both to reinforce concepts and to achieve ideological progression.

 

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Second Corinthians

Ernest Best

Westminster John Knox Press, 1987 - 142 pages

 This commentary, a part of the Interpretation series, explores the book of Second Corinthians.Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.

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The Gospels 

John Muddiman, John Barton

Oxford University Press, 2010-04-22 - 304 pages

The Oxford Bible Commentary is a Bible study and reference work for 21st century students and readers that can be read with any modern translation of the Bible. It offers verse-by-verse explanation of every book of the Bible by the world's leading biblical scholars. From its inception, OBC has been designed as a completely non-denominational commentary, carefully written and edited to provide the best scholarship in a readable style for readers from all different faith backgrounds. It uses the traditional historical-critical method to search for the original meaning of the texts, but also brings in new perspectives and insights - literary, sociological, and cultural - to bring out the expanding meanings of these ancient writings and stimulate new discussion and further enquiry. Newly issued in a series of part volumes, the OBC is now available in an affordable and portable format for the commentaries to the four canonical Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Includes a general introduction to using the Commentary, in addition to an introduction to study of the New Testament, and a detailed comparison of the four gospels in synopsis.

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Romans

 

Paul J. Achtemeier

Westminster John Knox Press, 1985 - 244 pages

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Colossians, Philemon

David E. Garland

Zondervan, 2009-05-19 - 400 pages

Most Bible commentaries take us on a one-way trip from the twentieth century to the first century. But they leave us there, assuming that we can somehow make the return journey on our own. In other words, they focus on the original meaning of the passage but don't discuss its contemporary application. The information they offer is valuable -- but the job is only half done! The NIV Application Commentary Series helps us with both halves of the interpretive task. This new and unique series shows readers how to bring an ancient message into a modern context. It explains not only what the Bible meant but also how it can speak powerfully today.

 

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John

Gerard Sloyan

Westminster John Knox Press, 2009-07-15 - 239 pages

In this volume, Gerard Sloyan utilizes the lectionary approach to offer new insights into understanding the book of John. In so doing, he puts the Fourth Gospel in the Old Testament context within which the early church received the public readings of this Gospel. His emphasis on the use of John within first-century Christianity enables modern readers to grasp the meaning of the Gospel message. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.

 

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Hebrews

Robert P. Gordon

Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008-02-29 - 215 pages

This commentary on the Letter to the Hebrews envisages the recipients of the letter as a community that has embraced the Christian message but is beginning to question its adequacy to meet their spiritual needs. They have given up the richness of Jewish ritual and cultic tradition for a way of life that lacks the venerable symbols and institutions they had previously valued. Gordon highlights the arguments and rhetorical strategies the author uses to counter this feeling of 'cultic deficit' as he draws attention to what they actually possess in consequence of their Christian commitment. The Letter to the Hebrews has particular contemporary relevance today because, in warning the community against 'going back', the author implies that Christianity has superseded their ancestral Jewish faith. That may seem a slight on the religion 'superseded', but Gordon points out that Judaism itself, as well as Christianity, represents a significant break with the religion of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Jewish-Christian dialogue would profit from being conducted in that light. For this Second Edition, the author has written an additional Introduction, and the pagination of this edition differs from that of the first.

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'And The Two Shall Become One Flesh': A Study of Traditions in Ephesians 5: 21-33

J. Paul Sampley

Cambridge University Press, 2004-12-02 - 188 pages

In this detailed exegesis of Ephesians 5: 21-33 Dr Sampley not only elucidates the meaning of this difficult and historically important passage, but he also discusses and describes the background and sources of the Epistle. In particular he traces the history of the traditions incorporated in it and demonstrates convincingly that the writer of Ephesians drew heavily on certain passages in Genesis and Leviticus. Ephesians can be seen as a mosaic of traditions ingeniously arranged and employed to express the new message of the early church. This book should be of interest to all Old and New Testament scholars.

 

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Ephesians 

Martin Kitchen

Taylor & Francis, 1994-10-18 - 147 pages

This study approaches the Epistle of the Ephesians in a radically different way from traditional commentaries. Rather than analyzing each individual verse, Martin Kitchen examines the complete text within the framework of contemporary Biblical criticism. He acknowledges the debt which Biblical studies owes to historical method, while also recognizing the need to view the epistle against the background of recent literary approaches to New Testament texts. The book shows why most commentators now think that Ephesians was not the work of Paul himself and suggests a context in which the epistle might have been written. Covering recent developments in New Testament theology,Ephesians discusses the early history of the church and the hermeneutical questions concerning the significance of religious texts which date from a past age.

 

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Reading Ephesians: Exploring Social Entrepreneurship in the Text

Minna Shkul

Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010-02-10 - 279 pages

 

Minna Shkul examines how Ephesians engages in social entrepreneurship - the deliberate shaping of emerging Christian Identity through provision of ideological and social paradigms for the fledgling Christian community. Shkul uses social entrepreneurship as an umbrella for a variety of social processes reflected in the text. This eclectic theoretical framework and deutero-Pauline reading position has two key aims. The first is to offer a theoretically informed social-scientific reading which demonstrates the extensive socio-ideological shaping within the text, and displays the writer's negotiation of different group processes throughout the letter. The second is to examine emerging Christian identity in the text, testing its ideological and social contours and its reforms upon Jewish traditions. Crucially this is done without the theological presupposition that something was wrong with the Judaism practised at the time, but rather by focusing upon the divine 'legitimating' of the Christian group and its culture.
These readings of Ephesians examine how the writer engages in a self-enhancing discourse that reinforces basic components of communality. These include the construction of a positive in-group identity and the provision of ideological and social legitimating for the community. Shkul also discusses the textual reflection of communal relations in other groups in Greco-Roman antiquity. She examines how Christ-followers are positioned in a Jewish symbolic universe, which is forced to make room for Christ and his non-Israelite followers. Finally, she explores the attitude toward non-Israelites within Ephesians, and their need for re-socialization.

 

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Jews, Gentiles, and Ethnic Reconciliation: Paul's Jewish Identity and Ephesians

Tet-Lim N. Yee

Cambridge University Press, 2005-03-10 - 302 pages

Much scholarship has focused on Paul's insistence on Gentile membership of the people of God equally with Jews. Dr Yee's study of Ephesians 2 reveals how the distinctively Jewish world view of the author of Ephesians underlies this key text. He explores how the Ephesians' author provides a resolution to one of the thorniest issues regarding two ethnic groups in the earliest period of Christianity: can Jew and Gentile, the two estranged human groups, be one (people of God) and if so, how? Setting Ephesians 2 as fully as possible into its historical context, he describes some of the relevant Jewish features and demonstrates them, revealing many explosive but hidden issues. This book provides an important contribution to the continuing reassessment of Christian and Jewish self-understanding in regard to each other during the critical period of the latter decades of the first century CE.

 

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Biblical Interpretation in Early Christian Gospels, Volume 2 The Gospel of Matthew

Thomas R. Hatina

Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008 - 256 pages

The second title in a proposed five-volume work; volume two, following on from the volume on Mark's Gospel, concentrates on Matthew's Gospel. Contributors consider the function of embedded scripture texts in the context of the Gospels written and read/heard in their early Christian settings. The project is wide ranging, with essays on the function of scripture in the compositional history of the gospels and the collection is broad in scope as a result of current interest in the integration of methods (especially historical and narrative ones).
Advancements over the last 20 years in the study of genre and narrative criticism have left a void in the study of the function of embedded biblical texts in the Gospels. This collection of essays will move the study of scripture within scripture forwards.

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Matthew

Margaret Davies

Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd, 2009-03-31 - 254 pages

Margaret Davies takes up the insights of reader-response criticism to explore how the conventions and strategies of the Gospel of Matthew draw the reader into the world that the text creates. There is a recognition also of the text's significance as authoritative scripture for modern Christians, and the bias that this gives to any interpretative strategy. This is a reprint of the 1993 edition.

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