Harold W. Attridge

The essays gathered here provide a panoramic view of current thinking on biblical texts that play important roles in contemporary struggles for social justice – either as inspiration or impediment. Here, from the hands of an ecumenical array of leading biblical scholars, are fresh and compelling resources for thinking biblically about what justice is and what it demands. Individual essays treat key debates, themes, and texts, locating each within its historical and cultural settings while also linking them to the most pressing justice concerns of the twenty-first century. The volume aims to challenge academic and ecclesiastical complacency and highlight key avenues for future scholarship and action.

The essays gathered here provide a panoramic view of current thinking on biblical texts that play important roles in contemporary struggles for social justice – either as inspiration or impediment. Here, from the hands of an ecumenical array of leading biblical scholars, are fresh and compelling resources for thinking biblically about what justice is and what it demands. Individual essays treat key debates, themes, and texts, locating each within its historical and cultural settings while also linking them to the most pressing justice concerns of the twenty-first century. The volume aims to challenge academic and ecclesiastical complacency and highlight key avenues for future scholarship and action.

Philo of Byblos in the early Roman imperial period claimed to have translated the work of an ancient author Sanchuniathon who recorded stories of the ancient Canaanite gods, stories that resemble the myths found in Ugaritic sources. This monograph provides an English translation of Philo's Greek text with an introduction and notes.

Philo of Byblos in the early Roman imperial period claimed to have translated the work of an ancient author Sanchuniathon who recorded stories of the ancient Canaanite gods, stories that resemble the myths found in Ugaritic sources. This monograph provides an English translation of Philo's Greek text with an introduction and notes.

A thoroughly revised edition of The HarperCollins Study Bible, one of the leading study bibles used in undergraduate and graduate courses, the first study bible offering the full text of the New Revised Standard Version--Updated Edition.Written by and supported by the largest and most respected academic association of Bible scholars, The Society of Biblical Literature, The SBL Study Bible is the landmark general reference Bible that offers the full text of the New Revised Standard Version.Now, this completely revised edition reflects the changes in the updated NRSV, incorporating: The latest scholarship and findingsNew diagrams, charts, and maps covering all the key time periods and regions of biblical eventsComprehensive, accessible introductions to every book of the Bible with commentary and notes on each pageHundreds of new articles, charts, and images explaining key words, concepts, people, historical events, and historical context.

Study Hebrews in its Second Temple ContextFollowing the proven model established in Reading Romans in Context, Reading Mark in Context, and Reading Revelation in Context, this book brings together a series of accessible essays that compare and contrast the theology and hermeneutical practices of the book of Hebrews with various early Jewish literature.Going beyond an introduction that merely surveys historical events and theological themes, this textbook examines individual passages in Second Temple Jewish literature in order to illuminate the ideas and emphases of Hebrews' varied discourses. Following the rhetorical progression of Hebrews, each chapter in this textbook:pairs a major unit of Hebrews with one or more sections of a thematically related Jewish textintroduces and explores the historical and theological nuances of the comparative textshows how the ideas in the comparative text illuminate those expressed in HebrewsIn addition to the focused comparison provided in the essays, Reading Hebrews in Context offers other student-friendly features that help them engage broader discussions, including an introductory chapter that familiarizes students with the world and texts of Second Temple Judaism and a glossary of important terms. The end of each chapter contains a list of other thematically-relevant Second Temple Jewish texts recommended for further study and a focused bibliography pointing students to critical editions and higher-level discussions in scholarly literature they might use to undertake their own comparative studies.

Harold W. Attridge has engaged in the interpretation of two of the most intriguing literary products of early Christianity, the Gospel according to John and the Epistle to the Hebrews. His essays explore the literary and cultural traditions at work in the text and its imaginative rhetoric aiming to deepen faith in Christ by giving new meaning to his death and exaltation. His essays on John focus on the literary artistry of the final version of the gospel, its playful approach to literary genres, its engaging rhetoric, its delight in visual imagery. He situates that literary analysis of both works within the context of the history of religion and culture in the first century, with careful attention to both Jewish and Greco-Roman worlds. Several essays, focusing on the phenomena connected with "Gnosticism", extend that religio-historical horizon into the life of the early Church and contribute to the understanding of the reception of these two early Christian masterpieces.

When modern European missionaries arrived in India in the eighteenth century, they were astonished to discover Christian communities that traced their origins back to Thomas. How and when did Christianity spread eastwards? The earliest answer can be found in the pages of The Acts of Thomas. It begins, At that time all of us, the apostles, were in Jerusalem. . . . We divided the regions of the world so that each of us would . . . go to the nation to which the Lord had sent him. India fell to the lot of Judas Thomas, who is also called Didymus; but he did not want to go, claiming that he was unable to travel at all because of his weak constitution. The Acts of Thomas is one of five surviving apocryphal acts—along with Andrew, John, Peter, and Paul—that recount the adventures of the apostles as they carried the Christian message to the far reaches of their world. The well-known “Hymn of the Pearl,” widely regarded as an allegory of the soul on its journey, from God and back to God, is found in its pages. This volume features a complete fresh translation of the Greek text an introduction, setting TheActs of Thomas in its literary and historical context and evaluating the manuscript tradition notes identifying important differences between the ancient Greek and Syriac versions cross-references within and between the various individual episodes or “acts” an extensive index of quotations of parallels (quotations, allusions, thematic similarities) in canonical and non-canonical writings, including the Coptic Gnostic Nag Hammadi Library a bibliography of primary and secondary sources

The essays in this highly readable volume are dedicated to John Strugnell, the eminent theologian. Contents: New Qumran Readings for Genesis One, by James R. Davila; Early Emendations of the Scribes: The Tiqqun Sopherim in Zechariah 2:12, by Russell Fuller; Recensional Differences between the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint of Proverbs, by Emanual Tov; Observations on 'Wisdom Narratives' in Early Biblical Literature, by Lawrence M. Wills; The Beth Essentiae and the Permissive Meaning of the Hiphil (Aphel), by J.H. Charlesworth; The Meaning of 'the End' in the Book of Daniel, by John J. Collins; Jason's Gymnasion, by Robert Doran; Some Observations on Blessings of God in Texts from Qumran, by Eileen Schuller; 4Q185 and Jewish Wisdom Literature, by Thomas H. Tobin, S.J.; Two Notes on the Aramaic Levi Document, by Jonas C. Greenfield and Michael E. Stone; Daniel and the Historical Jesus, by Adela Yarbro Collins; Curse and Competition in the Ancient Circus, b G. Gager; The Original Language of the Acts of Thomas, by Harold W. Attridge; Two Enochic Manuscripts: Unstudied Evidence for Egyptian Christianity, by George W.E. Nickelsburg; Julian's Attempt to Rebuild the Temple: An Inventory of Ancient and Medieval Sources, by David Levenson. Co-published with the College Theology Society.