To intimately know God is the substance of this work by Burgess. It is not only to know God as God has revealed his essence, but Burgess, as all good, practical preachers do, presses the reader to then take what they learn about God, and see how it necessarily links to practical truths, such as those necessary for salvation; to know God and to be saved by Jesus Christ. Burgess covers three important questions. Question 1: What conceptions should we have of the blessed God? Question 2: What are those truths of the knowledge of God which appear indispensably necessary and spiritually desirable to our salvation? Question 3: What is that change brought about in a man by God’s holy Word and Spirit, before he can safely conclude himself to be passed from death to life? These are, most assuredly, three of the most important questions that can be drawn from Scripture and applied to the life of any fallen son of Adam. In showing these as utterly important as they refer to eternal realities, Burgess not only explains who God is, but also the work that God has done in Jesus Christ who is the perfect God and perfect man in one person to overcome the horrible effects of a fallen world. To know salvation, is to know, first, the blessed God, and then what this God does in and through his Christ to redeem sinners. He will explain Jesus as the great Prophet, Priest and King in both his states of humiliation and exaltation; that in Christ’s humiliation he was made under the law, obeying the precepts, and suffering its curse. And in his exaltation, in rising from the dead as he did, ascending into heaven, and having all power in heaven and earth given him, he is made higher than any mere creature could possibly be exalted to. In this Christ is able to save to the uttermost and willing to save even the chief of sinners, and he welcomes all that penitently come to him for salvation. To hold steadfastly to the knowledge of God and of his salvation, is indispensably necessary to our eternal salvation, the glorification of the Christ, and honor we owe to the blessed God. This blessed God, then, will make us happy by these truths, and eternally blessed by them in the power of his Holy Spirit; for these show God’s loveliness and blessedness to all that hear his voice.

The English term "prayer" is usually understood as communication with God or the gods. Scholars of Jewish ritual until now have accepted this characterization and applied it to Jewish tefillah. Does rabbinic prayer indeed necessarily entail second-person address to God, as many scholars of rabbinic prayer to this point have presumed? In this work, Yehuda Septimus investigates a boundary phenomenon of talmudic prayer - ritual speech with addressees other than God. The book represents a fresh look at the possible range of performances undertaken by talmudic ritual prayer. Moreover, it places that range of performances into the historical context of the rapid emergence of prayer as the centerpiece of Jewish worship in the first half of the first millennium CE.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1845.

The focus of this book is on early Jewish interpretations of the ambiguous relationship between God and ‛the angel of the Lord/God’ in texts like Genesis 16, 22 and 31. Genesis 32 is included since it exhibits the same ambiguity and constitutes an inseparable part of the Jacob saga. The study is set in the wider context of the development of angelology and concepts of God in various forms of early Judaism. When identifying patterns of interpretation in Jewish texts, their chronological setting is less important than the nature of the biblical source texts. For example, a common pattern is the avoidance of anthropomorphism. In Genesis ‛the angel of the Lord’ generally seems to be a kind of impersonal extension of God, while later Jewish writings are characterized by a more individualized angelology, but the ambivalence between God and his angel remains in many interpretations. In Philo's works and Wisdom of Solomon, the ‛Logos’ and ‛Lady Wisdom’ respectively have assumed the role of the biblical ‛angel of the Lord’. Although the angelology of Second Temple Judaism had developed in the direction of seeing angels as distinct personalities, Judaism still had room for the idea of divine hypostases.

The church in Africa is thriving, both numerically and in its boldness and fervour. Yet the challenge of African folk Christianity – a Christianity shaped more by traditional beliefs than the Bible – continues to loom large, and there remains an acute need for life and faith to be biblically informed. In this introduction to biblical theology, Prof. Peter Nyende draws from nearly two decades of experience teaching the next generation of African church leaders. Maintaining the vital importance of a holistic understanding of Scripture and its unified nature, he presents the central story of both Old and New Testaments as the restoration of God’s dwelling and kingdom in the world. He traces this narrative through its many stages of development — creation and fall, God’s covenants with Israel, exile — to its ultimate fulfilment in Jesus, the church and the new Jerusalem. Though written with pastors and theological students in mind, this book is accessible to any who desire to increase their biblical literacy and partner more fully with the work of God and his kingdom.