Bruce J. Malina

A Cultural Handbook to the Bible

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“John Pilch's expertise in Middle Eastern culture shines through in pointed scenarios concerning the cosmos, the earth, persons, family, language, human consciousness, God and the spirit world, and entertainment.”

Homoeroticism in the Biblical World

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“This book has been admirably conceived and developed to assist the ordinary Bible reader in narrowing the cultural distance between the world of Jesus and our own. Both authors are expert teachers, proven researchers, and clear articulators of what they know so well: the society of Palestine in the time of Jesus, its social institutions, cultural values, daily experiences, and elite and non-elite approaches to the God of Israel. A careful reading will...make the pages of the Gospels come alive....”

Honor Among Christians

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“David Watson has written a scholarly and very useful monograph. His soundings into the roles of secrecy in the ancient Mediterranean would further illustrate the value of anthropological history. Perhaps now Wrede's understanding of the 'Messianic Secret' in Mark may finally be laid to rest.”

Palestine in the Time of Jesus

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“This book has been admirably conceived and developed to assist the ordinary Bible reader in narrowing the cultural distance between the world of Jesus and our own. Both authors are expert teachers, proven researchers, and clear articulators of what they know so well: the society of Palestine in the Time of Jesus ...”

The Book of Acts in Its Graeco-Roman Setting

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“This well-written volume offers a remarkable, up-to-date collection of relevant new data to assist in scenario formation for a considerate reading of the Book of Acts. The largely Australian and British team of authors must be congratulated for preparing this very useful data set. There are authoritative descriptions of travel, of food supply, of domestic and political religion, of urban elites, and of the Eastern Mediterranean provinces and their leadership. Such information about the realia of the Graeco-Roman world will enable the interpreter of Acts to bring these data to bear in the process of interpretation. . . Of great use to ancient historians, classicists, and biblical scholars, yet written and presented in such a way that it will be fascinating to intelligent nonprofessionals as well.”

The Life of a Galilean Shaman

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“In this book, Craffert uses the metaphor of traveling to describe the task he has undertaken. Given the existence of the two prevailing pathways leading into contemporary 'historical Jesus' study, Craffert leaves the century-and-a-half old Schweitzer Street (Schweitzerstrasse) and Wrede Road (Wredebahn) to do some 'bundubashing' (South African: to travel off road through remote and rough terrain) to get to the social personage of Jesus the Galilean. His critique of prevailing historical Jesus study is insightful and incisive, while his description of Jesus as first-century Galilean shaman is masterful and accomplished. His rationale for and realization of a work of anthropological history is quite on the mark, enabling a reader to have an encounter with a first-century, Galilean shamanic Jesus that should produce an appropriate culture shock in those unused to the radically different cultural and social landscape of Mediterranean antiquity.”

What Is Social-Scientific Criticism?

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“[This book is] surely the most reliable and most complete guide to a new world of Scriptural interpretation by a tried practitioner who was there from the very outset and continues to enhance this indispensable field of study.”