Brief Contents Section I: The Old Testament Part One: Formative Experiences (Chapters 1-4) 1: Introducing the Old Testament 14 2: The Founding of a Nation 38 3: New People in an Old Land 57 4: A King Like Other Nations 74 Part Two: Crisis and Hope (Chapters 5-8) 5: Two Kingdoms 102 6: Judah and Jerusalem 125 7: Dashed Hopes and New Horizons 149 8: The Challenge of a New Age 178 Part Three: Standing before God (Chapters 9-12) 9: God and the World 203 10: Living as the People of God 218 11: Worship 240 12: From Hebrew Bible to Old Testament 267 5
Brief Contents Section II: The New Testament Part Four: Jesus at the Center (Chapters 13-18) 13: The Beginning of the Story 288 14: Jesus Birth and Early Years 318 15: Jesus and His Message 330 16: Stories and Signs 350 17: Crucifixion 376 18: Resurrection 395 Part Five: The Gospels and Acts (Chapters 19-21) 19: Understanding the Gospels 409 20: Four Portraits of Jesus 428 21: Engaging with the Wider World 449 Part Six: The Apostle Paul (Chapters 22-25) 22: Paul: From Persecutor to Apostle 471 23: Travels and Letters 495 24: Paul and His Churches 521 25: The End of the Journey 546 Part Seven: Christian Self-Definition (Chapters 26-28) 26: The Church and its Jewish Origins 571 27: Heresy, Orthodoxy, and Organization 605 28: Reading and Understanding the New Testament 628 6
Section I: The Old Testament PART ONE: FORMATIVE EXPERIENCES 1: Introducing the Old Testament 14 The story 18 Understanding the story 22 The story and the faith 26 Literary style 29 Organization and structure 32 2: The Founding of a Nation 38 National identity 40 The birth of the nation 45 3: New People in an Old Land 57 Canaan and its history 57 The emergence of Israel 60 The judges 68 4: A King Like Other Nations 74 Samuel and the ark 75 Saul 76 David 80 Solomon 84 After Solomon 91 Society and religion 92 Wisdom 95 PART two: crisis and hope 5: Two Kingdoms 102 A kingdom divided 102 New alliances 109 New prosperity and false security 116 6: Judah and Jerusalem 125 Danger and uncertainty 125 False confidence 130 Reform and renewal 134 Jeremiah and the fall of Jerusalem 140 7: dashed Hopes and New Horizons 149 Dealing with disaster 150 By the rivers of Babylon 152 A new beginning 162 Renewing the covenant 170 8: The Challenge of a New Age 178 A new empire 182 Jews and Greeks 184 Keeping the faith 188 7
The end of the story 198 PART three: standing before god 9: God and the World 203 Discovering God in nature and history 203 The stories of Genesis 208 10: Living as the People of God 218 Belief and behaviour 218 Discovering God s will through wisdom 221 Discovering God s will in the Law 229 From theory to practice 231 Explaining God s will 236 11: Worship 240 Worshipping a holy God 240 Places of worship 243 The character of worship 253 Times for worship 263 12: From Hebrew Bible to Old Testament 267 Questions of belief 268 Questions of behaviour 276 Glimpses of a different future 283 Section II: The NewTestament PART four: jesus at the center 13: The Beginning of the Story 288 From Jesus of Nazareth to early Christianity 289 The Greek heritage 294 Palestine and its people 306 Religious loyalties 310 14: Jesus Birth and Early Years 318 Jesus grows up 320 John the Baptist 323 Temptations and priorities 327 15: Jesus and His Message 330 The kingdom of God 330 A new way of being 334 Who did Jesus think he was? 340 16: Stories and Signs 350 Jesus the teacher 350 Parables and their meaning 352 The parables and their message 357 Signs of the kingdom 363 The message of the miracles 365 17: Crucifixion 376 Opposition and conflict 377 Jesus on trial 378 Understanding the death of Jesus 380 18: Resurrection 395 Evidence from the New Testament 396 Facts and faith 399 The meaning of it all 404 PART five: the gospels and acts 19: Understanding the Gospels 409 What is a gospel? 409 Gathering the stories 416 Putting the gospels together 419 8
New light on old problems 423 20: Four Portraits of Jesus 428 Mark 428 Luke 432 Matthew 435 John 440 21: Engaging with the Wider World 449 Back to Jesus 449 The church is born 453 The church grows 456 Tensions and conflicts 457 Moving beyond Jerusalem 460 PART six: the apostle paul 22: Paul: From Persecutor to Apostle 471 Paul s early life 471 Significant influences in Paul s life 473 Paul and the earliest church 481 Blasphemy and persecution 486 The Damascus road 487 Paul and the Jerusalem Christians 490 Paul and the Gentiles 491 23: Travels and Letters 495 From Antioch to Cyprus 495 The first Gentile churches 496 Judaizers 497 Paul the letter writer 498 Paul writes to the Galatian churches 499 The Apostolic Council 504 Back to Galatia 505 Philippi 508 Athens 510 Corinth 512 More letters 513 24: Paul and His Churches 521 Ephesus 522 Paul and the church at Corinth 523 1 Corinthians 525 More arguments and letters 532 Looking toward Rome 537 25: The End of the Journey 546 The collection for Jerusalem 546 Under arrest 548 Destination Rome 549 Letters from prison 552 Timothy and Titus 565 PART seven: christian selfdefinition 26: The Church and its Jewish Origins 571 James on Christian morality 572 Hebrews on Jewish ritual 579 1 Peter on Christians and the covenant 586 The book of Revelation on Christian hope 598 27: Heresy, Orthodoxy, and Organization 605 Letters to seven churches 606 1 John 609 Jude and 2 Peter 614 The Spirit and the letter 615 The institutional church 616 The changing church 618 9
28: Reading and Understanding the New Testament 628 Beginning where we are 628 The text s own context 634 Discovering the message 636 Special Articles Chapter 1 How many books are in the Old Testament? 30 Archaeology and the Old Testament 36 Chapter 2 The ark of the covenant 51 The form of the covenant 52 Dating the exodus and conquest 54 Chapter 3 Canaanites and Israelites 66 Israel and the religion of Canaan 70 Editing the stories 72 Chapter 4 Israel becomes a state 79 The stories about David and Solomon 89 The psalms and Israel s worship 94 The Wisdom books 95 Chapter 5 The book of Amos 118 The Assyrians 120 Hosea and the fall of Samaria 122 Chapter 6 Three prophets 138 The Lachish Letters 144 Prophets and prophecy 146 Chapter 7 The book of Lamentations 151 Ezekiel 155 The Pentateuch 158 Isaiah of Babylon 164 Haggai and Zechariah 169 Two dissidents 174 The work of the Chronicler 176 Chapter 8 The book of Daniel and the Maccabean crisis 193 Wrestling with a hidden God 199 The books of the Maccabees 201 Chapter 9 Creation stories in context 214 Chapter 10 Wisdom and faith 227 Chapter 11 Understanding the psalms 254 Understanding sacrifice 261 Chapter 13 Traditional Greek religion 299 Jews and Judaism in the Roman empire 304 Chapter 15 Eschatology and the kingdom 336 The kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven 339 The meaning of Son of Man 341 Chapter 16 Why did Jesus teach in parables? 356 Did Jesus abolish the Old Testament Law? 362 Miracle stories in context 368 The quest for the historical Jesus 370 Identifying the authentic words of Jesus 373 Chapter 17 Who condemned Jesus? 388 Pontius Pilate 389 The Last Supper 390 Chapter 18 The resurrection stories 400 The ascension 405 Chapter 20 Redaction criticism 447 10
Chapter 21 The Day of Pentecost 455 Stephen s death 458 The Acts of the Apostles 464 Chapter 22 The different accounts of Paul s conversion 490 What happened after Paul s conversion? 493 Chapter 23 Who were the Galatians? 506 1 Thessalonians 515 2 Thessalonians 517 Did Paul write 2 Thessalonians? 518 Paul s strategy for evangelism 520 Chapter 24 Paul and his Jewish roots 541 Chapter 25 City life in the Roman empire 550 When did Paul die? 551 Colossians 554 Philemon 555 Ephesians 557 Did Paul write Ephesians? 558 Philippians 560 Was Paul really inclusive? 562 When was Paul imprisoned? 566 Did Paul write the Pastorals? 567 Chapter 26 The letter of James 575 Faith and works in Paul and James 578 Hebrews in context 581 Who wrote 1 Peter? 588 Liturgical themes in 1 Peter 594 Peter and the church in Rome 596 The author and date of Revelation 604 Chapter 27 The Johannine epistles 612 The communism of the early Jerusalem church 625 Putting the New Testament together 626 Chapter 28 The historical-critical method 637 The text of the New Testament 640 Glossary 645 Other Resources 668 Index 673 Acknowledgments 689 11