B. J. Oropeza offers the most thorough examination in recent times on the subject of apostasy in the New Testament. The study examines each book of the New Testament with a fourfold approach that identifies the emerging Christian community in danger, the nature of apostasy that threatens the congregations, and the consequences of defection. Oropeza then compares the various perspectives of the communities in Christ in order to determine the ways in which they perceived apostasy and whether defectors could be restored. In this second volume of a three-volume set titled Apostasy in the New Testament Communities, Oropeza focuses on the Christ communities of the undisputed and disputed Pauline Letters.

Showcases integration of multiple methods as well as reflections on the reception of Philippians and its meaning for today.

The commentary tradition regarding 1 Corinthians unanimously identifies the "weak" as Christ-followers whose faith was not yet sufficient to indulge in the eating of idol food with indifference, as if ideally Paul wanted them to become "strong" enough to do so. Commentaries also do not hesitate to explain that Paul advised the Corinthians that he behaved like non-Jews (e.g., ate idol food) in order to win non-Jews to Christ, convinced that he was free from any obligation to observe Jewish covenantal behavior--except when he expediently chose to mimic Jewish behavior in order to win Jews to Christ. Similarly, commentators continue to conclude that in Philippians Paul called Jews "dogs" for upholding the value of undertaking circumcision, and that he renounced such identification as "mutilation." None of these interpretations likely represent what Paul meant originally, according to Nanos. Each essay explains why, and provides new alternatives for re-reading Paul's language "within Judaism." In this process, Nanos combines investigations of relevant elements from Jewish sources and from various Cynic and other Greco-Roman contemporaries, as well as the New Testament.

How do religious traditions create strangers and neighbors? How do they construct otherness? Or, instead, work to overcome it? In this exciting collection of interdisciplinary essays, scholars and activists from various traditions explore these questions. Through legal and media studies, they reveal how we see religious others. They show that Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Sikh texts frame others in open-ended ways. Conflict resolution experts and Hindu teachers, they explain, draw on a shared positive psychology. Jewish mystics and Christian contemplatives use powerful tools of compassionate perception. Finally, the authors explain how Christian theology can help teach respectful views of difference. They are not afraid to discuss how religious groups have alienated one another. But, together, they choose to draw positive lessons about future cooperation.

Paul and the Gentile Problem provides a new explanation for the apostle Paul's statements about the Jewish law in his letters to the Romans and Galatians. Paul's arguments against circumcision and the law in Romans 2 and his reading of Genesis 15-21 in Galatians 4:21-31 belong within a stream of Jewish thinking which rejected the possibility that gentiles could undergo circumcision and adopt the Jewish law, thereby becoming Jews. Paul opposes this solution to the gentile problem because he thinks it misunderstands how essentially hopeless the gentile situation remains outside of Christ. The second part of the book moves from Paul's arguments against a gospel that requires gentiles to undergo circumcision and adoption of the Jewish law to his own positive account, based on his reading of the Abraham Narrative, of the way in which Israel's God relates to gentiles. Having received the Spirit (pneuma) of Christ, gentiles are incorporated into Christ, who is the singular seed of Abraham, and, therefore, become materially related to Abraham. But this solution raises a question: Why is it so important for Paul that gentiles become seed of Abraham? The argument of this book is that Paul believes that God had made certain promises to Abraham that only those who are his seed could enjoy and that these promises can be summarized as being empowered to live a moral life, inheriting the cosmos, and having the hope of an indestructible life.

The Dictionary of Paul and His Letters is a one-of-a-kind reference book. Featuring 208 articles written by numerous experts, it brings the very latest in Pauline scholarship and theology to students, teachers, ministers and laypeople in an accessible and easy to use layout. No other single volume reference work presents as much information focused exclusively on Pauline theology, literature, background and scholarship. This second edition of the Dictionary of Paul and His Letters has been completely revised and updated, to ensure that it contains the very best and most recent developments in Pauline thought. With articles organized in alphabetical order, it is easy to browse through and find exactly what you need - whether you are a student, preacher or simply interested in better understanding Paul's writings. Part of the IVP Reference series, the Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, Second Edition, is committed to the authority of Scripture, utilising the best of critical methods, and maintaining dialogue with contemporary scholarship and challenges facing the church Those who have enjoyed and benefited from the first edition of the Dictionary of Paul and His Letters will find this second edition an equally indispensable companion to study and research, while those who are new to the study of Pauline theology will find this an incomparable resource.

Terence L. Donaldson's scholarship in the field of New Testament studies is vital, as he has pressed scholars to pay closer attention to the complex relations between early Christ-followers-who were mostly non-Jews-and the Jewish matrix from which the narrative of the Christian proclamation comes from. This volume allows prominent New Testament scholars to engage Donaldson's contributions, both to sharpen some of his conclusions and to honour him for his work. These essays are located at the intersections of three bodies of literature-Matthew, Paul and Second Temple Jewish Literature-and themes and questions that have been central to Donaldson's work: Christian Judaism and the Parting of the Ways; Gentiles in Judaism and early Christianity; Anti-Judaism in early Christianity. With contributions ranging from remapping Paul within Jewish ideologies, and Paul among friends and enemies, to socio-cultural readings of Matthew, and construction of Christian Identity through stereotypes of the Scribes and Pharisees, this book provides a multi-scholar tribute to Donaldson's accomplishments.

This book is novel in its questioning of the adequacy of interpreting Paul from the perspective of the Reformation and in its application of sociological methods to the New Testament.

"As long as there are readers of Paul, there will be always be other perspectives." The essays in this second edition of Paul Unbound: Other Perspectives on the Apostle provide introductions to Paul's relationship to and views on the Roman Empire, first-century economic stratification, his opponents, ethnicity, the law, Judaism, women, and Greco-Roman rhetoric. Contributors Warren Carter, Charles H. Cosgrove, A. Andrew Das, Steven J. Friesen, Mark D. Given, Deborah Krause, Mark D. Nanos, and Jerry L. Sumney have added addendums to their original essays and updated the bibliography to take into account scholarship produced in the decade since the publication of the first edition. The collection provides essential background and sets out new directions for study useful to students of the New Testament and Paul's letters.

Misunderstanding of Paul had started already in his lifetime, and his letters offer many examples of this. Throughout the centuries, Paul has continued to be misunderstood by both Jews and Gentiles, especially in relation to his view of the law and the covenant. Paul has often been misunderstood because his form of argument, his use of Scripture, his view of Jews and Gentiles in Christ (especially of those Jews who were not convinced that Jesus was Messiah), and his view of what constitutes true Judaism do not seem to conform to our expectations and perceptions of the apostle. We have been accustomed to read his letters as of one who was emancipating people from Judaism, as one who sought to obliterate all ethnic and other distinctions rather than maintaining the identity of Jews and Gentiles even in Christ. By building on some of the insights of the New Perspective, and developing other more recent insights as well, a more consistent and credible Paul as a first-century Diaspora Jew organizing a mission to Gentiles will be presented.