This latest addition to the Fortress Social-Science Commentaries on New Testament writings illuminates the values, perceptions, and social codes of the Mediterranean culture that shaped Paul and his interactions - both harmonious and conflicted - with others, Malina and Pilch add new dimensions to our understanding of the apostle as a social change agent, his coworkers as innovators, and his gospel as an assertion of the honor of the God of Israel.

A groundbreaking first social-science commentary on this popular book of the Bible.

The Social-Science Commentary series pioneers an alternative commentary genre, providing in this volume the text of the deutero-Pauline letters and cultural notes on them. The Social-Science Commentary on the Deutero-Pauline Letters provides essential reading scenarios on specific cultural phenomena in these letters, including forgery, normative conflict, paideia (training), and Household Codes. This volume highlights the transformation of the memory of Paul in early Christianity as reflecting the concerns and interest of communities after Pauls death.

Scholars are agreed that the central metaphor in Jesus' proclamation was the kingdom of God. But what did that phrase mean in the first-century Palestinian world of Jesus? Since it is a political metaphor, what did Jesus envision as the political import of his message? Since this is tied to the political economy, how was that structured in Jesus' day? How is the violence of Jesus' Mediterranean world addressed in the kingdom? And how does "self-denial" fit into Jesus' agenda? Malina tackles these questions in a very accessible way, providing a social-scientific analysis, meaning that he brings to bear explicit models and a comparative approach toward an exciting interpretation of what Jesus was up to, and how his first-century audience would have heard him.

The authors build on their earlier social-scientific works and enhance the highly successful commentary model they developed in their social-scientific commentaries. This volume is a thoroughly revised edition of this popular commentary. They include an introduction that lays the foundation for their interpretation, followed by an examination of each unit in the Synoptics, employing methodologies of cultural anthropology, macro-sociology, and social psychology.

Contributions by internationally known scholars from the United States, Germany, Scotland, Spain, and Canada move beyond many of the impasses in historical Jesus research. Includes essays using social sciences, social history, and traditional historical methods.

In this volume of the Ancient Christian Texts series, William Weinrich renders a particular service to readers interested in ancient commentary on the Apocalypse by drawing together significant Latin commentaries from Victorinus of Petovium, Caesarius of Arles, Apringius of Beja and Bede the Venerable.