Its features are designed to help pastors, scholars, and students.

    Using the latest scholarly discussion about the nature of Jewish monotheism as his starting point, Richard Bauckham builds a convincing argument that the early Christian view of Jesus' divinity is fully consistent with the Jewish understanding of God.Bauckham first shows that early Judaism had clear ways of distinguishing God absolutely from all other reality. When New Testament Christology is read with this Jewish context in mind, it becomes clear that early Christians did not break with Jewish monotheism; rather, they simply included Jesus within the unique identity of Israel's God. In the final part of the book Bauckham shows that God's own identity, in turn, is also revealed in the life, death, and exaltation of Jesus.Originating as the prestigious 1996 Didsbury Lectures, this volume makes a contribution to biblical studies that will be of interest to Jews and Christians alike.

    The patristic commentary tradition on Matthew begins with Origen's pioneering twenty-five-volume commentary on the First Gospel in the mid-third century. In the Latin-speaking West, where commentaries did not appear until about a century later, the first commentary on Matthew was written by Hilary of Poitiers in the mid-fourth century. From that point the First Gospel became one of the texts most frequently commented on in patristic exegesis. Outstanding examples are Jerome's four-volume commentary and the valuable but anonymous and incomplete Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum. Then there are the Greek catena fragments derived from commentaries by Theodore of Heraclea, Apollinaris of Laodicea, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Cyril of Alexandria. The ancient homilies also provide ample comment, including John Chrysostom's ninety homilies and Chromatius of Aquileia's fifty-nine homilies on the Gospel of Matthew. In addition, there are various Sunday and feast-day homilies from towering figures such as Augustine and Gregory the Great, as well as other fathers. This rich abundance of patristic comment, much of it presented here in English translation for the first time by editor Manlio Simonetti, provides a bountiful and varied feast of ancient interpretation of the First Gospel.

    Now available in paperback, Raymond E. Brown's masterful study examines every detail of the four Gospel stories of the final agonizing days of Jesus' life. Where others simply describe the accounts of the death of the Messiah as if they were one seamless whole, Father Brown reads and explains each Gospel on its own terms and elucidates the themes that make each one unique. "The Death of the Messiah" is the ideal complement to Brown's Birth of the Messiah, as thorough and expert in its handling of the Passion narratives as his book on the infancy narratives of the Gospels.

    It not only simplifies reading the text of the Greek New Testament but also gives the reader a wealth of tools that a lexicon and grammar alone cannot provide. For those with a basic knowledge of first-year Greek grammar and vocabulary, this completely revised and greatly expanded edition of the highly successful Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament (1982) makes reading the Greek New Testament faster, easier, and more effective. Going through the New Testament verse by verse, The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament provides help in three areas: Lexical - It identifies unusual and uncommon word forms that in the past had to be looked up in a lexicon, as well as their meaning, based on BAGD and other standard lexicons. Grammatical - It provides grammatical insights from the leading Greek grammars, including Wallace's Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. Exegetical - As the title of this revised and expanded edition indicates, The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament also provides the reader with a wealth of exegetical insights and nuances, as well as references to a wide range of commentaries, monographs, journal articles, historical works, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and so forth.

    Then he fits the Sunday readings, one by one, into an overall picture of each Gospel, showing how the Gospel shapes the narrative, its theological emphases, and what it says to readers. With such an overview, the Sunday selections may be read in context and interpreted in their original sequence.During Ordinary time people turn from reflecting on the mystery of Christ to considering how that mystery affects their lives. In Christ in the Gospels of the Ordinary Sundays, Father Brown provides an overview of the meaning of the Gospels during the many weeks of Ordinary Time.Chapters are "Understanding How Gospels Were Written and Their Use in the Sunday Liturgy," "The Gospel According to Matthew," "The Gospel According to Mark," "The Gospel According to Luke," and "The Gospel According to John."The late Raymond E. Brown, SS, was Auburn Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) of Biblical Studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He wrote over twenty-five books on the Bible and was past president of three of the most important biblical societies in the world by appointment of two popes (Pope Paul VI and John Paul II), he was also a member of the Roman Pontifical Biblical Commission. The Liturgical Press has published his A Coming Christ in Advent, An Adult Christ at Christmas, A Crucified Christ in Holy Week, A Risen Christ in Eastertime, A Once-and-Coming Spirit at Pentecost, The Gospels and Epistles of John: A Concise Commentary, Recent Discoveries and the Biblical World, and The New Jerome Bible Handbook."

    Based on the New International Version of the Bible, the NIBC presents careful section-by-section exposition with key terms and phrases high-lighted and all Greek transliterated. A separate section of notes at the close of each chapter provides additional textual and technical comments. Each commentary also includes a selected bibliography as well as scripture and subject indexes.

    Unfortunately, what "Cliff" forgot was the greatest literary work in history: the complete Holy Bible. Enjoy the ease of understanding the Bible like never before, book by book. Shepherd's notes helps readers learn about the inspired authors of the Bible books and when and where they were first penned. Each Bible book is revealed in simple understandable steps that outline and underscore the focal points and personalities of the biblical text. You'll look to these unique books for their use in Bible studies, teaching, personal devotions and even in sermon preparation! Christian and home schools will find Shepherd's Notes an invaluable resource.

    This book investiages whether there was a "mystical" practice in first-century Palestine and whether John can be better understood in the light of such practice, if there was any. In analysis, two strands of Jewish mysticism, the early forms of Ma`aseh Merkabah and of Ma`aseh Bereshit, emerge as existing in first-century Palestine. While the former narrates by means of Ezek. 1 the experience of seeing God in His kingly glory, the latter describes the same expereince by using Gen. 1. This book consists of three parts. Part one analyses Hellenistic mysticism as expressed by the Hermetica and Hellenistic-Jewish mysticism as presented by Philo. Part two traces the important elements of Merkabah mysticism from the later Hekhalot literature and the Jewish and Christian writings belonging to 2 cent. BCE - 1 cent. CE by defining the term "mysticism" in terms of the fourteen aspects of Jewish mysticism, an exegetical study of seven themes is undertaken in Part Three. The study shows that the conceptual parallels in John with Hellenistic mysticism and Hellenistic-Jewish mysticism are very slender, but indicates John's polemical motive against the Merkabah mystics of his time. He calls them to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, by proclaiming that the divine glory, claimed by them to be revealed in human-like form on the throne, is now visible in the historical person, Jesus, particularly in his death on the Cross. Thus Jewish Throne-mysticism seems to have been reinterpreted by John as Cross-mysticism.

    He challenges his disciples to live each day as participants in God's kingdom--be poor in spirit and pure in heart, turn the other cheek and love one's enemies. Through his teachings and healings, Jesus breaks the bonds of evil and sin and frees each one for a life rich in celebration and service. By his resurrection, Jesus continues to be present, even until the end of the age.Interpretation Bible Studies (IBS) offers solid biblical content in a creative study format. Forged in the tradition of the celebrated Interpretation commentary series, IBS makes the same depth of biblical insight available in a dynamic, flexible, and user-friendly resource. Designed for adults and older youth, IBS can be used in small groups, in church school classes, in large group presentations, or in personal study.