The Letter to the Hebrews in Social-Scientific Perspective
The Letter to the Hebrews in Social-Scientific Perspective

Author: David A. deSilva

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2012-06-20

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1606088556

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A lot of mystery surrounds the book of Hebrews, especially regarding its authorship, date, and audience. But by asking the right kind of questions, one can move beyond the impasses typical of historical investigation. In this volume, David deSilva explores Hebrews through a social-scientific lens, asking one of the most important questions when interpreting letters and sermons: What was going on in the community to occasion such a response? DeSilva looks for clues concerning the anonymous author, his education level, the influence of the Greek environment, and his perception of his own authority. In addition, by forming a social profile of the audience that includes location, ethnicity, and class status, deSilva brings to light the author's aims of helping protect Christian converts from persecution and social shame. This book not only helps the sermon "to the Hebrews" take on flesh and blood for contemporary readers; it also expands the readers' tools for asking fresh questions and exploring new dimensions in biblical texts.

Legitimation in the Letter to the Hebrews
Legitimation in the Letter to the Hebrews

Author: Iutisone Salevao

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2002-07-01

Total Pages: 457

ISBN-13: 0567495361

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This book adopts an inter-disciplinary approach to the study of the theology, symbolism and argument of Hebrews. Employing sociological models, the book examines Hebrews in the context of the early Christians' construction and maintenance of a social world. In that respect, the book elaborates the thesis that Hebrews was designed to serve a legitimating function in the realm of social interaction, that its theology, symbolism and argument were designed to construct and maintain the symbolic universe of the community of the readers. It is argued that we cannot properly understand the theology, symbolism and argument of Hebrews apart from its first-century context.

Suffering in the Face of Death
Suffering in the Face of Death

Author: Bryan R. Dyer

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-04-20

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0567672360

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Suffering and death are two topics that are frequently referred to in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but have rarely been examined within scholarship on this important New Testament text. Dyer redresses the balance in this study of these topics, conducting a thorough investigation using semantic domain analysis. He incorporates recent advancements in modern linguistics, in particular the 'context of situation', and then connects these topics to the social situation addressed in Hebrews. In so doing he is able to reveal how the author is responding to the reality of suffering in the lives of his audience. With this awareness, it becomes clear how the author also responds to his audience's pain by creating models of endurance in suffering and death. These serve to motivate his audience toward similar endurance within their own social context. Dyer shows that it is possible to make significant determinations about the social setting of Hebrews based upon an examination and analysis of the language used therein.

The Letter to the Galatians
The Letter to the Galatians

Author: David A. deSilva

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2018-09-18

Total Pages: 642

ISBN-13: 1467450448

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New volume in a favorite Bible commentary series Writing a commentary on Galatians is a daunting task. Despite its relative brevity, this Pauline letter raises a number of foundational theological issues, and it has played a vital role in shaping Christian thought and practice over the centuries. In this replacement of Ronald Y. K. Fung’s 1988 New International Commentary volume, David deSilva ably rises to the challenge, providing a coherent account of Galatians as a piece of strategically crafted communication that addresses both the immediate pastoral challenges facing Paul’s converts in Galatia and the underlying questions that gave rise to them. Paying careful attention to the history, philology, and theology of the letter, and interacting with a wealth of secondary literature on both Galatians and the rest of the Pauline corpus, deSilva’s exegetically sound commentary will serve as an essential resource for pastors and theological students.

To Aliens and Exiles
To Aliens and Exiles

Author: Tim MacBride

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2020-05-05

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 153269685X

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Over the space of a generation, Christianity in the Western world has gone from occupying a central place in the wider society to being eyed with increasing suspicion and, in some places, outright hostility. Although the church has always been a minority group, in the past decade or so it has become reawakened to that reality--and to the similarities it shares with the first followers of Jesus for whom the New Testament was written. In this book, Tim MacBride shows how New Testament texts functioned as rhetoric for the marginalized minority groups they addressed, encouraging hearers to resist the pressure to conform to the majority culture, yet in a way that remained attractively different to outsiders. He offers suggestions for how Christians today--and preachers in particular--can use and apply the New Testament's minority-group rhetoric to speak into our own increasingly marginalized experience. Such preaching needs to guard against either being shaped by culture or isolating preacher and hearers against culture. It must instead champion the call of New Testament authors to a middle way--a call for communities of "aliens and exiles" to engage with culture by living out an attractive difference.

T&T Clark Handbook to Social Identity in the New Testament
T&T Clark Handbook to Social Identity in the New Testament

Author: J. Brian Tucker

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2014-01-02

Total Pages: 674

ISBN-13: 0567017605

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Combining the insights of many leading New Testament scholars writing on the use of social identity theory this new reference work provides a comprehensive handbook to the construction of social identity in the New Testament. Part one examines key methodological issues and the ways in which scholars have viewed and studied social identity, including different theoretical approaches, and core areas or topics which may be used in the study of social identity, such as food, social memory, and ancient media culture. Part two presents worked examples and in-depth textual studies covering core passages from each of the New Testament books, as they relate to the construction of social identity. Adopting a case-study approach, in line with sociological methods the volume builds a picture of how identity was structured in the earliest Christ-movement. Contributors include; Philip Esler, Warren Carter, Paul Middleton, Rafael Rodriquez, and Robert Brawley.

Hebrews
Hebrews

Author: Mary Ann Beavis

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0814682049

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Feminist biblical interpretation has reached a level of maturity that now makes possible a commentary series on every book of the Bible. It is our hope that Wisdom Commentary, by making the best of current feminist biblical scholarship available in an accessible format ... will aid readers in their advancement toward God's vision of dignity, equality, and justice for all. - Book jacket.

Bible Blindspots
Bible Blindspots

Author: Jione Havea

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2021-11-03

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1725276763

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Several of the ways and cultures that the Bible privileges or denounces slip by unnoticed. When those—the privileged and the denounced—are not examined, they fade into and hide in the blind spots of the Bible. This collection of essays engages some of the subjects who face dispersion (physical displacement that sparks ideological bias) and othering (ideologies that manifest in social distancing and political displacement). These include, among others, the builders of Babel, Samaritans, Melchizedek, Jezebel, Judith, Gomer, Ruth, slaves, and mothers. In addition to considering the drive to privilege or denounce, the contributors also attend to subjects ignored because the Bible’s blind spots are not examined. These include planet Earth, indigenous Australians, Palestinians, Dalits, minjungs, battered women, sexual-abuse victims, religious minorities, mothering men, gays, and foreigners. This collection encourages interchanges and exchanges between dispersion and othering, and between the Bible and context. It flows in the currents of postcolonial and gendered studies, and closes with a script that stages a biblical character at the intersection of the Bible’s blind spots and modern readers’ passions and commitments.

Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in Hebrews 9:27-28
Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in Hebrews 9:27-28

Author: William W. Henry

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2024-09-05

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13:

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The general believer waiting for salvation by Jesus hopes to see him appear while living or promptly at death. Comfort during loss of life usually portrays those passing now in heaven. Conversely, the more religiously academic, the less one thinks anyone, ever, goes to heaven. Trained scholars typically choose a closed heaven with temporal delays and spatial detours in limitation of God’s promises about “so great salvation.” “Better” typically perceives as a resuscitated flesh on earth that lives by decay of the surrounding creation. Hearing word-meaning by mapping creation with an old first-century option for plural heavens, this project reexamines the conversation recommended by the pastor in the letter to the Hebrews about promises regarding the twofold ministry of Christ. By analysis with current study tools, the conversation both challenges the common academy views and reintroduces a first-century hearing option for God’s speech concerning prompt, postmortem, Christ fulfillment into heaven. Listening includes the milk of the beginning teaching requirements for atonement and logic of resurrection to God immediately after death and judgment. Hearing senses the solid food about priestly intercession by Jesus after death at judgment to shepherd his believers for salvation into heaven a very little while after individual death and judgment.

The Identity of God's People and the Paradox of Hebrews
The Identity of God's People and the Paradox of Hebrews

Author: Ole Jakob Filtvedt

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Published: 2015-08-03

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9783161540134

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Does the letter to the Hebrews display Jewish or Christian identity? Ole Jakob Filtvedt shows that it takes up a traditional Jewish category, namely membership in God's people, and proposes it for its audience as a collective identity but also significantly reshapes that category in light of belief in Jesus. (Publisher).