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This is the second volume of a two-volume set of essays devoted to the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. The essays take as their foundation the exegetical methodology developed by Rolf P. Knierim at the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity in Claremont, California.The exegetical foundations of Knierim''s methodology pay special attention to the literary forms and conceptual underpinnings of biblical texts. The result is an interpretive method that combines a close reading of biblical texts with contextual criticism to understand the theological perspective from which the biblical texts were written.The sixteen essays in this volume apply the method outlined in volume one to several biblical texts ranging from Joshua 1-12 and its "theology of extermination" to Leviticus 15 and its contrasting conceptual associations about women. The contributors hope that their exegetical work and theoretical reflection will continue to guide the course of Hebrew Bible studies in the twenty-first century.Editors: Wonil Kim is Assistant Professor of Old Testament Studies at La Sierra University. Deborah Ellens is an independent scholar. Michael Floyd is Professor of Old Testament at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest. Marvin A. Sweeney is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Claremont School of Theology and Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University.

Donn Morgan explores the role of biblical sages and looks at their leadership and wisdom in a time of chaos, while asking where we can find such people today.

Over the past two hundred years, several scholars have concluded that Jesus was a Cynic, a magician, a witch, a wise teacher, and a Jewish apocalyptic prophet. These papers, collected from two conferences at Creighton University, draw on some of the best contemporary scholarship in historical Jesus studies. Catholic scholars Luke Timothy Johnson, Daniel Harrington, and Monika Hellwig provide overviews of the history of the search for the historical Jesus. Jewish scholars Alan Segal, Amy-Jill Levine, and Adele Reinhartz explore the significance of Jesus for Judaism and for contemporary culture. With clear insight, the essays point out the ways that historical Jesus scholarship can be applied to everyday issues. The essays offer a unique perspective on the historical Jesus that provides a view contrary to many other contemporary books on Jesus.Contributors include: Bernard Brandon Scott (University of Tulsa); Luke Timothy Johnson (Emory University); Daniel Harrington (Weston School of Theology); Monika Hellwig (Georgetown University); Michael Cook (Hebrew Union College--Jewish Institute of Religion); Amy-Jill Levine (Vanderbilt University Divinity School); Adele Reinhartz (McMaster University); Alan Segal (Barnard College); and Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus (Wheaton College).Bryan F. Le Beau is the John C. Kenefick Faculty Chair in the Humanities at Creighton University. Leonard Greenspoon holds the Philip and Ethel Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization and is Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at Creighton University. Dennis Hamm, S.J., is Professor of Theology at Creighton University.

This most recent addition to the popular Trinity New Testament in Context (NTC) commentary series, edited by J. Andrew Overman and Howard Clark Kee, focuses on the apostle Paul''s refusal to match strength for strength with his detractors. Instead, Paul stresses that authentic Christian ministry is characterized by weakness and suffering, specifically the weakness and paradigmatic sufferings endured by the crucified Jesus.While not a rhetorical analysis of 2 Corinthians, this book nevertheless attends to Paul''s rhetorical skills in resolving the Corinthian controversies. It attempts to show that Paul''s theological formulations are best understood as products of rhetorical responses to controversial issues of authority and social location. The preponderance of disputed arguments and narratives in 2 Corinthians renders this letter highly unusual in the Pauline corpus and one of the most challenging for the biblical detective to unravel. Sze-kar Wan, therefore, has written a commentary that helps readers look closely at the texts relevant to the problem of dislocation, providing directional pointers that enable readers, on their own, to develop these pointers to their logical conclusions.Sze-kar Wan is Associate Professor of New Testament at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, Massachussets.For: Clergy; college, university, and seminary students; scholars; general readers

The current controversy over the historical Jesus and his significance for both scholarship and religious belief continues to rage inside and outside the academy. In this volume, three distinguished New Testament scholars debate the historical, textual, and theological problems at the core of the controversy.John Dominic Crossan offers a theological defense of the historical reconstruction of Jesus, arguing that if Christian faith is not founded on the historical Jesus, it will fall into Docetism. Luke Timothy Johnson counters this thesis, arguing that the biblical Christ and his presence in the life of believers is the proper focus of Christian faith. Werner Kelber takes issue with both views. Placing them in the broader context and history of Christian hermeneutics, he seeks to overcome the alternatives that govern the controversy.John Dominic Crossan is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at De Paul University.Luke Timothy Johnson is Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Emory University.Werner H. Kelber is Turner Professor of Biblical Studies at Rice University.

The church in our post-Christendom era needs different models for conceptualizing its own identity and its relationship to the rest of society. Philip Kenneson sets forth a model that suggests that the church''s role in contemporary society is to serve as a "contrast-society." In this model, the church is animated by a different spirit than that which animates "the world." Moreover, the "contrast-society" model has tremendous missional promise in that its embodied life in the world is its witness to the world.Kenneson acknowledges that this model is sometimes rejected by both Christians and non-Christians because it appears to be too "sectarian." He therefore asks, What are we claiming about a particular group when we call it sectarian? He argues that critics who regard a "contrast-society" church as sectarian often operate with untenable understandings of rationality, culture, politics, religion, and critique.In a concluding chapter, Kenneson offers reflections on how moving "beyond sectarianism" allows us to see afresh some of the missional promise of the church-as-contrast-society model.Philip D. Kenneson is Assistant Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Milligan College and author of Selling Out the Church: The Dangers of Church Marketing.

Jane Collier and Raphael Esteban present a thoughtful and disturbing critique of Western culture. They see the West as obsessed by the "culture of economism"--a pervasive and often oppressive culture in which economic causes or factors become the main source of cultural meanings and values. Such economism, they point out, perpetrates inequality, injustice, divisions among people (especially rich and poor), and a host of other evils throughout the world.The culture of economism touches all of us and is, in fact, manifest also in the organizational culture of the church. In many respects, the church has allied itself with the culture of economism (complicity), participating in a shared history of conquest and oppression. But recent paradigm shifts at the organizational level in both the church (spawned by awareness that the Spirit works in all places and in all cultures) and economism (spawned by the awareness of the basic failure of economism and its institutions to produce human happiness and of its power to demolish so much that is good in the world) present a window of opportunity for mission.Collier and Esteban believe that mission within and to the "culture of economism" needs to be a mission of encounter in which each challenges the other to conversion. Such conversion does not necessarily imply the abandonment of power, but the abandonment of its misuses and the commitment to the pursuit of the good. At that point there is "no longer master and slave, Gentile and Jew, male and female, but all are one in Christ Jesus."Jane Collier is an economist and theologian who lectures in Management Studies at the University of Cambridge. Raphael Esteban, M.Afr., is a theologian and missiologist who lectures at the Missionary Institute, London, on the social and economic context of mission.

This book''s title, "the stones that the builders rejected" (Psalm 118:22), refers to "history''s black absent ones" who may indeed have much more to say about the nature of moral discourse and redemption of America''s soul than has previously been acknowledged.In the book, six outstanding black scholars, women and men, build on the hypothesis that, because of its distinctive socio-cultural location and long history of producing quality leadership despite inadequate material and social resources, the black church tradition is a prime candidate for offering direction for the development of leaders for today''s national and global communities. Contributors include: Peter Paris, Princeton Theological Seminary; Marcia Y. Riggs, Columbia Theological Seminary; Clarice J. Martin, Colgate Rochester Divinity School; Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Colby College; Carolyn C. Denard, Georgia State University; and Michael Eric Dyson, Columbia University.While the authors offer distinct methodological approaches for understanding ethical leadership, all express the need to return to some of the powerful resources of the past as a way of rethinking appropriate forms and styles of leadership in the lives of African Americans and the nation at large.The editor, Walter E. Fluker, is Project Director of the National Resource Center for the Development of Ethical Leadership from the Black Church Tradition at Colgate Rochester Divinity School.

The Book of Revelation is one of the most difficult of biblical books to understand, depicting the clash of cosmic powers, the interplay of bizarre images, and the specific problems of particular churches in the Roman province of Asia. Despite its opacity, Revelation has enjoyed great influence down through the ages, an influence felt in art, literature, and theology. The relative ease with which its images can be adapted to varied situations, however, has produced problematic interpretations that are far from what the author intended.Many misinterpretations of Revelation result from lack of appreciation of its original contexts: historical, social, literary, theological. To address this problem and to enable today''s readers to understand how the book would have been read by early Christians, this commentary makes available the best in recent and classic biblical scholarship on Revelation and its setting. The result is that the reader will see Revelation in its original contexts and thereby fully comprehend it as one possible Christian response to specific conditions in the eastern Roman Empire in the first century."Murphy''s commentary is insightful and a pleasure to read. It is an excellent introduction to a fascinating and complex biblical book. I recommend it highly for students, pastors, and lay people." -- Adela Yarbro Collins, University of ChicagoFrederick J. Murphy is professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, and the author of The Religious World of Jesus and Pseudo-Philo: Rewriting the Bible.

Archaeology seems to have become an active partner in the attempt to prove the historical truth of the Bible. Biblical archaeologists have gone to the field in search of Noah''s ark or the walls of Jericho, as if the finding of these artifacts would make the events of scripture somehow more true or real.Thomas Thompson is one of the most vocal contemporary critics of biblical archaeology. His simple but powerful thesis is that archaeology cannot be used in the service of the Bible. Focusing on the patriarchal narratives-the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-he demonstrates that archaeological research simply cannot historically substantiate these stories. Going further, Thompson says that archaeological materials should never be dated or evaluated on the basis of written texts. Looking to the patriarchal narratives in Genesis, he concludes that these stories are neither historical nor were they intended to be historical. Instead, these narratives are written as expressions of Israel''s relationship to God. Thomas L. Thompson is Professor of Old Testament, University of Copenhagen. His books include The Mythic Past and The Early History of the Israelite People.

This collection of articles offers cutting edge scholarship on Paul's mission and letters in his political cultural context.