Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ... This verse-by-verse commentary takes us from the early church in Acts through Paul’s letters, helping us understand more deeply our salvation, God’s call to relationship, and why grace is the cornerstone of our life in Christ. In the book of Acts, Luke portrays the tensions, persecutions, and hopes of the early church. This detailed commentary digs deep into the zeal and joy of Christ’s earliest followers and what these men and women teach us about community in Christ. Once an enemy of Christianity, Paul became a follower of Christ who helped the early church grow in obedience and love. His letters include some of the most beloved words of Scripture, as well as profound challenges to be more like Christ in our words and actions. Be inspired as you learn more about how the early church spread from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

In this addition to the critically acclaimed BECNT series, respected New Testament scholar Jeffrey Weima offers pastors, students, and teachers the most up-to-date and substantive commentary available on 1-2 Thessalonians. Weima, a Thessalonians expert, experienced teacher, and widely traveled speaker, presents well-informed evangelical scholarship at an accessible level to help readers understand the sociological, historical, and theological aspects of these letters. As with all BECNT volumes, this commentary features the author's detailed interaction with the Greek text, extensive research, thoughtful chapter-by-chapter exegesis, and a user-friendly design. It admirably achieves the dual aims of the series--academic sophistication with pastoral sensitivity and accessibility.

2 Thessalonians is one of the most enigmatic letters in the New Testament, primarily because of its repeated insistence on its authorship by Paul, coupled with its warnings against forgery of Pauline letters. Modern scholarship has made a number of advances in the study of this letter, but the question of the authorship and purpose remain quite open. Hughes gives a detailed investigation of Graeco-Roman rhetorical traditions and their relationship to letters, and develops a consensus model for the identification of the various conventional parts of rhetorical discourses. He then offers an interpretation of 2 Thessalonians according to these rhetorical traditions. Given the rhetoric thus identified in the letter, an innovative theory is developed against Paul's authorship of 2 Thessalonians. In his final chapters, he suggests ways in which the pseudo-Pauline letters of the New Testament witness to a multiplicity of Pauline theologies after the Apostle's death-a diverse and pluriform 'legacy of Paul'.

Volume One: The Gospels and Acts With typical thoroughness, Dr. Hiebert has produced this volume of his New Testament introductions. Though not a commentary on the gospels and Acts, the book presents their message along with a discussion of such questions as authorship, composition, and the Synoptic problem. Practical suggestions on how to study these five books are included. The bibliographies and annotated book lists are are extremely helpful for pastors, teachers, and laymen. Volume Two: The Pauline Epistles This is a detailed introduction to all of Paul's writings - epistles that without question are among the most precious treasures of the Christian church. Dr. Hiebert discusses the historical circumstances of their writing, deals with ethical problems, and provides helpful general information on the content and nature of the books themselves. Discussed in general and separately, these epistles are treated in chronological order, with emphasis on their eschatology, soteriology, Christology, or ecclesiology.