Among The Gentiles

Presenting a fresh inquiry into early Christianity and Greco-Roman paganism, Luke Timothy Johnson begins with a broad definition of religion as a way of life organized around convictions and experiences concerning ultimate power.

This exciting new interpretation of Pauls Letter to the Romans approaches Pauls most famous letter from one of the newest scholarly positions within Pauline Studies: The Radical New Perspective on Paul (also known as Paul within Judaism). As a point of departure, the author takes Pauls self-designation in 11:13 as apostle to the gentiles as so determining for Pauls mission that the audience of the letter is perceived to be exclusively gentile. The study finds confirmation of this reading-strategy in the letters construction of the interlocutor from chapter 2 onwards. Even in 2:17, where Paul describes the interlocutor as someone who calls himself a Jew, it requests to perceive this person as a gentile who presents himself as a Jew and not an ethnic Jew. If the interlocutor is perceived in this way throughout the letter, the dialogue between Paul and the interlocutor can be perceived as a continuous, unified and developing dialogue. In this way, this interpretation of Romans sketches out a position against a more disparate and fragmentary interpretation of Romans.

"In the past it was commonly thought that Jews were involved in active missionary efforts during the second temple period, but McKnight argues that they were not. Read any discussion about the question of a Jewish mission in the 2nd temple period, and this book by McKnight is usually credited with changing the previous consensus to a new one around his view. So the book is important, and McKnight has worked hard and done his homework in the original sources" -- Amazon.com.

This exciting new interpretation of Pauls Letter to the Romans approaches Pauls most famous letter from one of the newest scholarly positions within Pauline Studies: The Radical New Perspective on Paul (also known as Paul within Judaism). As a point of departure, the author takes Pauls self-designation in 11:13 as apostle to the gentiles as so determining for Pauls mission that the audience of the letter is perceived to be exclusively gentile. The study finds confirmation of this reading-strategy in the letters construction of the interlocutor from chapter 2 onwards. Even in 2:17, where Paul describes the interlocutor as someone who calls himself a Jew, it requests to perceive this person as a gentile who presents himself as a Jew and not an ethnic Jew. If the interlocutor is perceived in this way throughout the letter, the dialogue between Paul and the interlocutor can be perceived as a continuous, unified and developing dialogue. In this way, this interpretation of Romans sketches out a position against a more disparate and fragmentary interpretation of Romans.

“A beautifully presented book on Jewish diversity around the world . . . opens windows into lives from the hills of Portugal to the plains of Africa.” —The Jerusalem Post With vibrant photographs and intricate accounts Scattered Among the Nations tells the story of the world’s most isolated Jewish communities in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Former Soviet Union and the margins of Europe. Over two thousand years ago, a shipwreck left seven Jewish couples stranded off India’s Konkan Coast, south of Bombay. Those hardy survivors stayed, built a community, and founded one of the fascinating groups described in this book—the Bene Israel of India’s Maharasthra Province. This story is unique, but it is not unusual. We have all heard the phrase “the lost tribes of Israel,” but never has the truth and wonder of the Diaspora been so lovingly and richly illustrated. To create this amazing chronicle of faith and resilience, the authors visited Jews in thirty countries across five continents, hearing origin stories and family histories that stretch back for millennia. “Beautiful, even breathtaking . . . a Jewish (Inter) National Geographic, wisely reminding us that the strategies for survival of Jews in distant lands may be relevant to our own.” —Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, Emanu-El Scholar at Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco and author of I’m God; You’re Not “This exquisite book is a gift to the Jewish people, dramatically stretching our understanding of ‘Jewish’ . . . A book to be savored, read and re-read, and transmitted from one generation to the next.” —Yossi Klein Halevi, Senior Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem

Middle East History as you have never seen it before with over 200 illustrations to enhance your reading experience across more than 640 pages. This is probably the most historically accurate and comprehensive study of the Times of the Gentiles ever produced. It does not adhere to any theological preferences or make reference to the Book of Revelation, so often used by Christian theologians to support a particular interpretation. Instead, I have followed the historical evidence to where it has led and as a result I have reached some startling and amazing conclusions. If there is any book that the reader should read on this subject it is this one. By the time you have finished reading it you will be in the enviable position to truly appreciate what is happening in the Middle East today and where it is leading to. Today's news stories of the region will now make more sense, and you will see the world with different eyes. This book is written for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike but primarily seen through the eyes of the Jews, because it is they who have been trampled upon by the nations for almost two thousand years, throughout the Times of the Gentiles. This tragedy that has prevailed for this long period of time has been of the Jews own making. Throughout the ages they have been led by a rabbinical elite who have instigated the greatest cover up in history, who even to modified their holy writings, the Tanakh (Old Testament), to cover their tracks. Not only did they know when the Messiah would come but when he did, they conspired to put him to death. So, Yahshua ben Joseph better known as Jesus prophesised against them, condemning the Jews to a long period of Gentile servitude as a precursor to His return. It is against the backdrop of Jerusalem being trampled upon by the nations that we follow the fortunes of the Jews as they were scattered among the nations struggling to understand why God had abandoned them for so long. We see how and why the Jews were temporarily cut off from the blessings of a relationship with God which was given to the Gentiles. We also see how corruption entered the Christian communities so that one Church emerged from the ruins of Rome and changed the simplicity of the Gospel to teach doctrines of demons, including one that would forever be a stumbling block to the Jews. We shall see prophesies and history merge in incredible ways and the words of Jesus and the Hebrew prophets coming alive. They tell of the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple; the coming of the false Messiah, the building of the abomination of desolation where it should not be; the scattering of the Jews to all the nations; how God thwarted the building of the Third Temple several times; the appearance of the Suffering Messiah, the rise of the false Prophet and a Muslim king that entered Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate on a donkey; the sealing of the gate and the attempts to open it continuously foiled; Palestine becoming a desolate wasteland; the gathering of the Jews from the nations by an ungodly Zionist secular government, the creation of Israel in a single day; the link between the Cuban Crisis and end of the Gentile Times, the miracle of the Six-Day war; the recovery of all the lands that had been ancient Israel in former times; the extraordinary events on the Temple Mount in 1967 - and so on. All of which was foretold by the Jesus and the prophets. In fact, what you will read is an extraordinary story, full of twists and turns, in which we see God intervening in human affairs as he ensures that His Divine Plan for the redemption of mankind through his Messiah continues unhindered. Whether you follow Judaism, Christianity or Islam, this is one book that you will not want to ignore.

These seminal essays introduce the reader to the interdisciplinary approach of New Testament scholarship which is affecting the way the Book of Acts is studied and interpreted. Insights from the social sciences, narratological studies, Greek and Roman rhetoric and history, and classics, set the Acts of the Apostles in its original historical, literary and social context; these methods of interpretation have not always been applied to biblical study in a systematic way. The discussions from a shared general perspective range over genre and method, historical and theological problems, and issues of literary criticism. History, Literature and Society in the Book of Acts is an interesting and valuable overview of some of the chief preoccupations of biblical studies with contributions from leading scholars in the Old and New Testaments and the history of antiquity.