Pheme Perkins searches for the historical Peter, and the influence his image has had for both Roman Catholics and Protestants. Pointing to portrayals of Peter in the Pauline and Johannine traditions, the synoptic Gospels, and the Book of Acts, Perkins argues that precisely because there is no single Petrine tradition in the New Testament, the apostle should serve as a unifying figure for many forms of Christianity. She shows how Peter should be viewed as a harmonising figure who captures the Christian imagination, not only because he is the most prominent of Jesus' disciples but also because his weaknesses and strengths reveal a character accessible to all Christians.

This study fills a gap in previous research concerning the portrayal of Peter in Matthew, especially the research of narrative-critical studies. Although narrative-critical studies generally recognize that Matthew has portrayed Peter and the disciples as recipients of revelation at points, they almost entirely neglect the apocalypses or apocalyptic literature more broadly as a potentially helpful background for this motif, nor does the motif itself figure significantly into their conclusions. Therefore, Part 1 of this study examines fourteen different Jewish and Christian apocalypses in order to determine generic aspects of how the apocalypses portray their seers, and to identify specific textual features that support these generic aspects of a seer's portrayal. These specific textual features then provide the guiding coordinates for Part 2, which assesses the influence of the generic portrayal of apocalyptic seers on the portrayal of Peter and the disciples in Matthew's Gospel and main source, Mark's Gospel. Like the apocalypses, both Evangelists deploy the features of exclusionary statements, narrative isolation, dissemination details, and emphasis of cognitive humanity and emotional-physical humanity to portray Peter and the disciples as the exclusive recipients of revealed mysteries, and as humans who encounter the mysteries of the divine realm. This leads to the conclusion that both Evangelists envisaged Peter and the disciples as apocalyptic seers in some sense. However, Matthew's redaction of Markan source material, incorporation of Q source material, and his own special material yield a more fully developed, or more explicit, portrayal of Peter and the disciples as apocalyptic seers than his Markan predecessor. The study concludes by focusing directly on Peter's significance for Matthew and his earliest audience. The research suggests that Peter's significance was, in part, as principal apocalyptic seer, which requires revision to the predominant scholarly conclusions about Peter in Matthew.

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.

Acts is arguably the most exciting book in the New Testament. It covers the tumultuous early years of Christianity and narrates the growth of the church throughout the Roman Empire. Luke tells this story by focusing primarily on two men, Peter and Paul. This book examines their apostolic ministries as they are revealed within the pages of The Acts of the Apostles. Their apostolic ministries are examined in the context of several different components: Leadership, Evangelism and Church Planting, Miracle Working and Healing, and Mystical or Supernatural Experiences. These categories are shown to detail particular aspects of each man's apostleship work. These categories provide a convenient way to compare and contrast the type of ministry that each apostle performed, as described by Luke. Spell also devotes a chapter each to Luke's literary method and the relationship of Peter and Paul as seen in their letters. These two chapters lay important groundwork for examining the apostles. This book will provide the reader with valuable insights from Scripture that they can apply to their own lives and ministry. By looking at how Peter and Paul conducted their ministries in the first century, we can be more effective in the twenty-first.

The Papacy and the Orthodox examines the centuries-long debate over the primacy and authority of the Bishop of Rome, especially in relation to the Christian East, and offers a comprehensive history of the debate and its underlying theological issues. Siecienski masterfully brings together all of the biblical, patristic, and historical material necessary to understand this longstanding debate. This book is an invaluable resource as both Catholics and Orthodox continue to reexamine the sources and history of the debate.

From Marilyn to Mussolini, people captivate people. A&E's Biography, best-selling autobiographies, and biographical novels testify to the popularity of the genre. But where does one begin? Collected here are descriptions and evaluations of over 10,000 biographical works, including books of fact and fiction, biographies for young readers, and documentaries and movies, all based on the lives of over 500 historical figures from scientists and writers, to political and military leaders, to artists and musicians. Each entry includes a brief profile, autobiographical and primary sources, and recommended works. Short reviews describe the pertinent biographical works and offer insight into the qualities and special features of each title, helping readers to find the best biographical material available on hundreds of fascinating individuals.

A STUNNING, PROVOCATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON THE DISCIPLE PETER AS DEPICTED BY MATTHEW "In this highly controversial work on Peter, Robert Gundry's intellectual gifts and remarkable powers of analysis are displayed to an even higher degree than in his previous publications. . . One need not agree with Gundry's conclusions to acknowledge that the penetrating exegesis presented here and the nature of the argumentation as a whole demand serious reflection and engagement. Those who pay close attention to this brief but unusually weighty book will not be able to read Matthew in quite the same way that they did before." --MOISES SILVA author of Biblical Words and Their Meaning "Peter, long thought to be 'prince of the apostles' and one of the heroes of the Gospel of Matthew, is shown here to be neither. This extraordinarily closely argued volume by Robert Gundry offers a compelling case that Matthew constructs the figure of Peter as a failed disciple and an apostate. . . A courageous book that will require scholars to reassess how the Peter of Matthew came to be, in Gundry's words, 'airbrushed' and turned into a model of disciple and central figure in ecclesiastical memory." --JOHN S. KLOPPENBORG University of Toronto "If Bob Gundry is known for anything, it is for his dogged pursuit of the meaning of Scripture. Here he once again provides fresh, penetrating analysis--in the present case, leading to an unsettling conclusion. Provocative, as he can often be, Gundry is never boring but always instructive and well worth a careful reading." --DONALD A. HAGNER Fuller Theological Seminary

Kendra A. Mohn traces how the constructions of nonelite men in the Gospel of Matthew negotiate expectations of elite Roman masculinity. Highlighting wealth, divine service, and dominating control, Mohn shows how the depictions of Joseph, John, Peter, and Judas shape expectations of men in terms of discipleship, power, and leadership.

This volume examines a multitude of characters in Matthew's gospel and provides an in-depth look at the different approaches currently employed by scholars working with literary and reader-oriented methods. Beginning with an introduction on 'the properties of character' and the several aspects involved in the creation of person, the contributors provide a close reading of numerous characters and character types in the Gospel of Matthew. Including Mary, King Herod, John the Baptist, Jesus the Preacher, Jesus the Teacher, God the Father, the Roman Centurion, Peter, Women, Gentiles, Scribes and Pharisees, and Romans. Such close studies aid the understanding of different issues in Matthean characterization, while also charting the development of hermeneutical vistas that have developed in contemporary scholarship, resulting in a collection of exegetical character studies that are self-consciously working from a literary, narrative-critical, reader-oriented, or related methodology.

Larry R. Helyer embarks on a comprehensive study of a much neglected figure in New Testament studies. Reconstructing Peter's life, theology and legacy from evidence in 1 and 2 Peter, the Gospels, Acts, Paul's letters and texts from the early church, Helyer renders a great service for future students of the New Testament.