A struggle is currently underway to figure out one of the central groups in the gospel story . . . the Pharisees. Were they "hypocrites or heroes"? Or as one recent writer put it, maybe they were just "good guys with bad press." Scholars of Judaism and of the NT have been painstakingly correcting, even rehabilitating, the image of the first-century Pharisees, but this seems not yet to have affected most readers of Scripture. Here at last is a book that lays out for the non-specialist the evidence for the origin and true nature of the Pharisees . . . and challenges them to re-read the gospel stories with real Pharisees in mind rather than caricatures.

Calls upon Luke 7:36-50 as a starting point for studying the Pharisees from a perspective that aims to "redeem" them from anti-Semitic readings of the New Testament and establishes Jesus as a first-century Jew. Also, by comparing Luke and Mark, by posing questions and at times resolving them, the book demonstrates how Luke's themes, particularly those regarding the poor and marginalized, shape his conflation of Mark's story of Simon the Leper with other Lukan traditions.

Most Christians, simple believers and scholars alike, have held that there was one, virgin, early church which was later imperilled by false teachings. The New Testament was the developing statement of this church, and from it grew the whole structure of Christian belief: as Cardinal Newman so memorably put it, as an oak out of an acorn. Michael Goulder here sets out to demonstrate that this theory is an error. From as far back as we can trace it (to the 40s of our era) there never was a single, united church. There were (in fact from the 30s), two missions: one run from Jerusalem by Peter and James, and one run from various other centres, by Paul. The two missions agreed on the supreme significance of Jesus but disagreed on almost everything else: the validity of the Bible, whether the kingdom of God had come olr not, sex, money, work, tongues, visions, healings, Jesus' divinity and the resurrection of the dead. The New Testament makes the impression it does because it was selected by the winning mission, that of Paul, but it is historically misleading.

Wofufuza, "The Seeker," was named by his high chief father according to Bantuland tradition of 2,000 years ago, and his life followed that tradition, as he becomes what his name signifies. We find him discontented with his good life, and so finally he undertakes a search for a mysterious something that he is missing. On his trek, Wofufuza passes through a succession of different cultures, each them inferior to that of his home, for they all operate on false premises. He is thinking about returning to Bantuland, when he comes to a place called Palestine. His life is forever changed.

The idea of "justification by faith" is noticeably illustrated in narrative form in the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14). Did Luke the evangelist copy or import this idea from the apostle Paul? Or is there a better likelihood that Luke derived the theme from the teachings of Jesus himself? The answers to these questions have implications on the likely origin of this central Christian theme, and the connection between Jesus and Paul. In The Tax Collector and the Pharisee, Peter Tan-Gatue builds a plausible case that this notion of "justification by faith" comes from material sources that already exist in the Jesus tradition. Through biblical exegesis, critical use of authenticity criteria, and contributions in ancient and current historical-cultural studies, this work challenges the idea that justification is a Pauline innovation and also affirms the intrinsic authenticity of the Lukan parable.

The 21 Most Effective Prayers of the Bible speaks to believers of all ages, backgrounds, and maturity levels with an uplifting message: that the prayers of the Bible are prayers for us today. Not an exhaustive, scholarly study, this very readable volume investigates twenty-one heartfelt prayers that produced results. Author Dave Earley shares personal examples from years of ministry that illustrate how these deepest petitions worked not only for Biblical heroes, but for Christians of today. Hope and encouragement are the hallmarks of this collection, encouraging the reader to greater faith in the power of effective prayer.

The shifting image of the Hasmoneans in the eyes of their contemporaries and later generations is a compelling issue in the history of the Maccabean revolt and the Hasmonean commonwealth. Based on a series of six Jewish folktales from the Second Temple period that describe the Hasmonean dynasty and its history from its legendary founders, through achievement of full sovereignty, to downfall, this volume examines the Hasmoneans through the lens of reception history. On the one hand, these brief, colorful legends are embedded in the narrative of the historian of the age, Flavius Josephus; on the other hand, they are scattered throughout the extensive halakhic-exegetical compositions known as rabbinic literature, redacted and compiled centuries later. Each set of parallel stories is examined for the motivation underlying its creation, its original message, language, and the historical context. This analysis is followed by exploration of the nature of the relationship between the Josephan and the rabbinic versions, in an attempt to reconstruct the adaptation of the putative original traditions in the two corpora, and to decipher the disparities, different emphases, reworking, and unique orientations typical of each. These adaptations reflect the reception of the pristine tales and thus disclose the shifting images of the Hasmoneans in later generations and within distinct contexts. The compilation and characterization of these sources which were preserved by means of two such different conduits of transmission brings us closer to reconstruction of a lost literary continent, a hidden Jewish "Atlantis" of early pseudo-historical legends and facilitates examination of the relationship between the substantially different libraries and worlds of Josephus and rabbinic literature.

Like all skilful authors, the composer of the biblical books of Luke and Acts understood that a good story requires more than a gripping plot - a persuasive narrative also needs well-portrayed, plot-enhancing characters. This book brings together a set of new essays examining characters and characterization in those books from a variety of methodological perspectives. The essays illustrate how narratological, sociolinguistic, reader-response, feminist, redaction, reception historical, and comparative literature approaches can be fruitfully applied to the question of Luke's techniques of characterization. Theoretical and methodological discussions are complemented with case studies of specific Lukan characters. Together, the essays reflect the understanding that while many of the literary techniques involved in characterization attest a certain universality, each writer also brings his or her own unique perspective and talent to the portrayal and use of characters, with the result that analysis of a writer's characters and style of characterization can enhance appreciation of that writer's work.