Exploring Biblical Kinship

Exploring Biblical Kinship honors John J. Pilch, a long-time member of the Catholic Biblical Association and a founding member of the Context Group. The festschrift, generated by the Social-Science Taskforce of the CBA explores biological and fictive kinship issues reflected in the lives of biblical persons. The essays in Part One deal with how patronage operates in biblical culture. Part Two analyzes family dynamics, commencing with an essay on violence contributed by the honoree. Part Three delves into kinship, descent, and discipleship. The text reflects the enduring influence of a renowned social-science scholar.

Exploring Biblical Kinship honors John J. Pilch, a long-time member of the Catholic Biblical Association and a founding member of the Context Group. The festschrift, generated by the Social-Science Taskforce of the CBA explores biological and fictive kinship issues reflected in the lives of biblical persons. The essays in Part One deal with how patronage operates in biblical culture. Part Two analyzes family dynamics, commencing with an essay on violence contributed by the honoree. Part Three delves into kinship, descent, and discipleship. The text reflects the enduring influence of a renowned social-science scholar.

The global crisis of forced displacement is growing every year. At the same time, Western Christians' sympathy toward refugees is increasingly overshadowed by concerns about personal and national security, economics, and culture. We urgently need a perspective that understands both Scripture and current political realities and that can be applied at the levels of the church, the nation, and the globe. In Refuge Reimagined, Mark R. Glanville and Luke Glanville offer a new approach to compassion for displaced people: a biblical ethic of kinship. God's people, they argue, are consistently called to extend kinship—a mutual responsibility and solidarity—to those who are marginalized and without a home. Drawing on their respective expertise in Old Testament studies and international relations, the two brothers engage a range of disciplines to demonstrate how this ethic is consistently conveyed throughout the Bible and can be practically embodied today. Glanville and Glanville apply the kinship ethic to issues such as the current mission of the church, national identity and sovereignty, and possibilities for a cooperative global response to the refugee crisis. Challenging the fear-based ethic that often motivates Christian approaches, they envision a more generous, creative, and hopeful way forward. Refuge Reimagined will equip students, activists, and anyone interested in refugee issues to understand the biblical model for communities and how it can transform our world.

While the canonical scriptures were produced over many centuries and represent a diverse library of texts, they are unified by stories of divine covenants and their implications for God's people. In this book, Scott Hahn shows how covenant, as an overarching theme, makes possible a coherent reading of the diverse traditions found within the canonical scriptures. Biblical covenants, though varied in form and content, all serve the purpose of extending sacred bonds of kinship, Hahn explains. Specifically, divine covenants form and shape a father-son bond between God and the chosen people. Biblical narratives turn on that fact, and biblical theology depends upon it. The author demonstrates how divine sonship represents a covenant relationship with God that has been consistent throughout salvation history. --From publisher's description.

For contemporary Western readers, it can be easy to miss or misread cultural nuances in the New Testament. To hear the text correctly we must be attuned to its original context. As David deSilva demonstrates, keys to interpretation are found in paying attention to four essential cultural themes: honor and shame, patronage and reciprocity, kinship and family, and purity and pollution. Through our understanding of honor and shame in the Mediterranean world, we gain new appreciation for how early Christians sustained commitment to a distinctive Christian identity and practice. By examining the protocols of patronage and reciprocity, we grasp more firmly the connections between God’s grace and our response. In exploring kinship and household relations, we grasp more fully the ethos of the early Christian communities as a new family brought together by God. And by investigating the notions of purity and pollution along with their associated practices, we realize how the ancient map of society and the world was revised by the power of the gospel. This new edition is thoroughly revised and expanded with up-to-date scholarship. A milestone work in the study of New Testament cultural backgrounds, Honor, Patronage, Kinship, and Purity offers a deeper appreciation of the New Testament, the gospel, and Christian discipleship.

Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians boasts a preponderance of fictive kinship terms (e.g. father, children, nursing mother, brother etc). In this book, Burke shows that Paul is drawing on the normal social expectations of family members in antiquity to regulate the affairs of the community. Family metaphors would have resonated immediately with Paul's readers and the author surveys a broad range of ancient texts to identify stock meanings of the father-child and brother-brother relations. These stereotypical attitudes are explored to understand Paul's paternal relations (2:10-12) with his Thessalonian children and in resolving sexual immorality (4:3-8) and the refusal by some brothers to work (4:9-12; 5:12-15). This study has implications for the structure of early Christian communities.

Same-sex marriage may be legal in America, but its still far from the accepted norm, especially in Christian circles. So where can LBGTQ Christians who desire a lifelong, covenantal relationship look for dating and marriage advice when Christian relationship guides have not only simply ignored but actively excluded same-sex couples? David and Constantino Khalaf struggled to find relational role models and guidance throughout dating, their engagement, and the early months of their marriage. To fill this void, they began writing Modern Kinship, a blog exploring the unique challenges queer couples face on the road from singleness to marital bliss. Part personal reflection, part commentary, and full of practical advice, Modern Kinship explores the biblical concept of kinship from a twenty-first-century perspective. This important resource tackles subjects such as dating outside of smartphone apps, overcoming church and family issues, meeting your partners parents, deciding when and how to have children, and finding your mission as a couple. Modern Kinship encourages queer Christian couples to build God-centered partnerships of trust and mutuality.

A biblical scholar identifies the covenant as an overarching theme among diverse biblical texts.