Books in the Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series series

This critically acclaimed book redresses faith through a thorough exegetical and literary study of all the references to faith in Mark's composition.

This 1999 book takes a formerly neglected section of Romans and demonstrates how it affects our understanding of the whole letter and of the first audience of Paul's letter, showing how concepts significant for this section - asceticism, obligation, superstition - also matter in our reading of the whole letter.

This 1999 book explores the thought of Paul and Judaism on the subject of divine judgment according to works. How can Paul say we will be saved by grace through faith, and also that we will be judged according to our deeds? This book explains the apparent contradiction.

This German language title presents a new interpretation of Luke's theology and ethics. Boehlemann demonstrates how Luke develops his theological agenda by contrasting the teaching of Jesus with that of John the Baptist. John and his followers preached with threats of judgement while Jesus is depicted as a forgiving pastoral leader - the good shepherd.

This 1997 study examines the changes and developments in three early Christian communities' expectations of Christ's return and the end of the world. Mark 13, Matthew 24 and 25 and Didache 16 are analysed to find how early Christian expectations developed and how they were affected by the delay of Christ's return.

This 1997 book provides an exciting re-interpretation of the sayings and actions of Jesus. It argues that the city of Jerusalem and the Zion traditions were important to Jesus. Dr Tan suggests that an understanding of this contains the key to the riddle of who Jesus thought he was, and helps us understand the unifying aim behind his ministry.

This book brings together the evidence for significant Jewish communities in Asia Minor, by collating archaeological, epigraphic, classical, New Testament and patristic sources. The book provides an invaluable and coherent description of the life of Jewish communities in Asia Minor, and so gives a more complete picture than was previously available of Jewish life at the time.

An exploration of the topic of discipleship in Mark's gospel as it relates to Jesus' own mission and purpose. Focusing on six passages that highlight Jesus' interaction with his followers, Henderson frames her readers' understanding of both Jesus and his disciples in the context of Mark's decidedly apocalyptic worldview.

This book examines Paul's response to the financial help he received from the Philippians whilst he was a prisoner in Rome. The first study to look at this difficult text in the context of Greek and Roman practices of gift exchange, it sheds valuable new light on Paul's attitude to Christian giving and on his financial dealings with his churches.

This book makes a major contribution to the ongoing debate about the authorship of the Pastoral letters. Arguing the conventional opinion - that the Pastorals were written by a disciple of Paul's - Dr Miller suggests that the letters are composite documents based upon brief, but genuine, Pauline notes written to Timothy and Titus.

The interesting and original thesis of this book is that Luke's overriding concern seems to have been to show that Paul - the hero of his work - was a man of high social status and moral virtue when in point of fact he probably was not.

An important contribution to our understanding of Marcan irony, and combines a literary-critical approach with insights gained from the sociology of knowledge.

This book is novel in its questioning of the adequacy of interpreting Paul from the perspective of the Reformation and in its application of sociological methods to the New Testament.

Wesley Olmstead examines the parables of the Two Sons, the Tenants and the Wedding Feast against the backdrop of the wider Matthean narrative. He explores Matthew's characteriation of Jewish leaders, people and nations and assesses the respective roles of Israel and the nations in the plot of Matthew's Gospel.

Peter Bolt explores the impact of Mark's Gospel on its early readers in the first-century Graeco-Roman world. He focuses upon the thirteen characters in Mark who come to Jesus for healing and, using analytical tools of narrative and reader-response criticism, explores their crucial role in the communication of the Gospel.

Dr Savage explains Paul's paradoxical description of his ministry: 'When I am weak, then I am strong!' Drawing from archaeological data on first-century Corinth, this study establishes the secular underpinnings of Paul's language and his critique of society. He emerges as a radical foil to the spirit of the age.

The aim of this book is to illuminate the manner in which Mark understood Jesus' death. In this new edition, Professor Best looks at the Gospel as a continuous story, and by examining the general sweep of the narrative he attempts to show how Mark saw Jesus' death both as an atonement for sin and as creative of the new community of the Church.

Dr Collange provides solutions to these problems on a detailed study of 2,14 - 7,4. He argues that the obscurities of the Epistle can be explained by the particular circumstances of its composition; Paul's use of more primitive Christian materials gives us a measure of his own originality and genius. This book should be of interest to all New Testament scholars.

This investigation of Galilee during the time of Jesus demonstrates that, contrary to the perceptions of many scholars, the overwhelming majority of Galilee's population were Jews. It is the only book-length treatment of this subject and is the fullest synthesis available of archaeological and literary evidence for first-century CE Galilee.

Moyer V. Hubbard offers a full investigation of Paul's understanding of 'new creation', working closely with the language of his letters to unpack, in socio-anthropological context, the images and metaphors he uses. Hubbard examines other approaches to the topic, providing a new perspective on the Pauline oeuvre and its meaning.

Paul and the Power of Sin, first published in 2001, seeks to ground Paul's language of sin in the socio-cultural context of his original letters. T. L. Carter draws on the work of social anthropologist Mary Douglas to conduct a cross-cultural analysis of the symbolism of the power of sin in the letters.

This 2002 book focuses on a particular Old Testament pseudepigraphon - the Book of Jubilees, the revelation of an angel to Moses announcing the expectation of a messiah from Judah. It takes an interdisciplinary approach based on detailed analysis of primary sources and explores the neglected topic of ancient geographical conceptions.

James McGrath offers a convincing explanation of how and why John arrived at a christological portrait of Jesus that is so different from that of other New Testament authors. McGrath makes use of sociological insights to bring methodological clarity to the important issue of the development of Johannine christology.

This 1999 book goes behind the Greek text of the Gospel of Mark and reconstructs some of its sources in the original Aramaic, the language which Jesus spoke. This work has been made possible by the publication of all the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls, which provide a basis of Jewish Aramaic for the right period.

This 1998 study explores an important passage of Hebrews, which uses the image of an athletic contest and God's fatherly discipline. N. Clayton Croy examines the idea of 'training' which unites the passage, and sets its conception of non-punitive discipline against the background of Jewish and Graeco-Roman traditions.

This book was first published in 1996. Matthew uniquely highlights Jesus as 'Emmanuel', but almost wholly overlooked are the deeper implications of this 'presence' motif. Kupp takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the story telling, redaction and Christology of the Gospel.

This book explains why Luke said what he did about Jesus in his earthly ministry in his Gospel and about his work from heaven in Acts. Buckwalter shows a unity, a compatibility with Mark and Paul, and for Jesus a divine rank equal to God. Luke's christology is carefully designed: he portrays the exalted Jesus as God's co-equal.

This 1996 book reconstructs the apocalyptic eschatology in Matthew's Gospel so we may understand his time and concerns. Matthew's distinctive and often vengeful vision must be set against his community's conflict with Judaism, gentiles and other Christians and the need to enhance his community's sense of identity.

This study refutes the allegation that Luke showed no systematic thought about the significance of Jesus's death. Doble focuses on the unique features of Luke's death scene and demonstrates how specific words and patterns from Wisdom shape and fill the evangelist's retelling.

This study puts forward the ingenious thesis that Luke left Acts unfinished at his death, and that the work of his posthumous editors has led to the existence of the two versions of Acts which appear in our manuscripts.