The letter of James is one of the most significant, yet generally overlooked, New Testament books. Because Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation, disliked this letter for its emphasis on good deeds, the book has come to be viewed as being in opposition to Paul’s letters, which emphasize faith in God. To correct these and other misconceptions about James, Luke Timothy Johnson embarks on an unprecedented history of the interpretation of this pivotal letter, highlighting the vast appreciation for James over the centuries.

This volume of the New Testament Library offers a thorough and careful commentary on the complicated book of Hebrews, showing its meaning within the context of ancient culture and the theological development of the early church. Written by one of the leading New Testament scholars of the present generation, Luke Timothy Johnson, this commentary offers remarkable insights into the Hellenistic, Roman, and Jewish contexts of the book of Hebrews.

The expression “Sacra Pagina” (“Sacred Page”) originally referred to the text of Scripture. In the Middle Ages, it also described the study of Scripture to which the interpreter brought the tools of grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, and philosophy. This series presents fresh translations and modern expositions of all the books of the New Testament. Written by an international team of Catholic biblical scholars, it is intended for biblical professionals, graduate students, theologians, clergy, and religious educators. The volumes present basic introductory information and close exposition, with each author adopting a specific methodology while maintaining a focus on the issues raised by the New Testament compositions themselves. The goal of Sacra Pagina is to provide sound, critical analysis without any loss of sensitivity to religious meaning. This series is therefore catholic in two senses of the word: inclusive in its methods and perspectives, and shaped by the context of the Catho...

What makes this commentary on Luke stand apart from others is that, from beginning to end, this is a literary analysis. Because it focuses solely on the Gospel as it appears and not on its source or origin, this commentary richly and thoroughly explores just what Luke is saying and how he says it.

Using the best of modern and ancient scholarship, Luke Timothy Johnson provides clear, accessible commentary that will help lay readers navigate the letters and better understand their place within the context of Paul’s teachings.

The Acts of the Apostles is the second volume in the two-part writing scholars call Luke-Acts. It continues the story begun in the Gospel of Luke, showing how the Good News offered by Jesus was eventually extended to the end of the earth, so that Gentiles as well as Jews came to share in the blessings of God. This commentary treats Luke-Acts as an apologetic history. It takes with equal seriousness Luke’s literary artistry and his historical interests, fitting his methods comfortably within the ancient standards of historiography. This perspective illustrates in particular that Luke’s historical narrative serves a definite religious intent. Tracing that intent through the specific contours of Luke’s story is the special contribution of this commentary.

In the helpful Counterpoints format, four scholars present their views on the best framework for describing Paul’s theological perspective, including his view of salvation, the significance of Christ, and his vision for the churches. The apostle Paul was a vital force in the development of Christianity. Paul’s historical and religious context affects the theological interpretation of Paul’s writings—no small issue in the whole of Christian theology. Recent years have seen much controversy about the apostle Paul, his religious and social context, and its effects on his theology. General editor and New Testament scholar Michael F. Bird covers foundational issues and provides helpful summaries in his introduction and conclusion. New Testament scholars, pastors, and students of Christian history and theology will find Four Views on the Apostle Paul an indispensable introduction to ongoing debates on the Apostle Paul’s life and teaching.

Explore the first-century Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman world in which the New Testament church and Scriptures were formed. From Joachim Jeremias’ classic Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus to Dennis E. Smith’s landmark From Symposium to Eucharist, this collection offers broad treatments and focused studies of this formative period for Jewish and Christian history. Immerse yourself in the New Testament’s rich context, and look at the Scriptures through the lenses of its writers and their audience.

The Epistle to the Romans is considered to be the classic of Reformation theology. Luke Johnson, a scholar from the Roman Catholic tradition, invests this commentary with breadth of perspective and clarity of expression. He focuses on understanding the key themes and their relationship to the whole of Pauline writings and the shaping of Christianity.

In 'Four Views on the Apostle Paul: A Video Study,' four leading scholars present their views on the best framework for describing Paul’s theological perspective, including his view of salvation, the significance of Christ, and his vision for the churches. The apostle Paul was a vital force in the development of Christianity. Paul’s historical and religious context affects the theological interpretation of Paul’s writings, no small issue in the whole of Christian theology. Recent years have seen much controversy about the apostle Paul, his context, and its effect on his theology.

This book is "for those who want to understand the origin and shape of the New Testament writings but are unable to find a comprehensive introduction that is neither repellingly technical nor appallingly trivial," (from the Preface of the First Edition).

Miracles, biblical inerrancy, hell, women in church leadership, creation, and the rapture—these are some key areas of concern for many in the church. With dozens of contributing authors from various theological backgrounds, the Zondervan Counterpoints series is an invaluable set of resources for Christians today, focusing on these topics and more. Each volume lays out multiple views on a particular theological matter, letting you draw your own conclusions on these contested issues. Respected biblical scholars and theologians present their views based on years of extensive research—so you know you’re hearing the strongest possible case for each perspective. Whether you are a student, pastor, teacher, youth worker, or layperson, these volumes are a fantastic tool for understanding contemporary Christian issues in the light of solid scriptural truth.

In this methodological tour de force, Luke Timothy Johnson offers an articulate, clear, and thought-provoking portrait of the life and thought of the apostle Paul. Drawing upon recent developments in the study of Paul, Johnson offers readers an invitation to the Apostle Paul. Rather than focusing on a few of Paul’s letters, Johnson lays out the materials necessary to envision the apostle from the thirteen canonical letters of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles. Constructing Paul thus provides a framework within which an engagement with Paul’s letters can take place. Johnson demonstrates the possibility of doing responsible and creative work across the canonical collection without sacrificing literary or historical integrity.

In this excellent resource for church professionals, Johnson reclaims Christian belief in miracles as integral to recovering a proper and strong sense of creation, recognizing the validity of personal experience and narrative and asserting the truth-telling quality of myth.

This series aspires to present cutting edge research in a way that is accessible to upper-level undergraduates, seminarians, seminary educated pastors, and educated laypeople, as well as to graduate students and professors. Rather than following the verse-by-verse method of traditional commentaries, these volumes study section-by-section, concentrating on key concepts and how they are developed. Each commentary takes a more literary-theological slant while focusing on a close reading of the final form or structure of the text.

The Eerdmans New Testament Studies Collection (5 vols.) provides in-depth study of key New Testament concepts and texts. This engaging series will broaden your understanding of the traditions, practices, and framework of biblical interpretation. This collection is perfect for students, pastors, scholars, or laity seeking a clear understanding of complex issues in the New Testament.

Far from being a “definitive theology” of Paul, or an oversimplified synthesis, Interpreting Paul provides glimpses into various moments of Paul’s thinking and teaching that we find in Scripture, modeling how one might read his letters closely for fresh, creative interpretations now and into the future. Approached in this way, both in minute detail and as a whole canon, Paul’s letters yield rich insights, and his voice becomes accessible to all readers of the Bible.

The Anchor Yale Bible is a fresh approach to the world’s greatest classic—the Bible. This prestigious commentary series represents the pinnacle of biblical scholarship, drawing from the wisdom and resources of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish scholars from around the world. A book-by-book translation and exegesis of the New Testament that includes 27 volumes, this vast commentary series makes available all the significant historical and linguistic knowledge which bears on the interpretation of the Bible.

"Christians chronically and desperately need prophecy," says award winning biblical scholar Luke Timothy Johnson. In this and every age, the church needs the bold proclamation of God's transforming vision to challenge its very human tendency toward expediency and self-interest—to jolt it into new insight and energy. For Johnson, the books Luke and Acts provide that much-needed jolt to conventional wisdom. To read Luke-Acts as a literary unit, he says, is to uncover a startling prophetic vision of Jesus and the church—one that imagines a reality very different from the one humans would construct on their own. Johnson identifies in Luke's writings an ongoing call for today's church, grounded in the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ, to embody and enact God's vision for the world.

Get everything you need to take your study of Romans to the next level. The Romans Collection features the renowned commentaries from Pillar, the New American Commentary, the New Beacon Bible Commentary, the College Press NIV Commentary, the Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, the International Critical Commentary, and many, many more. Including classics by Charles Hodge, John Calvin, Henry Cowles, J. B. Lightfoot, Charles Gore, and Albert Barnes, as well as modern commentaries by N. T. Wright, Craig S. Keener, R. C. Sproul, Leon Morris, and Ben Witherington III, this collection goes above and beyond merely commenting on Paul’s words. It provides an intense, thorough, and all-encompassing library of the textual history, theological implications, cultural background, contemporary application, and denominational interpretations of each verse of Romans.

In Imitating Christ, esteemed New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson seeks the origin of this fissure. Surveying the New Testament, medieval mysticism, modern theology, and more, Johnson shows how the twentieth-century social gospel and liberation theology created a new model of discipleship. He then evaluates the theological implications of the two models and asks what we can learn from each. Inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Thomas Merton, Johnson puts forward a vision of discipleship that can revitalize Christian witness in the world today.

The question of Christianity’s relation to the other religions of the world is more pertinent and difficult today than ever before. While Christianity’s historical failure to appreciate or actively engage Judaism is notorious, Christianity’s even more shoddy record with respect to “pagan” religions is less understood. Christians have inherited a virtually unanimous theological tradition that thinks of paganism in terms of demonic possession, and of Christian missions as a rescue operation that saves pagans from inherently evil practices. In undertaking this fresh inquiry into early Christianity and Greco-Roman paganism, Luke Timothy Johnson begins with a broad definition of religion as a way of life organized around convictions and experiences concerning ultimate power. In the tradition of William James’s Variety of Religious Experience, he identifies four distinct ways of being religious: religion as participation in benefits, as moral transformation, as transcending the world, ...

Respected scholar Luke Timothy Johnson challenges Christians to change the way they regard their worldly goods. He writes, “this book is written as an exercise in theological reflection on one of the knottiest questions imaginable: the connection between being a Christian and the way we own and use things. . . . When we turn to thinking about money and possessions, we find ourselves in murky waters. The things we own and use, like our sexuality, lie close to the bone of our individual and collective sense of identity.”

It is helpful to view the text of Scripture from multiple angles, and different commentators and commentary series work to provide them. The literary angle is important; the theological angle is, too. But a certain strain of biblical commentator in recent decades, exemplified by Ben Witherington, has worked to explain a specific historical angle, a “socio-rhetorical” one, in Witherington’s words. What insight does our knowledge of the ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman worlds, and specifically their culture and customs and their use of rhetorical tools, provide into the Gospels, into the letters of Paul, into the general epistles? Witherington’s Socio-Rhetorical Commentary Series, his Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians, and the Smith & Helwys Reading the New Testament Commentary all work to draw truth from the NT by viewing it from this particular historical angle.

The letter of James has enjoyed a colorful history, with its background and significance widely debated over the centuries. In this book, an outstanding scholar of the New Testament offers new and selected studies of James that show its roots in antiquity and its importance for Christian history and theology. Luke Timothy Johnson explores the letter of James from a variety of perspectives. After a general introduction to James, he looks at its history of interpretation. Johnson then examines James’s social and historical situation, its place within Scripture, and its use of the sayings of Jesus. Several exegetical studies take care to place James in the context of Hellenistic moral discourse. Two concluding essays look at the themes of friendship and gender in James. Johnson’s Brother of Jesus, Friend of God is accessible to general readers serious about Bible study, and church groups will find this volume to be a fruitful entry into an important portion of the New Testament.

The Canonical Paul series addresses all the pertinent questions related to the study of Paul. Johnson uses the canonical material as building blocks to make a case for why Paul ought to be heard today as a liberating rather than oppressing voice. These volumes provide glimpses into various moments of Paul’s thinking and teaching that we find in Scripture, modeling how one might read his letters closely for fresh, creative interpretations now and into the future. Approached in this way, both in minute detail and as a whole canon, Paul’s letters yield rich insights, and his voice becomes accessible to all readers of the Bible.

Examining key questions in hermeneutics, biblical studies, preaching, history, contemporary culture, philosophy, and theology this bundle adds dexterity to your study, enabling you to engage contemporary issues more thoughtfully and scholarly discussion more knowledgably. Packed with the quality scholarship, this bundle includes the work of today’s premier Bible scholars, theologians, philosophers, and church historians. Spanning 222 volumes, this bundle adds an expansive block of resources all of these books to your library all at one—massively discounted—price.

Intended as a companion to the Interpretation commentary series, the Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church series features resources for those who preach, teach, and study the Bible within the community of faith. Maintaining a core focus of interpreting the Bible well, this new series helps readers navigate key themes, texts, and topics found throughout Scripture as a whole, rather than in a single biblical book. Each series volume is defined by pastoral care and scholarly rigor, illuminates the biblical message for the contemporary church, and provides rich insights that address the most challenging questions posed to the Bible to the modern world. Including contributions from leading scholars such as Robert Jensen and Patrick Miller, this series promises to serve the faith and intellectual life of the church for years to come.

The Anchor Yale Bible Commentary series is a fresh approach to the world's greatest classic—the Bible. This prestigious commentary series represents the pinnacle of biblical scholarship, drawing from the wisdom and resources of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish scholars from around the world. A book-by-book translation and exegesis of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Apocrypha, this vast commentary series makes available all the significant historical and linguistic knowledge which bears on the interpretation of the Bible. These massive commentaries have set the standard for biblical scholarship for decades—marking the beginning of a new era—by making the Bible accessible to modern readers. The Anchor Yale Bible Commentary series aims to arrive at the meaning of biblical literature through exact translation and extended exposition, and to reconstruct the ancient setting of the biblical story, as well as the circumstances of its transcription and the characteristics...

This collection includes the current volumes that cover the Pauline Epistles in the Anchor Yale Bible Commentary (AYBC). AYBC is a fresh approach to the world’s greatest classic—the Bible. This prestigious commentary series represents the pinnacle of biblical scholarship, drawing from the wisdom and resources of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish scholars from around the world. A book-by-book translation and exegesis of the Hebrew Bible, this vast commentary series makes available all the significant historical and linguistic knowledge which bears on the interpretation of the Bible. These massive commentaries have set the standard for biblical scholarship for decades—marking the beginning of a new era—by making the Bible accessible to modern readers. The Anchor Yale Bible aims to arrive at the meaning of biblical literature through exact translation and extended exposition, and to reconstruct the ancient setting of the biblical story, as well as the circumstances of its...