In this Gnostic tale, the Apostle Philip details the captivating journey of Simon, one of the first disciples to witness Jesus during the formation of early Christianity.

A study in the meaning of Jesus as seen through the lens of legends and ideas related to Dionysus, Baal, Lucifer, and Ulysses.

All of the verses from chapters five through seven of the Gospel of Matthew, also known as the Sermon on the Mount, explored in resonance with quotes from others scriptures - Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Pagan, the threads of ideas tie together traditions from different languages and cultures and ages. Each preserved insight from the spectrum of traditions serves to shine lights of meaning and focus on the ideas presented. In the end it is observed that Jesus takes on the best of human ideas and presents them as an external message from the sacred mountain. This message is not just for Moses, but is for all of us. We are all invited to sit and contemplate.

A consideration of how the Buddhist and Taoist ideas resonate through the Jesus parables, stories, and teachings. A consideration of what this would have meant in the context of the Third Jewish Roman War that lasted from the years 132 through 135. A consideration of Emperor Hadrian. A consideration of the fabled Gnostic teacher Basilides. A consideration of the fall of Messianic Judaism. A consideration of what this all would have meant to those standing in Aelia Capitolina in the aftermath of so much destruction.

'Christians in the Twenty-First Century' examines Christianity as it is understood and practised both by active followers and those who regard themselves as Christian. The book opens with an examination of key Christian concepts - the Bible, the Creeds, the Church and the sacraments - and the major traditions of Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism as well as more recent movements. The book continues with an analysis of the challenges presented by the rise of science, new approaches to biblical scholarship, the rise of fundamentalist movements, the ordination of women, secularization, the interfaith movement, and the impact of the electronic revolution.

The baptism with the Spirit and fire has been a major area of study by theologians and has been pursued by the historical church seeking God’s holiness and power; yet its relationship to judgment has often been ignored. This book explores the Holy Spirit’s relationship with judgment in Luke-Acts through seven texts: Luke 3:16–17; 12:8–10; Acts 5:1–11; 7:51; 8:18–23; 13:9–11; 28:25–28. In these texts, the Holy Spirit is connected with fire, unforgiveness, deception, resistance, greed, blindness, or condemnation. In each instance, Luke’s presentation is examined to determine the Spirit’s role in the process of judgment. Through the Spirit, Jesus judges, cleanses, purges, and divides his people from the world. Luke portrays the Spirit as the executive power of Jesus’ reign as judge, exposing, opposing, and condemning those who reject the gospel.

Who were the Simonians? Beginning in the mid-second century CE, heresiologists depicted them as licentious followers of the first “gnostic,” a supposedly Samarian self-deifier called Simon, who was thought to practice “magic” and became known as the father of all heresies. Litwa examines the Simonians in their own literature and in the literature used to refute and describe them. He begins with Simonian primary sources, namely The Declaration of Great Power (embedded in the anonymous Refutation of All Heresies) and The Concept of Our Great Power (Nag Hammadi codex VI,4). Litwa argues that both are early second-century products of Simonian authors writing in Alexandria or Egypt. Litwa then moves on to examine the heresiological sources related to the Simonians (Justin, the book of Acts, Irenaeus, the author of the Refutation of All Heresies, Pseudo-Tertullian, Epiphanius, and Filaster). He shows how closely connected Justin's report is to the portrait of Simon in Acts, and offers an extensive exegesis and analysis of Simonian theology and practice based on the reports of Irenaeus and the Refutator. Finally, Litwa examines Simonianism in novelistic sources, namely the Acts of Peter and the Pseudo-Clementines. By the time these sources were written, Simon had become the father of all heresies. Accordingly, virtually any heresy could be attributed to Simon. As a result-despite their alluring portraits of Simon-these sources are mostly unusable for the historical study of the Simonian Christian movement. Litwa concludes with a historical profile of the Simonian movement in the second and third centuries. The book features appendices which contain Litwa's own translations of primary Simonian texts.

Mitzi Smith engages the reader in explaining how, as in the real world, the characterization of the Others is used negatively in the biblical texts. Smith shows how the concept of difference is constructed in order to distinguish ourselves from proximateothers: indeed, the other who is most similar to us is most threatening and most problematic. The process of Othering, or Otherness, is a synthetic and political social construct that allows us to create and maintain boundaries between 'them' and 'us'. Thus, this work demonstrates how proximate characters are constructed as the Other in the Acts of the Apostles. Charismatics, Jews, and women are proximate others who are constructed as the external and internal Others.

F.F. Bruce's revised study on the Book of Acts is a contribution to The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Prepared by some of the world's leading scholars, the series provides an exposition of the New Testament books that is thorough and fully abreast of modern scholarship yet faithful to the Scriptures as the infallible Word of God.