A fascinating and original contribution to the exegesis of Biblical passages relevant to the current debate on women's roles in the Church and society.

In this original and thought-provoking study, Willi Braun draws both on social and literary evidence regarding the Greco-Roman elite banquet scene and on ancient prescribed methods of rhetorical composition to argue that the Pharisaic dinner episode in Luke 14 is a skillfully crafted rhetorical unit in which Jesus presents an argument for Luke's vision of a Christian society. His analysis underscores the way in which gospel writers manipulated the inherited Jesus traditions for the purposes of ideological and social formation of Christian communities.

This book provides an exciting reinterpretation of the sayings and actions of Jesus. Setting Him firmly in the context of first century Judaism, it asks how important the city of Jerusalem and the theological ideas attached to it were to Jesus. Dr. Tan concludes that Jesus appropriated the Zion traditions prevalent at the time. He argues skillfully that an understanding of these traditions not only helps us to understand the unifying aim behind Jesus' ministry, but also contains the key to the riddle of who Jesus thought He was.

Matthew's Jesus is typically described as the humble, compassionate messiah. However, Matthew's theologically rich quotation of Isaiah 42.1-4 underscores the manifestation of justice in Jesus' powerful message and deeds, that is thought to accompany the arrival of the kingdom of God. The study concludes that this citation was central to Matthew's highly ethical understanding of Jesus' life and mission.

Exhaustive recent scholarship has focused on Paul's insistence that Gentiles be granted equal status with the Jews as members of the people of God. Tet-Lim Yee's study of Ephesians 2 reveals how the distinctively Jewish world view underlies this key text and he highlight's the reconciling work of Christ for both Jew and Gentile. His study represents an important contribution to the continuing reassessment of Christian and Jewish interaction during the critical period of the latter decades of the first century CE.

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...

Many interpreters of the Fourth Gospel detect allusions to biblical texts about marriage, but none offers a comprehensive analysis of these proposed allusions or a convincing explanation for their presence. Building on the work of Richard Hays, Donald Juel and Craig Koester, in this 2006 book Jocelyn McWhirter argues that John alludes to biblical texts about marriage in order to develop a metaphor for Jesus and how he relates to his followers. According to McWhirter, John chooses these texts because he uses a first-century exegetical convention to interpret them as messianic prophecies in...

At first glance, Paul's words to the Corinthians about being the body of Christ seem simple and straightforward. He compares them with a human body so that they may be encouraged to work together, each member contributing to the good of the whole according to his or her special gift. However, the passage raises several critical questions which point to its deeper implications. Does Paul mean that the community is 'like' a body or is he saying that they are in some sense a real body? What is the significance of being specifically the body of Christ? Is the primary purpose of the passage to...

Rhetorical criticism seeks to understand and comment on the way texts function in their social and cultural contexts. Holloway puts Paul's letter in the context of ancient theories and literary practices of "consolation" and argues that Paul wrote to the Philippians in order to console them. He shows that the letter has a unified overall strategy and provides a convincing account of Paul's argument.

Facsimiles, photographic reproductions, collations, and studies of the textual character of many of the 5,000 or so manuscripts of the Greek New Testament have been published, but it is only with this book that a much-needed bibliography of them has been made available. This considerably expanded and revised edition of J. K. Elliott's 1989 A Bibliography of Greek New Testament Manuscripts marks a substantial increase in the number of titles and references. Some 5,000 new entries have been added, thereby doubling the size of the First Edition. The titles of books and articles are predominantly...