The eighth volume in this series continues the exploration of women's representations and roles, constructions of gender, and attitudes toward sexuality in the early church. Jim Aageson, Judith Applegate, Warren Carter, Pamela Eisenbaum, Ruth Hoppin, Luke Timothy Johnson, Catherine Clark Kroeger, Magda Missett van de Weg, John Elliott, Betsy Bauman-Martin, and Timothy Cargal tackle a variety of complex issues involving slavery, prostitution, widows, church leadership, suffering, women's agency, and Evangelical responses to the so-called "texts of terror". This volume advances discussion on these often overlooked and misunderstood general letters.

What constitutes a faithful life? At its most basic level, the New Testament book of Hebrews considers this essential question and pleads with its audience to find in faithful living the rest that Christ offers. Hebrews begins with a poetic reflection on the one who lived the most faithful of lives—Jesus—and concludes with exhortations to go and do likewise. In the 37th volume in the Believers Church Bible Commentary series, scholars Debra J. Bucher and Estella Boggs Horning examine at great length one important aspect of Hebrews: Jesus as the new covenant and the once-for-all, better sacrifice who replaces the daily and yearly temple offerings in Jerusalem. The authors also consider how this idea has been used to minimize other religious traditions and even to legitimize the horrors of the mid-20th century. They carefully unpack the language around sacrifice and covenant based on the saving work of Jesus, drawing out encouragement found in Hebrews to live as individuals and as a community led by Jesus, the pioneer and high priest. Bucher and Horning don’t shy away from the difficult language in Hebrews. Instead, they draw out its historical context and help readers understand how to use the text with love within our own. About the Believers Church Bible Commentary series This readable commentary series is for all who seek more fully to understand the original message of Scripture and its meaning for today—Sunday school teachers, members of Bible study groups, students, pastors, and other seekers. —From the Series Foreword

Feminist biblical interpretation has reached a level of maturity that now makes possible a commentary series on every book of the Bible. It is our hope that Wisdom Commentary, by making the best of current feminist biblical scholarship available in an accessible format ... will aid readers in their advancement toward God's vision of dignity, equality, and justice for all. - Book jacket.

"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any doubleedged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." -Hebrews 4:12 THE NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY series is an exceptionally acclaimed resource for ministers and Bible students who want to understand and expound the Scriptures. Notable features in this new Hebrews volume by scholar David Allen include: Commentary based on the New International Version, NIV text printed in the body of the commentary, Sound scholarly methodology reflecting capable research in the original languages, Interpretation emphasizing the theological unity of each book and Scripture as a whole, Readable and applicable exposition.

In its twelth volume this text examines a number of Patristic texts and early Christian documents from a feminist perspective.

Toward Decentering the New Testament is the first introductory text to the New Testament written by an African American woman biblical scholar and an Asian-American male biblical scholar. This text privileges the voices, scholarship, and concerns of minoritized nonwhite peoples and communities. It is written from the perspectives of minoritized voices. The first few chapters cover issues such as biblical interpretation, immigration, Roman slavery, intersectionality, and other topics. Questions raised throughout the text focus readers on relevant contemporary issues and encourage critical reflection and dialogue between student-teachers and teacher-students.

The Fourth Gospel is a political document. Although it has often been interpreted primarily as a "spiritual gospel," it has much to offer readers engaged in the difficult task of negotiating life lived under the dominion of empire, whether in the first or twenty-first century. This book gives careful attention to the political dimensions of the Gospel's Passion Narrative, including the arrest scene (18:1-12), the Roman show trial (18:28--19:16), and the crucifixion and burial of Jesus (19:16-40). It employs James C. Scott's model of hidden transcripts and examines the Fourth Gospel's use of irony as it seeks to understand the political dimensions of the Fourth Gospel and its relationship to the Roman Empire. In this book, Wright argues that the Passion Narrative displays part of a Johannine hidden transcript that resists, contests, and at times mimics elements of Roman imperial power. The Gospel mocks the representatives of Rome, including Pilate, the Roman soldiers, and the Jewish authorities, eroding confidence in the empire and its agents. It also subverts Roman imperial claims of dominance, authority, and power. As such, the Fourth Gospel fosters an alternative worldview and community, one centered on faith in the sovereignty of Jesus and Israel's God.

"Jennifer G. Bird analyzes the construction of wives' subjectivity in 1 Peter, working primarily with what is referred to as the Haustafel (household code) section and engaging feminist critical questions, postcolonial theory and materialist theory in her analysis. Bird examines the two crucial labels for understanding Petrine Christian identity--'aliens and refugees' and 'royal priesthood and holy nation"--And finds them to stand in start contrast with the commands and identity given to wives in the Haustafel section. Similarly, the command to 'honour the Emperor', which immediately precedes the Haustafel, engenders a rich discussion of the text's socio-political implications. The critical engagement of several 'symptomatic irruptions' within the commands to the wives uncovers the abusive dynamic underlying this section of the letter. Finally Bird considers the present-day implications of her study."--Publisher description.

Crisis in the church is not a new phenomenon. In fact, the church has always been - and probably always will be - involved in some kind of crisis. Even in the apostolic period, which is regarded by many as the church's golden age, there were serious crises coming both from the outside, as in 1 Peter, and from the inside, as in Jude and 2 Peter. The three short New Testament letters treated in 1 Peter, Jude and 2 Peter illustrate the problems early Christians faced, as well as the rhetorical techniques and theological concepts with which they combated those problems. In the first part of this volume, Donald Senior views 1 Peter as written from Rome in Peter's name to several churches in northern Asia Minor - present-day Turkey - in the latter part of the first century C.E. The new Christians addressed in 1 Peter found themselves aliens and exiles in the wider Greco-Roman society and suffered a kind of social ostracism. But they are given a marvelous theological Vision of who they have become through their baptism and pastoral encouragement to stand firm. They are shown how to take a missionary stance toward the outside world by giving the witness of a holy and blameless life to offset the slander and ignorance of the non-Christian majority and possibly even to lead them to glorify God on the day of judgment. In the second part of this volume, Daniel Harrington interprets Jude and 2 Peter as confronting crises in the late first century that were perpetrated by Christian teachers who are described polemically as intruders in Jude and as false teachers in 2 Peter. In confronting the crises within their churches, the authors appeal frequently to the Old Testament and to early summaries of Christian faith. While Jude uses other Jewish traditions, 2 Peter includes most of the text of Jude as well as many distinctively Greek terms and concepts. It is clear that for the authors, despite their different social settings, what was at stake was the struggle for the faith. Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, is a professor of New Testament at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and general editor of New Testament Abstracts. He is a past-president of the Catholic Biblical Association of American and the editor of the Sacra Pagina series. He also wrote The Gospel of Matthew in the Sacra Pagina series. Donald Senior, CP, is a professor of New Testament studies and president of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He was recently appointed by Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Biblical Commission. General editor of The Bible Today, he also co-edited The Collegeville Pastoral Dictionary of the Bible and the 22-volume international commentary series New Testament Message, and he wrote the four-volume The Passion series published by The Liturgical Press.

Drawing on recent insights from postcolonial theory and social psychology, Travis B. Williams seeks to diagnose the social strategy of good works in 1 Peter by examining how the persistent admonition to "do good" is intended to be an appropriate response to social conflict. Challenging the modern consensus, which interprets the epistle's good works language as an attempt to accommodate Greco-Roman society and thereby to lessen social hostility, the author demonstrates that the exhortation to "do good" envisages a pattern of conduct which stands opposed to popular values. The Petrine author appropriates terminology that was commonly associated with wealth and social privilege and reinscribes it with a new meaning in order to provide his marginalized readers with an alternative vision of reality, one in which the honor and approval so valued in society is finally available to them. The good works theme thus articulates a competing discourse which challenges dominant social structures and the hegemonic ideology which underlies them.