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A cursory glance at Hebrews' critique of Israel's fear at Sinai in Heb 12:18-29 suggests that the author has misunderstood or manipulated his sources. In the Pentateuch, the appointment of Moses as Israel's mediator receives explicit approval (Exod 19:9; Deut 5:28), while Heb 12:25 labels their request for mediation a "e;refusal"e; to heed the word of God.This bookargues that Hebrews' use of the Sinai narratives resides on a complex trajectory established by four points: the Sinai covenant according to Exodus, the reenactment of that covenant according to Deuteronomy, the call for a NEW covenant according to Jeremiah, and the present reality of that covenant established by God and mediated by Jesus Christ.The basis for Hebrews' critique arises from its insight that while Israel's request established covenant-from-a-distance, Jesus demonstrates that true covenant mediation brings two parties into a single space. The purpose for Hebrews critique lies in its summons to Zion, the mountain on which Jesus sits at the right hand of God as the high priestly mediator of the new covenant.

While there have been various studies examining the contents of the evangelistic proclamation in Acts; and various studies examining, from one angle or another, individual persuasive phenomena described in Acts (e.g., the use of the Jewish Scriptures); no individual studies have sought to identify the key persuasive phenomena presented by Luke in this book, or to analyse their impact upon the book's early audiences. This study identifies four key phenomena - the Jewish Scriptures, witnessed supernatural events, the Christian community and Greco-Roman cultural interaction. By employing a textual analysis of Acts that takes into account both narrative and socio-historical contexts, the impact of these phenomena upon the early audiences of Acts - that is, those people who heard or read the narrative in the first decades after its completion - is determined. The investigation offers some unique and nuanced insights into evangelistic proclamation in Acts; persuasion in Acts, persuasion in the ancient world; each of the persuasive phenomena discussed; evangelistic mission in the early Christian church; and the growth of the early Christian church.

What is the place of the cross in the thought of the third evangelist? This book seeks to show the central significance of the death of Jesus for Luke's understanding of (1) how salvation is accomplished and (2) what it means for Jesus to be the messiah. Whereas previous authors have helpfully attended to individual motifs within Luke's account of the passion, this book takes more of a wide-angle approach to the topic, moving from the very first allusions to Jesus' rejection at the beginning of Luke's gospel all the way through to the retrospective references to Jesus' death that occur throughout the speeches of Acts. By focusing on the inter-relationship of the various parts that form the whole of the Lukan portrayal of Jesus' death, Wilson proposes fresh solutions to several of the intractable exegetical disputes related to the place of the cross in Lukan theology, thereby helping to situate Lukan soteriology within the broader context of Jewish and Christian belief and practice in the first century.

The volume examines the impact of Paul¿s personality and theology in writings that became part of the New Testament and in texts ascribed to the ancient Christian apocrypha and the Apostolic Fathers. Paul¿s influence is also shown in a collection of his letters, which became a major part of the New Testament. In doing so, the authors shed light on the process that led to the ¿canonical Paul¿.

The volume studies in a comparative way the reception of identifiably ¿canonical¿ and of extra-canonical traditions in the second century. It aims at discovering patterns or strategies of reception within the at first sight often rather chaotic way some of these ancient authors have cited or used these traditions. It looks for explanations of why it took such a while before authors got used to cite gospel texts more or less accurately.

The subject of this volume, Jewish paideia or education during the Second Temple period, had long received little attention. Yet these fourteen essays demonstrate the fundamental importance of the topic for understanding the history of the period. They also represent the broad array of approaches required to comprehend this multi-faceted subject.

The accounts of Jesus's resurrection in the Gospels are among the most widely discussed passages in the New Testament, and a classic element of the resurrection story is the doubt felt by the disciples when they encountered the risen Lord. In spite of this, scholars have paid relatively little attention to the striking divergences in the portrayal of the disciples across the four Gospels. The Longer Ending of Mark has them stubbornly refuse to believe multiple reports of the resurrection before being upbraided by Christ, Matthew tersely notes their doubts in a single verse and never resolves the problem, Luke depicts a group who are simultaneously terrified and joyful, and John describes the eponymous Doubting Thomas and his request to touch the risen Lord for himself. The Dubious Disciples uses narrative criticism to examine the ways in which each Gospel characterizes the disciples post-resurrection and how these authorial choices influence readers' evaluations of both the disciples' doubts and the doubts they may feel in their own lives. The lessons learned about the nature of doubt vary considerably from one Gospel to the next, and this monograph is the first devoted to a comparison of doubt across all four Gospels.

Given the dearth of non-messianic interpretations of Psalm 110:1 in non-Christian Second Temple Jewish texts, why did it become such a widely used messianic prooftext in the New Testament and early Christianity? Previous attempts to answer this question have focused on why the earliest Christians first began to use Ps 110:1. The result is that these proposals do not provide an adequate explanation for why first century Christians living in the Greek East employed the verse and also applied it to Jesus's exaltation. I contend that two Greco-Roman politico-religious practices, royal and imperial temple and throne sharing-which were cross-cultural rewards that Greco-Roman communities bestowed on beneficent, pious, and divinely approved rulers-contributed to the widespread use of Ps 110:1 in earliest Christianity. This means that the earliest Christians interpreted Jesus's heavenly session as messianic and thus political, as well as religious, in nature.

David Moessner proposes a new understanding of the relation of Luke's second volume to his Gospel to open up a whole new reading of Luke's foundational contribution to the New Testament. For postmodern readers who find Acts a 'generic outlier,' dangling tenuously somewhere between the 'mainland' of the evangelists and the 'Peloponnese' of Paul-diffused and confused and shunted to the backwaters of the New Testament by these signature corpora-Moessner plunges his readers into the hermeneutical atmosphere of Greek narrative poetics and elaboration of multi-volume works to inhale the rhetorical swells that animate Luke's first readers in their engagement of his narrative. In this collection of twelve of his essays, re-contextualized and re-organized into five major topical movements, Moessner showcases multiple Hellenistic texts and rhetorical tropes to spotlight the various signals Luke provides his readers of the multiple ways his Acts will follow "e;all that Jesus began to do and to teach"e; (Acts 1:1) and, consequently, bring coherence to this dominant block of the New Testament that has long been split apart. By collapsing the world of Jesus into the words and deeds of his followers, Luke re-configures the significance of Israel's "e;Christ"e; and the "e;Reign"e; of Israel's God for all peoples and places to create a new account of 'Gospel Acts,' discrete and distinctively different than the "e;narrative"e; of the "e;many"e; (Luke 1:1). Luke the Historian of Israel's Legacy combines what no analysis of the Lukan writings has previously accomplished, integrating seamlessly two 'generically-estranged' volumes into one new whole from the intent of the one composer. For Luke is the Hellenistic historian and simultaneously 'biblical' theologian who arranges the one "e;plan of God"e; read from the script of the Jewish scriptures-parts and whole, severally and together-as the saving 'script' for the whole world through Israel's suffering and raised up "e;Christ,"e; Jesus of Nazareth. In the introductions to each major theme of the essays, this noted scholar of the Lukan writings offers an epitome of the main features of Luke's theological 'thought,' and, in a final Conclusions chapter, weaves together a comprehensive synthesis of this new reading of the whole.

The hypothesis that the Gospel of Mark was heavily influenced by Pauline theology and/or epistles was widespread in the nineteenth century, but fell out of favour for much of the twentieth century. In the last twenty years or so, however, this view has begun to attract renewed support, especially in English language scholarship. This major and important collection of essays by an international team of scholars seeks to move the discussion forward in a number of significant ways- tracing the history of the hypothesis from the nineteenth century to the modern day, searching for historical connections between these two early Christians, analysing and comparing the theology and christology of the Pauline epistles and the Gospel of Mark, and assessing their reception in later Christian texts. This major volume will be welcomed by those who are interested in the possible influence of the apostle to the Gentiles on the earliest Gospel.

This monograph examines Hebrews' understanding of the relationship between old covenant sacrifices and Christ's new covenant sacrifice, especially as it relates to the question of efficacy. Most scholars think the author of Hebrews strips the levitical sacrifices of most, if not all, efficacy, but this work affirms a more positive depiction of the levitical sacrifices. A mystical apocalyptic tradition stands behind Hebrews' description of the heavenly cult , which establishes the framework for relating the levitical sacrifice to Christ's sacrifice. The earthly, levitical cult was efficacious when it corresponded to or synchronized with the heavenly sacrifice of Christ. Still, the author of Hebrews develops the notion of the heavenly cult in unique ways, as Christ's sacrifice both validates the earthly practice but also, due to his new covenant theology, calls for its end. Ribbens' bold proposal joins a growing number of scholars that place Hebrews in the mystical apocalyptic tradition, highlights positive statements in Hebrews related to the efficacy of levitical sacrifices that are often overlooked, and relies on the heavenly cult to reconcile the positive and negative descriptions of the levitical cult.

Scholarship is divided on a point fundamental to the interpretation of 1 Corinthians 1-4: Are these chapters better read as a Pauline apology or as a Pauline censure? This study argues that Paul's argument is simultaneously apology and rebuke. By characterizing the Corinthian community as an ancient school, Paul depicts himself as a good but misunderstood teacher and the Corinthians as lackluster and unruly students. In support of this argument, White identifies numerous parallels between Paul's language, logic, and imagery in 1 Corinthians 1-4 and similar motifs in ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish discussions of educational theory and practice. Especially significant is White's conclusion that Paul's educational language most closely resembles discussions of ancient primary education, not the rhetoric or philosophy studied in ancient higher education. This book will be of interest to scholars of the Corinthian correspondence, Pauline specialists, and any scholar of antiquity interested in ancient Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian education.

The present monograph is the slightly modified publication of a doctoral thesis in theology presented in November 2009 at the University of Lausanne (CH). It results from a pressing question in New Testament: an appraisal of the relationship of the work of Luke, more precisely of his Acts of the Apostles, to the Jewish faith. This problem, to which an unwavering consensus attached until the nineteen-sixties, has become a storm centre of New Testament research over the last three decades. The originality of this study is the reassessment of the Jewish question from the point of view of the acknowledged purpose of Lucan historiography as focused on identity, providing it with a differentiated approach.

Die inhaltlichen und sprachlichen Gemeinsamkeiten der sogenannten Pastoralbriefe haben die bisherige Forschung zu der Annahme gefuhrt, es handele sich bei diesen drei Briefen um intentional zusammengehorige Schreiben unddemnach um unzertrennliche Drillinge"e; (Holtzmann). Da auf diese Weise jedoch die ebenfalls vorhandenen Differenzen zwischen den Briefen nicht hinreichend erklart werden konnen, wagt die vorliegende Monographie einen neuen Zugang zur Pastoralbriefexegese: Die einzelnen Briefe werden nicht mehr als Teil eines Corpus Pastorale"e; verstanden, sondern als Einzelschreiben gewurdigt. Die Untersuchung zentraler Begriffe ermoglicht es, das Profil der einzelnen Schreiben herauszuarbeiten und dadurch das literarische Verhaltnis der drei Briefe neu zu bestimmen. Im Ergebnis kann gezeigt werden, dass es sich bei dem ersten Timotheusbrief um den jungsten der drei Briefe handelt. Dessen Verfasser setzt die beiden anderen Pastoralbriefe bereits als Teil der paulinischen Tradition voraus und rezipiert sie als Element seiner Autorfiktion. Diese Neubestimmung des literarischen Verhaltnisses der Pastoralbriefe verandert nicht zuletzt die Voraussetzungen fur das Verstandnis der Entwicklung der Paulustradition.

In seiner profunden Kenntnis der neutestamentlichen Wissenschaftsgeschichte und dem Verstandnis von Exegese als Auslegung im Miteinander von historischer Rekonstruktion und theologischer Interpretation eroffnet der Erlanger Neutestamentler Otto Merk pragnante Zugange zum Neuen Testament und seiner Erforschung. Der erste Teil der Aufsatzsammlung bietet Studien zur Geschichte der neutestamentlichen Forschung von der Aufklarung bis in das 20. Jahrhundert. Dabei gilt ein besonderes Augenmerk dem Wirken von Adolf Julicher, Albert Schweitzer und Werner Georg Kummel sowie der Lage der neutestamentlichen Wissenschaft im Umfeld des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Der zweite Teil enthalt exegetische Studien zu verschiedenen Themen und Aspekten des Neuen Testaments. Dabei zeigt sich neben dem wissenschaftsgeschichtlichen Impetus das besondere Interesse Merks an den Thessalonicherbriefen sowie dem Bezug der Exegese zur Kirche und ihrer Praxis. Aber auch Aspekte der personlichen theologischen Existenz sowie des Menschlichen im Bereich von theologischer Forschung und Universitat werden thematisiert. So prasentiert der Band wesentliche Ertrage des Schaffens Otto Merks aus den vergangenen 15 Jahren.

Welche Bedeutung besitzt die Jesuswortuberlieferung fur Paulus? Die vorliegende Untersuchung beschaftigt sich mit dieser Frage anhand ausgewahlter synoptischer Parallelen in den Paulusbriefen. Anders als die Evangelien prasentiert Paulus einige dieser Traditionsgehalte nicht als Worte Jesu, sondern als allgemeine urchristliche Uberlieferung. Traditionen wie die vom Umgang mit dem Feind (Rom 12), die synoptisch als Feindesliebegebot Jesu begegnet, erweisen sich als fruhchristliche Neuinterpretation alttestamentlich-fruhjudischer Uberlieferungen im Licht des Christusgeschehens. Der irdische Jesus spielt als Urheber solcher Lehren jedoch keine Rolle. Auch die Herrenworte, die Paulus im 1. Korintherbrief anfuhrt, besitzen nur insofern Geltung, als sie auf den erhohten Kyrios zuruckgefuhrt werden. Traditionsmodelle, die gema dem synoptischen Bild in der Verkundigung Jesu den entscheidenden Ausgangspunkt des Traditionsprozesses sehen, sind daher zu uberprufen. Die Paulusbriefe weisen vielmehr auf eine eigene fruhchristliche Uberlieferungsbildung, die wesentlich vom Glauben an die Heilsbedeutung des Todes Jesu und an seine Auferweckung gepragt ist. Der Befund zeitigt somit Konsequenzen fur die alte Frage nach "e;Paulus und Jesus"e;.

In kaum einem anderen christlichen Text des zweiten Jahrhunderts werden die Juden derartig haufig und aggressiv beschuldigt, fur den Tod Jesu verantwortlich zu sein wie im Petrusevagelium (EvPetr). Diese antijudische Tendenz ist in der bisherigen Forschung haufig erwahnt, aber kaum eingehender untersucht worden. Die vorliegende Arbeit schliet diese Lucke und bietet eine ausfuhrliche, narratologisch fundierte Analyse aller judischen Figuren des EvPetr. Das Evangelium wird dabei Vers fur Vers kommentiert und die Charakterisierung der judischen Figuren innerhalb der Erzahlung herausgearbeitet. Ausgehend von diesen Ergebnissen wird die Judendarstellung des EvPetr mit anderen erzahlenden Texten des zweiten Jahrhunderts verglichen und dadurch theologiegeschichtlich kontextualisiert. Die Arbeit leistet damit einen wichtigen Beitrag fur das Verstandnis des Petrusevangeliums und das Verhaltnis von Christentum und Judentum im zweiten Jahrhundert.

Das Zitieren der aueren (paganen) Tradition ist fur das fruhchristliche Schrifttum nicht selbstverstandlich. Zitate aus den griechischen Werken vor allem der klassischen Zeit kommen dort jedoch relativ oft vor, in einigen Traktaten (wie besonders bei Clemens von Alexandrien) sind diese sogar sehr haufig. Das Buch setzt sich mit der Frage nach den Grunden dieser literarischen Praktik auseinander, wobei deren judisch-hellenistische Vorgeschichte besondere Beachtung findet. Die Monographie kann von allen denjenigen mit Gewinn gelesen werden, die sich fur die Beziehungen zwischen dem Judentum, dem in Entstehung begriffenen Christentum und der griechisch-romischen Umwelt interessieren. Dem neutestamentlichen Zitieren der pagan-griechischen Schriften ist ein separates Kapitel gewidmet.