Jairus’s Daughter and the Female Body in Mark demonstrates that ubiquitous and significant depictions of children in the literature and material culture of the first century CE shaped the mindsets of the Gospel of Mark’s original audience. Through a detailed analysis of the story of Jairus’s daughter in Mark 5 and of the archaeological remains depicting female children, Janine E. Luttick reveals how ancient hearers of this story encountered an image of a female child that communicated ideas of hope to Jesus’s followers and in turn how readers today can understand the authority of Jesus, the domestic structures of early Christianity, and the suffering and loss experienced by some early Christians.

Jaya is a study of how the four poets of the Indian epic Mahābhārata fuse their separate performances of the poem into a single and seamless work of art. The book examines in detail the different mnemonic forms engaged by this verbal activity focusing primarily on the distinction between what is seen and what is heard, as the poets stage and dramatize the four dimensions of their heroic song within one timely occasion. The subtle poetics of preliteracy and literacy which are compounded in one performance are demonstrated and made distinct in both a literary and a conceptual light. Jaya will be of interest to those who work in Sanskrit and Indian Studies, the Classics, Oral Traditions, Comparative Literature, and the traditions of archaic poetry.

Explore the diverse character of emerging Christian narratives

This book presents essays that show how prophetic and priestly emphases in Luke and Acts, and emphasis on Jesus’s existence prior to creation in the Gospel of John, are reworked in some second- and third-century Christian literature. Early Christians interpreted and expressed the storylines of Jesus, Mary, and other important figures in ways that created new images and stories. Contributors show the effect of including rhetography, the rhetoric of a text that prompts images and pictures in the mind of a hearer or reader, in interpretation of texts.

Features:

• Readings that attempt to account for the development of richly creative and complicated early Christian traditions
• Essays bridging New Testament studies and interpretation of Early Christian literature
• Interpretations that integrate social and rhetorical interpretations

Jesus Becoming Jesus presents a theological interpretation of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Unlike many conventional biblical commentaries, Weinandy concentrates on the theological content contained within the Synoptic Gospels. He does thi

Jesus Becoming Jesus, Volume 2: A Theological Interpretation of the Gospel of John: Prologue and the Book of Signs follows upon the first volume of this series entitled Jesus Becoming Jesus. The first volume was a theological interpretation of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Unlike many conventional biblical commentaries, Weinandy concentrates on the theological content contained within John’s Gospel. He does this in the light of the Church’s doctrinal and theological tradition, particularly in keeping with the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution, Dei Verbum. This is accomplished through a close reading of John’s Gospel, theologically interpreting each chapter of the Gospel sequentially. In so doing he also takes into account the Johannine corpus as a whole. He also relates John’s Gospel to relevant material found within the Synoptic Gospels, the Pauline Corpus and other New Testament writings. This original theological interpretation focuses primarily on the intertwining theological themes contained within John’s Gospel, specifically within the Prologue and the Book of Signs – light and darkness, the seven miracle-signs, the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist, the seven “I Am” sayings, the contentious dialogues with the Jews, Jesus’ relationship to his Father as the Father’s incarnate Word and Son, etc. Within all of these interlocking themes one finds the importance of Jesus’ saving actions – the salvific works of his Father. The overarching theme of this book, as the title suggests, is that Jesus, being named Jesus, throughout his public ministry is enacting his name and so becoming who he is – YHWH-Saves. Weinandy offers a singular, vibrant, and luminous reading of John’s Gospel; one that reveals the Evangelist’s theological depth and doctrinal sophistication. In so doing, Weinandy makes manifest the particular beauty of the Gospel According to John.

Jesus Becoming Jesus, Volume 3 follows upon the previous two volumes of this series entitled Jesus Becoming Jesus. Volume 1 was a theological interpretation of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and volume 2 was a theological interpretation of the Prologue and Book of Signs of John’s Gospel (chapters 1-12). Unlike many conventional biblical commentaries, Weinandy concentrates on the theological content contained within John’s Gospel. This is accomplished through a close reading of John’s Gospel, theologically interpreting each chapter of the Gospel sequentially. In so doing he also takes into account the Johannine corpus as a whole. He also relates John’s Gospel to relevant material found within the Synoptic Gospels, the Pauline Corpus and other New Testament writings. In this present volume, Weinandy’s original theological interpretation focuses first on the Evangelist’s narrative of the Last Supper, which includes Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet, followed upon his lengthy farewell address and his ensuing High Priestly Prayer (chapter 13-17). Although Jesus speaks of his leaving his disciples, yet their hearts should not be troubled, for he is going to prepare a place for them in his Father’s house, and he will also send them another Counselor, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not only convict the world sin, but he will also empower the disciples to profess their faith in Jesus as the Father’s Son, even in the midst of persecution. All that Jesus tells his disciple in his final discourse, he then prays that his Father will accomplish through his forthcoming death and resurrection – above all that his disciples will share in the same oneness of love that he and his Father possess. Weinandy masterfully treats John’s Passion and Resurrection Narratives. He not only theologically interprets the uniqueness of the Evangelist’s narratives, but also how his narratives insect with the Synoptic accounts. Moreover, Weinandy’s theological reading of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection weaves together John’s soteriology, ecclesiology, and sacramentality – all of which are founded upon the Incarnation, that Jesus is the Father’s Spirit-filled incarnate Son. As the title suggests, Jesus, being named Jesus, in his death and resurrection, definitively enacts his name and so becoming who he is – YHWH-Saves.

In this sequel volume to his Dark Passages of the Bible (CUA Press, 2013), author Matthew Ramage turns his attention from the Old to the New Testament, now tackling truth claims bearing directly on the heart of the Christian faith cast into doubt by contemporary New Testament scholarship: Did God become man in Jesus, or did the first Christians make Jesus into God? Was Jesus' resurrection a historical event, or rather a myth fabricated by the early Church? Will Jesus indeed return to earth on the last day, or was this merely the naïve expectation of ancient believers that reasonable people today ought to abandon?

Not a Jew marginally, but centrally

In this book, LaCocque presents the case that Jesus was totally and unquestionably a Jew. He lived as a Jew, thought as a Jew, debated as a Jew, acted as a Jew and died as a Jew. He had no intention of creating a new religion; rather, he was a reformer of the Judaism of his day. True, his critique went far beyond an intellectual subversion. In fact, Jesus progressively thought of himself as the “Son of Man” inaugurating the advent of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Features:

• Focused attention given to the historical Jesus and not Christianity or Christology
• Addresses restricted sources, namely, the Synoptic Gospels
• Close examination of Jesus’s way of thinking, teaching, and behaving

Rebecca K. Esterson explores how Christian methods of biblical interpretation shifted during the eighteenth century, producing a rhetorical rejection of allegory while embracing literalism. Under the influence of Enlightenment concepts of human reason and advances in the experimental sciences, Christian interpreters began casting Jewish biblical interpretation as allegorical, while presenting Christian interpretation as literal. This shift in self-understanding allowed Christians to portray their own interpretations as scientifically, philosophically, and historically superior, resulting in a new way of othering the Jewish people. This study of biblical exegesis, theology, philosophy, and the arts in English, Swedish, and German contexts is an essential resource for scholars interested in biblical reception history and the history of Jewish-Christian relations.

A window into early Judaism and Christianity

The Gospel of John was written during the period of the emergence of Christianity and its separation from Judaism and bears witness to their contested relationship. This volume contains eighteen cutting-edge essays written by an international group of scholars who interpret for students and general readers what the book tells us about first-century Judaism, the separation of the church from Judaism, and how John's anti-Jewish references are being interpreted today.

Features:

• A debate over the process that led to the separation of the church from Judaism, and John's place in that process
• A review of recent interpretations of John's anti-Jewish references
• An assessment of the current status of Jewish Christian relations

In her latest volume on John Chrysostom, Pauline Allen translates into English nine homilies on two of Paul’s letters. Included in this collection are six homilies on Titus that deal with Chrysostom’s attitudes toward episcopal accountability, the household, marriage, and almsgiving. Three homilies on Philemon address the short letter’s inclusion in the canon, forgiveness, honor, the treatment of slaves, and God’s punishment. A thorough introduction that addresses the date, provenance, and content of these homilies makes this volume an essential source for scholars and students interested in the development of the church in the fourth to fifth centuries CE.