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Aims to identify the aspects - historical and political, cultural, literary-historical and religious-historical, as well as theological - connected with the beginnings of historiography in Antiquity, and to contrast and compare them in culture and literature. Discussions on the concept of 'beginning' are also addressed.

Die Interpretation der Vatererzahlungen im umfangreichen Corpus Philonicum zeigt exemplarisch: Schriftauslegung konnte formal und intentional in einer komplexen Wechselbeziehung zu spezifischen regionalen, milieubedingten, gesellschaftlichen und religiosen Faktoren im 1. Jh. n. Chr. stehen. Philos drei Werke zum Pentateuch sind ein Ausweis dafur, in welchem Mae hermeneutische Prinzipien bei einem Exegeten konstant bleiben konnten und in welchem Umfang Entwicklungen unterschiedlichen Adressaten gegenuber moglich waren. Solche Ergebnisse bilden Grundlagen, die fur spezielle neutestamentliche Fragestellungen fruchtbar gemacht werden mussen.

This monograph examines the problem of universally inclusive language in the book of Revelation and the resulting narrative tension created by narrowly exclusive language. Analysis is conducted by placing relevant texts within their literary-narrative context and through consideration of how the author understood and appropriated biblical traditions. A key feature of this study is its examination of four early Jewish documents with significant similarities to the problem being examined in Revelation. From these documents (Tobit; Similitudes of Enoch [1 Enoch 37-71]; 4 Ezra; and, Animal Apocalypse [1 Enoch 85-90]) a contextual picture emerges which allows a fuller understanding of Revelation's distinctive approach toward the problem of the fate of the nations. This study contends that the interpretive strategies applied to biblical traditions in Revelation have their roots in the wider early Jewish milieu. From this comparative analysis, identifiable patterns with regard to the role of 'universal terminology' in the communicative strategy of John's Apocalypse emerge.

In the early 1970's, due to serious epistemological flaws, the demise of traditional New Testament research paradigms became imminent. A new generation of scholars started the search for a fresh approach, based on scientifically sound principles. Working within the stimulating atmosphere of the New Testament Society of South Africa, the author was one of the pioneers in developing a new, multi-dimensional research approach for New Testament studies. The articles in the present volume, written over a period of 25 years, reflect part of this journey, as viewed from a Pauline perspective. Combining the positive aspects of the traditional biblical research paradigms with the important insights of modern linguistics, literary science, semantics and pragmatics, particularly rhetoric, the author investigates the convergence of various influences in Paul's pre-christian career. He proposes new possibilities of understanding Paul's language and style, such as hyperbolical contrasts, typical of his Semitic background. Various aspects of his strategies of persuasion are investigated, such as creating an ethos, vilification, alienation and re-identification. The majority of articles concentrate on central elements in Pauline theology: belief in the resurrection of Jesus, the centrality of grace, the in Christ and related formulae, faith and obedience, justification in Romans, Christian identity, ethics and ethos, as portrayed in Romans.

Die Reihe Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZNW) ist eine der renommiertesten internationalen Buchreihen zur neutestamentlichen Wissenschaft. Seit 1923 publiziert sie wegweisende Forschungsarbeiten zum fruhen Christentum und angrenzenden Themengebieten. Die Reihe ist historisch-kritisch verankert und steht neuen methodischen Ansatzen, die unser Verstandnis des Neuen Testaments befordern, gleichfalls offen gegenuber.

The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZNW) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded international scholarly book series in the field of New Testament studies. Since 1923 it has been a forum for seminal works focusing on Early Christianity and related fields. The series is grounded in a historical-critical approach and also explores new methodological approaches that advance our understanding of the New Testament and its world.

This study interprets Jesus' parables and the sayings tradition regarding the Kingdom of God from a cognitive linguistic understanding of metaphor. It also shows what contribution the theory of metaphor can make when the parables and aphorisms are studied in research on the historical Jesus. The metaphoric nature and polyvalency of the parables and aphorisms of the Jesus tradition undermine their value for research on the historical Jesus. The author doubts whether the parables and sayings of the Jesus tradition can be employed to reconstruct the historical Jesus.

New Testament and Christian sources provide differing information on the end of the Apostle Paul. This volume of essays, edited by Friedrich Wilhelm Horn, contains 14 exegetical studies which approach the topic from the perspectives of history, theology and the history of literature.

Archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic, and historical research is used to illuminate the meaning and function of temples in both Jewish and Greco-Roman cultures. This evidence is then brought into a dialogue with a literary analysis of how the temple functions as a symbol in Revelation.

Mit diesem Buch wird die erste monographische Darstellung der literarischen und theologischen Aufnahme des alten judenchristlichen Spruchevangeliums Q im Lukasevangelium vorlegt. Q erschliet als Dokument der Theologie und Geschichte des fruhen Judenchristentums im galilaisch-syrischen Raum einen singularen Zugang zur altesten Jesus-Uberlieferung. In der vorliegenden Darstellung der Rezeption von Q im Lukasevangelium wird die lukanische Theologie und deren Transferleistung fur ihre hellenistischen Adressaten profiliert und gewurdigt. Gegen den derzeitigen Forschungstrend tritt die Distanz des Lukas zum fruhen Judenchristentum deutlicher hervor.

This volume presents a collection of papers by scholars from Europe and the USA on a question which is the subject of intensive discussion - the figure of the historical Jesus. It discusses the problem of methodology and the relationship between Jesus' work and the development of Christianity.

Statt die paulinischen Gerichtsaussagen allein monoperspektivisch auf ihr Verhaltnis zur Rede von der "e;Rechtfertigung aufgrund von Glauben"e; hin zu befragen, stellt die vorliegende Studie die Gerichtsaussagen in den Kontext der paulinischen Ekklesiologie und Ethik hinein. Es wird konkret gefragt, wie und in welchen Zusammenhangen Paulus die Gerichtsthematik einsetzt, um Gemeinde zu gestalten oder Wegmarkierungen christlichen Wandels zu setzen. Im Zentrum der Untersuchung stehen dabei der 1. Thessalonicherbrief und der 1. Korintherbrief.

The volume presents the results of a joint research project run by the Universities of Bonn and Oxford.

An up-to-date discussion of early Christian paraenesis in its Graeco-Roman and Hellenistic Jewish contexts in the light of one hundred years of scholarship, issuing from a research project by Nordic and international scholars.

A literary-critical analysis is embarked to show how Matthew highlights the primacy, authority, and exclusivity of Jesus' role as the Teacher of God's will and how he features five long discourses in the narrative. Two cultural parallels, the Teacher of Righteousness and Epictetus, are studied for comparison. The ways in which they are remembered in the literature and in which they shape the lives of their followers provide proper historical perspectives and useful frames of reference. Finally, a social-historical reading of the three teachers and their followers, in the light of pertinent sociological theories (sociology of knowledge, group formation), indicates that Jesus the One Teacher serves four crucial functions for his readers in Matthew's church: polemic, apologetic, didactic, and pastoral.

Der Band untersucht die funf Stellen des Hebraerbriefes, die herkommlicherweise als Hinweise auf die Parusie Christi gedeutet werden (Hebr 1,6; 9,28; 10,25.36-39; 12,25-29). Ausgangspunkt ist die Feststellung, dass eine apokalyptische Rede von der Parusie zur ubrigen Denkweise des Schreibens nicht recht passen will, die eher von einer mittelplatonischen Ontologie gepragt ist. Zur Auflosung dieser Spannung werden in Teil I die problematischen Stellen des Hebraerbriefes textimmanent analysiert und in Teil II mit relevanten Texten von Philon, Plutarch, Seneca und Alkinoos in Verbindung gebracht, die ebenfalls eingehend analysiert werden. Teil III fuhrt schlielich die Ergebnisse der ersten beiden Teile zusammen und macht eine mittelplatonische Umformung des Parusiegedankens durch den Autor des Hebraerbriefes plausibel.

Die Studie nimmt die bisherige Diskussion der Konversion in der Antike neu auf durch eine Verknupfung von klassischen, epigraphischen und biblischen Quellen mit einer sozialwissenschaftlichen Methodologie. Der Autor hinterfragt dabei die bisher vorausgesetzte psychologische Kontinuitat zwischen antiken und modernen Menschen und bietet statt dessen ein Modell, welches an den Denkvoraussetzungen der Antike selbst gebildet wurde. Die griechisch-romischen und mediterranen Religionen und Philosophien - also auch das hellenistische Judentum und das Christentum - orientierten sich an den Modellen von Patronat und Loyalitat. Das Verstandnis der antiken Konversion muss also hier ansetzen. In diesem Zusammenhang wird auch die "e;Bekehrung"e; des Paulus neu gedeutet.

Past scholarship on the prison-escapes in the Acts of the Apostles has tended to focus on lexical similarities to Euripides' Bacchae, going so far as to argue for direct literary dependence. Moving beyond such explanations, the present study argues that miraculous prison-escape was a central event in a traditional and culturally significant story about the introduction and foundation of cults - a story discernable in the Bacchae and other ancient texts. When the mythic quality and cultural diffusion of the prison-escape narratives are taken into account, the resemblance of Lukan and Dionysian narrative episodes is seen to depend less on specific literary borrowing, and more on shared familiarity with cultural discourses involving the legitimating portrayal of new cults in the ancient world.

This monograph explores the theology of the Acts of the Apostles while taking seriously the status of the writing as ancient historiography: What does it mean to speak of theology in a historiographical work? How can this theology be apprehended? What does this theology have to do with the overall character of the writing and with how the writing functioned for its original audience? Acts 19 is both, case study and source to generate the answers.

Der zweite Thessalonicherbrief entwirft ein endzeitliches Szenario, in dem eine nicht naher bestimmte Macht, das oder der "e;Katechon"e;, das Auftreten des Antichristen und die Wiederkehr Christi verhindert. Vor dem Hintergrund antiker Texte geht die Arbeit der Frage nach, was oder wer mit dieser Rede vom "e;Katechon"e; gemeint ist und welche heilsgeschichtliche Bedeutung diesem "e;Katechon"e; zukommt. Damit wird zugleich deutlich, wie die fruhen Christen sich und ihren Platz in der Geschichte verstanden.

This study identifies and explores texts of restoration in a wide selection of Early Jewish Literature in order to assess the variety of ways in which Jews envisioned Israel's future restoration. Particular attention is given to the expression of restoration in what is identified in the present study as the exilic model of restoration. In this model, Israel's restoration is characterized by the features of (a) a future re-gathering, (b) the fate of the nations, and (c) the establishment of a new Temple. The present work focuses primarily on the first two features. Through this framework Jews in the Greco-Roman period could draw on Israel's history and legacy, but re-appropriate 'exile and return' in new and creative ways. Finally, the writing of Luke-Acts is investigated for its ideas of restoration and its indebtedness to Early Jewish traditions.

The book deals with the relation between identity, ethics, and ethos in the New Testament. Apart from analytical categories like ethos, ethics, and identity that are clearly defined in the book, efforts are also made to broaden the specific analytical categories related to ethical material.

This study addresses the centrality of Christ in Paul's thought, recognizing at the same time that he does not express the meaning of Christ as an existing teaching. Christ as a person, not a teaching, determines Paul's thinking, for himself and in his reasoning with his readers. Christ comes to expression in Paul as the explication of the fundamental reality for himself and for his readers. He develops his thoughts about Christ in each case anew as expressions of the Lord who determines his life and the lives of his readers. In his reasoning with his readers, he expects them to become aware of Christ as the one who determines them in their new lives as believers.

Despite the striking frequency with which the Greek word kyrios, Lord, occurs in Luke's Gospel, this study is the first comprehensive analysis of Luke's use of this word. The analysis follows the use of kyrios in the Gospel from beginning to end in order to trace narratively the complex and deliberate development of Jesus' identity as Lord. Detailed attention to Luke's narrative artistry and his use of Mark demonstrates that Luke has a nuanced and sophisticated christology centered on Jesus' identity as Lord.

A monograph that seeks to serve as an exegetical study on the Paraclete in the Gospel (pneumatology) and the First Epistle of "John" (christology). It also analyses the term parakletos ("paraclete") in Greek and Jewish ancient literature (semantic analysis).

The study deals with a difficult and much-debated text in Paul's Letter to the Romans, 9:30-10:21. The study in particular analyses Paul'suse and interpretation of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 in Romans 10:4-17. Scholars have characterized Paul's exegesis here as idiosyncratic, fanciful, baffling, and arbitrary. By a comparison with Jewish writings near Paul in time, such as the writings of Philo of Alexandria and Baruch, the thesis is argued that Paul's treatment of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 can be located within Jewish exegetical method, expository structure, terminology as well as content and context. In comparison with Baruch and Philo, it has been shown that Paul'shandling of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 can be placed within a Jewish context as to the way the biblical quotations are rendered. The thesis is substantiated that Paul's expository rendering of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 follows the method of exegetical paraphrase of a biblical quotation. So, in comparison with Baruch and Philo, Paul's interpretative rendering of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 falls within a form of exposition, in which words, phrases and sentences from the Old Testament quotation are either repeated or replaced by interpretative terms and supplemented with other qualifying terms. Thus, Paul'schristological exposition of Deut 30:12-14 can be located within the method of exegetical paraphrase, with a parallel in Baruch's application of this OT Scripture to the personified 'Wisdom'.

In der Johannesoffenbarung findet sich die im Neuen Testament singulare Erwartung eines zeitlich begrenzten, irdischen Messiasreiches am Ende der Geschichte. Traditionell wird die Funktion dieses tausendjahrigen Messiasreiches (Millennium) als Trost fur die unter Domitian verfolgten Christen Kleinasiens und als Ermutigung zum blutigen Martyrium bestimmt. Neuere altertumswissenschaftliche Forschungen haben jedoch gezeigt, dass sich eine umfassende oder lokal begrenzte Christenverfolgung infolge einer Forcierung des Kaiserkultes in Kleinasien an der Wende vom 1. zum 2. Jahrhundert nicht nachweisen lasst. Zudem beachtet das traditionelle Verstandnis der Johannesoffenbarung und der Millenniumsvision kaum, dass die sieben Sendschreiben (Offb 2-3) weniger von einer aueren als von einer inneren Gefahrdung der Gemeinden durch das Auftreten von Irrlehrern sprechen. Vor diesem Hintergrund bestimmt die vorliegende Arbeit die Funktion der Millenniumsvision sowohl im Blick auf die Lebensbedingungen der christlichen Minderheit in den heidnischen Poleis Kleinasiens als auch im Blick auf den inneren Zustand der Gemeinden.

Von der neutestamentlichen Wissenschaft bis zum Feuilleton bildungsburgerlicher Tageszeitungen gehort die durch F.C. Baur im 19. Jh. begrundete Gegenuberstellung von judischem Partikularismus und christlich-paulinischem Universalismus zu den grundlegenden Vorstellungen fur die Verhaltnisbestimmung von Judentum und Christentum. G. Holtz zeigt anhand eines Vergleichs der paulinischen Briefe mit judischen Schriften, insbesondere der Qumranliteratur und Philo von Alexandrien, dass eine solche Gegenuberstellung weder dem Judentum noch Paulus gerecht wird. Ahnlich wie in der judischen Traditionsbildung vor und nach Paulus sind fur die Struktur der paulinischen Theologie Offnungs- und Abgrenzungstendenzen konstitutiv. Gezeigt wird dies sowohl fur die Eschatologie als auch fur die Zeit vor dem Ende, in der sich die jeweilige Gemeinschaft gegenuber ihrer Umwelt definiert und positioniert. Wichtige Ubereinstimmungen zwischen Paulus und judischen Traditionen betreffen den eschatologischen Universalismus, die Uberzeugung, dass die Tora in spezifischer Weise auch den Volkern gilt, sowie die Grenzziehung nach auen mittels Ritual und Lebensweise.

The persecution of the Church ordered by the Roman State, whether it was by local magistrates or on imperial command, was the most visible manifestation of the hostility directed against Christians during the first three centuries of our era. In reality however, this persecution, more virulent in some of its episodes than in others, was merely the crystallisation of the rejection of Christianity already expressed by the population at large. Christianity, spreading rapidly beyond its original Jewish context, was perceived by Graeco-Roman society through the deforming lens of ideas and values entirely foreign to it. For this reason, Christians became the victims of religious and social categorisations which forced them into the margins of society. Christianity's assimilation with superstition (Jewish origins, irrational doctrine, recruitment from the masses, doubtful practices [magic, anthropophagy, ritual murder, sexual debauchery, Christ-worship, cross-worship, sun-worship, ass-worship]) and the accusations against it of atheism (a reaction against its exclusive monotheism) and of 'hatred of mankind' (non-adherence to the common values [civil, familial or political]) reveal that public opinion played a crucial role preceding the measures taken against Christians, and that the anti-Christian hostility was a reactionary movement against a group that threatened the basic structures of the City.