New Testament

The Blackwell Companion to the New Testament considers the historical, social and cultural contexts in which the New Testament was produced, exploring relevant linguistic and textual issues.

This volume, containing contributions from major figures in the field, provides a nuanced examination of how ancient rhetoric should inform our understanding of Paul and his letters. The essays discuss Paul's historical context, present innovative advances in and trenchant critiques of rhetorical theory, and offer fresh readings of key Pauline texts.

Narrative criticism is a relatively recent development that applies literary methods to the study of Scripture. Readers will find here an accessible introduction to the subject of narrative criticism and a richly rewarding approach to reading the Bible.

Gerd Theissen takes up the problem of the emergence of the New Testament canon out of the wide variety of early Christian literature. Drawing from Max Weber's discussion of the evolution of religious organizations, Theissen describes the development of early Christian literature as a series of phases in the life of the movement: the charismatic, the pseudepigraphic, the functional, and the canonical.

In this important and illuminating work, Michal Beth Dinkler uses contemporary literary theory to enhance our understanding and interpretation of the New Testament texts. This indispensable work engages foundational concepts and figures, the historical contexts of various theoretical approaches, and ongoing literary scholarship into the twenty-first century.

How to Read the New Testament is not an introduction to linguistics and New Testament interpretation. As the subtitle indicates, it is more broadly conceived: an introduction to linguistic and historical critical methodologies. This important volume integrates the fruit of historical criticism with the rewards of linguistic analysis.

This indispensable two-volume compendium of the Dead Sea Scrolls contains newly edited English translations and summaries of all the biblical and nonbiblical scrolls found at Qumran. Designed as a practical reference tool to facilitate study of the Scrolls, these volumes will be an essential addition to the library of anyone interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Featuring 450 articles by an international community of scholars this set is the definitive account of what we know about the Dead Sea Scrolls--their history, relevance, meaning, and the controversies that surround them. With contributions from 100 distinguished scholars representing diverse traditions and fields of learning, this volume offers the most comprehensive critical synthesis of current knowledge about the Dead Sea Scrolls--and their historical, archaeological, linguistic, and religious contexts.

The Oxford Handbook to Biblical Narrative is a state-of-the-art anthology, offering critical treatments of both the Bible's narratives and topics related to the Bible's narrative constructions. The Handbook covers the Bible's narrative literature, from Genesis to Revelation, providing concise overviews of literary-critical scholarship as well as innovative readings of individual narratives informed by a variety of methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks.The volume as a whole combines literary sensitivities with the traditional historical and sociological questions of biblical criticism and puts biblical studies into intentional conversation with other disciplines in the humanities.

The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature is a thematic and phenomenological exploration of apocalypticism in the Judaic and Christian traditions. Most of the volume is devoted to the apocalyptic literature of antiquity. Essays explore the relationship between apocalypticism and prophecy, wisdom and mysticism; the social function of apocalypticism and its role as resistance literature; apocalyptic rhetoric from both historical and postmodern perspectives; and apocalyptic theology, focusing on phenomena of determinism and dualism and exploring apocalyptic theology's role in ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and Gnosticism.

The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in the New Testament provides a roadmap to a lively scholarly landscape, introducing both students and other scholars to the relevant problems, debates, and issues. Leading scholars in the field offer original contributions by way of synthesis, criticalinterrogation, and proposals for future questions, hypotheses, and research trajectories.

The Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies begins with chapters concentrating on discussions of the background and context of the Johannine literature, leading to the different ways of reading the text, and thence to the primary theological themes within them, before concluding with some discussion of the reception of the Johannine literature in the early church. Inevitably, given their different genres and levels of complexity, some chapters pay most if not all attention to the Gospel, whereas others are more able to give a more substantial place to the letters. The Handbook will help those less familiar with the Johannine literature to get a sense of the major areas of debate and why the field continues to be one of vibrant and exciting study, and that those who are already part of the conversation will find new insights to enliven their own on-going engagement with these writings.

This Handbook is designed to address a noticeable void in resources focused on analyzing the Bible in America in various historical moments and in relationship to specific institutions and cultural expressions. It takes seriously the fact that the Bible is both a physical object that has exercised considerable totemic power, as well as a text with a powerful intellectual design that has inspired everything from national religious and educational practices to a wide spectrum of artistic endeavors to our nation's politics and foreign policy. This Handbook brings together a number of established scholars, as well as younger scholars on the rise, to provide a scholarly overview to those interested in the Bible's role in American cultural formation.