Metaphor and the Portrayal of the Cause(s) of Sin and Evil in the Gospel of Matthew
Metaphor and the Portrayal of the Cause(s) of Sin and Evil in the Gospel of Matthew

Author: Judith V. Stack

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-02-25

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 9004419500

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Metaphor and the Portrayal of the Cause(s) of Sin and Evil in the Gospel of Matthew traces the range and significance of metaphors used in Matthew for the origin and sin and evil and their congruence with key texts of the Second Temple milieu. While traditional theology has often sought to pinpoint a single cause of sin and evil, Matthew’s use of a spectrum of metaphors undermines theologically reductionist approaches and opens up a rich range of ways for conceiving of and talking about the cause of sin and evil. Ultimately, the use of metaphor (necessary to discussions of sin) destabilizes foundationalist theologies of sin, and any theology of sin must grapple with the inherently tensive nature of metaphorical language.

Exploring the New Testament in Asia
Exploring the New Testament in Asia

Author: Samson L. Uytanlet

Publisher: Langham Publishing

Published: 2024-08-31

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 1786410419

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There is a growing recognition that God’s design is for us to read Scripture alongside the whole church in all of its cultural and linguistic diversity. Exploring the New Testament in Asia is a textbook for students and scholars of the New Testament to help the church hear and see the good news of Jesus anew. This collection of essays offers theological reflections on New Testament themes from Asian perspectives, while addressing contextual issues in light of the New Testament. Touching on topics such as salvation, holiness, poverty, ethnic tensions, reconciliation, honoring elders, persecution, and hospitality, the scholars in this book demonstrate the importance of a varied contemporary context for understanding the New Testament. The result is a theological contribution that is both contextually relevant and biblically faithful.

Purifying the Consciousness in Hebrews
Purifying the Consciousness in Hebrews

Author: Joshua D. A. Bloor

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-02-23

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 0567708136

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Joshua D. A. Bloor argues that the purification of the consciousness of sin, via Jesus' perpetual heavenly blood offering, is a vital motif for understanding Hebrews' sacrificial argumentation, and vice-versa. Jesus' 'objective' earthly achievements are many, yet only his 'subjective' heavenly blood offering purges the heavenly tabernacle and subsequently the consciousness of sin. Bloor views the Levitical cult as having a positive role in Hebrews, with Levitical 'guilt' foreshadowing and informing Hebrews' notion of the 'consciousness of sin'. Levitical sacrifices could purge the consciousness, but only Jesus' heavenly blood can offer complete perpetual purgation. This blood is a qualitative type of purgation which continually speaks in heaven, offering eternal assurance for the recipients regarding their consciousness of sin. Bloor begins with the 'defiled consciousness' and situates the world of Hebrews within cultic defilement, enabling the consciousness of sin and its cosmic implications to be properly understood. From here, the solution to a defiled consciousness is explored by examining Hebrews' cultic argumentation. Bloor highlights the distinctive purposes inherent in both Jesus' earthly and heavenly achievements, with the latter concerned particularly with Yom Kippur imagery and the purgation of the consciousness. Bloor concludes by differentiating between Jesus' session, present heavenly activity and perpetual heavenly blood offering. Throughout this volume, Bloor engages, critiques and advances current discourse concerning the nature and timing of Jesus' offering in Hebrews.

Jesus as the Son of 1-2 Samuel’s David
Jesus as the Son of 1-2 Samuel’s David

Author: Marc Grønbech-Dam

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2024-05-23

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 9004693904

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Although the Gospel of Matthew emphasizes Jesus as the son of David, no one has systematically investigated how 1-2 Samuel influence Matthew's portrayal of Jesus as the son of David. This work addresses that lacuna and shows how the sustained use of 1-2 Samuel in Matthew evokes the themes of mercy and righteousness as the hallmarks of a proper Davidic shepherd. The book's systematic intertextual and narrative approach offers another way to understand Matthew’s Christology and portrayal of the kingdom of heaven. It helps the reader appreciate the justice-focused nature of Jesus’ rule and its religious and political implications.

Linguistic Descriptions of the Greek New Testament
Linguistic Descriptions of the Greek New Testament

Author: Stanley E. Porter

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-08-10

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0567710041

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Stanley E. Porter provides descriptions of various important topics in Greek linguistics from a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) perspective; an approach that has been foundational to Porter's long and influential career in the field of New Testament Greek. Deep insights into Porter's understanding of SFL are displayed throughout, based either upon how he positions SFL in relation to other linguistic models, or how he utilizes it to describe topics within Greek and New Testament studies. Porter reflects on his core approach to the Greek New Testament by exploring subjects such as metaphor, rhetoric, cognition, orality and textuality, as well as studies on linguistic schools of thought and traditional grammar.

Ama Namin
Ama Namin

Author: Timoteo D. Gener

Publisher: Langham Publishing

Published: 2023-03-31

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1839738367

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The Lord’s Prayer unites Christians throughout history, speaking across the divides of language, place, and tradition. The oldest prayer of the church, it continues to speak to the lived reality of believers around the world, while inviting the body of Christ into a deeper understanding of the nature of God, discipleship, and the calling to holistic mission. Ama Namin brings together the voices of Filipino evangelical scholars in a profound work of contextual and biblical theology. Each chapter explores a portion of the Lord’s Prayer against the backdrop of Scripture and the foreground of Philippine life and spirituality. Contributors examine the rich history of the Lord’s Prayer in the Philippines – a history dating back to the first printed translation in 1593 – as well as its implications for the Philippines’ future, providing the church a foundation for public engagement and social transformation. Ama Namin provides a valuable teaching resource for the Philippine church and for all those longing to deepen their understanding of prayer, the contextualization of Scripture, and the love of the heavenly Father.

The New Testament and the Theology of Trust
The New Testament and the Theology of Trust

Author: Teresa Morgan

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2022-06-16

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 0192675699

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This study argues for the recovery of trust as a central theme in Christian theology, and offers the first theology of trust in the New Testament. 'Trust' is the root meaning of Christian 'faith' (pistis, fides), and trusting in God and Christ is still fundamental to Christians. But unlike faith, and other aspects of faith such as belief or hope, trust is little studied. Building on her ground-breaking study Roman Faith and Christian Faith, and drawing on the philosophy and psychology of trust, Teresa Morgan explores the significance of trust, trustworthiness, faithfulness, and entrustedness in New Testament writings. Trust between God, Christ, and humanity is revealed as a risky, dynamic, forward-looking, life-changing partnership. God entrusts Christ with winning the trust of humanity and bringing humanity to trust in God. God and Christ trust humanity to respond to God's initiative through Christ, and entrust the faithful with diverse forms of work for humanity and for creation. Human understanding of God and Christ is limited, and trust and faithfulness often fail, but imperfect trust is not a deal-breaker. Morgan develops a new model of atonement, showing how trust enables humanity's release from the power of both sin and suffering. She examines the neglected concept of propositional trust and argues that it plays a key role in faith. This volume offers a compelling vision of Christian trust as soteriological, ethical, and community-forming. Trust is both the means of salvation and an end in itself, because where we trust is where we most fully live.

The Sermon on the Mount and Spiritual Exercises
The Sermon on the Mount and Spiritual Exercises

Author: George Branch-Trevathan

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-03-31

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9004425543

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What, in Matthew’s view, should a human being become and how does one attain that ideal? In The Sermon on the Mount and Spiritual Exercises: The Making of the Matthean Self, George Branch-Trevathan presents a new account of Matthew’s ethics and argues that the evangelist presents the Sermon on the Mount as functioning like many other ancient sayings collections, that is, as facilitating transformative work on oneself, or “spiritual exercises,” that enable one to realize the evangelist’s ideals. The conclusion suggests some implications for our understanding of ethical formation in antiquity and the study of ethics more generally. This will be an essential volume for scholars studying the Gospel of Matthew, early Christian ethics, the relationships between early Christian and ancient philosophical writings, or ethical formation in antiquity.

Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God
Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God

Author: Brian Zahnd

Publisher: WaterBrook

Published: 2017-08-15

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1601429525

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Pastor Brian Zahnd began "to question the theology of a wrathful God who delights in punishing sinners, and has started to explore the real nature of Jesus and His Father. The book isn’t only an interesting look at the context of some modern theological ideas; it’s also offers some profound insight into God’s love and eternal plan." —Relevant Magazine (Named one of the Top 10 Books of 2017) God is wrath? Or God is Love? In his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Puritan revivalist Jonathan Edwards shaped predominating American theology with a vision of God as angry, violent, and retributive. Three centuries later, Brian Zahnd was both mesmerized and terrified by Edwards’s wrathful God. Haunted by fear that crippled his relationship with God, Zahnd spent years praying for a divine experience of hell. What Zahnd experienced instead was the Father’s love—revealed perfectly through Jesus Christ—for all prodigal sons and daughters. In Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, Zahnd asks important questions like: Is seeing God primarily as wrathful towards sinners true or biblical? Is fearing God a normal expected behavior? And where might the natural implications of this theological framework lead us? Thoughtfully wrestling with subjects like Old Testament genocide, the crucifixion of Jesus, eternal punishment in hell, and the final judgment in Revelation, Zanhd maintains that the summit of divine revelation for sinners is not God is wrath, but God is love.