Exegetical

In Angelomorphic Christology author Charles Gieschen demonstrates that angel and angel-related traditions, especially those built upon the so-called Angel of the Lord figure in the Hebrew Bible, had a profound impact upon the origin, development, and shape of early Christian claims about Jesus.

Gieschen's book falls neatly into two halves. The first catalogues the various antecedents for Angelomorphic Christology--Jewish speculation about principal angels, mediator figures, and related phenomena--with chapters on An Angelomorphic God, Angelomorphic Divine Hypostases (including the Divine Name, the Divine Glory, Wisdom, the Word, the Spirit and Power), Principal Named Angels, and Angelomorphic Humans. The book's second half examines the evidence for Angelomorphic Christology in early Christian literature. This portion begins with a brief overview of the principal Angel and Angelomorphic Christology from Justin to Nicea and then examines in turn the Pseudo-Clementines, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Ascension of Isaiah, the Revelation of John, the Fourth Gospel, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Pauline Corpus.

Gieschen argues that Christian use of the angelomorphic tradition did not spawn a new and variant kind of Christology, one that competed with accepted belief about Jesus for early Christians' favor, but instead shows how Christians adapted an already variegated Jewish tradition to weave a single story about a common Lord.

These twin convictions, shared by all of the contributors to The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, define the goal of this ambitious series of commentaries. For those many modern readers who find the Old Testament to be strange and foreign soil, the NICOT series serves as an authoritative guide bridging the cultural gap between today's world and the world of ancient Israel. Each NICOT volume aims to help us hear God's word as clearly as possible.

Scholars, pastors, and serious Bible students will welcome the fresh light that this commentary series casts on ancient yet familiar biblical texts. The contributors apply their proven scholarly expertise and wide experience as teachers to illumine our understanding of the Old Testament. As gifted writers, they present the results of the best recent research in an interesting manner.

Each commentary opens with an introduction to the biblical book, looking especially at questions concerning its background, authorship, date, purpose, structure, and theology. A select bibliography also points readers to resources for their own study. The author's own translation from the original Hebrew forms the basis of the commentary proper. Verse-by-verse comments nicely balance in-depth discussions of technical matters -- textual criticism, critical problems, and so on -- with exposition of the biblical writer's theology and its implications for the life of faith today.

In the introduction to this work, Oswalt considers Isaiah's background, unity of composition, date and authorship, canonicity, Hebrew text, theology, and problems of interpretation, and he offers a select bibliography for further research. Oswalt also provides substantial discussions of several issues crucial to the book of Isaiah. He notes, for example, that scholars often divide Isaiah into three divisions, with chapters 1-39 addressing Isaiah's contemporaries in the eighth century B.C., chapters 40-55 presupposing the exile of the sixth century, and chapters 56-66 presupposing the eventual return from exile. While taking this scholarship into account Oswalt defends the unity of the prophetic book and argues convincingly that the whole book can be attributed to the Isaiah of the eighth century.

The commentary proper, based on Oswalt's own translation of the Hebrew text, provides pastors, scholars, and students with a lucid interpretation of the book of Isaiah in its ancient context as well as an exposition of its message for today.

This book clearly presents these additions to English readers and then explains why they were added. Scribes often made insertions based on their knowledge of the other gospels, other passages of Scripture, Christian theology, and oral traditions. By understanding the sources and probable reasons for the insertions, students and teachers of the Bible can make informed translation and interpretive decisions.

The exodus of God's chosen Israel is the greatest story of redemption in the Old Testament. In more than 120 Christocentric, devotional meditations on the book of Exodus, Valerius Herberger shows his fervent belief that Jesus Christ is the center of every part of Scripture. Herberger does not seek to give an academic analysis or a grammatical exposition of each passage, but rather to emphasize the life and work of the Son of God. In these meditations the reader will find spiritual and practical applications for every Christian today. Intertwining the words of Scripture and the poetry of the Church's hymnody with his own pastoral insight, Herberger teaches the faith and preaches the truth of salvation in Jesus.

Written centuries before Christ, the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible have been prayed by Christians since the founding of the Church. The early church fathers expounded the psalms in the light of the mystery of Christ, his death and resurrection, and his saving redemption. In this book, a Benedictine monk examines the Christian praying of the Psalms, taking into account modern and contemporary research on the Psalms. Working from the Hebrew text, Fr. Laurence Kriegshauser offers a verse-by-verse commentary on each of the one hundred and fifty psalms, highlighting poetic features such as imagery, rhythm, structure, and vocabulary, as well as theological and spiritual dimensions and the relation of psalms to each other in the smaller collections that make up the whole. The book attempts to integrate modern scholarship on the Psalms with the act of prayer and help Christians pray the psalms with greater understanding of their Christological meaning.

The book contains an introduction, a glossary of terms, an index of topics, a table of English renderings of selected Hebrew words, and an index of biblical citations.

Praying the Psalms in Christ will be welcomed by students of theology and liturgy, by priests, religious, and laypeople who pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and by all Christians who seek to pray the Psalms with greater profit and fervor.