PBI New Testament Studies Collection (11 vols.)
Overview
The PBI New Testament Studies Collection features studies in the New Testament from the Pontifical Biblical Institute. The 11 engaging volumes present erudite perspectives on a number of important issues in the New Testament. These include the transfiguration of Jesus, the divine sonship of Christians in the Johannine writings, Christ’s resurrection, and many others.
As an institution of the Holy See, the Pontifical Biblical Institute has been producing some of the most penetrating analyses on the Bible and its peripheral disciplines since 1927. Renowned scholars from around the globe have contributed to their considerable roster of authors. Each book is marked by keen insight and astute scholarship, always with an eye to serving the church. The New Testament Studies Collection is no exception to this legacy of quality.
The PBI Old Testament Studies Collection is also available from Logos.
- Perspectives on a variety of important issues found in the New Testament
- Ideal for pastors, students, and laity
- Title: PBI New Testament Studies Collection (11 vols.)
- Publisher: Pontifical Biblical Institute
- Volumes: 11
- Pages: 3,179
Partially included
Christ’s Proclamation to the Spirits is a scholarly work particularly noted for its methodology. This second edition takes into account the great deal of work bearing on the interpretation of 1 Peter 3:18-4:6 since the volume’s initial publication in 1965. This includes modifications to the author’s original interpretation, though a substantial amount has been retained.
The work contains a chapter on the authorship of 1 Peter. This involves a discussion of New Testament pseudepigraphy. This approach has made it feasible to find a link between 1 Peter and Peter the apostle. It clearly emerges that 1 Peter, as a precious witness to the faith of the early church, has its own theology and literary presentation. Within this framework, the difficult texts of 3:19 and 4:6 have to be interpreted.
Father William Joseph Dalton has taught Scripture in Australia and in many other lands, returning as Professor to the Pontifical Biblical Institute and continuing as Director of that institute’s branch in Jerusalem. He has been visiting professor on four occasions in the U.S.A. In 1985 he was invited to participate in the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops as theologian. He has published a number of books and articles, mainly in the area of 1 Peter and Pauline studies.
The text of John 14:2-3 bristles with difficulties. It describes the redemptive work of Christ in terms which pertain to the family and its intimate personal relationships. However, careful examination also reveals significant temple implications. The text states equivalently that the New Temple of the risen Jesus is the way of access to the heavenly temple of the Father’s house. Moreover, the term “place” is taken to mean sanctuary or temple.
Extensive arguments support this interpretation by the use of a method which distinguishes two levels of meaning in the text, a pre-Paschal and a post-Paschal respectively. Part 1 of this study treats directly of the Jewish background, with a preliminary chapter which opens up the rich possibilities of the text. Part 2 deals with the Johannine context, the deeper post-Paschal meaning, and the links with other Johannine temple texts. A final chapter shows the unity between the two levels of understanding. Such an interpretation points to the temple as an important theme of the Johannine farewell discourses which cannot be adequately explained without reference to it.
James McCaffrey has lectured widely in India, Israel, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the U.S.A. He has also contributed articles and written several books on biblical topics. At present he is a Lecturer and Tutor at Ushaw College, Durham University.
This is the first monograph devoted to all three accounts of the transfiguration of Jesus from a narrative-critical, audience-oriented perspective. It proposes a new literary genre designation for all three versions, that a “pivotal mandatory epiphany,” based upon the precedents in Numbers 22:31-35, Joshua 5:13-15, and 2 Maccabees 3:22-34.
The background and meaning of each of the major motifs of the three accounts of the transfiguration is explained: Jesus is externally and temporarily transformed into a heavenly figure to anticipate his future attainment of heavenly glory and to enable him to speak with the heavenly figures of Moses and Elijah. Rather than symbols of the Law and the Prophets, Moses and Elijah represent prophetic figures who, in contrast to Jesus, attained heavenly glory without being put to death by their people. The three tents Peter wants to build have their background primarily in the Tent of Meeting as a place of divine communication. The cloud overshadows only Moses and Elijah; it has both a vehicular function of implicitly transporting Moses and Elijah back to heaven and an oracular function of providing the divine mandate that serves as the climax of the mandatory epiphany.
The climactic divine mandate to listen to Jesus as God’s Son refers primarily to the various predictions of his suffering, death and resurrection throughout the narrative. The “pivotal” nature of this divine mandate is confirmed by a demonstration of the narrative function of the transfiguration epiphany in relation to its preceding and succeeding contexts in each Gospel.
John Paul Heil is a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. He obtained his licentiate and doctorate in Sacred Scripture form the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He is professor of New Testament at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.
In this study, the author aims to determine whether the Palestinian Targum, when approached from various angles, shows a definite relation with the New Testament, one that is not found in rabbinic writings. It will be evident that there is no intention of attempting to prove that every text of the PT is of pre-Christian date. Even a moderate knowledge of the PT will indicate that there are at least some passages from the centuries after the time of Christ. The author intends, however, to propose arguments from the NT and rabbinic writings which indicate an early, even pre-Christian, date for the bulk of the material of the PT. It may be objected that this method is of scant value for NT exegesis, seeing that any individual text of the PT could be a later date. The author grants that there still will remain the necessity of studying individual PT texts in depth. This, nonetheless, in no way invalidates the method followed in the volume. If it is possible to show that there is a manifold relation between the PT and the NT than the author has established a strong argument for the pre-Christian date of the PT as such. Exegetes can thus legitimately turn to PT when they seek the elucidation of some obscure NT text.
Martin McNamara, M.S.C. is the author of several books, including Apocalyptic and Eschatological Heritage: The Middle East and Celtic Realms, The Apocrypha in the Irish Church, Intertestamental Literature, and editor of The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context (with D.R.G. Beattie).
The address to wives at Eph. 5:22-24 represents an expansion of Col. 3:18. What guided the expansion? An answer emerges from an investigation of Pauline and Jewish reflection about Adam, Christ and the New Creation. The argument of the study is that Eph. 5:22-24 contains language which elsewhere in the Pauline Corpus associates Christ with Adam or the first two chapters of Genesis. Both the “adamic” character of the language at Eph. 5:22-24 and the application of Gen. 2:24 to Christ and the church (Eph. 5:31-32) support the contention that Pauline New Creation theology guided the construction of Eph. 5:22-24.
The first chapter outlines the shortcomings of previous investigations which have underestimated the “adamic” character of Ephesians 5:22-24. Chapter two contains a detailed analysis of the grammatical structure of the text, which leads to the conclusion that the logical and theological core of the text is Ephesians 5:23c (“he, savior of the body”). The arguments in the next chapter demonstrates that the soteriology of 5:23c is to be interpreted in light of 2:14-18, which recasts Christ’s death on the cross in language found in Genesis 1-2, suggesting the “adamic” character of 5:23c.
The fourth chapter explores the “adamic” nature of the terms “head” and “subordination” within Pauline texts prior to Ephesians (e.g., 1 Corinthians 11:2-6; 15:28b; Colossians 1:15-20). The final chapter contains a fresh exegesis of Ephesians. 5:22-24 in light of Pauline New Creation theology and some brief hermeneutical reflections.
Stephen Francis Miletic was born in Windsor (Ontario, Canada) in 1952. After music studies at the Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (1971-1973) he earned degrees in Religious Studies (Hons. B.A., M.A.) from the University of Windsor, a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Marquette University (Milwaukee, U.S.A., 1985) and a B.Ed. from the University of Windsor (1978). He has presented papers to professional biblical associations in both the U.S.A. and Canada. He has taught as Visiting Assistant Professor in the U.S.A. and as Lecturer in Canada. In 1986 he served as Director, National Office of Religious Education, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Ottawa (Canada), where he lives with his wife and their three children.
This study presents an aspect which the author believes to be central to the whole of Paul’s thought on the role of Christ as Redeemer: the function assigned to Christ’s resurrection in Pauline soteriology. The purpose of this inquiry is not merely to determine the place held by Christ’s resurrection in the maturer expression of Paul’s theology, but also to observe how the progressively deeper understanding of this central Christian truth enabled Paul to arrive at the definitive expression of his conception of Christian salvation. Consequently, it will be necessary to investigate the resurrection of Christ as a formative factor in Paul’s development as it is found reflected in the authentically Pauline epistles preserved in the New Testament canon.
David Michael Stanley, S.J. entered the Jesuit Novitiate at Guelph in 1933 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1946. After ordination, he was sent to the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. There he completed his dissertation in 1952. For nearly 40 years he taught at various universities across the globe, including Regis College (Toronto), College Immaculee-Conception (Montreal) St.Augustine’s Seminary, Iowa State University, the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome), Milltown Park (Dublin) and the University of San Francisco. He served as president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America, the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies, and was elected a member of the Societas Novi Testementi Studiorium. Pope Paul VI named him a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.
New Testament authors expressed the essence of Christianity in one word. It is the Greek word koinõnia usually translated as “fellowship.” St. Paul reduces the whole Christian vocation to a koinõnia when he writes “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship (koinõnia) of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). St. Luke uses the same term to depict the life of the first Christians: “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship (koinõnia), and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). 1 John goes a step further and affirms “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship (koinõnia) with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Fellowship with Christ, leading to a fellowship with the Father, and fellowship with one another in Christ: there you have Christianity in one word.
Interesting studies on the term koinõnia have appeared from the 1930’s onward. But almost all the works on koinõnia which have been encountered are concerned with the discussion of the philological aspects of the word koinõnia. Using these works as a basis, the author attempts in this study to find the theological implications of the NT koinõnia. The depth and beauty of the NT koinõnia could serve as guidelines to a new Ecclesiology, resulting from an enriched Christology.
Archbishop Dr. George Panikulam was born at Puthenchira October 26, 1943. After his school education he joined St. Mary's Minor Seminary at Thope, Thrissur. His major seminary formation was in St. Joseph's Pontifical Seminary, Aluva. His priestly ordination occurred in 1967. After the one year service at Lourde Cathedral, Thrissur as the Assistant Vicar, he was sent to Rome for higher studies. He secured doctorate in Scripture and Post Graduation in Canon Law and Sacred Theology. Later he joined the diplomatic service of the Vatican. While serving as the Vitan observer in the U.N.O., he was nominated Titular Bishop of Arpaia in Rome and the Apostolic Nuncio of Honduras. He was ordained as the Archbishop in Rome by His Holiness Pope John Paul II in 2000.
The task of presenting theologically oriented exegesis must precede the professional popularization of new interpretations, the writing of standard commentaries, and a number of other aspects of Biblical studies. The author aims to fill a notable gap in this respect by offering to scholars what should be the first exegetical monograph concerning 2 Thessalonians 2 as a whole.
The chapter itself is by no means an unattractive one. It invites the scholar to scrutinize its many specific exegetical problems in terms of the Gestalt of difficulties which it presents, including its precise theological and pastoral orientation. By way of providing a special incentive for laborious investigation, the chapter obviously contains a rich lode of eschatological teaching, one of the basic currencies of present-day theological discussion.
Part One investigates the state of the question; Part Two contains the exegesis of 2 Thessalonians 2 and concludes with a commentary on the whole of that passage; Part Three presents fuller theological reflections consequent on the exegesis. For the reader with initially less time at his disposal, the schematically arranged text and translation at the end of Part One together with the resumes and the over-all commentary in the last chapter of Part Two should provide a good grasp of the new interpretation the author submits.
Charles H. Giblin, S.J. was born in Chicago and attended Loyola Academy with the aim of becoming a Jesuit priest. He entered the Jesuit novitiate at Milford, Ohio in 1945, and ultimately obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Latin and a Master’s in Greek from Loyola University, as well as teaching degrees in philosophy and theology from the old West Baden College in Indiana. Following his ordination, he earned a doctorate from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He taught theology at Jesuit schools in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio before joining the faculty at Fordham in New York City. He has authored a number of scholarly articles and books, particularly on the subjects of St. Paul and St. John.
This study analyzes a single Pauline text of exceptional difficulty and importance, 2 Corinthians 3:1-46, from the point of view of its logical and literary structure as it can be discovered from the Apostle’s use and interpretation of a network of interrelated Old Testament texts. These scripture texts, recovered through Paul’s vocabulary, are linked and used by him according to exegetical methods common in his time. As his own exegesis is reappropriated in this study, the reader is able to see the mind of the Apostle at work in his own religious context. The origins of such fundamental Pauline theological themes as the new covenant in Christ, the gift of God’s spirit to a recreated people and the hardening of Israel into disbelief are explained through the creative interweaving of texts. Finally, the unity and authenticity of a much disputed Pauline text are reaffirmed in this study on literary and exegetical grounds. The text is discussed according to its two major traditional segments, 3:1-6 and 3:7-18, comprising the two major chapters of this work. An introduction prepares the reader for the methodological approach, exegetical criticism, taken in this book, and a conclusion interprets 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 in light of the new information provided by the present inquiry and discusses further with an index of Modern Authors and an Index of Scriptural References.
Carol Stockhausen received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Theology and Philosophy from Marquette University in 1969 and her Ph.D. in Religious Studies, with a specialization in Christian Origins and New Testament Literature, also from Marquette in 1984. She was married in 1968 and has four sons. Since 1984 she has been a member of the faculty and Director of Graduate Students of the Department of Theology of Marquette University. She is a member of numerous professional societies in the United States and internationally. A work on Colossians, Ephesians and the Pastoral Epistles, entitled Letters in the Pauline Tradition is soon to appear. The present study is a partial presentation of her doctoral dissertation.
Taking as the determinative concept Jesus’ favorite name for God, Father, John interprets the ideal relationship of men to God as that of spiritual children, having the Life – eternal – from the Father. According to John this life of sonship to God, having a definite beginning other than the physical birth, and being manifested in very definite moral and spiritual qualities, defines the very being of a Christian. It is in the measure that one understands clearly, experiences personally and expounds persuasively this truth of Christian Sonship, that one lays hold upon the very heart of Christian faith and life. Hence this investigation of ours to find the formulas, the content and the meaning of the Johannine doctrine of the divine sonship of Christians.
When we start investigating the Johannine doctrine of the divine sonship of Christians, we are confronted with certain questions regarding its nature and origin: Is the Johannine concept of sonship something purely juridical or moral, or does it suppose an ontological reality? If it supposes such a reality, in what does it consist? How do men obtain this reality so as to become children of God? What are the practical consequences of this divine sonship in the life of men? What is the origin of the vocabulary employed by John to express his concept of sonship? Only an attractive study of all the relevant texts in the Johannine Writings can provide satisfactory answers to all these questions.
Matthew Vellanickal is the author of Studies in the Gospel of John and Good News and Witness: the New Testament Understanding of Evangelization (with L. Legrand and J. Pathrapankal).
Most of these thirty collected studies were written in Rome. Two are translated from the Dutch; three have not been published previously. Some few studies address philological problems, but most try to explain the thought of the biblical text. There are full-fledged articles and also brief notes. Bringing them together in one volume will prove useful to students of Paul, of Pauline Literature and of the Book of Revelation. These essays are the result of years of teaching experience and extensive research.
The reader will find not only analyses of various passages but also broad syntheses of biblical thought. This volume consists of two parts: “Pauline and Deutero-Pauline Letters,” the larger one, and “The Book of Revelation,” the smaller. The first part considers Paul’s view of the law, his eschatological convictions and his reasoning regarding the resurrection of Christ and of the Christians. The second part examines the ecclesiology and the climactic composition of the Book of Revelation. The movement from judgments to blessings is carefully investigated.
Jan Lambrecht, S.J., is Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Biblical Greek at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. From 1996 to 2001 he was also Visiting Professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome. He is an internationally known scholar and was a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission from 1985 to 1995.
His books in English include Once More Astonished: The Parables of Jesus; The Sermon on the Mount: Proclamation and Exhortation; Justification by Faith: The Implications of Romans 3:27-31 (with Richard W. Thompson), and Out of the Treasure: The Parables in the Gospel of Matthew.
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