This volume presents a selection of essays by the late Willem Vorster, one of the most prominent New Testament scholars to have emerged from South Africa. An introductory essay by the editor explains Vorster's contribution to New Testament scholarship in general and to South African New Testament scholarship in particular. Vorster's essays are grouped primarily under the topics "Language and Linguistics," "Reader Response," "Narratology," "Historical Paradigms" and "The Historical Jesus." In addition to his work on method, Vorster was a well-known Markan scholar, and this is reflected in the...

This volume honors Professor Everett Ferguson of Abilene Christian University on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday. Reflecting the interests of the honoree, the twenty-one contributions focus on various aspects of the early church and its environment. Together the articles form a broad tapestry of interrelated topics informed from the disciplines of philosophy, patristic theology, archaeology, rhetoric, art, Greco-Roman religion, and biblical studies.

This work argues that many early Christian quotations of the Old Testament derive not from scriptural manuscripts, but rather from authoritative written testimonia collections developed to support basic Christian beliefs. Combining recent patristic studies (notably on Justin and Barnabas) and evidence from Qumran with detailed examination of quotations in the New Testament, the book builds a fresh case for a neglected scholarly hypothesis. After reviewing the scholarly literature and analogous Jewish and Greco-Roman literary collections, the book presents a comprehensive overview of...

The fifteen essays in this volume, rooted in the work of the Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity Section of the SBL, examine the works of Philodemus and how they illuminate the cultural context of early Christianity. Born in Gadara in Syria, Philodemus (ca. 110-40 BCE) was active in Italy as an Epicurean philosopher and poet. This volume comprises three parts; the first deals with Philodemus' works in their own terms, the second situates his thought within its larger Greco-Roman context, and the third explores the implications of his work for understanding the earliest...

Christology and eschatology form a double-core conception in the New Testament that enables one to understand other themes radiating out from it. The present volume addresses fifteen topics within this central core, seven on 'the person of Jesus', and eight on 'this age and the age to come'. The essays interact with and further discussion on disputed topics in contemporary New Testament Studies, including the historical Jesus and the Gospels; deity christology in the Synoptics and in the Pauline writings; the meaning of resurrection in the teaching of Jesus, the Sadducees and Qumran;...

The lack of serious and sustained investigation of the historical figure of James "the Just," brother of Jesus, is one of the curious oversights in modern critical study of Christian origins. James the Just and Christian Origins addresses this problem. The questions that surround this exceedingly important, yet largely ignored figure are several and complicated. Was he really the brother of Jesus? How influential was he in the early church? What was the nature of his relationship to the other apostles, especially to Paul? How did James understand Christianity's relationship to Judaism...

Pauline Christianity takes a fresh perspective on the composition and reception of Luke-Acts in relation to the category 'Pauline Christianity' as it has been used to describe traditions, communities, and persons connected to Paul. This inquiry is pursued along three lines. (1) The reception of the Acts of the Apostles and the 'Pauline' Luke by Irenaeus is addressed. (2) The compositional intentions of the author of Luke-Acts in constructing 'Pauline' Christianity are analyzed. (3) The literary Paulinism of the author is separated from the Paulinism of his sources. This study...

Neotestamentica et Philonica is a collection of eighteen essays by an international group of scholars in honor of Peder Borgen. They treat aspects of the study of the historical Jesus, Paul and his Letters, the Gospel of John and Philo of Alexandria. These essays represent the cutting edge of New Testament and Philonic scholarship and will be important resources for students of these subject areas.

This volume has 1 and 2 Corinthians as its main focus where the various contributors address significant aspects of text, language, background, theology and exegesis.
The first part of the volume deals with the issues of textual criticism and traditions available to Paul, while the second section is interdisciplinary in nature and integrates different methodologies such as social-scientific and rhetorical criticism in order to provide new insights into the text.
The third and longest section addresses the varied theological problems which the community raised with Paul, including sexual...

This volume pulls together thirteen essays written by the author since the late 1970's which give a distinctive, coherent reading of Luke-Acts. Twelve of the essays focus on the theological perspectives of Luke and Acts as they can be discerned from the angle of vision of the "authorial audience" as delineated by the non-biblical literary critic, Peter J. Rabinowitz. The final essay focuses on the possible historical value of Acts and the methodology involved in judging that possibility.