The Dubious Disciples

The Dubious Disciples provides a literary examination of the four scenes of the disciples doubting the appearance of the resurrected Jesus in the canonical Gospels. Each Gospel offers a unique account of this episode, and the differences between them dramatically affect how readers evaluate the disciples' actions and perceive the role of doubt in the Christian experience.

The accounts of Jesus's resurrection in the Gospels are among the most widely discussed passages in the New Testament, and a classic element of the resurrection story is the doubt felt by the disciples when they encountered the risen Lord. In spite of this, scholars have paid relatively little attention to the striking divergences in the portrayal of the disciples across the four Gospels. The Longer Ending of Mark has them stubbornly refuse to believe multiple reports of the resurrection before being upbraided by Christ, Matthew tersely notes their doubts in a single verse and never resolves the problem, Luke depicts a group who are simultaneously terrified and joyful, and John describes the eponymous Doubting Thomas and his request to touch the risen Lord for himself. The Dubious Disciples uses narrative criticism to examine the ways in which each Gospel characterizes the disciples post-resurrection and how these authorial choices influence readers' evaluations of both the disciples' doubts and the doubts they may feel in their own lives. The lessons learned about the nature of doubt vary considerably from one Gospel to the next, and this monograph is the first devoted to a comparison of doubt across all four Gospels.

How are the resurrection appearances of Luke’s Gospel shaped to offer a climax to the narrative? How does this narrative conclusion compare to the wider ancient literary milieu? Recognition and the Resurrection Appearances of Luke 24 proposes that the ancient literary technique of recognition offers a compelling lens through which to understand the climatic role of the resurrection appearances of Jesus as depicted in Luke 24. After presenting the development of recognition in ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman literature, Thompson demonstrates how Luke 24 deploys the recognition tradition to shape the form and function of the resurrection appearances. The ancient recognition tradition not only casts light on various literary and theological features of the chapter but also shapes the way the appearances function in the wider narrative. By utilizing recognition, Luke 24 generates cognitive, affective, commissive, and hermeneutical functions for the characters internal to the narrative and for the audience. The result is a compelling climax to Luke’s Gospel that resonates with Luke’s wider literary and theological themes. This work offers a compelling analysis of the Luke’s Gospel in the ancient literary context in light of the ancient technique of recognition that will appeal to those interested in narrative approaches to the New Testament or the interpretation of the New Testament in the wider literary milieu.

Nirvana of Jesus Christ brings out the spiritual and philosophical genesis, growth, fruition and culmination of the personality of Jesus Christ from childhood to crucifixion in comparison to that of Lord Buddha. Nearly 18 missing years of Jesus’ younger days, until the time of his emergence as a preacher evangelizing the ideals enshrined in the New Testament of the Holy Bible, are delineated. The significance of Jesus’ revolutionary philosophy, ethical code of conduct and imperatives of righteousness to be compatible with the divine path of God are graphically brought out. It narrates Jesus’ long years spent with John, later John the Baptist, in the university of Takshashila, and his comprehensive absorption of Yoga precepts and practices and Indian spiritual ethos. This novel will be quite purposeful in understanding the maturation of the kernel of Buddhist and Christian philosophies in an identical ambience. Even a cursory read of Nirvana of Jesus Christ will conclusively prove to the reader that core values, metaphysics and ministerial conducts in Jesus’ gospels are rooted in Buddhist doctrines. Since Jesus Christ was presenting his spiritual and religious creed to usher in the Kingdom of God, he needed to reshape the Buddhist philosophical architecture in the template of theistic, faith-centric Judaism, whose followers were his first listeners. In short, Christianity articulates Buddhist composition by imposing the superstructure of God onto the concept of the Son, Father and Holy Ghost. The great commandments of Jesus and the pathology of the Sermon on the Mount are refashioned in the gist of Buddha’s Noble truths, eight-fold paths (Ashtanga Marga), five Silas and the characteristics of Nirvana.

Continuing a Gold Medallion Award-winning legacy, this completely revised edition of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary series puts world-class biblical scholarship in your hands. Based on the original twelve-volume set that has become a staple in college and seminary libraries and pastors’ studies worldwide, this new thirteen-volume edition marshals the most current evangelical scholarship and resources. The thoroughly revised features consist of: • Comprehensive introductions • Short and precise bibliographies • Detailed outlines • Insightful expositions of passages and verses • Overviews of sections of Scripture to illuminate the big picture • Occasional reflections to give more detail on important issues • Notes on textual questions and special problems, placed close to the texts in question • Transliterations and translations of Hebrew and Greek words, enabling readers to understand even the more technical notes • A balanced and respectful approach toward marked differences of opinion

This study of Philostratus , first published in 1986, presents the Greek biographer’s treatment of both sophists and holy men in the social and intellectual life of the early Roman Empire, which also displays his own distinctive literary personality as a superficial dilettante and an engrossing snob. Through him we gain a glimpse of the rhetorical schools and their rivalries, as well as a bizarre portrayal of the celebrated first-century holy man Apollonius of Tyana, long loathed by his later Christian press as a Pagan Christ. Rarely does a biographer’s reputation revolve round the charge that he forged his principal source. Graham Anderson’s account produces new evidence which supports Philostratus’ credibility, but it also extends the charges of ignorance and bias in his handling of fellow-sophists. Philostratus is intended for any reader interested in the social, cultural and literary history of the Roman Empire as well as the professional classicist.

As strange as it might seem to moderns, God is present, Jesus did walk amongst us, and miracles still occur. If you have ever wondered what it was like to live at the time of Jesus, prepare yourself, you are about to live it through the eyes of someone who was there. On a hot California afternoon, Ronald Way was struck by a blinding light. In that light, Jesus appeared and asked if he would give up everything and move away to write a story about a memory that would be awakened from within. That journey sent him halfway around the world to the Holy City of Jerusalem and then to the banks of the Nile. There he was confronted by a vision that sent him tumbling back 2,000 years to the time of Jesus of Galilee. Then, in the body of the old man named Asher ben Ammi, he was to sit on the roof of his home looking down on the Temple to pen the first gospel ever written about the man he considered to be his friend and the Messiah, Jeshua ben Joseph - Jesus. For two thousand years the contents of that manuscript have remained hidden--until now. Here then is the story of Asher ben Ammi--The Disciple. Join the author on a journey back in time as he shares his remembrances of a life long gone, but never forgotten.