English summary: Eve-Marie Becker studies the Gospel according to Mark, seeing it as the earliest gospel, and places it in the context of Hellenistic historiography (Greek, Roman and early Jewish). She examines the dating and the assimilation of events in contemporary history and analyzes their chronological and their causal structure. This historiographical approach to Mark serves various purposes, among which are the establishment of the historical value of the pre-Markan sources and the traditions and the acknowledgement of the 'historiographical achievement' of the editor Mark. The author...

English summary: This volume contains articles from specialists in various fields on the biography and character of Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. These articles reflect the level and the diversity of the current research being done on Paul. The various approaches provide an important contribution to the problem of the New Perspectives on Paul and turn the question regarding the Biography and the Character of Paul into a paradigm of New Testament research in connection with the study of people, biographies and autobiographies in antiquity. German description: Der Band versammelt Beitrage...

Die Beitrage zielen darauf, die historischen und politischen, kulturellen, literatur- und religionsgeschichtlichen sowie theologischen Aspekte, die mit den Anfangen von Historiographie in der Antike verbunden sind, zu benennen und in einem Kultur- und Literaturvergleich gegenuberzustellen. Die Diskussionen zum Begriff des Anfangs werden zudem wissenschaftsgeschichtlich reflektiert und verortet. Einzelne Beitrage befassen sich mit historiographischen Sonderformen (Apokalyptik, Biographie, Listen).

English summary: This collection of essays contains exegetic, theological and hermeneutic works by Oda Wischmeyer on early Jewish and New Testament texts. The essays are to be seen as individual studies. The way they have been combined in this collection shows the relationship between exegetic, theological and hermeneutic questions in New Testament research. German description: Die vorliegende Aufsatz-Sammlung fasst die exegetischen, theologischen und hermeneutischen Arbeiten Oda Wischmeyers zu fruhjudischen und neutestamentlichen Texten zusammen.Ziel der Beitrage ist es, die fruhjudischen...

English summary: In what was probably his last letter to the Philippians, Paul urges his readers to practice humility (Phil 2:3). Eve-Marie Becker's interpretation pays equal attention to the historical background, ethical and ecclesiastical functions of Paul's admonition. Humility's seeming ambiguity as a "European" value is discussed as well as the extent to which humility was originally an early Christian virtue initiated by the apostle to install identity. German description: Der Begriff der 'Demut' ist taglich in unserem kulturellen, intellektuellen, politischen und religiosen Leben...