Exegetical

Leading evangelical scholar John Walton surveys the cultural context of the ancient Near East, bringing insight to the interpretation of specific Old Testament passages. This new edition of a top-selling textbook has been thoroughly updated and revised throughout to reflect the refined thinking of a mature scholar. It includes over 30 illustrations. Students and pastors who want to deepen their understanding of the Old Testament will find this a helpful and instructive study.

Gagnon offers the most thorough analysis to date of the biblical texts relating to homosexuality. He demonstrates why attempts to classify the Bible's rejection of same-sex intercourse as irrelevant for our contemporary context fail to do justice to the biblical texts and to current scientific data. Gagnon's book powerfully challenges attempts to identify love and inclusivity with affirmation of homosexual practice.

. . . the most sophisticated and convincing examination of the biblical data for our time. --Jürgen Becker, Professor of New Testament, Christian-Albrechts University

The first of John N. Oswalt's two-part study of the book of Isaiah for the NICOT series, this commentary on chapters 1u39 combines theological acumen, literary sensitivity, philological expertise, and historical knowledge to present a faithful and accurate reading of one of the Old Testament's most important books.

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.

Breath of God, Yet Work of Man tells a story of Lutheran biblical interpretation. Scholars, students, and pastors will appreciate this textbook and reference book that delves into the history of Lutheran hermeneutics, including a discussion of synodical positions from Luther to the present.

Examines the lives of almost 150 saints and heroes from the Scriptures. These men and women represent that ancient family into which, by baptism, all believers have been incorporated. They compose that great "cloud of witnesses" cheering us on and inspiring us through word and deed. About the Author: Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor of All Saints' Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and a senior editor of Touchstone. He is the author of Christ in the Psalms: The Trial of Job: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Job; Creation and the Patriarchal Histories: Orthodox Christian Reflection on the Book of Genesis; Wise Lives: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Wisdom of Sirach; Chronicles of History and Worship: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Books of Chronicles, as well as more than 500 articles, editorials, and reviews, published in Books and Culture, Touchstone, The Scottish Journal of Theology, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Pro Ecclesia, St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly, and other journals on three continents.

In this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume, Mark Seifrid offers a comprehensive analysis of Paul's understanding of justification, in the light of important themes including the righteousness of God, the Old Testament law, faith, and the destiny of Israel. A detailed examination of justification in the letter to the Romans is followed by a survey of the entire Pauline corpus. Seifrid's analysis incorporates a critical assessment of the "new perspective," challenging its most basic assumptions; an evaluation of the contribution of recent German scholarship; and a reaffirmation of the "Christ-centered" theology of the Reformers. In this wide-ranging exposition of the biblical message of justification, Seifrid provides a fresh, balanced reworking of Pauline theology. Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.

The Greek edition of the New Testament known as the Textus Receptus, from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, has thousands more words than earlier manuscripts of the second through fourth centuries. Major English translations based on the Textus Receptus, such as Tyndale's New Testament and the King James Version, have all these extra verses, phrases, and words.

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.

A 2003 LOGOS Book Award Winner! An ECPA 2003 Gold Medallion Finalist! The first five books of the Old Testament lay the foundation on which the rest of Scripture stands. Its great themes, epochal events and towering figures set down vectors on which the biblical story is played out. The very shape of the rest of the Old Testament would collapse were the Penteteuch to be removed. The structure of New Testament thought would be barely intelligible without it. Here we meet the great ancestral figures of Israel--Abraham, Isaac and Jacob--and the towering figure of Moses, whose presence dominates four of these five books. The creative act of God, the paradisal garden, the exile of Adam and Eve, the judgment of the great flood, the call of Abraham from among the nations, the covenant of Abraham, the exodus from Egypt, the giving of the law at Sinai, the plan of the tabernacle, the varied experiences of Israel in the wilderness, and the announcement of the covenant blessings and curses--all of these and more contribute to a work of world-formative power. This dictionary explores the major themes and contours of the Pentateuch. Behind and beneath the grandeur of the Pentateuch, issues of historicity have both puzzled and beckoned. But whereas in the mid-twentieth century many English-speaking scholars were confident of archaeological support for the patriarchal accounts, the climate has now changed. In the most extreme cases, some contemporary scholars have radically challenged the antiquity of the ancestral stories, arguing for their final composition even as late as the Hellenistic era. This dictionary examines and weighs the historical issues and poses possible solutions. The documentary hypothesis, the former reigning critical consensus, is now widely rumored to be on life support with no heir apparent. Meanwhile, conservative scholars reconsider what indeed a claim to Mosaic authorship should entail. This dictionary offers an assessment of the array of questions surrounding these issues and considers some possible ways forward for evangelical scholarship. At the same time, there has been a fruitful turning to the nature, message and art of the received text of the Pentateuch. Literary studies of brief episodes, sprawling sagas, complex narrative and even the fivefold composition of the Pentateuch itself have delivered promising and exciting results. This dictionary offers both appreciative panoramas and close-up assessments of these developments and their methods. TheDictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch is the first in a four-volume series covering the text of the Old Testament. Following in the tradition of the four award-winning IVP dictionaries focused on the New Testament and its background, this encyclopedic work is characterized by close attention to the text of the Old Testament and the ongoing conversation of contemporary scholarship. In exploring the major themes and issues of the Pentateuch, editors T. Desmond Alexander and David W.Baker, with an international and expert group of scholars, inform and challenge through authoritative overviews, detailed examinations and new insights from the world of the ancient Near East. TheDictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch is designed to be your first stop in the study and research of the Pentateuch, on which the rest of the Bible is built.

This work gives a philosophical and theological account of the belief that Scripture enables people to encounter the life-giving reality of God. The authors examine the biblical foundations for this belief as given in a variety of witnesses from both Testaments and explain the philosophical and theological underpinnings of Christian exegesis. The book sums up and makes accessible the teaching of revered senior scholar and teacher Francis Martin and is aimed squarely at students, assuming no advanced training in philosophy or theology. It includes a foreword by Robert Sokolowski.

Exodus, Cole says, is "the centre of the Old Testament." It recounts the supreme Old Testament example of the saving acts of God, narrates the instituting of Passover and enshrines the giving of God's law. It portrays Moses, the prototype of all Israel's prophets, and Aaron, the first high priest. The book of Exodus is especially important to Christians because Christ fulfilled its great themes: He accomplished God's greatest act of deliverance. He became the passover lamb. He sealed a new covenant with his blood. "No book therefore will more repay careful study, if we wish to understand the central message of the New Testament, than this book." The original, unrevised text of this volume has been completely retypeset and printed in a larger, more attractive format with the new cover design for the series.

New in the Eerdmans Classic Biblical Commentaries collection

In this commentary on John--originally published in Dutch in 1987 and translated into English a decade later--Herman Ridderbos engages the host of twentieth-century interpretations while also developing his own integral understanding of John in which the Gospel emerges as a profoundly theological work.

Beginning with a theological introduction on "the peculiar character of the Fourth Gospel," Ridderbos uses verse-by-verse exposition to unpack John's distinctive apostolic character, offering expert literary and homiletical exegesis of the Fourth Gospel "as the Christian church adopted it."

This introductory guide, written by a leading expert in medieval theology and church history, offers a thorough overview of medieval biblical interpretation. After an opening chapter sketching the necessary background in patristic exegesis (especially the hermeneutical teaching of Augustine), the book progresses through the Middle Ages from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, examining all the major movements, developments, and historical figures of the period. Rich in primary text engagement and comprehensive in scope, it is the only current, compact introduction to the whole range of medieval exegesis.