Many famous antique texts are misunderstood and many others have been completely dismissed, all because the literary style in which they were written is unfamiliar today. So argues Mary Douglas in this controversial study of ring composition, a technique which places the meaning of a text in the middle, framed by a beginning and ending in parallel. To read a ring composition in the modern linear fashion is to misinterpret it, Douglas contends, and today's scholars must reevaluate important antique texts from around the world. Found in the Bible and in writings from as far a field as Egypt, China, Indonesia, Greece, and Russia, ring composition is too widespread to have come from a single source. Does it perhaps derive from the way the brain works? What is its function in social contexts? The author examines ring composition, its principles and functions, in a cross-cultural way. She focuses on ring composition in Homer's Iliad, the Bible's book of Numbers, and, for a challenging modern example, Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, developing a persuasive argument for reconstruing famous books and rereading neglected ones.

Promotes an exciting new idea: Paul's gospel of Gentile inclusion is intrinsic to Israel's salvation promised in the Hebrew Bible.

Few questions exert such a great fascination on human conscience as those related to the meaning of life, history, and death. The belief in the resurrection of the dead constitutes an answer to a real challenge: What is the meaning of life and history in the midst of a world in which evil, injustice, and ultimately death exist? Resurrection is an instrument serving a broader, more encompassing reality: the Kingdom of God. Such a utopian Kingdom gathers the final response to the problem of theodicy and to the enigma of history. This book seeks to understand the idea of resurrection not only as a theological but also as a philosophical category (as expression of the collective aspirations of humanity), combining historical, theological, and philosophical analyses in dialogue with some of the principal streams of contemporary Western thought.

Jesus and Israel's Traditions of Judgement and Restoration examines the eschatology of Jesus by evaluating his appropriation of sacred traditions related to Israel's restoration. It addresses the way in which Jesus' future expectations impinged upon his understanding of key features of Jewish society. Scholars have long debated the degree to which Jesus' eschatology can be said to have been realized. This 2002 book considers Jesus' expectations regarding key constitutional features of the eschaton: the shape of the people of God, purity, Land and Temple. Bryan shows that Jesus' anticipation of coming national judgement led him to use Israel's sacred traditions in ways that differed significantly from their use by his contemporaries. This did not lead Jesus to the conviction that Israel's restoration had been delayed. Instead he employed Israel's traditions to support a different understanding of restoration and a belief that the time of restoration had arrived.

Resurrection of the dead represents one of the more enigmatic beliefs of Western religions to many modern readers. In this volume, C. D. Elledge offers an interpretation of some of the earliest literature within Judaism that exhibits a confident hope in resurrection. He not only aids the study of early Jewish literature itself, but expands contemporary knowledge of some of the earliest expressions of a hope that would become increasingly meaningful in later Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Elledge focuses on resurrection in the latest writings of the Hebrew Bible, the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as the writings of other Hellenistic Jewish authors. He also incorporates later rabbinic writings, early Christian sources, and inscriptions, as they shed additional light upon select features of the evidence in question. This allows for a deeper look into how particular literary works utilized the discourse of resurrection, while also retaining larger comparative insights into what these materials may teach us about the gradual flourishing of resurrection within its early Jewish environment. Individual chapters balance a more categorical/comparative approach to the problems raised by resurrection (definitions, diverse conceptions, historical origins, strategies of legitimation) with a more specific focus on particular pieces of the early Jewish evidence (1 Enoch, Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus). Resurrection of the Dead in Early Judaism, 200 BCE-CE 200 provides a treatment of resurrection that informs the study of early Jewish theologies, as well as their later reinterpretations within Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity.

This is a traditio-historical study of three ideas concerning the eschatological resurrection which Paul brings forward in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23: (a) Jesus' resurrection forms the beginning of the eschatological resurrection; (b) the eschatological resurrection will take place through participation in Jesus' resurrection; (c) the eschatological resurrection will take place at the time of Jesus' parousia. The three ideas are investigated in the following way. Firstly, their occurrence and function in Paul is set out, subsequently their origin is reconstructed, and, finally, analogous Jewish concepts are compared. A critical review of earlier research on these ideas and a literary and historical exegesis of the relevant sections of 1 Corinthians 15 precede the investigations.

Only one of its kind: Devotionals for Holocaust-proofing by Resurrection Power. Is there a connection between today's startling rise of terrorism, natural calamities, violence, wars, and the Holocaust? This book plainly says there is. If you ask why a good God lets bad things happen, you'll see how God is powerful enough and loving enough to bring forth the best for his family out of their worst experiences. Israel, through her Holocaust, is revealed as God's linchpin for all nations. This book details God's relationship plan for Christians, for the church, for Israel, and for Messianic (or "Completed") Jews. Its thesis is direct and simple: we can walk together in love where none have walked before. A mindset that can handle the Holocaust from God's perspective will sustain us through inevitable dark times ahead, ushering us into a fresh, reassuring, and eternal joy of God's everlasting kingdom on earth. Pelham Gross grew up on the family farm and studied at Mississippi State ('51) and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary ('55). He was filled with the Spirit in 1962 and served as a pastor, prophet, and teacher in one of the first non-denominational Spirit-filled movements. He helped lead a church into racial reconciliation during the sixties in Memphis, Tennessee. Pelham and wife DeDe are caught up in an ongoing Israel-experience with God that has already filled two books, this one being the third. They worshipped and studied for three years at The International House of Prayer Kansas City under Mike Bickle, and took classes under Messianic Rabbi Jerry Feldman. They stand with Messianics in Israel through Dr. Daniel Juster and Tikkun Ministries International. They now live in Boonville, Missouri and share revelation on www.IsraelOwnsTheChurch.com, pdeagles@sbcglobal.net.

The work is a history of Jewish beliefs regarding the concept of the soul, the idea of resurrection, and the nature of the afterlife. The work describes these beliefs, accounts for the origin of these beliefs, discusses the ways in which these beliefs have evolved, and explains why the many changes in belief have occurred. Views about the soul, resurrection, and the afterlife are related to other Jewish views and to broad movements in Jewish thought; and Jewish intellectual history is placed within the context of the history of Western thought in general. That history begins with the biblical period and extends to the present time.

In the book of Acts divine involvement is everywhere. From the beginning God is responsible for promised action, including the geographic expansion--"in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (1:7)--referenced in Jesus' response to the disciples, clearly related to Luke's purpose in writing the book. Geographic expansion, however, is only the second part of Jesus' reply. Is it possible that the first half of Jesus' reply--"It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority"--has even greater bearing on the actions that follow and on Luke's purpose? Is the Father setting times and seasons related to the kingdom's establishment? Does this phrase explain the conspicuous divine involvement throughout the plot? In Restoring the Kingdom, Michael Salmeier answers these questions in the affirmative by exploring Luke's characterization of God in three strands: God as the King who establishes and restores Israel's king, who establishes his people, and who directs events. This unfolds Luke's purpose in assuring the reader concerning the events that have taken place, helping to more fully illuminate Luke's theology concerning God and his kingdom.