This volume contains fifty-two essays composed in honor of David Noel Freedman and organized around the topics: Hebrew Poetry and Prophecy, The Prose of the Hebrew Bible, History and Institutions of Israel, Northwest Semitic Epigraphy, and Other Perspectives. A bibliography of the honoree is included.

While the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament has captured the attention of biblical scholars over the years, no study has been devoted to the presence of Scripture in Colossians, largely because there are no explicit quotations in Colossians. With the introduction of literary intertextuality into the discipline, however, scholars have begun to devote more attention to the NT authors’ less explicit references to Scripture, often labelled as ‘allusions’ and/or ‘echoes.’ Scholars, however, continue to debate what constitutes an allusion or echo, or how one validates a given proposal as such. This study proposes new definitions of these terms and offers a methodology on how to detect and validate them, using Colossians as a test case.

In this new commentary Muddiman questions the assumption that if Ephesians is not by Paul it must be wholly accounted for as an example of post-Pauline pseudepigraphy. He explores an alternative: that it is an authentic letter subsequently edited and expanded with the aim of adjusting the Pauline tradition to meet a new situation. All the perspectives of major modern scholars are discussed and assessed particularly on the question of Ephesians' relationship to Colossians. The implications for the question of the authorship on Paul's theology are extensively explored.

The Epistle to Ephesians contains powerful statements of Pauline doctrine, but many questions can be raised about its authorship and intended readership. John Muddiman's exposition of this text explores these issues and their theological implications, deploying the latest scholarship to provide a thorough and illuminating commentary on this epistle.