This book is a literary analysis of selections from Luke and Acts concerned with: (1) exploring what Luke communicates about God's kingdom by using language and imagery related to the Roman Empire; and (2) evaluating what this communication tells us about Luke's dispositions toward Rome.

The New Testament Gospels came into existence in a world ruled by Roman imperial power. Their main character, Jesus, is crucified on a Roman cross by a Roman governor. How do the Gospels interact with the structures, practices, and personnel of the Roman world? What strategies and approaches do the Gospels attest? What role for accommodation, for imitation, for critique, for opposition, for decolonizing, for reinscribing, for getting along, for survival? This book engages these questions by discussing the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ origins and birth, his teachings and miraculous actions, his entry to Jerusalem, his death, and his resurrection, ascension, and return. The book engages not only the first-century world but also raises questions about our own society’s structures and practices concerning the use of power, equitable access to resources, the practice of justice, and merciful and respectful societal interactions.

In this volume Joshua Paul Smith challenges the long-held assumption that Luke and Acts were written by a gentile, arguing instead that the author of these texts was educated and enculturated within a Second-Temple Jewish context. Advancing from a consciously interdisciplinary perspective, Smith considers the question of Lukan authorship from multiple fronts, including reception history and social memory theory, literary criticism, and the emerging discipline of cognitive sociolinguistics. The result is an alternative portrait of Luke the Evangelist, one who sees the mission to the gentiles not as a supersession of Jewish law and tradition, but rather as a fulfillment and expansion of Israel’s own salvation history.

At the heart of the Bible is a moral and ethical call to fight unjust superpowers, whether they are Babylon, Rome, or even America. From the divine punishment and promise found in Genesis through the revolutionary messages of Jesus and Paul, John Dominic Crossan reveals what the Bible has to say about land and economy, violence and retribution, justice and peace, and, ultimately, redemption. In contrast to the oppressive Roman military occupation of the first century, he examines the meaning of the non-violent Kingdom of God prophesized by Jesus and the equality advocated by Paul to the early Christian churches. Crossan contrasts these messages of peace with the misinterpreted apocalyptic vision from the Book of Revelation, which has been misrepresented by modern right-wing theologians and televangelists to justify U.S. military actions in the Middle East. In God and Empire Crossan surveys the Bible from Genesis to Apocalypse, or the Book of Revelation, and discovers a hopeful message that cannot be ignored in these turbulent times. The first-century Pax Romana, Crossan points out, was in fact a "peace" won through violent military action. Jesus preached a different kind of peace—a peace that surpasses all understanding—and a kingdom not of Caesar but of God. The Romans executed Jesus because he preached this Kingdom of God, a kingdom based on peace and justice, over the empire of Rome, which ruled by violence and force. For Jesus and Paul, Crossan explains, peace cannot be won the Roman way, through military victory, but only through justice and fair and equal treatment of all people.

Questions on identity have been often the main focus of Classical Studies. The starting point of this book is that identity is not a monolithic idea. Instead of exploring what exactly ‘identity’ is, the contributors here examine how the concept of ‘self-presentation’ can facilitate our understanding of how individuals present their identities. Moreover, the interpretation of the means and character of this self-presentation itself enables more general conclusions to be drawn. Topics covered in this volume include identities shaped through the self-presentation of authors in Latin literature, and explorations on epigraphy and historical analyses. Overall, using the theme of self-presentation, the contributors offer a glimpse into various subjects and suggest new ways for students and scholars to approach the different forms of individual and communal identities.

This title looks at what kind of responses Paul made to the Roman Empire. The author subjects the methods of current interpreters to critical scrutiny and discusses what makes an anti-imperial interpretation of Pauline writings difficult.

A new sociorhetorical study of Acts In Lydia as a Rhetorical Construct in Acts, Gruca-Macaulay explores the sociorhetorical function of the story of Lydia, a named Lydian woman ancient interpreters would have associated with cultural stereotypes of Lydians. As a rhetorical figure, Lydia both influenced and was influenced by the ideology of the surrounding text in Acts 16, as well as the approach Luke–Acts as a whole takes to people who are somehow like Lydia. Features: Displays the rhetorical-cultural portrayal of women in Luke-Acts from the perspective of a first-century Mediterranean audience as compared with the history of scholarship, specifically through a sociorhetorical interpretation of the role of Lydia in Acts Investigates the rhetorical function of Mediterranean social-cultural topoi in qualitative argumentation, with a focus on Greco-Roman physiognomy generally, and Lydian ethnography especially Introduces the rhetorical use of conceptual blending, particularly its application for gaining insight into the function of military discourse in developing the rhetorical force of the Lydia episode in Acts

A startling exploration of the history of the most controversial book of the Bible, by the bestselling author of Beyond Belief. Through the bestselling books of Elaine Pagels, thousands of readers have come to know and treasure the suppressed biblical texts known as the Gnostic Gospels. As one of the world's foremost religion scholars, she has been a pioneer in interpreting these books and illuminating their place in the early history of Christianity. Her new book, however, tackles a text that is firmly, dramatically within the New Testament canon: The Book of Revelation, the surreal apocalyptic vision of the end of the world . . . or is it? In this startling and timely book, Pagels returns The Book of Revelation to its historical origin, written as its author John of Patmos took aim at the Roman Empire after what is now known as "the Jewish War," in 66 CE. Militant Jews in Jerusalem, fired with religious fervor, waged an all-out war against Rome's occupation of Judea and their defeat resulted in the desecration of Jerusalem and its Great Temple. Pagels persuasively interprets Revelation as a scathing attack on the decadence of Rome. Soon after, however, a new sect known as "Christians" seized on John's text as a weapon against heresy and infidels of all kinds-Jews, even Christians who dissented from their increasingly rigid doctrines and hierarchies. In a time when global religious violence surges, Revelations explores how often those in power throughout history have sought to force "God's enemies" to submit or be killed. It is sure to appeal to Pagels's committed readers and bring her a whole new audience who want to understand the roots of dissent, violence, and division in the world's religions, and to appreciate the lasting appeal of this extraordinary text.

The purpose of the Essential Guides series is to fulfill the need for brief, substantive, yet highly accessible introductions to the core disciplines in biblical, theological, and religious studies

This book advances the interpretation of Romans by exploring how the Apostle Paul quoted, alluded to, or "echoed" the Jewish Scriptures. Contributors apply recent methodological and interpretive methods in intertextuality to advance our understanding of Paul's Letter to the Romans and suggest avenues for continued research and discussion.