Explore a tale of two sisters

Beyond Mary or Martha: Reclaiming Ancient Models of Discipleship dives into the complicated reception history of Mary and Martha of Bethany, who have been at the center of many debates for almost two thousand years. Jennifer S. Wyant begins her study with a close reading of the sisters’ first encounter with Jesus in Luke 10:38-42, then moves on to patristic, medieval, and modern interpretations of that narrative. Wyant tracks how Mary and Martha both became paradigms of discipleship, revealing the inherent tension within Christianity between contemplative practices and acts of service. By placing ancient debates alongside more modern ones, she argues that, contrary to discussions today within academic and religious circles, gender is not the most important aspect of their story.

Features:

• A thorough examination of the textual variants in the passage to show how variants affected interpretation throughout history
• Interpretations from medieval women and their contributions to interpretation of Mary and Martha
• A visual exegesis of the art representing the passage throughout history

A collection that resets the terms of interpreting the Pauline letters

Interpretation of Paul's letters often proves troubling, since people frequently cite them when debating controversial matters of gender and sexuality. Rather than focusing on the more common defensive responses to those expected prooftexts that supposedly address homosexuality, the essays in this collection reflect the range, rigor, vitality, and creativity of other interpretive options influenced by queer studies. Thus key concepts and practices for understanding these letters in terms of history, theology, empire, gender, race, and ethnicity, among others, are rethought through queer interventions within both ancient settings and more recent history and literature.

Features:

• New options for how to interpret and use Paul's letters, particularly in light of their use in debates about sexuality and gender
• Developing approaches in queer studies that help with understanding and using Pauline letters and interpretations differently
• Key reflections on the two "clobber passages" (Rom 1:26-27 and 1 Cor 6:9) that demonstrate the relevance of a far wider range of texts throughout the Pauline corpus

The Book of Acts brings together leading Catholic, Orthodox, and Evangelical theologians to read and interpret the book of Acts from within their ecclesial tradition, while simultaneously engaging one another in critical dialogue. Combining both theological exegesis and ecumenical dialogue, each chapter is uniquely structured to facilitate a rich reading of Scripture and an engaging though critical dialogue across the traditions. Each chapter begins with a main essay by either a Catholic, Orthodox, or Evangelical theologian on a section of the book of Acts; the main essay is followed by responses from theologians of the other two traditions. The chapter concludes with a final response from the main author. Readers are thus provided with not only a deep and engaging reading of the book of Acts but also the unfolding of a rich theological-ecumenical dialogue centered on Scripture. Anyone interested in understanding how our ecclesial traditions inform our reading of Scripture would do well to read this book, as would anyone interested in the book of Acts, ecumenical dialogue, and the theological interpretation of Scripture

Building Your New Testament Greek Vocabulary, now in its third edition, provides students a user-friendly introduction to the vocabulary of New Testament Greek. Van Voorst helps the student to move away from rote memorization toward better long-term vocabulary learning based on how Greek words are built and related to each other. He provides students with easy-to-remember English derivatives, lists the number of occurrences for each word learned, provides lists that are easily learned in a single vocabulary-learning session and, most importantly, organizes the book on the basis of word families and frequency. New to this edition are a comprehensive list of proper nouns and a section to help students understand particular Greek words. Definitions of Greek words have been revised where necessary according to the new, third edition of the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament edited by Frederick Danker.