"While Peter, Paul, and increasingly also James have dominated New Tesatment scholarship, Joseph Barnabas, the Levite from Cyprus, has received comparatively little attention. This study seeks to relieve Joseph Barnabas of this undeserved obscurity and give him due recognition as a founding member of the Christian church, pioneer of the mission to the Gentiles, and patron of the apostle Paul."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Acts is the sequel to Luke's gospel and tells the story of Jesus's followers during the 30 years after his death. It describes how the 12 apostles, formerly Jesus's disciples, spread the message of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean against a background of persecution. With an introduction by P.D. James
Noted New Testament scholar Bauckham challenges the prevailing assumption the accounts of Jesus circulated as "anonymous community traditions," instead asserting that they were transmitted in the name of the original eyewitness.
Everyone wants to be happy, and we all pursue happiness in different ways. Some people are thrill-seekers; others are homebodies. Some people are loners; others love big families or communities. Some people express things creatively; others consume what is created. Some sing; others listen to music. Whatever we find happiness in, we are united by our desire for work that matters and relationships that fulfil. As Christians, we often fall into the trap of basing our hopes on earthly things, even when we know they only make us happy for a short time. But how are we to experience happiness in this life? How do we avoid expecting too much of earthly things and being disappointed, or expecting too little and becoming cynics? In this book, recovering cynic Barnabas Piper helps us to throw off both the unrealistic expectations that end in disappointment and the guilty sense that Christians are not meant to have fun. He shows how having a clear view of the reality of the fall and the promise of redemption frees us to live a life that's grounded, hopeful and genuinely happy.
Jenny Read-Heimerdinger explores the characters of Luke-Acts in order to situate them in the Jewish world to which they belong. Through a close reading of the Greek text, she argues that Luke emerges as a person thoroughly steeped in a Jewish view of Scripture, familiar with a range of associated oral traditions; and that taking account of the Jewish features allows new insights into the way that the author situates events and characters firmly within the history of Israel, before the Church was a separate institution or religion. Read-Heimerdinger proposes that such a view of his work implies an addressee capable of understanding what he received and that one eminently qualified candidate is Theophilus, the high priest in Jerusalem 37-41 and brother-in-law of Caiaphas. The Jewish perspective of Luke's two volumes is more visible in forms of the text not used for modern translations, notably that of Codex Bezae and the early versions, which are rejected by the editors of the Greek New Testament on which translations are based. Read-Heimerdinger draws on the analysis of the variants of the Greek text analysed in her previous Luke in his Own Words (2022), in a manner more accessible to readers unfamiliar with Greek. The variant readings make use of a sophisticated knowledge of Jewish exegetical techniques that would generally be discarded by later generations of Christians but which are increasingly being recognized by NT scholars, in line with Jewish historical studies of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism. Seeing the characters of Luke-Acts through Theophilus' eyes brings exciting insights and a fresh understanding of the author's message.
His book is a comparison of the message of Acts transmitted by Codex Bezae with that of the more familiar Alexandrian text, represented by Codex Vaticanus. For each section of Acts, there is a side by side translation of the Bezan and Alexandrian manuscripts, followed by a critical apparatus and, finally, a commentary that explores the differences in the message of the two texts. It is concluded that the Bezan text, with its interest in internal Jewish affairs and its focus on the struggles of the early disciples to free themselves from their traditional Jewish expectations and to achieve, despite their mistakes, a more accurate understanding of their master's teaching, is the earlier of the two texts.
In Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism, Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts assemble an international team of scholars whose work has focused on reconstructing the social matrix for earliest Christianity through reference to Hellenistic Judaism and its literary forms. Each essay moves forward the current understanding of how primitive Christianity situated itself in relation to evolving Greco-Roman Jewish culture. Some essays focus on configuring the social context for the origins of the Jesus movement and beyond, while others assess the literary relation between early Christian and Hellenistic Jewish texts.
The first Gentile who accepted Jesus in Antioch of Syria became a problem for the young church. The mother church in Jerusalem was not equipped to handle a non-Jew, either doctrinally or emotionally, yet everything was changing! Barnabas had no trouble adjusting to the new circumstances, but the leaders in Jerusalem could never fully accept the differences of the New Covenant. Gentiles were forced to face the question, "Must I become a Jew in order to be saved?" This became a controversy which troubled Paul's entire ministry. The advocates who stirred it up were called "Some men who came from James." We will see how Paul responded to the question, "How Jewish must the Church be?" Peter, Barnabas, James (the brother of Jesus), and Paul will be seen like never before. T. DEERING MANNING was ordained to the ministry in 1951. He holds the Bachelor's degree from Atlanta Christian College; and Master's degree from ZOE University. He also has received honorary doctorates in Christian Education, Literature, and Philosophy in Theology. He has served churches in Illinois, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. He currently serves as Associate Pastor of Morningstar Family Church, U.S. representative for Revival of East Slavic Land, and Bible Professor at North Florida Theological Seminary. He is married to Beverly Anne Meares of South Carolina, and they have lived in Florida for more than thirty five years. Other writings include EYE WITNESSES OF HIS MAJESTY (Xulon Press), NOT BY MIGHT NOR POWER (history of Victory Christian Center), and BIBLICAL DISCIPLESHIP (a study of Biblical Leadership).
The pages that follow encapsulate the essence of the pathfinding message delivered by brother Theodore Andoseh at the International Students' Bible Camp in September 2020, held in Koumé, Cameroon. In the grand tapestry of faith, the Church stands as a beacon, entrusted with embracing her Lord's Great Commission. In humble prayer, she beseeches the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into His abundant fields. And as her petitions rise, God, in His divine providence, calls and equips individuals to embark on His sacred mission. This book endeavours to construct a framework for understanding missions, intended to guide the Church and its missionaries in their noble work. It serves as an introductory exploration into the mission of Paul and Barnabas, with Paul serving as the primary paradigm for missions in the New Covenant. Through a careful examination of the Scriptures and the author's personal experiences, this book illuminates various facets of missionary work, offering valuable insights into the following themes: Missionary calling Missionary send-forth Missionary team Missionary strategy Missionary work Missionary message Missionary power Missionary conflict Missionary fruit Missionary realignment The author passionately believes that a profound understanding of the Lord's missionary economy can alleviate the burdens of oversight and unleash the full potential of God's missionary purpose. It is our heartfelt prayer that this book, in the hands of those who genuinely care about God's missionary vision, becomes a vessel through which divine blessings flow. May the Lord condescend to use it as an instrument of inspiration and enlightenment, touching the lives of many as they embark on their own transformative journeys of faith.
