Chris Keith

Ethnicity and Inclusion

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Ethnicity and Inclusion is surely one of the most important books written in New Testament studies in the last few decades. With nuance, care, and admirable self-awareness, David Horrell demonstrates not just how white, male, and Christian the field has been, but the implications of these facts and where we might go from here. We have much work to do in the coming years, but Horrell has shown us where to start.”

Hitler, Jesus, and Our Common Humanity

History & Biography

“In this fascinating book, Bruce Longenecker seamlessly mixes the genres of historical reconstruction, biography, literary assessment, and New Testament exegesis in order to tell the important story of Rolf Gompertz's survival of Nazi Germany and the Jesus novel he later wrote as a response to that experience. Reminding readers of the importance of 'our common humanity,' Longenecker's tribute to Gompertz makes its own welcome contribution to Jewish-Christian relations.”

Jesus and the Forces of Death

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“A wonderful contribution to the recovery of Jesus's Jewish heritage In Jesus and the Forces of Death Matthew Thiessen brilliantly brings the Jewish purity regulations to bear on the Gospel narratives. Thiessen's careful navigation of the distinctions between the sacred and the pure, as well as the morally and ritually impure, are worth the price of the book, but his greatest achievement is perhaps the convincing and fresh exegesis of the Gospels that his perspective yields. Challenging the proposals of previous scholars, Thiessen shows that the Gospel authors did not relax the purity requirements but rather insisted that in Jesus, the God of Israel had released a 'powerfully contagious force of holiness.' Never before have blood, skin conditions, and death been more important for understanding how the Gospels portray Jesus of Nazareth!”

Jesus, the New Testament, and Christian Origins

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Mitternacht, Runesson, and their contributors have produced a magnificent introductory textbook on the earliest social, historical, and textual contexts of devotion to Jesus, with due attention given also to the intricacies of interpretation. This book is comprehensive and authoritative, but never at the expense of accessibility. I will be assigning this book to my students at the first opportunity.”

The First Biography of Jesus

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“With characteristic insight and clarity, Helen Bond places Mark's Gospel in the company of other ancient lives of philosophers. The result is a fascinating reading of Mark's Gospel as a bios that both reflects and subverts the literary conventions of that genre, all in light of its intent focus on its protagonist, Jesus of Nazareth. Bond's considerable achievement is to hold in tension both the narrative world of the Gospel and the social and historical circumstances of its first-century readers, demonstrating not simply how to read Mark as a bios, but what difference it made, and makes.”