THE NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY is for the minister or Bible student who wants to understand and expound the Scriptures. Notable features include:* commentary based on THE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION;* the NIV text printed in the body of the commentary;* sound scholarly methodology that reflects capable research in the original languages;* interpretation that emphasizes the theological unity of each book and of Scripture as a whole;* readable and applicable exposition.

Early Christology must focus not simply on "historical" but also on theological ideas found in contemporary Jewish thought and practice. In this book, a range of distinguished contributors considers the context and formation of early Jewish and Christian devotion to God alone—the emergence of "monotheism". The idea of monotheism is critically examined from various perspectives, including the history of ideas, Graeco-Roman religions, early Jewish mediator figures, scripture exegesis, and the history of its use as a theological category. The studies explore different ways of conceiving of early Christian monotheism today, asking whether monotheism is a conceptually useful category, whether it may be applied cautiously and with qualifications, or whether it is to be questioned in favor of different approaches to understanding the origins of Jewish and Christian beliefs and worship. This is volume 1 in the Early Christianity in Context series and volume 263 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series>

THE NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY is for the minister or Bible student who wants to understand and expound the Scriptures. Notable features include:* commentary based on THE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION;* the NIV text printed in the body of the commentary;* sound scholarly methodology that reflects capable research in the original languages;* interpretation that emphasizes the theological unity of each book and of Scripture as a whole;* readable and applicable exposition.

Hardening hearts. Blinding eyes. Sending deceitful spirits. Crafting vessels of wrath. Few will deny that certain biblical passages make claims about God that are difficult to accept. But perhaps the most troubling are the verses that describe God as influencing individuals or groups towards wicked behavior for the purpose of condemning them. What are readers to do with these texts? In Vessels of Wrath, Richard M. Blaylock tackles the thorny subject of divine reprobating activity (DRA). Through an exhaustive, biblical-theological study of the Old and New Testaments, Blaylock argues that the Bible does not present DRA as an insignificant or monolithic concept; instead, the biblical authors showcase both the significance and the complexity of DRA in a variety of ways. The book aims to help readers of the Bible to wrestle with the Scriptures so that they might come to better understand its testimony to this mysterious and awesome divine activity.

THE NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY is for the minister or Bible student who wants to understand and expound the Scriptures. Notable features include:* commentary based on THE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION;* the NIV text printed in the body of the commentary;* sound scholarly methodology that reflects capable research in the original languages;* interpretation that emphasizes the theological unity of each book and of Scripture as a whole;* readable and applicable exposition.

Evangelical and feminist approaches to Old Testament interpretation often seem to be at odds with each other. The authors of this volume argue to the contrary: feminist and evangelical interpreters of the Old Testament can enter into a constructive dialogue that will be fruitful to both parties. They seek to illustrate this with reference to a number of texts and issues relevant to feminist Old Testament interpretation from an explicitly evangelical point of view. In so doing they raise issues that need to be addressed by both evangelical and feminist interpreters of the Old Testament, and present an invitation to faithful and fruitful reading of these portions of Scripture.

Christian marriage is a permanent union which requires the commitment of both spouses for its maintenance through fulfillment of its stipulations. The failure of the fulfillment of the latter provides legitimate grounds for divorce and remarriage of the innocent party. This work employs a fourfold approach for the development of NT ethical argumentation based on Richard B. Hays' Moral Vision of the New Testament. The author establishes the proper contextual grounds for the NT study through formulation of the Old Testament perspective on marriage as covenant. The relevant NT passages are examined through historical-critical and narrative-critical methods. A critical study of the main Christian traditions leads to an ecumenical formulation of the theological conclusions. Pragmatic implementation of the thesis follows an examination of the contemporary pluralistic context and applications in both Christian communities and the larger society within its legislative system.

Sin and Politics: Issues in Reformed Theology is an overview of the relationship between sin and politics from the reformational point of view. This short theological history is comprised of three parts: politics without sin (creational politics), politics with sin (fallen politics), and politics beyond sin (redeemed politics). As a creation of human culture, politics have been tainted with sinful distortion in this world, but will be recovered in the future Kingdom by the eternal kingship of the Lord of Lords. Sin and Politics includes a summary and commentary on political discussions by various Reformed theologians. It uncovers the Reformed tradition's positive regard for politics and the profound theological root of politics.

THE NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY is for the minister or Bible student who wants to understand and expound the Scriptures. Notable features include:* commentary based on THE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION;* the NIV text printed in the body of the commentary;* sound scholarly methodology that reflects capable research in the original languages;* interpretation that emphasizes the theological unity of each book and of Scripture as a whole;* readable and applicable exposition.