Editors Mark Harding and Alanna Nobbs have here brought together the internationally recognized scholarly excellence of Macquarie University faculty and associates to provide a major contribution to the study of the content and environment of the New Testament Gospels. Few books in current New Testament scholarship seriously tackle its social setting and textual tradition beyond a chapter or two. The Content and Setting of the Gospel Tradition integrates the texts with the literary, social, and historical context in which they were written.

Balanced, comprehensive survey of the critical questions involved in studying the four Gospels In this book, through a distinctive evangelical and critical approach, Michael Bird explores the historical development of the four canonical Gospels. He shows how the memories and faith of the earliest believers formed the Gospel accounts of Jesus that got written and, in turn, how these accounts further shaped the early church. Bird's study clarifies the often confusing debates over the origins of the canonical Gospels. Bird navigates recent concerns and research as he builds an informed case for how the early Christ followers wrote and spread the story of Jesus -- the story by which they believed they were called to live. The Gospel of the Lord is ideal for students or anyone who wants to know the story behind the four Gospels. Watch an interview with Michael Bird from our Eerdmans Author Interview Series:

A collection of papers from two international symposia by such important scholars as Aune, Dunn, Gerhardsson, Meyer, Rordorf and Talmon. The articles share the conviction that the only way to break the deadlock in the Synoptic problem is to examine the oral tradition about Jesus which lay behind the Gospels, and to continue even beyond them. The book addresses such central issues as the characteristics of oral tradition: oral tradition in Judaism, in the teaching of Jesus (his aphorisms and the narrative meshalim) and in the Gospel narratives; and the relationships of John, Paul and the Didache to oral tradition. This volume should bring onto a new plane the discussion of the all-important oral stage of Gospel tradition.

Werner Kelber's The Oral and the Written Gospel substantially challenged predominant paradigms for understanding early Jesus traditions and the formation of written Gospels. Since that publication, a more precise and complex picture of first-century media culture has emerged. Yet while issues of orality, aurality, performance, and mnemonics are now well voiced in Synoptic Studies, Johannine scholars remain largely unaware of such issues and their implications. The highly respected contributors to this book seek to fill this lacuna by exploring various applications of orality, literacy, memory, and performance theories to the Johannine Literature in hopes of opening new avenues for future discussion. Part 1 surveys the scope of the field by introducing the major themes of ancient media studies and noting their applicability to the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles. Part 2 analyzes major themes in the Johannine Literature from a media perspective, while Part 3 features case studies of specific texts. Two responses by Gail O'Day and Barry Schwartz complete the volume.

The Apocalypse of Peter, best known for its tour of hell, was a popular text in Early Christianity, but is largely neglected today. Eric J. Beck attempts to bring new life to the study of this text by challenging current assumptions regarding its manuscript tradition and primary purpose. By undertaking the first comparative analysis utilising all available manuscript evidence, the author creates a new translation of the text that at times advocates for the reliability of the oft neglected Akhmim fragment. He then offers the first detailed analysis of the text in order to ascertain the purpose of the document. In so doing, he argues against a monitory interpretation of the text. Instead, Eric J. Beck suggests the text uses an integrated understanding of justice and mercy that is meant to encourage its readers to have compassion on those who receive punishment in the afterlife.

Text and Interpretation gives an insight into the many different approaches that more recent South African scholarship has adopted in the interpretation of the New Testament. While the number of approaches in New Testament interpretation has proliferated over the past few years, all the proposals still fall under one of the three traditional poles: sender (author) - text - receptor (reader). Classified according to this division each chapter has a twofold aim. Firstly, the perspective is situated within a wider framework of interpretation to illustrate the context out of which this approach emerges. Secondly, each article has selected a particular New Testament text to demonstrate this approach in practice. The authors of these chapters - the majority of which are South African scholars - were chosen because of their expertise in their specific fields. By presenting these studies together in one collection, the scholarship in these different areas will become more readily accessible to a wider group of scholars.

The traditions about Jesus and his teaching circulated in oral form for many years, continuing to do so for decades following the writing of the New Testament Gospels. James Dunn is one of the major voices urging that more consideration needs to be given to the oral use and transmission of the Jesus tradition as a major factor in giving the Synoptic tradition its enduring character.

Is it possible to make a case that the Gospel of Mark was not composed by a single man from scattered accounts but in a process of people's telling Jesus' story over several decades? And what can we say about the tellers who were shaping this story for changing audiences? After an introduction showing the groundwork already laid in oral tradition research, the case begins by tracing the Mark we know back to several quite different early manuscripts which continue the flexibility of their oral ancestors. The focus then turns to three aspects of Mark, its language, which is characterized as speech with special phrases and rhythms, its episodes characterized by traditional forms, and its overall story pattern that is common in oral reports of the time. Finally several soundings are taken in Mark to test the thesis of performance composition, two scenarios are projected of possible early tellers of this tradition, and a conclusion summarizes major findings in the case. Mark's writer turns out to be the one who transcribes the tradition, probably adhering closely to it in order to legitimate the new medium of writing.

Christianity has transformed many times in its 2,000-year history, from its roots in the Middle East to its presence around the world today. From the mid-twentieth century onward the presence of Christianity has increased dramatically in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and the majority of the world’s Christians are now nonwhite and non-Western. The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South traces both the historical evolution and contemporary themes in Christianity in more than 150 countries and regions. The volumes include maps, images, and a detailed timeline of key events. The phrases “Global Christianity” and “World Christianity” are inadequate to convey the complexity of the countries and regions involved—this encyclopedia, with its more than 500 entries, aims to offer rich perspectives on the varieties of Christianity where it is growing, how the spread of Christianity shapes the faith in various regions, and how the faith is changing worldwide.

Drawing on a wide range of scholarship dealing with the properties and function of the materialities of the oral and scribal arts, as well as oral-scribal interfaces, the author unfolds before our eyes and makes manifest to our ears a world of communications in which there are no original texts, let alone original speech, where manuscripts are written to be remembered and read out aloud, where scribal products exhibit both a metonymic and a polyvalent quality.