Stephen C. Carlson investigates the text of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians and analyses how that text changed over the course of its transmission in manuscript copies over several centuries. For this study, he collated ninety-two textual witnesses of Galatians and arranged them into a genealogical family tree called a stemma codicum, with assistance from a computer-implemented method used in computational biology known as cladistics. Using this global stemma, he establishes a critical text for the epistle and assesses the nature of the textual variations that occurred throughout the text's...

Bradley Arnold examines the argumentative logic and central aim in Paul's letter to the Philippians. A historical context is mapped out that is useful for these purposes, examining the broad structure of thought in ancient moral philosophy (namely, Aristotle, Epicureanism, and Stoicism), ancient athletics, and vivid description. The author then uses these areas to elucidate the nature of Paul's argument in Philippians. In an exegetical analysis of the entire letter he demonstrates that Paul's argument is structured similarly to the pattern of thinking in ancient moral philosophy and that...

The authors of this volume explore various instances of theo-political visions of authoritative texts in Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism, and Early Christianity, and as such offer a broader perspective on the topos, "sacred texts in their context." Instead of a narrow exploration of the "political intent" of a singular text or group of texts, the volume contains the treatment of a wide range of texts, out of different corpora, with their discrete contexts. Their juxtaposition, as well as that of the respective scholarly approaches of the essays, offers fresh insights on the matter. Each of...

Nearing thirty-five years ago, E. P. Sanders famously stated that the center of thought within Paul's theology is participatory in nature - which, of course, caused no small debate within broad strands of Pauline scholarship. Sanders also suggested that we have no modern conception of what this thought might mean for us today. These two axioms of Sanders loosely organize the essays in this volume which seek to explore the complex notions of union and participation within Pauline theology through exegesis, highlights in reception history, and theological reflection. Contributors: Mary Patton...

In this book, Robert J. Foster explores James' use of his four characters from Jewish history and tradition (Abraham, Rahab, Job and Elijah) and considers their collective as well as individual functions in the composition. He concludes that each of the four exemplars was tested to the extreme (albeit in very different ways) yet remained wholly-committed to God. By reason of that commitment each exemplar became an outsider in both their cultural and historical contexts. 'James' urges his audience to emulate these exemplars in their less extreme tests of daily life by rejecting the values of...

What is the relationship between the preeminent, cosmos-reconciling 'Christ' of Col 1:15-20 and the imprisoned 'Paul' of 1:24-29, who enigmatically 'completes' the former's afflictions as he declares to 'every person' the mystery, long concealed but only now revealed by Israel's God to his holy ones? After finding solid exegetical ground through an unprecedented and exhaustive study of the rare verb antanapleroo (in 1.24), Bruce Clark tackles this most intriguing, if challenging question. He argues that Col 1, in accord with 2 Cor 5:18-6:4, presents Paul as the utterly unique diakonos...

From the inception of critical Jesus research, the questions of Jesus' understanding of his authority and his aims have been central to this field of inquiry. Up to this day, scholars are making efforts toward resolving those questions. This volume is a collection of contributions that were originally presented at the second Nordic Symposium on the historical Jesus in Lund 2012. Researchers from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden continue and broaden a conversation that was initiated in Turku 2010. The topics of Jesus' identity and aims are coupled under the concept of "mission," which...

Nicholas Ellis examines the interplay present in early Jewish literature between authors' theological assumptions on divine agency in evil and their readings of biblical testing narratives. Ellis takes as a starting point the Epistle of James, and compares this early Christian work against other examples of ancient Jewish interpretation. Ellis shows how varying perspectives on the divine, satanic, and human roles of testing exercised a direct influence on the interpretation of popular biblical testing narratives such as Abraham and Isaac, Job, and the Trials in the Wilderness. Read in light...

Much attention has been devoted to Paul's quotations from the Old Testament, but little attention has been given to Paul's use of biblical narratives. The most extensive use of scripture in 1 Corinthians involves an allusion to Israel's exodus (10:1-22), which contains only one quotation (1 Cor 10:7). Since there is much debate on how to identify scriptural allusions, Carla Works examines two passages where there is overwhelming scholarly consensus regarding the presence of exodus imagery: 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 and 10:1-22. These passages, therefore, provide an ideal place to consider how Paul...

David Creech explores at length the Apocryphon of John's ambivalent treatment of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. Although Moses is explicitly corrected at five points in the text, Genesis' account of creation is nonetheless the basis for the Apocryphon's cosmogony and anthropogony. Its uneven treatment of the biblical text is the result of a dispute between the authors of the Apocryphon and other early Catholics. At the earliest stage of the text the Christians who wrote and read the Apocryphon worshiped alongside other early catholic Christians without any sense of contradiction or...