In Exclusion and Judgment in Fellowship Meals, Lanuwabang Jamir seeks to demonstrate that the tradition of fellowship meals in the ancient world form the background against which the Lord's Supper must be understood. Similarly, the basis of Paul's response to the situation in Corinth and his theology of the Lord's Supper is to be found in these traditions. The role of the fellowship meal in Greco-Roman and Jewish culture indicate that it was an important institution that played a pivotal role in the functioning of society. Judgment was an integral part of the fellowship meal traditions and it made such meal practices all the more significant in ancient cultures. For example, Jamir reveals that social-economic factors were only part of the problem in Corinth, where differences in ideology were the underlying cause of divisions in the church. Paul's response to the problem shows that he upheld the fellowship meal traditions, linking sickness and death with the abuse of the Lord's Supper. The concept of judgment in the Lord's Supper, while based on the fellowship meal traditions, has been redefined in the light of the Gospel tradition.

Pairing depth of scholarship with contemporary application, the authors of From Pentecost to Patmos have produced a unique introductory New Testament textbook. Craig Blomberg and Darlene Seal provide the context and clarity that readers need to better understand Acts through Revelation, showcasing the historical, linguistic, and theological implications found in each book. This second edition includes expanded footnotes and a lengthier, up-to-date introduction to Paul. Newly added review questions, maps, and diagrams enhance the scholarship and make the resource truly user-friendly.

Jonathan B. Ensor revisits the scholarly consensus concerning Paul's intermediate visit to the Corinthians between his first and second epistles. Ensor re-evaluates the textual evidence, interpreting the event through a socio-historical lens that focuses upon ancient trial by ordeal and exit in the context of communal conflict, shedding significant light upon the social behaviours involved in this event and its interpretation. Beginning with a review of relational and social-spacial dynamics and sources of conflict, Ensor then explores the politics of displacement in Graeco-Roman antiquity to analyse the relational contours of Paul's intermediate visit to Corinth. From these insights, Ensor interprets Paul's autobiographical narrations of apostolic ordeal and Paul's announcement of imminent return to Corinth in 2 Corinthians. Ensor concludes that Paul, through the ordeal accounts, aimed both to reverse the judgments against him emerging from the intermediate visit, and to undermine the evaluative structure of his detractors who viewed him as impotent, illegitimate, and displaced.

When Paul heard that a Christ-follower in Corinth was in an incestuous relationship with his stepmother, the apostle insisted the man be removed immediately from the congregation. This dramatic response is surprising, as Paul responds to other serious situations with much less vehemence. Why did Paul react to the immoral man with such urgency and severity? Using socio-cultural tools, this study explains the importance of group identity and witness for Paul’s ecclesiology. The argument lays a foundation for contemporary readers to appraise contexts where an expulsive response to sin might be appropriate.

This study probes the significance of Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 3:16 announced to a group of believers in Corinth: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells among you?" The question is framed in the Greek language such that Paul expected an affirmative response (i.e. ‘Yes, we know we are the temple of God’), and yet mapping such an idea onto a gathering of people is rather unprecedented in antiquity. By surveying relevant literary texts and material culture from the ancient Mediterranean (roughly 400 BCE—200 CE), the author shows how Paul appropriated the concept of temple in his exhortation to the Corinthians. A few key texts in 1 Corinthians can be read as a cohesive and coherent set of passages that unpack the idea of the Corinthians as "the temple of God." While these passages are not typically read together, this study shows how themes such as power and spirit, traditions from Exodus, divine benefits, and sacrificial foods found in these passages reflect similar concerns observed in temples and other sanctuaries in ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish contexts. Careful analysis of the religious experience of visitors to temples—an important topic that remains largely ignored in secondary literature—gives greater clarity to the nuances of Paul’s temple discourse. As the temple, the Corinthian community not only receives God's power and benefits, but also remains vulnerable to peril posed by insiders and outsiders.

The first three hundred years of the common era witnessed critical developments that would become foundational for Christianity itself, as well as for the societies and later history that emerged thereafter. The concept of 'ancient Christianity,' however, along with the content that the category represents, has raised much debate. This is, in part, because within this category lie multiple forms of devotion to Jesus Christ, multiple phenomena, and multiple permutations in the formative period of Christian history. Within those multiples lie numerous contests, as varieties of Christian identity laid claim to authority and authenticity in different ways. The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity addresses these contested areas with both nuance and clarity by reviewing, synthesizing, and critically engaging recent scholarly developments. The 27 thematic chapters, specially commissioned for this volume from an international team of scholars, also offer constructive ways forward for future research.

Possessions and how believers handle them are key topics in the NT. In this book, Fiona Gregson examines the practice and theology of sharing possessions in community in the NT by examining six diverse NT examples of sharing. Each example is considered in its historical and cultural context before being compared to one or more non-Christian examples to identify similarities and differences. Gregson identifies common characteristics across the NT examples and consistent distinctives in how the early church shared possessions compared to the surrounding cultures. Gregson's findings demonstrate that Christians subverted Roman patronage expectations; Christian groups were more diverse in their membership and exhibited more flexible, less structured examples of sharing; Christians placed greater emphasis on the free choice of individuals to contribute to sharing; and Christians more frequently participated in eating together and had a greater focus on relational bonds than was common in Graeco-Roman society/culture.

In this important study, Dr. Gift Mtukwa investigates the relationship between work and community in Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians. Utilizing an African biblical hermeneutic, he provides a theology of work that takes seriously the communal nature of Paul’s context and its parallels with a traditional African worldview. He combines cultural and historical insight with biblical analysis to demonstrate that work has a critical role to play in community formation. It is neither a burden nor an individual pursuit but a purposeful communal activity done to benefit self and neighbor. This fresh look at Paul’s work exhortations from a contextualized African perspective offers a powerful reminder that work – like all human endeavors – should have the glory of God and love of others as its goal.

1 Timothy is one of the more controversial documents in the New Testament. For years, critical scholars have rejected Pauline authorship, highlighted the apparent misogynistic quality of the text, and argued against any coherence in the letter. Jeon takes a fresh look at the letter, incorporating many recent advancements in NT scholarship. In detail he demonstrates the macro- and micro- chiastic arrangement of the entire letter and explains how the presumed first-century audience would have heard and responded to an oral performance of the letter. In doing so, Jeon offers a fresh challenge to more popular ways of (mis)understanding the letter and points a way forward for appropriating the letter both in academia and in the church.