Did Luke interview eyewitnesses to write his Gospel? Living Footnotes in the Gospel of Luke provides a careful, thorough examination of Luke’s claims (Luke 1:1–4), demonstrating that he not only claims to use living sources but also did so. It builds a corroborative evidence case towards this end, not merely by accumulating unrelated strands of evidence, but by showing the interconnectedness of independent lines of subtle clues in Luke’s text. These historically rich, unintentional features weave together to generate a robust impression upon the reader: Luke not only relied on living informants but in fact sifted his sources in preference of eyewitness testimony.

The Book of Martyrs by John Foxe written in the sixteenth century has long been the go-to source for studying the lives and martyrdom of the apostles. While other scholars have written individual treatments on the more prominent apostles such as Peter, Paul, John, and James, there is little published information on the other apostles. In The Fate of the Apostles, Sean McDowell offers a comprehensive, reasoned, historical analysis of the fate of the Twelve disciples of Jesus along with the apostles Paul and James, the brother of Jesus. McDowell assesses the evidence for each apostle’s martyrdom as well as determining its significance to the reliability of their testimony. The question of the fate of the apostles also gets to the heart of the reliability of the kerygma: Did the apostles really believe Jesus appeared to them after his death, or did they fabricate the entire story? How reliable are the resurrection accounts? The willingness of the apostles to die for their faith is a popular argument in resurrection studies. In this thoroughly updated new edition, McDowell offers insightful scholarly analysis of this argument to break new ground within the spheres of New Testament studies, Church History, and apologetics.

Is God really for us? It has been said that no person ever rises above their view of God. Whom we worship, what we worship, is irrevocably tied to who we become. Worship predicts identity. Without a new vision of God there can be no new vision of hope. In the middle of Luke's Gospel, in chapter 15, are three of Jesus's most treasured parables. They are the "holy, holy, holy" of Luke's Gospel. The parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and the parable of the lost son(s)" are more than earthly stories with heavenly meanings. They are images of theological revolution. For People Like Us is not merely a commentary on these parables; it is a study that captures a fresh vision of what God is like. This vision not only influences our reading of Luke 15, but our reading of this text, in turn, influences our theology. Once we appreciate this, we find that God, the creator of innumerable stars, is not merely for us. It is his honor to be so.

Did Luke interview eyewitnesses to write his Gospel? Living Footnotes in the Gospel of Luke provides a careful, thorough examination of Luke’s claims (Luke 1:1–4), demonstrating that he not only claims to use living sources but also did so. It builds a corroborative evidence case towards this end, not merely by accumulating unrelated strands of evidence, but by showing the interconnectedness of independent lines of subtle clues in Luke’s text. These historically rich, unintentional features weave together to generate a robust impression upon the reader: Luke not only relied on living informants but in fact sifted his sources in preference of eyewitness testimony.

In this “compulsively readable exploration of the tangled world of Christian origins” (Publishers Weekly), religious historian James Tabor illuminates the earliest years of Jesus’ teachings before Paul shaped them into the religion we know today. This fascinating examination of the earliest years of Christianity reveals how the man we call St. Paul shaped Christianity as we know it today. Historians know almost nothing about the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, when his followers regrouped and began to spread his message. During this time Paul joined the movement and began to preach to the gentiles. Using the oldest Christian documents that we have—the letters of Paul—as well as other early Chris­tian sources, historian and scholar James Tabor reconstructs the origins of Christianity. Tabor shows how Paul separated himself from Peter and James to introduce his own version of Christianity, which would continue to develop independently of the message that Jesus, James, and Peter preached. Paul and Jesus illuminates the fascinating period of history when Christianity was born out of Judaism.

The Christ Is Dead, Long Live the Christ: A Philotheologic Prayer, a Hermeneutics of Healing is a call for renewal and reinvention. Following a brief examination of the historical Jesus (Yeshua, using his actual Aramaic/Hebrew name), the book moves into a phenomenological study of the image, idea, and the place of both in our felt experiences. Looking closer at what we think were the actual words of this wandering sage, the picture we arrive at is one that will surprise, possibly unsettle. Moved out of our traditional comfort zones, we find the need to question what we have been told were Yeshua's teachings, compelling us to further rethink messages on the afterlife, human finitude, so-called atonement theologies, and above all the "kingdom of God." Whatever this vision was--and might yet be--it seems central to Yeshua's efforts, and so we finally weigh these "kingdom" facets against a broader ideascape, offering suggestions for how a Yeshuan "kingdom" project situated within the panoply of a widely comprehended Judaic way-of-being might yield fresh life to we who find worth in the utterances and what they point towards, to we who wonder about a more human(e) world.

In this engaging introduction to the New Testament, Professor Dale B. Martin presents a historical study of the origins of Christianity by analyzing the literature of the earliest Christian movements. Focusing mainly on the New Testament, he also considers nonbiblical Christian writings of the era. Martin begins by making a powerful case for the study of the New Testament. He next sets the Greco-Roman world in historical context and explains the place of Judaism within it. In the discussion of each New Testament book that follows, the author addresses theological themes, then emphasizes the significance of the writings as ancient literature and as sources for historical study. Throughout the volume, Martin introduces various early Christian groups and highlights the surprising variations among their versions of Christianity.

The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.