The authorship of the Pastoral Letters has long been a matter of intense scholarly debate. The arguments have centered on the question of whether Paul or a gifted pseudonymist composed these letters. Dr. Miller argues against both these positions, suggesting that no single author can be held responsible for much of this material. He takes the reader on a wide-ranging tour of biblical and extra-biblical sources, examining their literary histories, and concludes that the Pastorals are composite documents based on brief, but genuine, Pauline notes, written to Timothy and Titus.

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.

This book argues that an account of the life and character of Jesus formed an integral part of the early church's preaching. Against many modern scholars, Dr Stanton seeks to show that interest in the life of Jesus was not a late development within primitive Christianity. A study of Luke's Gospel indicates that in his own day reference to the life and character of Jesus was an important part of missionary preaching. In this respect at least, Luke was no innovator. The references in the speeches in Acts to the life of Jesus can be traced to Luke's use of earlier traditions. Dr Stanton then...

Terms like ?witness' and ?testimony' occur frequently in religious contexts and have special significance there, culminating in the development of the Greek martus (witness) into the English ?martyr'. They also have a legal context, and Professor Trites examines their use in the New Testament in the light of ancient legal practice. The author argues that the idea of witness is a live metaphor in the New Testament, to be understood in terms of the Old Testament legal assembly, though the Greek lawcourts are also relevant. The witness theme is developed in a sustained way in John, Acts and...

This book offers a thesis about the interests underlying the Epistle. Dr Hughes argues that the major concern of the author has been to achieve a theological understanding of the relationship between the now out-moded forms and institutions of Old Testament worship and those of the distinctively new (yet not unrelated) Christian faith in which he now finds himself.

Dr McDonald studies the fundamental structures and procedures of Christian communication, identified as propheteia (the prophetic), and paraclesis and homilia (the homiletic), paraenesis and catechesis (the catechetic), and paradosis (the transmission of tradition). He explores what lies behind each of them as well as the way they are used by Jesus and the early Church. Both kerygmatic and didactic features are found in all of these structures. This study is important in providing a corrective to inadequate or one-sided views of kerygma. Like other monographs in this series, it presents...

An analysis of passages in Paul's letters where the concept of heaven plays a significant role.

Investigates and compares the basic structures of Matthew's and Paul's ethics.

This study provides an analysis and commentary on Josephus' description of the Essenes in the light of the new material from Qumran.

Studies collections of aphoristic sayings of Jesus know as the 'Q' sayings tradition.