Metaphor And The Portrayal Of The Cause S Of Sin And Evil In The Gospel Of Matthew

Metaphor and the Portrayal of the Cause(s) of Sin and Evil in the Gospel of Matthew traces the range and significance of metaphors regarding the origin and sin and evil in Matthew and their congruence with texts of his milieu.

Stanley E. Porter provides descriptions of various important topics in Greek linguistics from a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) perspective; an approach that has been foundational to Porter's long and influential career in the field of New Testament Greek. Deep insights into Porter's understanding of SFL are displayed throughout, based either upon how he positions SFL in relation to other linguistic models, or how he utilizes it to describe topics within Greek and New Testament studies. Porter reflects on his core approach to the Greek New Testament by exploring subjects such as metaphor, rhetoric, cognition, orality and textuality, as well as studies on linguistic schools of thought and traditional grammar.

The Lord’s Prayer unites Christians throughout history, speaking across the divides of language, place, and tradition. The oldest prayer of the church, it continues to speak to the lived reality of believers around the world, while inviting the body of Christ into a deeper understanding of the nature of God, discipleship, and the calling to holistic mission. Ama Namin brings together the voices of Filipino evangelical scholars in a profound work of contextual and biblical theology. Each chapter explores a portion of the Lord’s Prayer against the backdrop of Scripture and the foreground of Philippine life and spirituality. Contributors examine the rich history of the Lord’s Prayer in the Philippines – a history dating back to the first printed translation in 1593 – as well as its implications for the Philippines’ future, providing the church a foundation for public engagement and social transformation. Ama Namin provides a valuable teaching resource for the Philippine church and for all those longing to deepen their understanding of prayer, the contextualization of Scripture, and the love of the heavenly Father.

This study argues for the recovery of trust as a central theme in Christian theology, and offers the first theology of trust in the New Testament. 'Trust' is the root meaning of Christian 'faith' (pistis, fides), and trusting in God and Christ is still fundamental to Christians. But unlike faith, and other aspects of faith such as belief or hope, trust is little studied. Building on her ground-breaking study Roman Faith and Christian Faith, and drawing on the philosophy and psychology of trust, Teresa Morgan explores the significance of trust, trustworthiness, faithfulness, and entrustedness in New Testament writings. Trust between God, Christ, and humanity is revealed as a risky, dynamic, forward-looking, life-changing partnership. God entrusts Christ with winning the trust of humanity and bringing humanity to trust in God. God and Christ trust humanity to respond to God's initiative through Christ, and entrust the faithful with diverse forms of work for humanity and for creation. Human understanding of God and Christ is limited, and trust and faithfulness often fail, but imperfect trust is not a deal-breaker. Morgan develops a new model of atonement, showing how trust enables humanity's release from the power of both sin and suffering. She examines the neglected concept of propositional trust and argues that it plays a key role in faith. This volume offers a compelling vision of Christian trust as soteriological, ethical, and community-forming. Trust is both the means of salvation and an end in itself, because where we trust is where we most fully live.

Joshua D. A. Bloor argues that the purification of the consciousness of sin, via Jesus' perpetual heavenly blood offering, is a vital motif for understanding Hebrews' sacrificial argumentation, and vice-versa. Jesus' 'objective' earthly achievements are many, yet only his 'subjective' heavenly blood offering purges the heavenly tabernacle and subsequently the consciousness of sin. Bloor views the Levitical cult as having a positive role in Hebrews, with Levitical 'guilt' foreshadowing and informing Hebrews' notion of the 'consciousness of sin'. Levitical sacrifices could purge the consciousness, but only Jesus' heavenly blood can offer complete perpetual purgation. This blood is a qualitative type of purgation which continually speaks in heaven, offering eternal assurance for the recipients regarding their consciousness of sin. Bloor begins with the 'defiled consciousness' and situates the world of Hebrews within cultic defilement, enabling the consciousness of sin and its cosmic implications to be properly understood. From here, the solution to a defiled consciousness is explored by examining Hebrews' cultic argumentation. Bloor highlights the distinctive purposes inherent in both Jesus' earthly and heavenly achievements, with the latter concerned particularly with Yom Kippur imagery and the purgation of the consciousness. Bloor concludes by differentiating between Jesus' session, present heavenly activity and perpetual heavenly blood offering. Throughout this volume, Bloor engages, critiques and advances current discourse concerning the nature and timing of Jesus' offering in Hebrews.

The night before his crucifixion, in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asks his Father to take away the cup of his suffering, but then says, "not my will, but yours, be done." Shortly afterward, Judas arrives, and his arrival reveals something important about the Father's will. Yet much remains obscure. The sheer fact of Christ's crucifixion shows only that God was not willing to spare his Son. It does not shed any light on the positive content of the Father's will. Drawing on philosophical analysis and historical-critical exegesis, The Father's Will sets out to clarify the Father's will for Christ and how it relates to his death on the cross. Then, after considering the theologies of Anselm and Peter Abelard, it argues for the recovery of the early Christian category of ransom. Since Christians look to the crucifixion to make sense of their suffering, the Father's will for Christ relates to many existential questions; it also shapes the place of God the Father in Christian theology and culture. Interpreting the crucifixion as a ransom makes the goodness of God more evident. It also makes it easier to see God the Father as the author of our salvation, rather than a stern judge who must be placated. And since the category of ransom traces back to Jesus' saying in the Gospels about giving his life "as a ransom for many" it has great claim to interpret the crucifixion in the way Jesus himself interpreted it.