Sparsa Collecta Part 1 Evangelia Paulina Acta

'But God Raised Him from the Dead' is the first comprehensive study of Jesus' resurrection in Luke-Acts. Through wide-sweeping research and detailed exegesis, Dr. Anderson supports the claim that the resurrection of Jesus is the focus of the message of salvation in Luke-Acts. The study situates Luke's resurrection theology within Jewish and Hellenistic conceptions of the afterlife, and addresses critical questions in Lukan studies, such as the relationship between resurrection, ascension, and exaltation and the vital linkage between Jesus' resurrection, the hope of Israel, and the final resurrection of the dead. 'But God Raised Him from the Dead' demonstrates how the resurrection of Messiah-Jesus is indispensable to the major theological dimensions of Luke's narrative of God's saving action. Jesus' resurrection is a key component in the divine plan to raise up the Savior for Israel, to extend God's saving benefits to the ends of the earth, and to guarantee the complete fulfillment of the hope of Israel and salvation of the people of God at the final resurrection of the dead.

Scholarship on the uses of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts has tended to focus upon the role played by the Old Testament in the development of the author's Christology. James Meek, however, draws out the theme of the Gentile mission in Acts as it relates to the Old Testament, and gives particular attention to four texts:13:47 (Isa 49:6); 15:16-18 (Amos 9:11-12); 2:17-21 (Joel 3:1-5 MT); 3:25 (Gen 22:18). The quotations in Acts 13 and 15 receive greater attention because they explicitly address the issue of the Gentile mission (the two earlier texts anticipate it) and because of particular interpretive questions raised by these texts. Meek argues that while there are similarities in the quotations in Acts with the Old Greek form of the cited texts, the argument never depends on distinctive readings of the Old Greek. He therefore rejects claims that the author's use of Old Testament texts is dependent entirely on the Old Greek. He also maintains that all four quotations are used in a manner consistent with their sense in their original contexts, contrary to the common assertion that the New Testament commonly cites Old Testament texts without regard for original sense or context. His third principal argument is that these Old Testament quotations function as "proof from prophecy," contrary to the argument of some. In particular, they are cited to demonstrate the legitimacy of the Gentile mission as conducted by the early church and of the Gentiles' place among the people of God, showing these ideas to be central to the author's purpose.

"Pauline Christianity" examines the reception of Acts and the 'Pauline' Luke by Irenaeus, the compositional intentions behind the construction of 'Pauline' Christianity in Acts, and the relation of the literary Paulinism of the author to the Paulinism of his sources.

The monograph analyses eucharistic texts on the basis of the social practices which generated them. Six stages of ideology are identified. Jesus himself practised fellowship at meals as celebrations of Israel's purity (stage 1), and later insisted that a pure meal was a better sacrifice than an offering in the Temple (stage 2). The circle of Peter made such meals into covenantal celebrations; Jesus became a new Moses (stage 3). In order to militate against the full participation of non-Jews, the circle of James invented the full identifications with Passover (stage 4). Paul resisted any such limitations (stage 5). The Synoptic tradition accepted the Jacobean chronology, but joined Paul in developing the Hellenistic theme of Jesus as heroic martyr, and in explaining eucharist as a means of effecting solidarity with Jesus (stage 5). The Johannine ideologies transformed the idiom of eucharist by making Jesus into the paschal lamb which is consumed (stage 6). A conclusion relates the practices identified to the sources behind the Gospels; and shows how practice is key to the meanings of eucharistic texts.

This study offers a fresh analysis of the place which "justification by faith" held in Paul's life and thought by reexamining Paul's conversion and his letter to Rome. It challenges the "new perspective on Paul" (Dunn), while providing a historical and theological description of Paul's understanding of forensic justification.

This study offers a fresh analysis of the place which "justification by faith" held in Paul's life and thought. In distinction from past attempts to define "justification" in relation to a logical "center", the investigation proceeds by assessing the relationship between this theme and two significant points in Paul's career: his conversion and his letter to Rome. The first chapter surveys a number of interpreters of Paul from William Wrede through E.P. Sanders. In an attempt to overcome the deficiencies of earlier proposals, the work then explores the soteriology of two early Jewish writings proximate to Paul, 1QS and Pss. Sol. Paul's references to his preconversion life reveal a connection between these forms of Judaism and that which Paul knew, making it likely that within a short time after his conversion Paul's soteriology underwent a radical change involving his adoption of ideas inherent to his later arguments on "justification by faith". Paul's aim in writing to Rome discloses that he came to regard "justification" as indispensable to his Gospel and relevant to issues beyond Jew-Gentile relations. This research challenges the "new perspective on Paul" (Dunn) while providing a historical and theological description of Paul's understanding of "justification by faith."