Covering the major monotheistic religions—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—as well as selected Eastern religions and Bahá'í, Zoroastrianism, and Mormonism, this cross-cultural book offers excerpts of sacred texts and interprets passages to enable a deeper understanding of these religious writings. Sacred Texts Interpreted: Religious Documents Explained gives readers the opportunity to examine—directly—the primary sources of different religions and to better understand these texts through expert commentary on selected passages. The interpretative material investigates the nature of sacred texts along with the relationship between sacred scripture and canon, and it explains why these sacred texts have enduring significance and influence. The author provides suggestions on how to read a sacred text before turning to the textual selections from 13 religious traditions arranged alphabetically, beginning with the Bahá'í religion and ending with Zoroastrianism. Each chapter is devoted to the primary textual sources of a particular religious tradition and is prefaced by an introduction to the literature that places it within its historical and cultural heritage. The emphasis for each religion is on its foundational scriptures that are often considered sacred by its adherents. Readers will gain a much greater appreciation of how powerful religious texts have always been across human culture and throughout millennia—and of how religious thought and ideology have shaped daily life, built civilizations, inspired art and literature, and incited wars and violence.

At the heart of many religions are sacred texts that depict or even incite sexual violence. Most of this violence is directed against women and girls. Sexual Violence and Sacred Texts opens up an informed, passionate, interfaith dialogue for scholars and activists seeking to transform social problems that impact women and girls globally. Situated within struggles toward gender equity and widespread spiritual flourishing, these essays empower religious leaders, academics, and laypersons to confront and to creatively engage with sacred texts that re-inscribe sexual violence.

Lee Martin McDonald provides a magisterial overview of the development of the biblical canon --- the emergence of the list of individual texts that constitutes the Christian bible. In these two volumes -- in sum more than double the length of his previous works -- McDonald presents his most in-depth overview to date. McDonald shows students and researchers how the list of texts that constitute 'the bible' was once far more fluid than it is today and guides readers through the minefield of different texts, different versions, and the different lists of texts considered 'canonical' that abounded in antiquity. Questions of the origin and transmission of texts are introduced as well as consideration of innovations in the presentation of texts, collections of documents, archaeological finds and Church councils. In the first volume McDonald reexamines issues of canon formation once considered settled, and sets the range of texts that make up the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) in their broader context. Each indidvidual text is discussed, as are the cultural, political and historical situations surrounding them. This second volume considers the New Testament, and the range of so-called 'apocryphal' gospels that were written in early centuries, and used by many Christian groups before the canon was closed. Also included are comprehensive appendices which show various canon lists for both Old and New Testaments and for the bible as a whole.

This two-volume set is part of a growing body of literature concerned with the history of biblical interpretation. The ample introduction first situates key players in the story of the development of the major strands of biblical interpretation since the Enlightenment, identifying how different theoretical and methodological approaches are related to each other and describing the academic environment in which they emerged and developed. Volume 1 contains fourteen essays on twenty-two interpreters who were principally active before 1980, and volume 2 has nineteen essays on twenty-seven of those who were active primarily after this date. Each chapter provides a brief biography of one or more scholars, as well as a detailed description of their major contributions to the field. This is followed by an (often new) application of the scholar's theory. By focusing on the individual scholars and their work, the book recognizes that interpretive approaches arise out of certain circumstances, and that scholars are influenced by, and have influences upon, both other interpreters and the times in which they live. This set is ideal for any class on the history of biblical interpretation and for those who want a greater understanding of how the current field of biblical studies developed.

The essays in Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations shed new light on core themes in Qumran studies, such as the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, history of the Qumran community, Hebrew philology and paleography, Wisdom and religious poetry.

This volume applies a rhetorical-discourse method to the Yahadic manuscripts and Romans to show how community leaders uniquely determined specific hermeneutical rules, axioms, and paradigms for their communities. Stark examines the Yahadic texts using Thomas Kuhn's arguments about scientific paradigms and their shifts as a framework for considering the patterns through which Paul and the Yahad interpret their scriptures. Stark outlines the three ways in which the Teacher determined the perspective from which the Yahad approached its scriptures. Following this, he analyses the Romans and the three thematic ways that Jesus determined the perspective from which Paul approached his scriptures. Despite strong similarities between them, the paradigms under which the Yahad and Paul operated moved them to fundamentally different understanding of the kinds of faithfulness they should exhibit towards those whom they received as Yahweh's appointed agents. The Yahad understood faithfulness to the Teacher within the context of Torah, but Paul understood the Torah within the context of Abraham-style faithfulness to Jesus.

Themelios is an international, evangelical, peer-reviewed theological journal that expounds and defends the historic Christian faith. Themelios is published three times a year online at The Gospel Coalition (http://thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/) and in print by Wipf and Stock. Its primary audience is theological students and pastors, though scholars read it as well. Themelios began in 1975 and was operated by RTSF/UCCF in the UK, and it became a digital journal operated by The Gospel Coalition in 2008. The editorial team draws participants from across the globe as editors, essayists, and reviewers. General Editor: D. A. Carson, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Managing Editor: Brian Tabb, Bethlehem College and Seminary Consulting Editor: Michael J. Ovey, Oak Hill Theological College Administrator: Andrew David Naselli, Bethlehem College and Seminary Book Review Editors: Jerry Hwang, Singapore Bible College; Alan Thompson, Sydney Missionary & Bible College; Nathan A. Finn, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Hans Madueme, Covenant College; Dane Ortlund, Crossway; Jason Sexton, Golden Gate Baptist Seminary Editorial Board: Gerald Bray, Beeson Divinity School Lee Gatiss, Wales Evangelical School of Theology Paul Helseth, University of Northwestern, St. Paul Paul House, Beeson Divinity School Ken Magnuson, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Jonathan Pennington, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary James Robson, Wycliffe Hall Mark D. Thompson, Moore Theological College Paul Williamson, Moore Theological College Stephen Witmer, Pepperell Christian Fellowship Robert Yarbrough, Covenant Seminary

This is volume 19 of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture published by The Interpreter Foundation. It contains articles on a variety of topics including: "On Being a Tool," "Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the American Renaissance: An Update," "Science and Mormonism," "Latter-day Saint Youths’ Construction of Sacred Texts," "Telling the Story of the Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon," "'My People Are Willing': The Mention of Aminadab in the Narrative Context of Helaman 5-6," "'See That Ye Are Not Lifted Up': The Name Zoram and Its Paronomastic Pejoration," "Why Did You Choose Me?", "Nice Try, But No Cigar: A Response to Three Patheos Posts on Nahom (1 Nephi 16:34)," "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 1 of 2," "Mormonism at Oxford and What It Signifies," "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 2 of 2," "Mormonism and the Scientific Persistence of Circles: Aristotle, Spacetime, and One Eternal Round," "Alma — Young Man, Hidden Prophet," "'From the Sea East Even to the Sea West': Thoughts on a Proposed Book of Mormon Chiasm Describing Geography in Alma 22:27," "Shulem, One of the King’s Principal Waiters," and "Conversations with Mormon Historians."

One of the most respected and influential scholars of religious liberty in our time, Douglas Laycock has argued many crucial religious-liberty cases in the United States Supreme Court. His noteworthy scholarly and popular writings are being collected in five comprehensive volumes under the title Religious Liberty. In this final volume Laycock documents the use of the Constitu­tion’s Free Speech Clause and Establishment Clause in legal briefs, scholarly and popular articles, House testimonies, and written debates. These two clauses have been vitally important in religious-liberty cases concerning religious speech in schools, politics, and the workplace, government funding of religious schools and social services, and the meaning of separation of church and state.