Studies of the New Testament and its World | SNTW (15 vols)

Sim’s book is a meticulously researched study, reconstructing the Matthean community at the time the Gospel was written. In tracing its full history, he demonstrates that the Matthean community can only be understood in the context of two distinct and opposing Christian perspectives existing in the early Church: the first was represented by the Jerusalem church and the Matthean community and maintained that the Christian message must be preached within the context of Judaism; the second, opposing perspective, represented by Paul and his followers, believed Christians were not inclined to observe the Jewish law. Dr. Sim also reconstructs the conflicts within the Jewish and Gentile worlds in the aftermath of the Jewish war.

Conflicting Mythologies presents a cultural and anthropological interpretation of Matthew and Mark, examining their contribution to the formation of early Christian identity, world view and ethos. John Riches studies what sacred space and ethnicity meant to the authors of these two Gospels and how early Christian group identity emerged through a dynamic process of reshaping traditional Jewish symbols and motifs associated with descent, kinship and territory. Clearly influenced by their Jewish heritage, the Evangelists, according to Riches, attempted to propose a view of the world with opposing cosmologies. The title of Riches book reflects the struggle Mark and Matthew’s narratives faced in trying to make sense of the world and of human experience in terms of a paradoxical cosmology.

In The Social Ethos, David Horrell offers an exemplary study of how sociological perspectives can be used in New Testament studies. The focus of these studies is the Corinthian letters written by Paul and Clement’s letter written from Rome to Corinth near the end of the first century. These letters provide a rich example of the social ethos of early Christian teaching and its development. It lifts the roof off the Corinthian church, allowing an assessment of how Pauline Christianity shaped relationships within the Christian community and how those relationships changed over time, as expressed in Clement’s letter.

Paul’s opening remarks in his second letter to the Corinthian church make reference to certain troubles or problems he faced (problems which could possibly lead to imminent death from either an illness or persecution). Harvey uses these references as a springboard to understanding the profound but difficult language found in this epistle. He begins by exploring the social, economic and religious consequences of illness or disability in antiquity. Paul uses his malady as an opportunity to present a new understanding of suffering for the first-century Christian. The remainder of Harvey’s book acts as a running commentary on this biographical approach to understanding 2 Corinthians.

Dr. Adams focuses, in this ground-breaking study, on Paul’s understanding and use of the cosmological concepts ‘world’ and ‘creation’. He confronts this study by using current disciplines, such as critical linguistics, to understand the differing perspectives on the world found in 1 Corinthians and Romans by examining Paul’s historical and social context.

Meggitt examines the economic and social life of Pauline churches. His work presents to us the lives and minds of the earliest Christians and contributes to our understanding of the origins of Christianity. He further explores the nature of the Roman economy and the lives of those living in the first-century Mediterranean world. Some of the aspects he focuses on are: employment, nutrition, clothing and housing. In disclosing the Pauline church’s strategies for survival, Meggitt is able to draw on many background sources for the first time in this kind of study.

Here, Dr. Hartman examines all New Testament passages which contain allusions to baptism. He discusses the variations and relative importance of these passages and includes a look at two documents from the Apostolic Fathers that shed further light on this subject for the early Christian. One of the particular motifs Hartman discovers is baptism’s relation to Christ. It is baptism into the name of the Lord Jesus that represents the fundamental reference point in this early Christian rite. It is this Name that gives baptism its significance and meaning.

According to the author, “Until now Paul’s theology has been treated in exegetical literature almost exclusively as a systematic whole. Here, by contrast, the attempt is made to show how Paul’s theology can be adequately understood only when it is seen in relation to its development. There is a decisive process of theological development between Galatians and Romans which in turn must be related to Paul’s biography.”

Law in Paul’s Thought examines the relation between Paul’s teaching in Galatians and Romans, arguing that there is a major shift in emphasis between the two. An intriguing and concisely argued monograph, it points to a striking discord within Paul’s view of the Law and asks whether these differences should not be explained in terms of development in Paul’s theology. The skillful way in which he traces the arguments and interconnections between arguments in the different passages is fascinating and illuminating.

Paul's conversion and its impact on his theology have been studied extensively. Yet little has been done to relate this to Paul's attitude towards the conversion of others, or to perspectives on conversion held by converts in the churches Paul founded. Soteriology is often considered in isolation from the practical issues of how conversion was expected to take place and the nature of its expected consequences.

This book addresses these issues, taking account of recent developments in conversion studies in the social sciences and other disciplines. Stephen Chester first reviews these developments and assesses the potential value of sociologist Anthony Gidden's general social theory of structuration. He then utilizes this to explore Paul's perspectives on conversion in relation to both Gentile and Jewish converts. He also explores the Corinthians' perspectives on conversion in the context of Graeco-Roman religious and social life. Here emerges a fascinating account of perspectives on conversion in the crucial formative years of early Christianity.

Paul’s letter to the Romans is generally considered his most important. But why did he write it? Professor Wedderburn systematically surveys the range of recent scholarly opinion on this hotly contested question and clarifies the main issues. This remarkable, comprehensive and up-to-date volume will aid students and specialists alike.

Turid Karlsen Seim’s study of the Lukan treatment of women is a landmark in feminist studies of the New Testament. In the Gospel women have considerable prominence: they occur in “gender pairs” with men in such a way as to show their active participation in the ministry of Jesus; they are shown to exhibit ideal virtues of leadership, though they are not actually allowed to exercise it; they are custodians of the word up to the resurrection and bear witness, unsuccessfully, to the men.

But while they are highly visible in the Gospel, in its sequel, Acts, they are silenced. Even though they could accompany Jesus on long journeys, they are not part of the church’s apostolic witness. Women are silenced as the preaching of the church moves out of the new “family” surrounding Jesus’ preaching of the word to the public sphere of the world of men. Only in so far as women embrace a form of asceticism and so free themselves of men’s control can they achieve a certain freedom. In this advocacy of asceticism Luke is strikingly different from the Pastoral to which he is often compared.

Professor Seim sensitively explores these tensions within Luke’s narrative. While Luke’s work demonstrates nicely the powers which silence women, the narrative of their participation in Jesus’ ministry keeps alive the memory of their active role in the beginnings of the church. It is a dangerous memory which can act as a critique of the processes of marginalization of women to which Acts bears witness.

Here is a study which is balanced, drawing freely on historical- and literary-critical methods of enquiry, not forcing its case but sensitive to the subtle tensions in Luke’s “double message.”

Poetics, the study of the making of literary works, regards the gospels as literature, in contrast to the historical-critical approach. Petri Merenlahti makes the case that poetics offers a vital critical tool to interpreting the gospels. But he argues that poetics must also be 'historical', as perceptions of literary form and value are not fixed, but evolve and develop from one time and culture to another. Merenlahti provides a comprehensive account of the development and the state of the art of poetics and narrative criticism. Through scrupulous methodological discussion and detailed analysis of gospel narratives, he also offers a potentially highly productive future program for historical poetics in gospel studies.

In this volume, Judith Lieu explores the formation and shaping of early Christian identity within Judaism and within the wider Graeco-Roman world in the period before 200 C.E. Bringing to bear the latest analytical methods, she particularly examines the way that literary texts presented early Christianity. She combines this with interdisciplinary historical investigation and interaction with the most recent work on Judaism in late Antiquity and on the Graeco-Roman world.

The result is a very significant contribution in four of the key questions in current New Testament scholarship: how did early Christian identity come to be formed; how should we best describe and understand the processes by which the Christian movement became separate from its Jewish origins; was there anything special or different about the way women entered Judaism and early Christianity; and how did martyrdom contribute to the construction of early Christian identity?

The Gospel of Thomas is one of the most debated early Christian writings. Discovered as a Coptic translation in the Nag Hammadi Library, its date, message and relation to the canonical gospels have been the subject of much divisive argument. This volume offers new perspectives on the gospel and demonstrates the various ways in which it sheds light on the ideological and social history of early Christianity.

Expert scholars go to the heart of current issues in Thomasine studies, such as the role of oral and written traditions in the composition of the gospel, Thomas' relationship with the Gospel of John and with Gnostic and ascetic tendencies in early Christianity, the gospel's attitude to women followers of Jesus and to Jewish ritual practices.

The New Testament’s messianic interpretation of the Old is an important key to its theology. This book examines the way the author of the Gospel of Mark uses the Old Testament to convey the identity of Jesus.

Joel Marcus examines in detail several important Markan passages which use the Old Testament. His central thesis is that Mark’s Old Testament usage follows paths already made by Jewish exegesis, particularly apocalyptic reinterpretations of Old Testament texts. Giving such eschatological exegesis his own characteristic twist, Mark presents Jesus as God’s true Messiah who brings the prophesied victory in eschatological holy war. Unlike the Jewish War against Rome in A.D. 66-72, however, the holy war portrayed by Mark is not fought with conventional weapons but won through the apocalyptic event of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

This thoroughly documented and closely argued study is an important contribution to our understanding of the Gospel of Mark.