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This book aims to contextualize early Christian rhetoric about foul language by asking such questions as: Where was foul language encountered? What were the conventional arguments for avoiding (or for using) obscene words? How would the avoidance of such speech have been interpreted by others? A careful examination of the ancient uses of and discourse about foul language illuminates the moral logic implicit in various Jewish and Christian texts (e.g. Sirach, Colossians, Ephesians, the Didache, and the writings of Clement of Alexandria). Although the Christians of the first two centuries were consistently opposed to foul language, they had a variety of reasons for their moral stance, and they held different views about what role speech should play in forming their identity as a "holy people."
Pastors and students who want a one-volume commentary to complement the New Interpreter's Study Bible will be pleased to find in this resource the quality of scholarship that is a hallmark of other New Interpreter's Bible resources. The portability, accessibility, and affordability of the one-volume commentary will appeal to professors and students as well as lay persons and pastors. This commentary contains articles on all the books of the Bible, including the Apocrypha, as well as numerous general articles on biblical interpretation, geographical and historical setting, religion, text, canon, translation, Bible and preaching/teaching, with bibliographies for each article. Extra value inclu...
Jesus Tradition – early Christian traditions from and about Jesus – plays an important role in New Testament letters, not only in the Gospels and Corpus Paulinum, but also in the seven Catholic Epistles (the epistles of James, I and II Peter, I John, and Jude, which are addressed to the universal Church rather than to an individual or a particular church). This dissertation revolves around the relationship between the Catholic Epistles and the traditions about Jesus that have informed the Gospels. Based on the research, two important observations can be made. First of all, there is a fundamental unity in the witness of the Catholic Epistles regarding their reliance upon and appropriation...
In The Shepherd of Hermas and the Pauline Legacy, Jonathan E. Soyars traces the influence of Pauline literary traditions upon one of the most widely attested and influential apocalyptic texts from early Christianity. Scholarship largely considers Hermas to have known very little about Pauline letters, but by looking beyond verbatim quotations Soyars discovers extensive evidence of his adoption, adaptation, and synthesis of identifiable Pauline material in the Visions, Mandates, and Similitudes sections. Hermas emerges as a Pauline interpreter who creatively engages topics and themes developed within and across the Pauline letters through time. These results reconnect the Shepherd with early Paulinism and extend reconstructions of the sphere of Pauline influence in the second century C.E.
Almost everyone swears, or worries about not swearing, from the two year-old who has just discovered the power of potty mouth to the grandma who wonders why every other word she hears is obscene. Whether they express anger or exhilaration, are meant to insult or to commend, swear words perform a crucial role in language. But swearing is also a uniquely well-suited lens through which to look at history, offering a fascinating record of what people care about on the deepest levels of a culture--what's divine, what's terrifying, and what's taboo. Holy Sh*t tells the story of two kinds of swearing--obscenities and oaths--from ancient Rome and the Bible to today. With humor and insight, Melissa M...
The letters of James, 1 and 2 Peter, and Jude are among the most neglected letters of the New Testament. Thus, methodological advances in New Testament study tend to arise among the Gospels or Pauline letters. But these letters are beginning to receive increased attention in the scholarly community. Reading Jude With New Eyes is the fourth of four volumes that incorporate research in this area. The essays collected here examine the impact of recent methodological developments in New Testament studies to Jude, including, for example, rhetorical, social-scientific, socio-rhetorical, ideological and hermeneutical methods, as they contribute to understanding this letter and its social context. Each essay will have a similar three-fold structure: a description of the methodological approach; the application of the methodological approach to the particular letter under consideration (the bulk of the essay); and a conclusion identifying how the methodological approach contributes to a fresh understanding the letter.
In the 2016 Radboud Prestige Lectures, published in this volume, Jörg Frey develops a new perspective on 2 Peter by arguing that the letter is dependent on the Apocalypse of Peter. Frey argues that reading 2 Peter against the backdrop of the Apocalypse of Peter sheds new light on many longstanding interpretative questions and offers fresh insights into the history of second-century Christianity. Frey’s lectures are followed by responses from leading scholars in the field, who discuss Frey’s proposal in ways both critical and constructive. Contributors include: Richard Bauckham, Jan Bremmer, Terrance Callan, Paul Foster, Jeremy Hultin, Tobias Nicklas, David Nienhuis and Martin Ruf.
This volume offers a comprehensive examination of circumcision and foreskin in the undisputed Pauline epistles. Historically, Paul's discourse on circumcision has been read through the lens of Paul's supposed abandonment of Judaism and conversion to 'Christianity.' Recent scholarship on Paul, however, has challenged the idea that Paul ever abandoned Judaism. In the context of this revisionist reading of Paul, Ryan Collman argues that Paul never repudiates, redefines, or replaces circumcision. Rather, Paul's discourse on circumcision (and foreskin) is shaped by his understanding of ethnicity and his bifurcation of humanity into the categories of Jews and the nations—the circumcision and the foreskin. Collman argues that Paul does not deny the continuing validity (and importance) of circumcision for Jewish followers of Jesus, but categorically refuses that gentile believers can undergo circumcision. By reading this language in its historical, rhetorical, epistolary, and ethnic contexts, Collman offers a number of new readings of difficult Pauline texts (e.g., Rom 4:9–12; Gal 5:1–4; Phil 3:2–3).
Revised versions of papers given at the conference "Women in the Religious and Intellectual Activity of the Ancient Mediterranean World: an Interdisciplinary and International Conference in Honor of Adela Yarbro Collins" held March 15-17, 2009 at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio and The Ohio State University" Introd. p. [1].