This volume contains a collection of twenty-one essays of John S. Kloppenborg, with four foci: conceptual and methodological issues in the Synoptic Problem; the Sayings Gospel Q; the Gospel of Mark; and the Parables of Jesus. Kloppenborg, a major contributor to the Synoptic Problem, is especially interested in how one constructs synoptic hypotheses, always aware of the many gaps in our knowledge, the presence of competing hypotheses, and the theological and historical entailments in any given hypothesis. Common to the essays in the remaining three sections is the insistence that the...

The myth of rebellious angels preserved in 1 Enoch and related literature was influential during the Second Temple period. This myth, initially attested in the Enochic Book of Watchers and picked up in further parts of 1 Enoch, was received in writings composed in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek. This volume collects studies by Loren T. Stuckenbruck that explore aspects of this influence in some of the literature and demonstrate how the myth was reused and adapted to address new cultural and religious contexts (Book of Giants, Book of Jubilees, Dead Sea Scrolls, Book of Tobit, Book of Daniel,...

Drawing on recent insights from postcolonial theory and social psychology, Travis B. Williams seeks to diagnose the social strategy of good works in 1 Peter by examining how the persistent admonition to "do good" is intended to be an appropriate response to social conflict. Challenging the modern consensus, which interprets the epistle's good works language as an attempt to accommodate Greco-Roman society and thereby to lessen social hostility, the author demonstrates that the exhortation to "do good" envisages a pattern of conduct which stands opposed to popular values. The Petrine author...

Paul's visit to Athens, in particular the Areopagus speech, is one of the most well known excerpts of early Christian literature. It is the most significant speech by Paul to a Gentile audience in Acts functioning as a literary crest of the overall narrative. Yet critical analyses also describe it as an ad hoc blend of Greek and Jewish elements. In this study, Clare K. Rothschild examines how the nexus of popular second-century traditions crystallizing around the Cretan prophet Epimenides explains these seemingly miscellaneous and impromptu aspects of the text. Her investigation exposes...

The essays by Christopher Tuckett collected in this volume represent a number of studies, published over a period of 30 years, seeking to throw light on the way in which Jesus traditions were developed and used in early Christianity. Many of the essays are concerned in one way or another with the Sayings Source "Q," discussing its existence, its possible pre-history, and key features of the material it contains. Further essays look at Jesus traditions in Paul and in the Gospel of Thomas. In a final section the author focuses on the individual synoptic gospels, with a number of studies...