Given the popular-level conversations on phenomena like the Gospel of Thomas and Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus, as well as the current gap in evangelical scholarship on the origins of the New Testament, Michael Kruger’s Canon Revisited meets a significant need for an up-to-date work on canon by addressing recent developments in the field. He presents an academically rigorous yet accessible study of the New Testament canon that looks deeper than the traditional surveys of councils and creeds, mining the text itself for direction in understanding what the original authors and audiences believed the canon to be. Canon Revisited provides an evangelical introduction to the New Testament canon that can be used in seminary and college classrooms, and read by pastors and educated lay leaders alike. In contrast to the prior volumes on canon, this volume distinguishes itself by placing a substantial focus on the theology of canon as the context within which the historical evidence is evaluated and assessed. Rather than simply discussing the history of canon—rehashing the Patristic data yet again—Kruger develops a strong theological framework for affirming and authenticating the canon as authoritative. In effect, this work successfully unites both the theology and the historical development of the canon, ultimately serving as a practical defense for the authority of the New Testament books.

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.

Letters of the Revelation Leader Kit includes a Bible Study Book and a DVD with a promotional video and six 12- to 15-minute videos that introduce the topic, explore theological truths, and suggest areas of life application. John's Revelation is perhaps the most studied and discussed book in the Bible. It begins with seven letters to seven different churches of the day: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Revelation and this study explore their challenges, failures, expectations, and victories. Through careful examination of these churches, group members will discover the cultural implications for those times and the ways John's prophetic vision applies today. Participants will develop a better context for end-times theology and gain a greater understanding of the task that faces the church right now. Individuals will be challenged to repent and reorient their lives to the mission of the church, as revealed in the prophecies of John. They will learn that modern churches have shortcomings like those of the churches of Asia. Yet there is still time to awake from spiritual lethargy and deadness and embrace the mission God has for His church today. The six sessions will cover the following churches: 1. Rekindling Your First Love: The Church in Ephesus 2. Faithful in Persecution: The Church in Smyrna 3. Return to Purity: The Churches in Thyatira and Pergamum 4. Awake from Your Deadness: The Church in Sardis 5. Cling to What Is Good: The Church in Philadelphia 6. Restore Your Sight: The Church in Laodicea Kit includes: - Bible Study Book - DVD with a promotional video and six 12- to 15-minute teaching sessions Features: - Video teaching by author D. A. Horton - Biblically rooted and gospel-centered content - Six small-group sessions that explore the letters to the seven churches of the Revelation - Personal-study opportunities for ongoing spiritual growth - Promotional video Benefits: - Gain a deeper understanding of the challenges of the church in the first century and today. - Give group members a historical context for applying the warnings of John's revelation. - Discover a path to a more vibrant spiritual life in the truth of the gospel. - Equip your group to understand and navigate a culture saturated in sexual innuendo and images. - Help your group respond to persecution in today's world. - Cultivate better discernment to identify true worth and to recognize what is truly superior in our world.

In this volume, R. Alan Culpepper considers both the Gospel and the Letters of John. The book begins with a close look at the relationship between John and the Synoptics and a summary of John's distinctive thought and language. The second chapter addresses the fascinating issues regarding the origins of the Gospel and the letters: authorship, sources, and composition. The history of the Johannine community is reviewed in chapter three. Chapter four interprets the plot of the Gospel and prepares the student to read John as literature by providing a brief orientation to narrative criticism. The fifth chapter turns to more traditional concerns: John as theology. This chapter provides a digest of the Christology, theology, and eschatology of John. The sixth through the eighth chapters, the heart of the book, guide the student through a reading of the Gospel. The ninth chapter serves as an introduction to the Letters, noting especially their relationship to the Gospel. Each letter is treated in turn. The final chapter examines the challenges and potential of the Johannine literature as documents of faith. "In previous writings Alan Culpepper has shown himself to be one of the best Johannine scholars of our time. He not only conveniently draws together his research but also shows himself to be an excellent teacher." --Raymond E. Brown

Concentrate on the biblical author's message as it unfolds. Designed to assist the pastor and Bible teacher in conveying the significance of God's Word, the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series treats the literary context and structure of every passage of the New Testament book in the original Greek. With a unique layout designed to help you comprehend the form and flow of each passage, the ZECNT unpacks: The key message. The author's original translation. An exegetical outline. Verse-by-verse commentary. Theology in application. While primarily designed for those with a basic knowledge of biblical Greek, all who strive to understand and teach the New Testament will benefit from the depth, format, and scholarship of these volumes. 1-3 John In her commentary on John's letters, Karen H. Jobes writes to bridge the distance between academic biblical studies and pastors, students, and laypeople who are looking for an in-depth treatment of the issues raised by these New Testament books. She approaches the three letters of John as part of the corpus that includes John’s gospel, while rejecting an elaborate redactional history of that gospel that implicates the letters. Jobes treats three major themes of the letters under the larger rubric of who has the authority to interpret the true significance of Jesus, an issue that is pressing in our religiously pluralistic society today with its many voices claiming truth about God.

What if the texts of the canonical Gospel authors provide commentary alongside the texts they created? That is the interpretative question pursued in many of these essays that supplement the collection done in 2012 for Wipf and Stock. Taking a cue from Aratos and Vergil, among others, these studies point to configurations of letters that reference some aspect of the topic dealt with in already integral words in the main text. Attention to letters sprinkled throughout a passage may uncover integral words on their own “but the beholder wanting.” Through this lens, one may trace the formative influence of the letters Yhwh on Isaiah and Matthew, hear more echoes of Homer and Pindar in Mark, observe extensive engagement with Aratos in Luke-Acts, and the descriptor “beloved” used of Judas in John. Through this lens, one may detect that Matthew and Luke focused on the Pentateuch as a whole when they supplement Mark. The intercalated letters of the Gospel writers’ names in the Farewell Discourse of John also suggest that he self-consciously works within the lineup that we now know. This reading strategy is an art as much as a science, but, when used responsibly, it opens a new question within traditional redactional investigations.

Acts is the sequel to Luke's gospel and tells the story of Jesus's followers during the 30 years after his death. It describes how the 12 apostles, formerly Jesus's disciples, spread the message of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean against a background of persecution. With an introduction by P.D. James

This careful, sometimes innovative, mid-level commentary touches on an astonishingly wide swath of important, sensitive issues - theological and pastoral - that have urgent resonances in twenty-first-century life. This thorough commentary presents a coherent reading of 1 Corinthians, taking full account of its Old Testament and Jewish roots and demonstrating Paula's primary concern for the unity and purity of the church and the glory of God. Those who preach and teach 1 Corinthians will be grateful to Ciampa and Rosner for years to come and scholars will be challenged to see this letter with fresh eyes.

The Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, and the book of Revelation are accompanied by select commentaries from the Church Fathers, more recent saints and spiritual masters, and Bishop Robert Barron. Includes artworks inspired by or illuminating Scripture passages with essays by Michael Stevens and others.