Informed by the historical evidence and with a sharp eye for telltale clues in the Apostle Paul's letters, E. Randolph Richards takes us into his world and places us on the scene with Paul the letter writer offering a glimpse that overthrows our preconceptions and offers a new perspective on how this important portion of Christian Scripture came to be.

How did Paul use his secretaries? Did he rely on co-authors? Did his rhetorical education affect the way he organised his material? This book confronts these questions on the basis of extensive quotations from classical Greek and Latin authors. A synoptic survey of the beginnings and ends of the letters brings out the extent to which Paul both used and adapted current epistolary conventions. The intention of the book is to humanize the Pauline letters and make their complex theology less daunting. (Adapted from back cover).

A new examination of a classic Christian text begins with the Greek text of the Corinthians and outlines the most important theological, ethical, and socio-historical issues surrounding this seminal book.

This clear and user-friendly introduction to the interpretive method called "epistolary analysis" shows how focusing on the form and function of Paul's letters yields valuable insights into the apostle's purpose and meaning. The author helps readers interpret Paul's letters properly by paying close attention to the apostle's use of ancient letter-writing conventions. Paul is an extremely skilled letter writer who deliberately adapts or expands traditional epistolary forms so that his persuasive purposes are enhanced. This is an ideal supplemental textbook for courses on Paul or the New Testament. It contains numerous analyses of key Pauline texts, including a final chapter analyzing the apostle's Letter to Philemon as a "test case" to demonstrate the benefits of this interpretive approach.

Paul was the talk of the marketplace and the raconteur of the Parthenon. Maybe it's time to give Paul a break, let go of some stereotypes and try to get to know him on his own terms. Let David B. Capes, Rodney Reeves, and E. Randolph Richards be your guides in this book that helps us find Paul again through contemporary scholarship.

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.

Letter collections in late antiquity give witness to the flourishing of letter-writing, with the development of the mostly formulaic exchanges between elites of the Graeco-Roman world to a more wide-ranging correspondence by bishops and monks, as well as emperors and Gothic kings. The contributors to this volume study individual collections from the first to sixth centuries CE, ranging from the Pauline and Deutero-Pauline letters through monastic letters from Egypt, bishops' letter collections and early papal collections compiled for various purposes. This is the first multi-authored study of New Testament and late antique letter collections, crossing the traditional divide between these disciplines by focusing on Latin, Greek, Coptic and Syriac epistolary sources. It draws together leading scholars in the field of late antique epistolography from Australasia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

* How did Paul's background as a Jewish rabbi inform his message? * Did Paul believe that the Church was one, holy, catholic, and apostolic? * Did Paul hold that we are justified by faith alone? * Did Paul teach baptismal regeneration? * Did Paul hold that one might "fall from grace"? * Did Paul consider himself to be a "priest"? Discover a theologian who is sacramental, a churchman who is hierarchical, a mystic who is orthodox-a Paul who is Catholic.

How does Jesus fulfill over three hundred Old Testament Prophecies? (each listed inside this book) Is Catholicism inherently Anti-Semitic? Do the Hebrew Scriptures accurately predict Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah? How does Jewish thinking presuppose devotion to Mary? Is the Catholic Church a fulfillment of historic Israel? How do Jewish water rituals relate to Catholic baptism? Is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass a Passover meal? Should the Catholic priesthood conform to the priesthood established by Moses? How has the Jewish Temple influenced traditional Christian architecture? Does the Pope wear a yarmulke? Praise for The Crucified Rabbi "Taylor Marshall helps us to be more Catholic by taking our faith to its most profound depths - its ancient roots in the religion of Israel, the Judaism beloved by the Apostles, the religion of the Temple and Synagogue, the Torah and the sacrifice. Jesus said he came not to abolish that faith but to fulfill it. In this book, we see that fullness down to the smallest details. I treasure this book." Mike Aquilina, author of The Fathers of the Church "Such sparkling insights appear on almost every page, as Taylor Marshall deftly compares various features of Judaism to their Catholic counterparts: the priesthood, vestments, holy days, marriage, and saints, to name but a few. Saint Augustine's dictum, "The New Covenant is in the Old, concealed; the Old Covenant is in the New, revealed" is on full display in The Crucified Rabbi --Cale Clarke, Catholic Insight Magazine "This is a fascinating book full of interesting details. The Crucified Rabbi should be required reading for every student of the Catholic faith." Father Dwight Longenecker, author of Mary: A Catholic/Evangelical Debate