IVP Biblical Studies Collection (8 vols.)
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Overview
This collection of resources from IVP examines important biblical topics including the exodus, Christology, culture, and mystery. Combining elements of biblical, exegetical, thematic, and systematic studies, this collection connects individual elements to the big picture of Scripture.
Key Features
- Provides social, cultural, and rhetorical contexts of the New Testament authors and their writings
- Examines the intersection of the Old and New Testaments
- Explores key theological themes in Scripture
Product Details
- Title: IVP Biblical Studies Collection (8 vols.)
- Publisher: IVP
- Volumes: 8
- Pages: 2,095
Individual Titles
- An Introduction to the New Testament, 2nd Edition: Contexts, Methods & Ministry Formation
- Conformed to the Image of His Son: Reconsidering Paul’s Theology of Glory in Romans
- Created and Creating: A Biblical Theology of Culture
- Echoes of Exodus: Tracing a Biblical Motif
- Hidden But Now Revealed: A Biblical Theology of Mystery
- New Testament Christological Hymns: Exploring Texts, Contexts, and Significance
- Reading Mark’s Christology Under Caesar: Jesus the Messiah and Roman Imperial Ideology
- The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context
Partially includedIn the Logos edition, these volumes are enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
This New Testament introduction is different.
Many introductions zero in on the historical contexts in which the New Testament literature was written. This introduction goes further—to give particular attention to the social, cultural, and rhetorical contexts of the New Testament authors and their writings.
Few introductions to the New Testament integrate instruction in exegetical and interpretive strategies with the customary considerations of authorship, dating, audience, and message. This introduction capitalizes on the opportunity, introducing students to a relevant facet of interpretation with each portion of New Testament literature.
Rarely do introductions to the New Testament approach their task mindful of students preparing for ministry. This introduction is explicit in doing so, recognizing as it does that the New Testament itself—in its parts and as a whole—is a pastoral resource. Each chapter on the New Testament literature closes with a discussion of implications for ministry formation.
These integrative features alone would distinguish this introduction from others. But in addition, its pages brim with maps, photos, points of interest, and aids to learning. Separate chapters explore the historical and cultural environment of the New Testament era, the nature of the Gospels and the quest for the historical Jesus, and the life of Paul.
First published in 2004, David A. deSilva’s comprehensive and carefully crafted introduction to the New Testament has been long established as an authoritative textbook and resource for students. This beautiful, full-color second edition has been updated throughout with new scholarship and numerous images. It is the first choice for those convinced that a New Testament introduction should integrate scholarship and ministry.
This excellent introduction, which I use for my New Testament introduction classes, meets a special need, especially for seminarians concerned about how their New Testament study relates to ministry. It displays a wide knowledge of scholarship in the entire New Testament canon and its historical contexts, and capably introduces students to both traditional and more current approaches (including rhetorical, literary, and social). deSilva’s concern for ministry application is a valuable and unique feature, and his extensive proficiency in the ancient sources, already demonstrated in earlier works, makes him an especially trustworthy guide in this area. He presents the entire range of positions fairly so that students from diverse backgrounds receive a fair survey of views and the arguments for each; deSilva’s conclusions are also fair and carefully supported. This welcome new edition takes this work to an even higher level.
—Craig S. Keener, F. M. and Ada Thompson Professor of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary
David A. deSilva (PhD, Emory University) is Trustees’ Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Greek at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio. He is the author of over twenty-five books including Day of Atonement: A Novel of the Maccabean Revolt; Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation’s Warning; The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude; Introducing the Apocrypha: Context, Message and Significance; and Perseverance in Gratitude: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Epistle “to the Hebrews.” He is also an ordained elder in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.
With its soaring affirmations and profound statements of salvation in Christ, Romans 8 is a high point in Pauline theology. But what does Paul mean when in 8:29 he speaks of being “conformed to the image of his Son”?
Remarkably, there has been little scholarly attention awarded to this Pauline statement of the goal of salvation. And yet in Christian piety, preaching, and theology, this is a treasured phrase. Surprisingly, its meaning has been variously and ambiguously expressed. Is it a moral or spiritual or sanctifying conformity to Christ, or to his suffering, or does it point to an eschatological transformation into radiant glory?
In Conformed to the Image of His Son, Haley Goranson Jacob probes and reopens a text perhaps too familiar and a meaning too often assumed. If conformity to the image of the Son is the goal of salvation, a proper understanding is paramount. Jacob points out that the key lies in the meaning of “glory” in Paul’s biblical-theological perspective and in how he uses the language of glory in Romans. For this investigation of glory alone, her study would be valuable for the fresh understanding she brings to Paul’s narrative of glory. But in introducing a new and compelling reading of Romans 8:29, this is a study that makes a strong bid to reorient our understanding of Paul’s classic statement of the goal of salvation.
The letters of Paul are notoriously complex. However exciting and stimulating the subject matter, there always seems to be more going on than meets the eye of the casual reader, even of the Christian reader used to hearing sermons and other expositions of well-known texts. It is therefore always worthwhile investigating even the most familiar passages to be sure they have yielded up their secrets. This is what Haley Jacob has done in this remarkable work, and the results are striking. If she is right—and I am convinced that she is—then the standard assumptions about a central Pauline passage will need to be revised. After a lifetime of study and teaching on Romans, I was not expecting to be confronted at my age with a fresh understanding of its central chapter, requiring a radical rethink of many familiar landmarks both exegetical and theological. But that is what Dr. Jacob has achieved. Not everyone will agree with all segments of her argument. But both in its parts and as a whole it has, to my mind, compelling force. I urge all students of Paul and of Romans to work carefully through the step-by-step presentation of the case.
—N. T. Wright, research professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland
Haley Goranson Jacob (PhD, University of St Andrews) is an assistant professor of theology at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. She has published reviews in both Review of Biblical Literature and Theology. Before pursuing her doctorate, Haley spent her time traveling across the globe, visiting places such as Lithuania, Kyrgyzstan, Yellowstone, Cooke City, Scotland, Paris, and Germany.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is always situated within a particular cultural context. But how should Christians approach the complex relationship between our faith and our surrounding culture?
Should we simply retreat from culture? Should we embrace our cultural practices and mindset? How important is it for us to be engaged in our culture? And how might we do that with discernment and faithfulness?
William Edgar offers a rich biblical theology in light of our contemporary culture that contends that Christians should—indeed, must—be engaged in the surrounding culture.
By exploring what Scripture has to say about the role of culture and by gleaning insights from a variety of theologians of culture—including Abraham Kuyper, T. S. Eliot, H. Richard Niebuhr, and C. S. Lewis—Edgar contends that cultural engagement is a fundamental aspect of human existence. He does not shy away from those passages that emphasize the distinction between Christians and the world. Yet he finds, shining through the biblical witness, evidence that supports a robust defense of the cultural mandate to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28).
With clarity and wisdom, Edgar argues that we are most faithful to our calling as God’s creatures when we participate in creating culture.
Anything from the pen of Bill Edgar is profitable to read, but this subject is in Bill’s wheelhouse. An important book on a topic that, for Western Christians, has never been so crucial.
—Tim Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City
William Edgar is professor of apologetics, holder of the John Boyer Chair of Evangelism and Culture, and coordinator of the apologetics department at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He is the author of several books, including A Transforming Vision: The Lord’s Prayer as a Lens for Life, Francis Schaeffer on the Christian Life, Christian Apologetics Past & Present, and Truth in All Its Glory: Commending the Reformed Faith.
Israel’s exodus from Egypt is the Bible’s enduring emblem of deliverance. It is the archetypal anvil on which the scriptural language of deliverance is shaped. More than just an epic moment, the exodus shapes the telling of Israel’s and the church’s gospel. From the blasting furnace of Egypt, imagery pours forth. In the Song of Moses Yahweh overcomes the Egyptian army, sending them plummeting to the bottom of the sea.
But the exodus motif continues as God leads Israel through the wilderness, marches to Sinai and on the Zion. It fires the psalmist’s poetry and inspires Isaiah’s second-exodus rhapsodies. As it pulses through the veins of the New Testament, the Gospel writers hear exodus resonances from Jesus’ birth to the gates of Jerusalem. Paul casts Christ’s deliverance in exodus imagery, and the Apocalypse reverberates with exodus themes.
In Echoes of Exodus, Bryan Estelle traces the motif as it weaves through the canon of Scripture. Wedding literary readings with biblical-theological insights, he helps us weigh again what we know and recognize anew what we have not seen. More than that, he introduces us to the study of quotation, allusion, and echo, providing a firm theoretical basis for hermeneutical practice and understanding.
Echoes of Exodus is a guide for students and biblical theologians, and a resource for preachers and teachers of the Word.
Informed by classic Reformed theology and the most modern methods, Bryan Estelle presents what may be the most careful and extensive study of the exodus available. His study is a model of an intertextual and biblical theological study of a theme in Scripture, and not just any theme, but one of crucial importance to understanding the message of salvation in the gospel. I recommend this book to all serious students of the Bible and to pastors who want to preach in a way that honors the coherence of Scripture.
—Tremper Longman III, Distinguished Scholar of Biblical Studies, Westmont College
Bryan D. Estelle (PhD, Catholic University of America) is professor of Old Testament at Westminster Seminary California. He is the author of Salvation Through Judgment and Mercy.
Hidden But Now Revealed: A Biblical Theology of Mystery
- Authors: Gregory Beale and Benjamin L. Gladd
- Publisher: IVP
- Publication Date: 2018
- Pages: 393
When reading through the Bible, it is impossible to ignore the troubling fact that Israel and its leaders and even Jesus’ own disciples seem unable to fully grasp the messianic identity and climactic mission of Jesus. If his true deity, his death and resurrection and his role in the establishment of God’s eternal kingdom were predicted in the Old Testament and in his own teachings, how could the leading biblical scholars of their time miss it?
This book explores the biblical conception of mystery as an initial, partially hidden revelation that is subsequently more fully revealed, shedding light not only on the richness of the concept itself, but also on the broader relationship between the Old and New Testaments. Exploring all the occurrences of the term mystery in the New Testament and the topics found in conjunction with them, this work unpacks how the New Testament writers understood the issue of continuity and discontinuity. This investigation of the notion of mystery sharpens our understanding of how the Old Testament relates to the New and explores topics such as kingdom, crucifixion, the relationship between Jews and Gentiles and more. As such, it is a model for attentive and faithful biblical theology intended for students, scholars, pastors and lay people who wish to seriously engage the Scriptures.
An intriguing theological and exegetical exploration of a key New Testament theme, especially in Paul. As the book’s authors argue, the early Christian use of ‘mysteries’ surely reflects the strong influence of Daniel.
—Craig Keener, professor of New Testament, Asbury Theological Seminary
Gregory Beale (PhD, University of Cambridge) holds the J. Gresham Machen Chair of New Testament and is professor of New Testament and biblical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary. His books include The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), 1-2 Thessalonians (The IVP New Testament Commentary Series), The Right Doctrine from the Wrong Texts? Essays on the Use of the Old Testament in the New, John’s Use of the Old Testament in Revelation, The Temple and the Church’s Mission, and We Become What We Worship.
Benjamin L. Gladd received a PhD in Biblical and Theological studies from Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, and previously served as an adjunct faculty member at Wheaton College, teaching New Testament exegesis and interpretation, Greek, and introductory courses on the Old and New Testaments. Gladd is the author of Revealing the Mysterion and lives with his wife and two children.
We know that the earliest Christians sang hymns. Paul encourages believers to sing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” And at the dawn of the second century the Roman official Pliny names a feature of Christian worship as “singing alternately a hymn to Christ as to God.” But are some of these early Christian hymns preserved for us in the New Testament? Are they right before our eyes?
New Testament scholars have long debated whether early Christian hymns appear in the New Testament. And where some see preformed hymns and liturgical elements embossed on the page, others see patches of rhetorically elevated prose from the author’s hand.
Matthew Gordley now reopens this fascinating question. He begins with a new look at hymns in the Greco-Roman and Jewish world of the early church. Might the didactic hymns of those cultural currents set a new starting point for talking about hymnic texts in the New Testament? If so, how should we detect these hymns? How might they function in the New Testament? And what might they tell us about early Christian worship?
An outstanding feature of texts such as Philippians 2:6-11, Colossians 1:15-20, and John 1:1-17 is their christological character. And if these are indeed hymns, we encounter the reality that within the crucible of worship the deepest and most searching texts of the New Testament arose.
New Testament Christological Hymns reopens an important line of investigation that will serve a new generation of students of the New Testament.
Gordley provides scholars, students, and also those concerned with Christian worship today with a richly informed, balanced, and stimulating study of earliest Christian hymnic praise. He shows how, whether or not given New Testament texts were actual hymns, they incorporate and reflect hymnic expressions and features, and so at least give us indirect evidence of earliest Christian worship. His additional emphasis on these texts as expressive of a ‘spirituality of resistance’ (to Roman imperial claims) is a fresh contribution. This is now the go-to book on the texts often cited as New Testament hymns.
—L. W. Hurtado, emeritus professor of New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology at the University of Edinburgh
Matthew E. Gordley (PhD, University of Notre Dame) is dean of the College of Learning and Innovation at Carlow University and previously taught at Regent University. He is the author of The Colossian Hymn in Context and Teaching through Song in Antiquity.
The Gospel of Mark has been studied from multiple angles using many methods. But often there remains a sense that something is wanting, that the full picture of Mark’s Gospel lacks some background circuitry that would light up the whole.
Adam Winn finds a clue in the cataclysmic destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. For Jews and Christians it was an apocalyptic moment. The gods of Rome seemed to have conquered the God of the Jews.
Could it be that Mark wrote his Gospel in response to Roman imperial propaganda surrounding this event? Could a messiah crucified by Rome really be God’s Son appointed to rule the world?
Winn considers how Mark might have been read by Christians in Rome in the aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem. He introduces us to the propaganda of the Flavian emperors and excavates the Markan text for themes that address the Roman imperial setting. We discover an intriguing first-century response to the question “Christ or Caesar?”
I welcome this contribution to the study of the Gospel of Mark in the context of the Roman Empire. The Jesus of the New Testament Gospels is thoroughly Jewish, to be sure, but he lived and ministered in a land that was part of the Roman world; and the evangelist Mark, the first to craft a biography of Jesus, understood this well. Mark challenges Rome and its cult of the divine emperor with a compelling portrait of the true Son of God. Adam Winn has perceptively pursued this line of inquiry shedding new light on this important field of study.
—Craig A. Evans, John Bisagno Distinguished Professor of Christian Origins at Houston Baptist University
Adam Winn (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is assistant professor at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor College of Christian Studies. He is the author of The Purpose of Mark’s Gospel: An Early Christian Response to Roman Imperial Propaganda (Mohr Siebeck, 2008) and editor of An Introduction to Empire in the New Testament (SBL, 2016).
The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context
- Authors: John H. Walton and J. Harvey Walton
- Series: The Lost World Series
- Publisher: IVP
- Publication Date: 2019
- Pages: 288
Our handling of what we call biblical law veers between controversy and neglect.
On the one hand, controversy arises when Old Testament laws seem either odd beyond comprehension (not eating lobster) or positively reprehensible (executing children). On the other, neglect results when we consider the law obsolete, no longer carrying any normative power (tassels on clothing, making sacrifices). Even readers who do attempt to make use of the Old Testament “law” often find it either irrelevant, hopelessly laden with “thou shalt nots,” or simply so confusing that they throw up their hands in despair. Despite these extremes, people continue to propose moral principles from these laws as “the biblical view” and to garner proof texts to resolve issues that arise in society. The result is that both Christians and skeptics regularly abuse the Torah, and its true message often lies unheard.
Walton and Walton offer in The Lost World of the Torah a restorative vision of the ancient genre of instruction for wisdom that makes up a significant portion of the Old Testament. In the ancient Near East, order was achieved through the wisdom of those who governed society. The objective of torah was to teach the Israelites to be wise about the kind of order needed to receive the blessings of God’s favor and presence within the context of the covenant. Here readers will find fresh insight on this fundamental genre of the Old Testament canon.
Walton and Walton take recent scholarship on ancient Near Eastern law and apply it with great dexterity to their investigation of the biblical Torah. Ancient law codes, like the Laws of Hammurabi, very likely did not form the actual law of their respective societies, and this book is willing to face the implications of this honestly. Overall, it builds a careful and important argument for how to approach biblical law. And it is brave enough to show that most casual interpretations by modern Christians will almost inevitably go awry. One can only hope that this kind of work will begin to dampen the naive and simplistic readings that plague much of American Protestantism today.
—Bruce Wells, associate professor, department of Middle Eastern studies, University of Texas at Austin
John H. Walton (PhD, Hebrew Union College) is professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School. Previously he was professor of Old Testament at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for twenty years.
Some of Walton’s books include The Lost World of Adam and Eve, The Lost World of Scripture, The Lost World of Genesis One, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament, The Essential Bible Companion, The NIV Application Commentary: Genesis, and The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament (with Victor Matthews and Mark Chavalas).
Walton’s ministry experience includes church classes for all age groups, high school Bible studies, and adult Sunday school classes, as well as serving as a teacher for “The Bible in 90 Days.” John and his wife, Kim, live in Wheaton, Illinois, and have three adult children.
J. Harvey Walton (MA, Wheaton College Graduate School) is a researcher in biblical studies and has contributed to a variety of publications. He is pursuing graduate studies at St. Andrews University.
