Exploring the interrelated topics of Christology and discipleship within the apocalyptic context of Mark's Gospel, Henderson focuses on six passages: Mark 1:16 20; 3:13--15; 4:1 34; 6:7 13; 6:32 44; 6:45 52. Together, these passages indicate that the disciples failed to understand not just Jesus' messianic identity per se but the apocalyptic nature of his messiahship, as well as its implications for their own participation in God's coming reign. The implications of this for Mark's gospel as a whole are to situate Mark's Christological claims within the broader context of the apocalyptic...

Examines the account of Jesus' ascension in Acts 1 from the perspective of geographical theory.

Scholars argue over where Hebrews fit in the first century world. Kenneth L. Schenck works towards resolving this question by approaching Hebrews' cosmology and eschatology from a text-orientated perspective. After observing that the key passages in the background debate mostly relate to the 'settings' of the story of salvation history evoked by Hebrews, Schenck attempts to delineate those settings by asking how the 'rhetorical world' of Hebrews engages that underlying narrative. Hebrews largely argue from an eschatology of two ages, which correspond to two covenants. The fresh age has come...

The last generation of gospel scholarship has considered the reconstruction and analysis of the audience behind the gospels as paradigmatic. The key hermeneutical template for reading the gospels has been the quest for the community that each gospel represents. This scholarly consensus regarding the audience of the gospels has been reconsidered. Using as a test case one of the most entrenched gospels, Edward Klink explores the evidence for the audience behind the Gospel of John. This study challenges the prevailing gospel paradigm by examining the community construct and its functional...

Stephen Ahearne-Kroll examines the literary interaction between the Gospel of Mark's passion narrative and four Psalms of Individual Lament evoked in it. These four psalms depict a David who challenges God's role in his suffering, who searches for understanding of his suffering in light of his past relationship with God, and who attempts to shame God into acting on his behalf only because he is suffering. Mark alludes to these psalms in reference to Jesus; David's concerns become woven into the depiction of Jesus. Reading David's challenge to God as part of Jesus' going 'as it is written of...

How did Paul determine ethical and theological truth? Were all believers expected to be able to 'discern the spirits' (1 Corinthians 12.10)? This 2007 study shows that discernment must be understood against the backdrop of an extensive hermeneutic, by which Paul inherently relates ethical and theological knowledge. Understanding the will of God requires noetic and existential transformation, in short, the 'renewal of the mind' (Romans 12.2). Munzinger argues that Paul implies a process of inspiration in which the Spirit sharpens the discerning functions of the mind because the believer is...

Mark Forman explores the extent to which Paul's concept of inheritance' in Romans, and its associated imagery, logic and arguments, served to evoke socio-political expectations that were different to those which prevailed in contemporary Roman imperial discourse. Forman explores how Paul deploys the idea of inheritance in Romans and analyses the sources which inform and overlap with this concept. Coins, literature and architecture are all examined in order to understand the purpose, hopes and expectations of first-century society. This book contributes to recent studies covering Paul and...

How does Luke's portrait of the outsider help in exploring the theology and historiography of Acts? Previous studies of the author and his work have concentrated on the speeches given by insiders - members of the early Christian church - but until now the speeches of the outsiders have been marginalised by scholars in the field. Osvaldo Padilla takes an intriguing approach by concentrating on the direct speech of such figures, arguing that the portrayal of outsiders to a religious movement should not be neglected when considering the author's viewpoint. By exploring the place of outsiders in...

In this 2006 text, Daniel M. Gurtner examines the meaning of the rending of the veil at the death of Jesus in Matthew 27:51a by considering the functions of the veil in the Old Testament and its symbolism in Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism. Gurtner incorporates these elements into a compositional exegesis of the rending text in Matthew. He concludes that the rending of the veil is an apocalyptic assertion like the opening of heaven revealing, in part, end-time images drawn from Ezekiel 37. Moreover, when the veil is torn Matthew depicts the cessation of its function, articulating the...

For nearly nineteen hundred years, few have questioned the single authorship of Luke and Acts. A careful reassessment of the internal and external evidence, however, reveals this assumption to be built on a shakier foundation than was previously thought. Patricia Walters's innovative study offers a statistical analysis of Luke and Acts, pointing to the existence of highly significant differences in their prose style. In particular, a comprehensive survey and re-examination of the two books' least contested authorial stratum - their seams and summaries - brings to light ancient prose...