Jione Havea
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.
Scholars have traditionally isolated three distinct sections of what is known as the Book of Isaiah, and in Isaiah 40—55,
distinguished biblical scholar Joseph Blenkinsopp provides a new
translation and critical commentary on the section usually referred to
as Second or Deutero Isaiah. The second volume in a three-volume
commentary, it easily maintains the high standards of academic
excellence established by Isaiah 1—39.Second
Isaiah was written in the sixth century b.c.e., in the years just before
the fall of the mighty Babylonian Empire, by an anonymous prophet whom
history has erroneously identified with the real Isaiah (born ca. 765
b.c.e.). Scholars know Second Isaiah was written by someone other than
Isaiah because the contexts of these prophecies are so very different.
When Second Isaiah was written, the prophet believed that Israel’s time
of suffering was drawing to a close. There was, he insisted, a new age
upon them, a time of hope, peace, and renewed national prosperity. The
main thrust of the prophet’s argument was intended to rally the spirits
of a people devastated by war and conquest. One of the most famous
examples of this optimistic tone is the well-known and beloved Song of
the Suffering Servant, which is found in Chapters 52—53, and about which
Blenkinsopp has some challenging new ideas. The final chapters
of Second Isaiah, however, are in an entirely different key as it
becomes clear that the new world the prophet foresaw earlier was not
going to come to pass. This despair finds its most poignant expression
in the final section of the Book of Isaiah, which Blenkinsopp will
address in his forthcoming third volume.
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. 
For
centuries, the Bible has been used by colonial powers to undergird
their imperial designs--an ironic situation when so much of the Bible
was conceived by way of resistance to empires. In this thoughtful book,
Mark Brett draws upon his experience of the colonial heritage in
Australia to identify a remarkable range of areas where God needs to be
decolonized--freed from the bonds of the colonial. Writing in a context
where landmark legal cases have ruled that Indigenous (Aboriginal)
rights have been 'washed away by the tide of history', Brett re-examines
land rights in the biblical traditions, Deuteronomy's genocidal
imagination, and other key topics in both the Hebrew Bible and the New
Testament where the effects of colonialism can be traced. Drawing out
the implications for theology and ethics, this book provides a
comprehensive new proposal for addressing the legacies of colonialism. A
ground-breaking work of scholarship that makes a major intervention
into post-colonial studies. This book confirms the relevance of
post-colonial theory to biblical scholarship and provides an exciting
and original approach to biblical interpretation. Bill Ashcroft,
University of Hong Kong and University of New South Wales; author of The
Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures
(2002). Acutely sensitive to the historical as well as theological
complexity of the Bible, Mark Brett's Decolonizing God brilliantly
demonstrates the value of a critical assessment of the Bible as a tool
for rethinking contemporary possibilities. The contribution of this book
to ethical and theological discourse in a global perspective and to a
politics of hope is immense. 
Nissinen's
award-winning book surveys attitudes in the ancient world toward
homoeroticism, that is, erotic same-sex relations. Focusing on the Bible
and its cultural environment-Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Israel-Nissinen
concisely and readably introduces the relevant sources and their
historical contexts in a readable way.Homoeroticism is examined as a
part of gender identity, i.e., the interplay of sexual orientation,
gender identification, gender roles, and sexual practice. In the
patriarchal cultures of the biblical world, Nissinen shows, homoerotic
practices were regarded as a role construction between the active and
passive partners rather than as expressions of an orientation moderns
call "homosexuality." Nissinen shows how this applies to the limited
acceptance of homoerotic relationships in Greek and Roman culture, as
well as to Israel's and the early church's condemnation of any same-sex
erotic activity.For readers interested in the ancient world or
contemporary debates, Nissinen's fascinating study shows why the ancient
texts - both biblical and nonbiblical - are not appropriate for use as
sources of direct analogy or argument in today's discussion.
Peter Lampe
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. 
Ernest Best
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.
Katharine Doob Sakenfeld 
Mark A. Throntveit 
Patrick D. Miller 
Paul D. Hanson 
