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There is no doubting the legacy of the Protestant Reformers and their successors. Luther, Calvin, and Wesley not only spawned specific denominational traditions, but their writings have been instrumental in forging a broadly embraced evangelical theology as well. In this volume, Ben Witherington wrestles with some of the big ideas of these major traditional theological systems (sin, God's sovereignty, prophecy, grace, and the Holy Spirit), asking tough questions about their biblical foundations. Witherington argues that evangelicalism sometimes wrongly assumes a biblical warrant for some of its more popular beliefs, and, further, he pushes the reader to engage the larger story and plot of the Bible to understand these central elements of belief. --Donald K. McKim, Editor, Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith
This book offers the first sustained attempt to read the Gospel of Mark both as an ancient biography and as a form of ancient rhetoric. Ben Witherington applies to Mark the socio-rhetorical approach for which he is well known, opening a fresh new perspective on the earliest Gospel. Written when the fledging Christian faith was experiencing a major crisis during the Jewish war, Mark provides us with the first window on how the life and teachings of Jesus were presented to a largely non-Jewish audience. According to Witherington, the structure of Mark demonstrates that this Gospel is biographically focused on the identity of Jesus and the importance of knowing who he is--the Christ, the Son of God. This finding reveals that Christology stood at the heart of the earliest Christians' faith. It also shows how important it was to these earliest Christians to persuade others about the nature of Jesus, both as a historical figure and as the Savior of the world.
This groundbreaking commentary is the first to provide a detailed social and rhetorical analysis of the book of Acts. At the same time it gives detailed attention to major theological and historical issues.
This book examines the roles and functions that women assumed in the early Christian communities from AD 33 to the Council of Nicaea. It surveys, too, the views about women held by various New Testament authors including Paul and the Evangelists.
Witherington gleans fresh insights from reading the text of Paul's epistle in light of early Jewish theology, the historical situation of Rome in the middle of first century A.D., and Paul's own rhetorical concerns.
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Ben Witherington III offers a comprehensive assessment of what scholars such as John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, Burton Mack and the Jesus Seminar are really saying about Jesus.
The Book of Revelation is a work of profound theology. But its literary form makes it impenetrable to many modern readers and open to all kinds of misinterpretations. Richard Bauckham explains how the book's imagery conveyed meaning in its original context and how the book's theology is inseparable from its literary structure and composition. Revelation is seen to offer not an esoteric and encoded forecast of historical events but rather a theocentric vision of the coming of God's universal kingdom, contextualised in the late first-century world dominated by Roman power and ideology. It calls on Christians to confront the political idolatries of the time and to participate in God's purpose of gathering all the nations into his kingdom. Once Revelation is properly grounded in its original context it is seen to transcend that context and speak to the contemporary church. This study concludes by highlighting Revelation's continuing relevance for today.
This book presents in as clear a way as possible the New Testament material dealing with women and their roles in the context of the movement Jesus began. Dr Witherington begins by illustrating the roles of women in Judaism, in the Hellenistic world, and in the Roman Empire. She goes on to show how Jesus broke significantly with convention in the way he viewed women and their roles, offering as he did a wholly new conception of the legitimate rights of women in society. An analysis follows of the apostle Paul's attitude toward women, which shows how he agreed with and differed from the ideas of his contemporaries. The concluding chapters discuss the evangelists, whose selection and presentation of material with respect to women casts much light on the early Church's understanding of women and their roles. This comprehensive survey, which avoids slanting its material to serve a modern patriarchal or feminist bias, comes to the exciting conclusion that we can see in the New Testament an attempt to reform the patriarchal orientation of the day.
In this work of historical fiction, Ben Witherington III provides a one of kind window into the social and cultural context of Paul's ministry.