Matthew V. Novenson

A Jewish Paul

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“God bless Matthew Thiessen! It is so difficult to give a historically compelling account of the apostle Paul that is, at the same time, helpful to readers of Christian Scripture and, on top of all that, readable and accessible. I know because I have tried. Now, though, I will be very happy simply to refer people to this wonderful book.”

A Pauline Theology of Justification

Theology

“For centuries, we Protestants have staked a claim to the doctrine of justification and to the letters of Paul on which it is based. But, in truth, there is no Protestant monopoly on either, as James Prothro’s profound Catholic Pauline theology of justification amply demonstrates. The wealth of exegesis and theology in this book will profit readers of all stripes.”

Dictionary of Paul and His Letters

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“I remember, when I was a student writing exegesis essays, making frequent use of the 1993 Dictionary of Paul and His Letters. The study of Paul has changed enormously in the three decades since that volume was published. But McKnight, Cohick, and Gupta, with their excellent team of contributors, have now brought the whole discussion up to date for a new generation of students, clergy, and laypersons.”

Jesus and His Promised Second Coming

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Historical Jesus research is such a rat’s nest that only a few exceptional minds—one thinks, for instance, of E. P. Sanders, Paula Fredriksen, and Dale Allison—seem competent to pull it off. With this fascinating book, Tucker Ferda adds his name to this distinguished company. Ferda makes a powerful case that the idea of the second coming plausibly goes back to Jesus’s own meditatio mortis, and he challenges all comers to try to prove otherwise. A book not to be trifled with.”

Jesus and the Forces of Death

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“For centuries interpreters of the Gospels have mistakenly thought that Jesus battled the Jewish ritual purity system, when, in fact, he battled ritual impurity itself. For Jesus and the Evangelists, as for most ancient people, ritual impurity was a real substance, a miasma. And according to the Gospel accounts, Jesus came to destroy it--so argues Matthew Thiessen in this brilliant book. If you read this book, you will learn a thousand new things.”

Jesus and the Law of Moses

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Christian readers of the Gospels often find themselves in the awkward position of explaining away sayings of Jesus about the Law, trying gymnastically to square them with theological axioms derived from elsewhere. Against such tortured efforts, Paul Sloan shows in this lucid, readable book how it is possible—and indeed necessary—that Jesus means exactly what he says. Sloan’s Jesus consequently stands much closer both to the prophets before him and to the rabbis after him.”

Jesus, the New Testament, and Christian Origins

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“New Testament scholarship is and has always been international and multilingual. Consequently, for more than a decade now, one of the very best introductions to the New Testament has been available only in Swedish: Dieter Mitternacht and Anders Runesson’s Jesus och de första kristna (2006). But now, thanks to Rebecca Runesson and Noah Runesson’s deft translation, this revised and expanded edition of the book is accessible to those of us who speak English but not (yet) Swedish. The twenty-two contributors are a who’s who of Scandinavian biblical scholarship, and the emphasis on hermeneutics as well as history is an especially inspired feature.”

Judeophobia and the New Testament

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“It is a shame that we still need a book like this, but need it we do. We Christians should be able to read the New Testament without making Jews and Judaism a dark foil for our own religious views. But until we learn to do so, we need wise instruction from the likes of Rollens, Vanden Eykel, Warren, and their excellent contributors. Judeophobia and the New Testament is a hermeneutical appeal to the better angels of our nature.”

Method, Context, and Meaning in New Testament Studies

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Even where I disagree with this book, I am in awe of it. Like our own twenty-first-century Pascal, Kavin Rowe stakes everything on his earnest, existential approach to reading the New Testament, and the results are exhilarating to read.”

Paul and the Language of Faith

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Nijay Gupta has again proved himself to be one of the best and most interesting young exegetes now working. In this impressive book, he gives us, among other things: an up-to-date, incisive treatment of the pistis christou debate; an argument for ‘covenantal pistism’ as a gloss for Paul’s pattern of religion; and a bridge from the classic interpretations of Luther and Calvin to recent proposals from Benjamin Schliesser, Teresa Morgan, and others. Throughout, Gupta writes with a historical critic’s keen eye for textual detail and a theologian’s sense of the considerable stakes of these discussions. Paul and the Language of Faith is a reliable guide for students and a valuable resource for scholars.”

Paul’s Three Paths to Salvation

Theology

“Thanks in large part to the efforts of Gabriele Boccaccini, New Testament scholarship today is busy interpreting Paul within Second Temple Judaism. The interesting work now is in the details: sorting out which features of traditional interpretations can stand and which need to be revised or jettisoned. In this fascinating book, Boccaccini threads this needle in his own inimitable way: Augustine and Luther rightly perceived Paul’s preoccupation with divine grace, but they did not comprehend the apostle’s taxonomy of Jews, gentiles, and sinners, a taxonomy at home in the ancient Jewish apocalypses. Anyone interested in the Paul-within-Judaism debates really must read this book.”

The Commentarial Impulse

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“I like to think that I know a thing or two about Paul’s interpretation of Scripture, but David Lincicum knows far more than I—indeed, more than almost anyone now working in this area. In this wonderful book, Lincicum shows us precisely how Paul fits between the ‘scriptural vitality’ (Hindy Najman’s term) of Second Temple Judaism and the biblical-commentary tradition of Christian late antiquity.”

The Life of the World to Come

Theology

“This book is characterized by remarkable intellectual breadth. Isaac Morales writes, naturally, as a Dominican, thinking his own Roman Catholic theology in dialogue with Irenaeus, Thomas, and especially Augustine. But above all, Morales is an interpreter of Scripture; hence these pages are full of masterful philology, historical criticism, and biblical theology. Whether you are Catholic like Morales, Protestant like me, or otherwise, you will find here one of the very best discussions of eschatology from any living scholar.”

The Messianic Theology of the New Testament

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“It is striking and indeed curious that, for all the other things about which they differ widely, almost all the texts comprising the New Testament agree in calling Jesus the Christ or Messiah. In this fine book, Joshua Jipp carefully explores what writers as different as Paul and Matthew, or books as different as Revelation and the Gospel of Luke, mean by acclaiming Jesus as the Christ. What is more, along the way Jipp manages to breathe new life into the venerable but nowadays rather shabby discipline of New Testament theology.”

The State of Pauline Studies

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“An edited textbook volume is no more or less strong than its team of contributors. The State of Pauline Studies has somehow managed to assemble the outstanding likes of Dennis Edwards, Erin Heim, Christopher Hoklotubbe, Angela Parker, Jennifer Strawbridge, Sydney Tooth, and more. Together these brilliant colleagues give us an expert guide to the current state of play in research on Paul, topic by topic as well as letter by letter.”

Trust in Atonement

Theology

“I know of no one else drawing breath who has Teresa Morgan’s remarkable combination of classical learning and theological profundity. In this book she puts it to powerful, arresting use, showing us how the restoration of trust leads at last to the reconciliation of all things.”