The only narrative about Jesus by eyewitnesses, this is also one of the world's greatest literary works. The unfinished text was spirited off to Sinope when the author was sent into exile. Even there the hand of Rome nearly destroyed it. Rescued 35 years later, the author's spiritual heirs published it. While in Sinope some pages got lost or disordered. After publication various editors changed the manuscript repeatedly to suit the changing doctrines of early Christianity, even adding spurious new material. Thus the standard text is an inspiring mess, but still a mess. This translation restores not the unfinished original text, but the masterpiece the author sought to compose: a first-hand account of a real man sent to urge humanity to accept God's will, set down before doctrine repackaged him as an incarnate deity. Volume One contains the carefully restored text and a history of the gospel. Volume Two includes commentaries that burnish this masterpiece for the modern reader.

Welcome to Volume II of Alternative Christianities. For those that have read Alternative Christianities – Volume I: Early Christian Sects and the Formation of the Bible, Welcome Back and I hope you enjoy Alternative Christianities – Volume II: The Validity of Today’s Christian Teachings and the Lost Gospels of the Other Disciples. If you have not read Volume I, I do hope you pick it up or order it. It is well-worth reading. For those new readers to whom I have not introduced myself in Volume I: I am Vince Nicolas. I am a “historian” not a “theologian.” I am writing these books as a “historian” not as a “theologian.” I want to make that very clear.

This book is the second of two volumes which reflect on the trend in biblical scholarship that contrasts the vision of the historical Jesus with that of the apostle Paul, on the one hand, and the vision of Paul with that of the evangelist Matthew, on the other. It argues that Jesus replaced the concept of ‘politics of holiness’ with that of ‘politics of compassion’. This means that the church as a community of Jesus-followers forms a fictive family, replacing a soteriology grounded in the biological family. God’s adoption of people as ‘God’s children’ is based on the potential of people to absorb the divine into their humanity. This truism is to be found in the visions shared by the peasant Jesus, the apostle Paul and the rabbi Matthew, as well as in creedal Christianity. The book concludes with autobiographical reflective notes, analogous to the parabolic story of the travellers to Emmaus from Jerusalem (Luke 24) and that of the African eunuch (Acts 8) on his way back from Jerusalem to Africa. The notes serve to consolidate the two volumes on Jesus, Paul and Matthew and their messages of God’s wisdom, justice and mercy.

The Teach the Text Commentary Series utilizes the best of biblical scholarship to provide the information a pastor needs to communicate the text effectively. The carefully selected preaching units and focused commentary allow pastors to quickly grasp the big idea and key themes of each passage of Scripture. Each unit of the commentary includes the big idea and key themes of the passage and sections dedicated to understanding, teaching, and illustrating the text.

The most thorough grounding available in the various disciplines of NT study, this is an invaluable tool for students, scholars and other serious readers of the earliest Christian writings. With a full survey of scholarship on each topic, in 600 packed pages the volume gives a reliable, in-depth presentation of: the history of interpretation – the NT canon – text criticism – the language of the NT – the historical and literary context – methods and approaches.

"The most remarkable, and in many respects the most valuable collection of Elizabethan keyboard music." — Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Volume Two of the famous early 17th century collection of keyboard music features 300 airs, variations, fantasies, toccatas, pavanes, and more by Morley, Byrd, Bull, Gibbons, and others. Modern notation.

In this study, Edwin K. Broadhead's purpose is to gather the ancient evidence of Jewish Christianity and to reconsider its impact. He begins his investigation with the hypothesis that groups in antiquity who were characterized by Jewish ways of following Jesus may be vastly underrepresented, misrepresented and undervalued in the ancient sources and in modern scholarship. Giving a critical analysis of the evidence, the author suggests that Jewish Christianity endured as an historical entity in a variety of places, in different times and in diverse modes. If this is true, a new religious map of antiquity is required. Moreover, the author offers a revised context for the history of development of both Judaism and Christianity and for their relationship.