Matthew uniquely highlights Jesus as "Emmanuel," but almost wholly overlooked are the deeper implications of this "presence" motif for Matthean christology. Kupp takes a multidisciplinary approach to the weaving of the Emmanuel Messiah into the story-telling, redaction and christology of the Gospel. Kupp employs the lenses of both narrative and historical criticism to produce the first monograph in English on the divine presence in Matthew. Matthew's Gospel is a story that compels, a text with a history and a christological treatise.

This book is a study of Paul's response to the financial help he received from the church in Philippi while he was a prisoner in Rome. It examines Philippians 4.10-20 in the light of Greek and Roman practices and language regarding the exchange of gifts and favors in society. Dr. Peterman concludes that "gift exchange" or "social reciprocity" permeated every level of society in Paul's day, and that Paul's seemingly ungracious response was an attempt to create a new, Christian attitude to gifts and to giving.

Hebrews 12:1-13 portrays the suffering of its readers with two images: an athletic contest, and God's fatherly discipline. N. Clayton Croy places this important passage in the context of Jewish and Greco-Roman traditions. He argues that the idea of "training" unites the passage, which presents Jesus as the supreme athlete. It also supports a nonpunitive understanding of discipline, in which God's children undergo a positive process of education. These ideas combine to support a call in Hebrews to faithful endurance rather than repentance.

This study reconstructs the life of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor responsible for the execution of Jesus. The first section provides the historical and archaeological background. The following chapters look at six first-century authors: Philo, Josephus and the four gospel writers. Each chapter asks how Pilate is being used as a literary character in each work, why each author describes Pilate in a different way, and what this tells us about the relationship between each author and the Roman state.

The expression "Son of Man," used in the Gospels almost exclusively by Jesus, has been the object of intensive study since the Protestant Reformation, yet scholars have failed to agree on its origin or meaning. Because of the scope and complexity of the literature, no comprehensive survey of the subject has been written in the twentieth century; Delbert Burkett's study fills this need. It provides a comprehensive historical overview of the debate from the patristic period to 1996, evaluates that research, and summarizes the present state of the question.

This study seeks to base Paul's language of sin in the socio-cultural context of his original letters. T.L. Carter draws on the work of social anthropologist Mary Douglas to conduct a cross-cultural analysis of the symbolism of the power of sin in the letters, examining thoroughly Douglas' "Grid and Group" model and defending its use as a heuristic tool for New Testament scholars. He also offers fresh insight into key passages from 1 Corinthians, Galatians and Romans.

Peter Bolt explores the impact of Mark's Gospel on early readers in the first-century Graeco-Roman world. Focusing upon the thirteen characters in Mark who come to Jesus for healing or exorcism, Bolt analyzes their crucial role in the communication of the Gospel. Enlisting a variety of ancient literary and non-literary sources, this book recreates the first-century world of illness, magic and Roman imperialism. This new approach to Mark combines reader-response criticism with social history.

Colin R. Nicholl examines the situations giving rise to each Thessalonian Epistle to determine how the two relate historically. His book presents a compelling hypothesis, arguing that the two letters reflect two stages of a single crisis plaguing a recently formed Greek Church, (which spiralled from hope into despair because of confusion about the "end" time.) This monograph is the most up-to-date and comprehensive account of the Thessalonian Epistles currently available.

Wesley Olmstead examines the parables of the Two Sons, the Tenants and the Wedding Feast against the background of the wider Matthean narrative. He explores Matthew's characterization of the Jewish leaders, assessing the respective roles of Israel and the nations in the plot of Matthew's Gospel. Against the current of contemporary Matthean scholarship, Olmstead argues that these parables indicate the future inclusion of other nations in the "nation" that God had promised to raise up from Abraham.

The distinctively Lukan version of the exorcism stories has attracted little interest from scholars in New Testament studies until recently. Setting the stories within their ancient cultural context, Todd Klutz uses linguistic analysis to cover popular beliefs as well as official religion. He sheds new light on the Jewishness of the text, and on the understanding of exorcism within the Hellenized Jewish religious world.