The Thessalonians Debate

The Thessalonians Debate
Author: Karl P. Donfried
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2000
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780802843746

First Thessalonians is one of the most discussed books of the New Testament. This volume by today's top Thessalonians scholars introduces readers to the current scholarly debate on Paul's earliest letter, discussing the difficult challenges that 1 Thessalonians poses to modern readers and explaining the various methods now being used to interpret this important New Testament letter.

1-2 Thessalonians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament)

1-2 Thessalonians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament)
Author: Jeffrey A. D. Weima
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 857
Release: 2014-11-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441220984

In this addition to the critically acclaimed BECNT series, respected New Testament scholar Jeffrey Weima offers pastors, students, and teachers the most up-to-date and substantive commentary available on 1-2 Thessalonians. Weima, a Thessalonians expert, experienced teacher, and widely traveled speaker, presents well-informed evangelical scholarship at an accessible level to help readers understand the sociological, historical, and theological aspects of these letters. As with all BECNT volumes, this commentary features the author's detailed interaction with the Greek text, extensive research, thoughtful chapter-by-chapter exegesis, and a user-friendly design. It admirably achieves the dual aims of the series--academic sophistication with pastoral sensitivity and accessibility.

Forgery and Counter-forgery

Forgery and Counter-forgery
Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 641
Release: 2013-01-10
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0199928037

Forgery and Counter-forgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics is the first major contemporary work on forgery in early Christian literature. It examines the motivation and function behind Christian literary forgeries.

Rethinking Hell

Rethinking Hell
Author: Christopher M. Date
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2014-04-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1630871605

Most evangelical Christians believe that those people who are not saved before they die will be punished in hell forever. But is this what the Bible truly teaches? Do Christians need to rethink their understanding of hell? In the late twentieth century, a growing number of evangelical theologians, biblical scholars, and philosophers began to reject the traditional doctrine of eternal conscious torment in hell in favor of a minority theological perspective called conditional immortality. This view contends that the unsaved are resurrected to face divine judgment, just as Christians have always believed, but due to the fact that immortality is only given to those who are in Christ, the unsaved do not exist forever in hell. Instead, they face the punishment of the "second death"--an end to their conscious existence. This volume brings together excerpts from a variety of well-respected evangelical thinkers, including John Stott, John Wenham, and E. Earl Ellis, as they articulate the biblical, theological, and philosophical arguments for conditionalism. These readings will give thoughtful Christians strong evidence that there are indeed compelling reasons for rethinking hell.

One Blood

One Blood
Author: John Perkins
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2018-04-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802495508

Dr. Perkins’ final manifesto on race, faith, and reconciliation We are living in historic times. Not since the civil rights movement of the 60s has our country been this vigorously engaged in the reconciliation conversation. There is a great opportunity right now for culture to change, to be a more perfect union. However, it cannot be done without the church, because the faith of the people is more powerful than any law government can enact. The church is the heart and moral compass of a nation. To turn a country away from God, you must sideline the church. To turn a nation to God, the church must turn first. Racism won't end in America until the church is reconciled first. Then—and only then—can it spiritually and morally lead the way. Dr. John M. Perkins is a leading civil rights activist today. He grew up in a Mississippi sharecropping family, was an early pioneer of the civil rights movement, and has dedicated his life to the cause of racial equality. In this, his crowning work, Dr. Perkins speaks honestly to the church about reconciliation, discipleship, and justice... and what it really takes to live out biblical reconciliation. He offers a call to repentance to both the white church and the black church. He explains how band-aid approaches of the past won't do. And while applauding these starter efforts, he holds that true reconciliation won't happen until we get more intentional and relational. True friendships must happen, and on every level. This will take the whole church, not just the pastors and staff. The racial reconciliation of our churches and nation won't be done with big campaigns or through mass media. It will come one loving, sacrificial relationship at a time. The gospel and all that it encompasses has always traveled best relationally. We have much to learn from each other and each have unique poverties that can only be filled by one another. The way forward is to become "wounded healers" who bandage each other up as we discover what the family of God really looks like. Real relationships, sacrificial love between actual people, is the way forward. Nothing less will do.

The Letters to the Thessalonians

The Letters to the Thessalonians
Author: GENE L GREEN
Publisher: Inter-Varsity Press
Total Pages: 426
Release: 2020-05-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1789740169

In this commentary Gene Green reads Paul's two letters to the Thessalonians in light of the canon of Scripture and of new knowledge about the first-century world of Thessalonica. This fruitful approach helps illuminate the impact of the gospel on its original readers and, in turn, shows how potent a force it can be for the church and society today. The book begins with an in-depth study of the Thessalonians themselves -- their history, land, socioeconomic conditions, and religious environment. This fascinating discussion gives the necessary context for fully appreciating the circumstances surrounding the founding of the city's first church and the subsequent struggles of the Thessalonian believers to live out their Christian faith. The main body of the book provides informed verse-by-verse commentary on 1 & 2 Thessalonians that extracts the fullest possible meaning from these important New Testament texts. As Green's exposition shows, the Thessalonian scriptures are especially valuable as letters of friendship and for showing Paul's pastoral concern for the many areas in which the Thessalonians needed guidance. Some of Paul's purposes are to thank the new believers for their steadfastness amid suffering, to encourage them in their trials, to urge them not to neglect their daily work, and, no less important, to teach them about the future of believers who die before Christ returns. Indeed, the matter of the last things and the second coming of Christ so permeates these texts that they are often called Paul's eschatological letters. Filled with new information about ancient society, this commentary will fast become a standard reference work for Bible study. By carefully bridging the biblical and modern worlds, Green shows with clarity and warmth the continuing relevance of 1 & 2 Thessalonians for contemporary readers.

The Pseudepigraphal Letters to the Thessalonians

The Pseudepigraphal Letters to the Thessalonians
Author: Marlene Crüsemann
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2018-12-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567683338

Marlene Crüsemann examines the Thessalonian letters in the context of Jewish-Christian social history; building upon her analysis of 1 Thessalonians, Crüsemann comes to the conclusion that it is post-apostolic epistolary communication, and questions whether it is a letter of Paul and indeed whether it is an early letter. This analysis in turn adds weight to the thesis, propounded by some previous scholars, that the letter is somewhat out of place and may be a later work by another author. Crüsemann subsequently illustrates that 2 Thessalonians, by contrast, revokes the far-reaching social separation from Judaism that characterizes 1 Thessalonians, and thus aims socio-historically at a solidarity with the entire Jewish people. Analysing the concept of the Jews as supposed enemy, the future of the Greek gentile community, and the relationship between the two letters, Crüsemann concludes that the discussion about a "divergence of the ways of Christians and Jews" in early Christian times needs to be realigned.

Paul's Gospel for the Thessalonians and Others

Paul's Gospel for the Thessalonians and Others
Author: Seyoon Kim
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Total Pages: 534
Release: 2022-06-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3161611551

In this collection of essays, Seyoon Kim analyses the structure and function of 1 Thess 1-3, which leads to a new reading of 1 Thessalonians. He devotes several essays to a comprehensive exposition of Paul's gospel for the Thessalonians by fully unfolding several summaries of the gospel in the epistle, by detecting and analysing various Son of Man sayings of Jesus that are alluded to or echoed in it, and by a thorough discussion of the unity and continuity of Paul's gospel between this early epistle and his later epistles. This exposition is augmented by a new observation of Paul's doctrine of justification in 2 Thess 1-2 and a new explanation of to katέχov and o katέχwv (2 Thess 2:3-8).

Theological Hermeneutics and 1 Thessalonians

Theological Hermeneutics and 1 Thessalonians
Author: Angus Paddison
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2005-05-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1139444948

This book proposes a theological reading of 1 Thessalonians, making an important response to the increasing demand to relate biblical scholarship more closely to theological concerns. Paddison's interpretation adheres very closely to the text and is divided into three parts. Part I offers a theological critique of dominant historical-critical readings of 1 Thessalonians. Part II examines the history of interpretation of 1 Thessalonians focusing on the pre-Modern exegesis of Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin. Paddison explores what theological exegetes can learn from Thomas Aquinas' Lectura and John Calvin's commentary on 1 Thessalonians. Aided by the insights of these neglected pre-Modern commentators, Part III presents a theologically driven interpretation of the letter. Theological exegesis is practised as a dialogue with Paul, the canon and a plethora of theological voices to elucidate Paddison's central argument, that the astonishing subject-matter of 1 Thessalonians is God's all-powerful hold over death.

1 and 2 Thessalonians, Volume 45

1 and 2 Thessalonians, Volume 45
Author: Dr. Seyoon Kim
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
Total Pages: 729
Release: 2023-10-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310139872

The Word Biblical Commentary series delivers the best in biblical scholarship, from the leading scholars of our day who share a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation. This series emphasizes a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence. The result is judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of the text in the framework of biblical theology. These widely acclaimed commentaries serve as exceptional resources for the professional theologian and instructor, the seminary or university student, the working minister, and everyone concerned with building theological understanding from a solid base of biblical scholarship.