Commentaries
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Wisdom Of Solomon
$49.99Add to cartThe 17 New Testament volumes in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series have been widely acclaimed. Now the series editors offer readable Old Testament commentaries that integrate the best of contemporary biblical scholarship with the traditional understanding of the Old Testament books as prophesying and prefiguring Christ.
Written from a standpoint of faith in the Holy Spirit’s inspiration of Scripture, CCSS Old Testament commentaries are designed for preaching, teaching, and applying Scripture to Christian life today. Accessibly written yet substantive, they include quotes from church documents, church fathers, and saints and are packed with features that make them particularly useful to those doing ministry in Catholic parishes.
General editors for the series are Mary Healy (Sacred Heart Major Seminary), Mark Giszczak (Augustine Institute), and Peter S. Williamson (Sacred Heart Major Seminary).
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Wisdom Of Solomon
$24.99Add to cartThe 17 New Testament volumes in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series have been widely acclaimed. Now the series editors offer readable Old Testament commentaries that integrate the best of contemporary biblical scholarship with the traditional understanding of the Old Testament books as prophesying and prefiguring Christ.
Written from a standpoint of faith in the Holy Spirit’s inspiration of Scripture, CCSS Old Testament commentaries are designed for preaching, teaching, and applying Scripture to Christian life today. Accessibly written yet substantive, they include quotes from church documents, church fathers, and saints and are packed with features that make them particularly useful to those doing ministry in Catholic parishes.
General editors for the series are Mary Healy (Sacred Heart Major Seminary), Mark Giszczak (Augustine Institute), and Peter S. Williamson (Sacred Heart Major Seminary).
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Gospel Of Peace
$34.00Add to cartLong-time activist, author and teacher of nonviolence, Father John Dear offers here the first ever commentary on the Synoptic Gospels from the perspective of active nonviolence, in the tradition of Gandhi and Dr. King. He walks through every line of the three synoptic Gospels pointing out Jesus’ practice and teachings of nonviolence each step of the way.
Dear’s Jesus is like Gandhi and Dr. King–nonviolent to the core, a disarming, healing presence toward those in need and a revolutionary disrupter of the unjust status quo and a political threat to the ruling authorities who succeed in killing him, only to push Jesus to the heights of nonviolence through his death and resurrection. This original commentary brings a fresh new approach to the Gospels that will help all those who preach and engage in social ministries, and inspire everyone in this time of permanent warfare, gun violence, racism, poverty and climate change.
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12 Prophets: Volume 1
$44.95Add to cartThere is generally no common material that binds together the works of the individual prophets that comprise the Twelve, but through Sweeney’s commentary they stand together as a single, clearly defined book among the other prophetic books of the Bible.The Book of the Twelve Prophets is a multifaceted literary composition that functions simultaneously in all Jewish and Christian versions of the Bible as a single prophetic book and as a collection of twelve individual prophetic books. Each of the twelve individual books – Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi – begins with its own narrative introduction that identifies the prophet and provides details concerning the historical setting and literary characteristics. In this manner each book is clearly distinguished from the others within the overall framework of the Twelve.By employing a combination of literary methodologies, such as reader response criticism, canonical criticism, and structural form criticism, Sweeney establishes the literary structure of the Book of the Twelve as a whole, and of each book with their respective ideological or theological perspectives.
An introductory chapter orients readers to questions posed by reading the Book of the Twelve as a coherent piece of literature and to a literary overview of the Twelve. Sweeney then treats each of the twelve individual prophetic books in the order of the Masoretic canon, providing a discussion of each one’s structure, theme, and outlook. This is followed by a detailed literary discussion of the textual units that comprise the book.
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Ezra And Nehemiah
$29.95Add to cartEzra-Nehemiah has been neglected in biblical studies, but it is important as one of the few windows into the Persian period of Israel’s history, the setting for so much of the final shape of the Hebrew Bible. To know this period is to know what influenced these redactors. In Ezra and Nehemiah Gordon Davies provides that knowledge using rhetorical criticism, a methodology that reveals the full range and progress of the book’s ideas without hiding its rough seams and untidy edges.
The purpose of rhetorical criticism is to explain not the source but the power of the text as a unitary message. This approach does not look at plot development, characterization, or other elements whose roughness makes Ezra-Nehemiah frustrating to read. Instead, it examines the three parts of the relationship – the strategies, the situations, and the ffects – between the speaker and the audience. Rhetorical criticism’s scrutiny of the audience in context favors the search for the ideas and structures that are indigenous to the culture of the text.
Rhetorical criticism is interested in figures of speech as means of persuasion. Therefore, to apply it to Ezra-Nehemiah, Davies concentrates on the public discourse – the orations, letters, and prayers – throughout its text. In each chapter he follows a procedure that: (1) where it is unclear, identifies the rhetorical unit in which the discourse is set; (2) identifies the audiences of the discourse and the rhetorical situation; (3) studies the arrangement of the material; (4) studies the effect on the various audiences; (5) reviews the passage as a whole and judges its success. In the conclusion, Davies explains that Ezra-Nehemiah makes theological sense on its own terms, by forming a single work in which a range of ideas is argued.
Biblical scholars as well as those interested in literary criticism, communication studies, rhetorical studies, ecclesiology, and homiletics will find Ezra and Nehemiah enlightening.
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Judges : Studies In Hebrew Narrative And Poetry
$44.95Add to cartThe biblical book of Judges contains culturally familiar stories such as that of Samson and Delilah and Deborah and Baraq. But despite the popularity of these stories, other important stories in Judges such as that of Achsah, the raped pilegesh, and the final civil war are virtually unknown to the average reader.
Approaching Judges as a unified literary document, Tammi Schneider shows that the unity of the narrative reveals that when the Israelites adhere to the covenant established with their deity they prosper, but when they stray from it disaster follows. This is true not only in the Deuteronomistic refrains, as is recognized by many scholars, but in the whole book, and is reflected in Israel’s worsening situation throughout its narrative time.
Schneider also highlights the unifying themes in Judges. She emphasizes the role of gender, family relations, and theology expressed in the biblical narrative, and uses intertextuality to better understand the text of Judges and its context in the Deuteronomistic history and the Hebrew Bible.
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Galatians
$24.99Add to cartIn this addition to the successful Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS) series, two esteemed scholars interpret Galatians from within the living tradition of the Church. The CCSS relates Scripture to Christian life today, is faithfully Catholic, and is supplemented by features designed to help pastoral ministers, lay readers, and students understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively in teaching, preaching, evangelization, and other forms of ministry. Its attractive packaging and accessible writing style make it a series to own–and to read!
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Gospel Of Luke (Reprinted)
$26.99Add to cartIn this addition to the successful Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series, Fr. Pablo Gadenz examines the Gospel of Luke from within the living tradition of the Church for pastoral ministers, lay readers, and students alike. Gadenz explains the biblical text clearly and concisely in light of recent scholarship and pays particular attention to the themes, theology, and Old Testament background of Luke’s Gospel. Sidebars explain the biblical background and offer theological insights from Church fathers, saints, and popes, and reflection and application sections offer suggestions for daily Christian living.
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Rethinking Mary In The New Testament
$17.95Add to cartCatholics and non-Catholics alike may be tempted to assume they already know everything there is to know about Mary. Whatever your degree of knowledge and personal devotion to the Mother of God, this book will help you see Mary with new eyes and greater appreciation.
Renowned author and theologian Edward Sri deftly leads the reader through a detailed study of Scripture and makes insightful connections to deepen and transform our understanding of Jesus’s Mother. Readable, compelling, and inspiring, this book will renew your vision so that you, too, can rethink Mary – the Mother of God and our mother.
Topics include:
What was Mary’s life like before the Annunciation?
Mary as Daughter Zion
What does it mean to call Mary “full of grace”?
What is the biblical basis for the Catholic belief that Mary is a perpetual Virgin?
Mary as Queen Mother
Mary as model of faith
Mary at the foot of the Cross
Mary as the woman of Revelation -
New Collegeville Bible Commentary One Volume Edition
$79.95Add to cartThe completion of all thirty-seven volumes of the New Collegeville Bible Commentary means an important new resource is now fully available to all who wish to delve more deeply into the word of God. Now the one-volume, hardcover edition brings together every volume into a single, accessible guide to the entire Bible in a convenient and attractive format.
This comprehensive resource contains the same expert commentary that characterizes the complete series of individual books. Contributors include some of today’s most highly regarded Scripture scholars, as well as some of the freshest young voices in the field. The commentaries, while reflecting the latest in biblical scholarship and study, are written in easy-to-understand language and bring expert insight into the Old and New Testament to Bible study participants, teachers, students, preachers, and all readers of the Bible. Includes full-color maps.
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Hebrews
$25.99Add to cartWell-respected New Testament scholar and popular speaker Mary Healy unpacks the letter to the Hebrews, making its difficult and puzzling passages accessible to pastoral ministers, lay readers, and students. Her commentary shows how Hebrews reveals the meaning of Christ’s death in light of the Old Testament figures, rites, and sacrifices that foreshadowed it. Healy explains that Hebrews, when fully understood, transforms our understanding of who God is, what he has done for us, and how we are to live as Christians today.
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Essential Expositions Of The Psalms
$44.95Add to cartEssential Expositions of the Psalms is a collection distilled from the 6-volume set in the Works of Saint Augustine. As the psalms are a microcosm of the Old Testament, so the Expositions of the Psalms can be seen as a microcosm of Augustinian thought. In the Book of Psalms are to be found the history of the people of Israel, the theology and spirituality of the Old Covenant, and a treasury of human experience expressed in prayer and poetry. So too does the work of expounding the psalms recapitulate and focus the experiences of Augustine’s personal life, his theological reflections and his pastoral concerns as Bishop of Hippo.
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Gospel Of John (Reprinted)
$25.99Add to cartIn this addition to the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, two well-respected New Testament scholars interpret the Gospel of John in its historical and literary setting as well as in light of the Church’s doctrinal, liturgical, and spiritual tradition. They unpack the wisdom of the Fourth Gospel for the intellectual and spiritual transformation of its readers and connect the Gospel with a range of witnesses throughout the whole history of Catholicism. This volume, like each in the series, is supplemented by features designed to help readers understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively in teaching, preaching, evangelization, and other forms of ministry.
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Revelation (Reprinted)
$26.99Add to cartIn this addition to the well-received Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS), seasoned New Testament scholar and popular speaker Peter Williamson interprets Revelation from within the living tradition of the Church for pastoral ministers, lay readers, and students alike. The seventeen-volume CCSS series, which will cover the entire New Testament, relates Scripture to Christian life today, is faithfully Catholic, and is supplemented by features designed to help readers understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively in teaching, preaching, evangelization, and other forms of ministry. Drawn from the best of contemporary scholarship, series volumes are keyed to the liturgical year and include an index of pastoral subjects.
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Life Abounding : A Reading Of Johns Gospel
$39.95Add to cartThe Fourth Gospel addresses the thirst for life that lies at the depth of every human heart. The life in question is not just physical life but the “more abundant life” (John 10:10) that is nothing less than a share in the “eternal life” of the divine communion of love. Brendan Byrne’s insightful reading of John in Life Abounding will help readers move from mere existence to a conscious sense of sharing the divine eternal life-and the joy that goes with it.
The reading of the Fourth Gospel offered here remains conscious of the difficulties John presents on several fronts for contemporary readers. Byrne explains the text in a way that is critical yet sensitive to the gospel’s distinctive character and the untapped treasures it may yet contain for theology and spirituality today. This volume represents the completion of Byrne’s highly successful series of books on the four gospels, which have proven to be rich resources for preachers, teachers, and all who desire a more profound understanding of the life of Jesus as it is presented in the gospels.
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Resurrection Of The Messiah
$21.95Add to cartFrancis Moloney s new book takes its inspiration from the critically acclaimed publications of the renowned biblical scholar Raymond E. Brown The Birth of the Messiah and The Death of the Messiah. In The Resurrection of the Messiah, Moloney provides a narrative reading of the resurrection stories in Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. His focus is almost entirely upon the text itself. Guided by current scholarship, he uncovers the perennial significance of the four resurrection narratives, accepted and read as Sacred Scripture in the Christian tradition.
Without disregarding the historical background that must be understood for an appreciation of the story, a narrative commentary attempts to trace the intended impact of that story upon its readers. This reading and interpretative process uncovers the literary structure of a passage, and then follows the unfolding of the narrative itself, allowing it to speak for itself. The thrust of the book is to uncover the unique theological and pastoral message communicated by means of the narratives.
Moloney concludes that we rejoice in what Jesus has done for us in and through the resurrection. This is especially true in our current era, when Christian institutions and practice are under threat from many sides, and also from the way Christianity is lived by many of us. The stories of the resurrection of the Messiah assure us that Jesus promises come true, that our fears, doubts, failures and sin are overcome, as we are sent out again and again on mission, accompanied by the never-failing presence of Jesus in the gift of his Spirit. -
Body You Have Prepared For Me
$19.95Add to cartWhile all of the New Testament writings offer windows into the personal religious experiences of their authors, says Kevin McCruden, the Letter to the Hebrews affords us a truly exquisite example of a particularly creative interpretation of such religious experience. It also supplies us with something all too rare in many of the documents of the New Testament: a glimpse into the personal experiences of the ancient persons who first heard this text.
Partially obscured beneath the author’s characteristic emphasis on the superiority of transcendent realities is the indelible imprint of the real-life experiences of early Christians who suffered emotionally and physically for the countercultural commitment that they placed in Jesus. For such persons, Hebrews vividly celebrates the unseen vindication of Jesus and, in this way, provides a hope-filled portrait of the victorious Son of God. At the same time, Hebrews is also very much concerned with what we might call the life of Christian discipleship-that is, what it means to journey this side of the age to come in a manner that is faithful to the countercultural character of God’s kingdom embodied by Jesus. This brief study will help illumine for readers something of this creative balance between the transcendent and the concrete that Hebrews illustrates so well.
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Keys To Galatians
$24.95Add to cartOver the course of five decades of scholarly work on the New Testament, Jerome Murphy-O’Connor has never been afraid to explore and question ideas that other scholars have simply presumed. In Keys to Galatians, he offers fresh perspectives on a rather neglected New Testament letter.
This book includes new thinking on the origins of the letter and new insights into its purpose. The author explains why he dates the letter much earlier than most scholars and why Paul’s rhetorical technique should be considered nothing short of remarkable. He also explores illuminating hints about Paul’s personality. Murphy-O’Connor recognizes in Paul a notable openness to new ideas and what he calls “a daring strategy that would have been unthinkable for one less confident in his rhetorical skills.”
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On The Song Of Songs
$39.95Add to cartGregory the Great (+604) was a master of the art of exegesis. His interpretations are theologically profound, methodologically fascinating, and historically influential. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in his exegesis of the Song of Songs. Gregory’s interpretation of this popular Old Testament book not only owes much to Christian exegetes who preceded him, such as Origen, but also profoundly influenced later Western Latin exegetes, such as Bernard of Clairvaux.
This volume includes all that Gregory had to say on the Song of Songs. This includes his Exposition on the Song of Songs, as well as the florilegia compiled by Paterius (Gregory’s secretary) and the Venerable Bede, and, finally, William of Saint Thierry’s Excerpts from the Books of Blessed Gregory on the Song of Songs. It is now the key resource for reading and studying Gregory’s interpretation of the Song of Songs.
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1-2 Samuel
$17.95Add to cartComprehensive and understandable, the New Collegeville Bible Commentary series brings the timeless messages and relevance of the Old Testament to today s readers. With recent scholarship, this series provides vital background and addresses important questions such as authorship and cultural context. The New Collegeville Bible Commentary books use the New American Bible translation and will appeal to preachers, teachers, Bible study groups, and all readers of the Bible. First and Second Samuel tell the story of the beginnings of monarchy in ancient Israel. These two powerful narratives present many great figures of biblical history Samuel, Saul, and David and explore the complex interaction of historical developments and human fidelity under God. In the books of Samuel, characters interact to influence and persuade, to express motivation and desire, and to shape the reader s understanding of the issues that faced the Israelites as they responded to God s invitation to covenant. Through the medium of story, the reader shares in the perennial struggle to discover, in the midst of personal and political conflict, God’s ways for humanity.
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1st Corinthians (Reprinted)
$25.00Add to cartIn this addition to the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS), a seasoned scholar interprets First Corinthians for pastoral ministers and lay readers alike. The CCSS series, which will cover the entire New Testament, relates Scripture to life, is faithfully Catholic, and is supplemented by features designed to help readers understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively in teaching, preaching, evangelization, and other forms of ministry.
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Gospel Of Luke (Revised)
$12.95Add to cartNew larger format, featuring larger text size and additional margin space for personal annotations! The larger format enhances both individual and group study.
Based on the Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition, this volume leads readers through a penetrating study of the Gospel of Luke, using the biblical text itself and the Church’s own guidelines for understanding the Bible. Ample notes accompany each page, providing fresh insights and commentary by renowned Bible teachers Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch, as well as time-tested interpretations from the Fathers of the Church. These helpful study notes make explicit what St. Luke often assumes. Or they provide rich historical, cultural, geographical or theological information pertinent to the Gospel – information that bridges the distance between the biblical world and our own.
The Ignatius Study Bible also includes Topical Essays, Word Studies and Charts. The Topical Essays explore the major themes of Luke’s Gospel, often relating them to the doctrines of the Church. The Word Studies explain the background to important Bible terms, while the Charts summarize crucial biblical information “at a glance”.
Each page also includes an easy-to-use Cross-Reference Section that runs between the biblical text at the top of the page and the annotations at the bottom. Study Questions are provided for each chapter of the Gospel that can deepen your personal study of God’s Holy Word. There is also an introductory essay covering questions of authorship, date, destination, structure and themes. An outline of Luke’s Gospel and several maps are also included.
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Exodus
$17.95Add to cartSo resounding is its message that echoes of the Exodus are heard throughout the Old and New Testaments and the present. Exodus names and terms permeate our biblical and liturgical vocabularies: Pharaoh, Moses, Aaron, burning bush, “I AM,” plagues, Passover, manna, Ten Commandments, forty days and forty nights, Ark of the Covenant. The Exodus experience, indeed, is central to both Jewish and Christian traditions. Exodus is, as Mark Smith reminds us, not only an ancient text but also “today’s story, calling readers to work against oppression and to participate in a covenant relationship with one another and God.” With Smith as their experienced guide, readers are able to march through this basic book of the Bible with textual difficulties solved and stacked up like a wall to their right and left, just as the Israelites “marched on dry land through the midst of the sea with the water like a wall to their right and to their left” (14:29). Undoubtedly, when finished, readers will be closer to the Promised Land than when they started.
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Gospel Of Matthew (Reprinted)
$26.99Add to cartThis engaging commentary on the Gospel of Matthew is the fifth of seventeen volumes in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS), which will cover the entire New Testament. This volume, like each in the series, relates Scripture to life, is faithfully Catholic, and is supplemented by features designed to help readers understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively in teaching, preaching, evangelization, and other forms of ministry.
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Reflections On The Weekday Lectionary Readings
$39.95Add to cartThe book is a succinct commentary on the daily lectionary readings. A practical book free of academic jargon, Reflections on the Weekday Readings provides lectionary commentaries that are contemporary and refreshing. This versatile book can be used for liturgical and homiletic purposes or for private meditation, by clergy or by laity.
Highlights:
Covers Years I and II of the Weekday readings
Every reflection followed by Points to Ponder
Suitable for Priests and Deacons who are preparing homilies
Great as personal reflections on the weekday readingsNOTE: An excellent resource for offshore foreign-language priests working in the United States and Canada who need a straightforward homiletic guide to the weekday readings.
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Ephesians (Reprinted)
$25.00Add to cartIn this third volume of the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS), Peter Williamson interprets Ephesians for pastoral ministers and lay readers alike. This volume, like each in the series, relates Scripture to life, is faithfully Catholic, and is supplemented by features designed to help readers understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively in teaching, preaching, evangelization, and other forms of ministry.
About the series: The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS) responds to the desire of Catholics to study the Bible in depth and in a way that integrates Scripture with Catholic doctrine, worship, and daily life. The series will include seventeen volumes, offering readable, informative commentary on each book of the New Testament. The CCSS implements the theological principles taught by Vatican II for interpreting Scripture “in accord with the same Spirit by which it was written”–that is, interpreting Scripture in its canonical context and in the light of Catholic tradition and the analogy of faith (Dei Verbum, 12).The CCSS is packed with features designed to help readers use the Bible more effectively in teaching, preaching, evangelization, and other forms of ministry. Each volume provides exegesis as well as reflection and application sections. A set of cross-references links each passage to the Catechism, the Lectionary, and related biblical texts. Sidebars present information on the background of the text and on how the text has been interpreted by the Church. Abundant quotations from saints and Church Fathers enable readers to glimpse the continuity of Catholic tradition. Each volume includes a Glossary, a list of Suggested Resources, an Index of Pastoral Topics, and an Index of Sidebars. Further resources are posted at the series Web site, www.CatholicCommentaryonSacredScripture.com.
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2nd Corinthians
$26.00Add to cartThere is an increasing hunger among Catholics to study the Bible in depth and in a way that integrates Scripture with Catholic doctrine, worship, and daily life. Second Corinthians is the fourth of seventeen volumes in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS), a new series that will cover the entire New Testament and interprets Scripture from within the living tradition of the Church. This volume, like each in the series, is supplemented by features designed to help readers understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively.
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Hebrews
$44.95Add to cartScarcely any book of the New Testament (with the possible exception of Revelation) is so perplexing as the “Letter to the Hebrews.” Not really a letter, but a sermon with some features of a letter added to it, not really by its putative author, Paul, but by an anonymous Christian who wrote some of the most elegant Greek in the Bible, not really addressed to the “Hebrews,” but to Christians, probably in Rome-this is the work that Alan Mitchell explains in this commentary.
Many scholars have written fine commentaries on Hebrews, and Mitchell stands on their shoulders, noting where he proposes alternate interpretations. Mitchell pays particular attention to the reliance of the author of Hebrews on the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint). He also compares the language of Hebrews with similar usage and ideas of first-century Hellenistic Jewish authors, notably Flavius Josephus and Philo of Alexandria. Furthermore, he situates Hebrews against the background of the tradition of Hellenistic Moral Philosophy, where that is appropriate. Mitchell thus locates Hebrews in its proper thought-world, something that is essential for the modern reader in dealing with some of the thornier questions raised by this biblical book. Chief among these are the role of sacrificial atonement, the question of “second repentance,” and the spiritual and moral formation of the Roman Christians who were its recipients.
Like all the volumes in the Sacra Pagina series, this work examines the text in detail, with careful attention to the words and phrasing, and then brings those individual insights together into a coherent summary. The bibliography and special lists appended to each chapter cover the best of recent scholarship on the Letter to the Hebrews.
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Pastorial Epistles : First Timothy Second Timothy And Titus
$29.95Add to cartFirst and Second Timothy and Titus have for many years borne the collective title “The Pastoral Epistles.” Both their style and their content make it difficult to locate them within the corpus of Pauline letters, and recent scholarship most often considers them pseudonymous, works that imitate Paul’s letters but apply the apostle’s teaching to the concerns of a later time, two or more decades after Paul’s death.
The Pastorals differ from Paul’s own letters in being addressed to single individuals, coworkers of Paul who have been placed in charge of particular churches-Timothy apparently in Ephesus, Titus in Crete. They provide instruction for community leaders, both the individual addressees and other leaders whom they will appoint. The specification of certain offices within the local churches is one of the features that appear to locate these works in a later phase of church development.
In this commentary Benjamin Fiore, SJ, places the Pastorals in their historical and literary context. The reader will find here a solid introduction to parallel literary forms in Latin and Greek literature and particular descriptions of the way in which these documents use ancient rhetorical forms to achieve their paraenetic and hortatory purpose. Drawing on his parish experience as well as his academic training, Fiore also provides reflections on the contemporary pastoral application of these books, giving readers a renewed appreciation for the “pastoral” label these epistles bear.
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New Collegeville Bible Commentary New Testament
$74.95Add to cartConcise and accessible, this one-volume edition of the New Collegeville Bible Commentary: New Testament allows readers to explore any or all of the books with just one resource alongside their Bibles. The individual commentaries collected here are written by respected scholars, and they break open the biblical texts in a lively fashion. Readers will be able to engage Scripture more deeply and reflect on its meanings, nuances, and imperatives for living a Christian life in the twenty-first century. Continuing Liturgical Press’s long tradition of publishing biblical scholarship and interpretation, this commentary also answers the Second Vatican Council’s call to make access to Scripture “open wide to the Christian faithful.
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Homilies On The First Epistle Of John
$24.95Add to cartSaint Augustine’s ten homilies on the First Letter of John are among his greatest and most influential works. John and Augustine both develop the same central theme – love –and in these homilies Augustine uses John’s epistle as a point of departure for exploring the meaning and implications of love with his customary profundity, passion and analytic rigor. As with John, a context of dissension and conflict within the Christian community (the Donatist breakaway from Catholic unity), gives his preaching a tone of urgency and poignancy. Anyone who reads these homilies, universally viewed as classics, cannot fail to be moved and challenged both intellectually and emotionally.
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Blessing Of Blessings
$29.95Add to cartGregory of Narek (c. 945-1003), a monk and a priest, is best known for his poetic works, and one of the few commentators on the Song of Songs, which was so great a focus among western monastic writers of the patristic and medieval periods. Living during a period of cultural and religious renaissance which preceded the Turkish and Mongol invasions of Armenia, and in a period of conflict between the non-Chalcedonian Christians of his native land and their Byzantine neighbors, Grigor worked from the Armenian text of the Song, which is slightly longer than the Septuagint or Hebrew versions and contains passages which vary from them. In his commentary Grigor traces themes and draws on other scriptural books to remind readers that every human person is endowed with an innate love for God, which in his words, ‘cannot be sapped.’
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Gospel Of John
$44.95Add to cartNo other book of the New Testament has attracted as much attention from commentators as the Fourth Gospel. It has stirred minds, hearts, and imaginations from Christianity’s earliest days. In The Gospel of John, Francis Moloney unfolds the identifiable “point of view” of this unique Gospel narrative and offers readers, heirs to its rich and widely varied interpretative traditions, relevance for their lives today. Includes an updated bibliography as an appendix.
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1 Thessalonians Philippians 2 Thessalonians Colossians Ephesians
$16.95Add to cartVincent M. Smiles provides a fresh look at the early Church and the faith with which they approached their dynamic, diverse community. With a brief introduction to each letter, Smiles brings to light issues such as authorship, dating, and historical situation. Smiles focuses on similarities and contrasts-such as eschatology, ecclesiology and the status of women–within these diverse, yet unified letters.
A reading of these letters as “partners in a conversation” provides both an understanding and inspiration for today’s Christian society: inspiration to meet our challenges in faith with the same creativity as did the early Church.
With an understandable, yet comprehensive manner, this commentary will appeal to those interested in the changing early Church and its ancient wisdom.
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Gospel Of Mark
$29.95Add to cartIn The Gospel of Mark Fathers Donahue and Harrington use an approach that can be expressed by two terms currently used in literary criticism: intratextuality and intertextuality. This intratextual and intertextual reading of Mark’s Gospel helps us to appreciate the literary character, its setting in life, and its distinctive approaches to the Old Testament, Jesus, and early Christian theology.
“Intratextuality” means we read Mark as Mark and by Mark. Such a reading expresses interest in the final form of the Gospel (not its source or literary history) and in its words and images, literary devices, literary forms, structures, characterization, and plot. Reading Mark by Mark gives particular attention to the distinctive vocabulary and themes that run throughout the Gospel and serve to hold it together as a unified literary production.“Intertextuality” comprises the relation between texts and a textual tradition, and also referring to contextual materials not usually classified as texts (e.g., archaeological data). “Intertextuality” is used to note the links of the text of Mark’s Gospel to other texts (especially the Old Testament) and to the life of the Markan community and of the Christian community today.
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3rd Readings The Gospels
$70.99Add to cartPreaching pastors, ministers, and priests know how quickly Sundays come and go. The Lectionary Commentary will not slow the pace of the weekly calendar, but it will help assure that sermon preparation begins with a solid engagement with Scripture. Designed to “jump start” the difficult task of sermon preparation, this indispensable three-volume work gathers exegetical essays on biblical texts from the Revised Common Lectionary. Covering every Sunday of the three-year liturgical cycle, as well as Christmas Day, Epiphany, and Ascension Day, the readings are arranged in canonical order so as to be of use to all preachers.
Seventy-eight pastors, priests, and teachers from a variety of Christian traditions have contributed their insights to The Lectionary Commentary. Designed to answer the question What does the preacher need to know about this text in order to preach a faithful sermon from it?, each of their essays closely considers its specific biblical text, all the while remaining alert to the contemporary context in which the sermon will be spoken and heard. The result is an invaluable resource that will aid in the difficult task of facilitating a meaningful encounter between Holy Scripture and our modern world.
This volume, The Third Readings: The Gospels, provides exegetical commentary on the lectionary readings for the witnesses to Jesus Christ written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Also unique to this volume is an excellent essay by C. Clifton Black on Augustinian preaching and the nurture of Christians.
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James
$64.95Add to cartIn his commentary on the letter of James, Hartin offers a unique approach toward understanding a much-neglected writing. Refusing to read the letter of James through the lens of Paul, Hartin approaches the letter in its own right. He takes seriously the address to “the twelve tribes in the Dispersion” (1:1) as directed to Jews who had embraced the message of Jesus and were living outside their homeland, Israel. At the same time, Hartin shows how this letter remains true to Jesus’ heritage. Using recent studies on rhetorical culture, Hartin illustrates how James takes Jesus’ sayings and performs them again in his own way to speak to the hearers/readers of his own world.
Hartin examines the text, passage by passage, while providing essential notes and an extensive explanation of the theological meaning of each passage. The value of this commentary lies in its breadth of scholarship and its empathic approach to this writing. The reader will discover new and refreshing insights into the world of early Christianity as well as a teaching that is of perennial significance.
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Acts : The Gospel Of The Spirit
$30.00Add to cartProlific author Justo Gonzalez takes us deeper into the idea that the Acts of the Apostles is really the Acts of the Holy Spirit. He inserts the text into its social context, discussing each verse in terms of its social, spiritual, and theological implications. This is a commentary ideally suited both to illuminating the book of Acts and to attuning readers to the on-going acts of the Spirit in our own time.
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Liturgical Works
$39.99Add to cartAmong the manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls are numerousfragments of liturgical texts: daily and festival prayers, songs and praises, and other fascinating documents. This inaugural volume in the Eerdmans Commentaries on the Dead Sea Scrolls series explores these important ancient texts, throwing new light on the ritual life of Jews at the turn of the common era. Beginning with a general introduction to the Qumran library and Jewish liturgical traditions, James Davila situates the liturgical texts found at Qumran in their historical context in translation of these Hewbrew texts and provides detailed line-by-line explanations of each document. Throughout his book Davila shows how the Qumran liturgical texts draw on and develop traditions from the Hebrew Bible, and he explores their significance as background to Jewish liturgy, Jewish mysticism, and Christian origins. This volume and the complete commentary project will become the standard reference work on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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12 Prophets Volume 2
$69.95Add to cartThis multi-volume commentary reflects a relatively new development in biblical studies. The readings of the books of the Hebrew Bible offered here all focus on the final form of the texts, approaching them as literary works, recognizing that the craft of poetry and storytelling that the ancient Hebrew world provided can be found in them and that their truth can be better appreciated with a fuller understanding of that art. As they have for centuries, people still turn to the Hebrew Bible to hear afresh the life-giving words of God’s everlasting convenant. Berit Olam (“The Everlasting Covenant”): Studies in Hebrew Narrative & Poetry brings to all interested in the Bible, be they lay people, professional biblical scholars, students, or religious educators, the latest developments in the literary analysis of these ancient texts.
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Judges : Studies In Hebrew Narrative And Poetry
$64.95Add to cartThe biblical book of Judges contains culturally familiar stories such as that of Samson and Delilah and Deborah and Baraq. But despite the popularity of these stories, other important stories in Judges such as that of Achsah, the raped pilegesh, and the final civil war are virtually unknown to the average reader.
Approaching Judges as a unified literary document, Tammi Schneider shows that the unity of the narrative reveals that when the Israelites adhere to the covenant established with their deity they prosper, but when they stray from it disaster follows. This is true not only in the Deuteronomistic refrains, as is recognized by many scholars, but in the whole book, and is reflected in Israel’s worsening situation throughout its narrative time.
Schneider also highlights the unifying themes in Judges. She emphasizes the role of gender, family relations, and theology expressed in the biblical narrative, and uses intertextuality to better understand the text of Judges and its context in the Deuteronomistic history and the Hebrew Bible.
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Introducing The Gospel According To Mark 8:22-16:20
$29.95Add to cartMark wrote “the beginning of the Gospel” for Christian who thought it was the end. For that he told them a story of another time when Jesus’ disciples thought it was the end but turned out to be the beginning. That is why the passion-ressurection of Jesus dominated the Gospel according to Mark. Using rhetorical and literary analysis, Father LaVerdiere introduces Mark’s story as the beginning of the Gospel as we enter a new millennium.
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Spirituality Of Perfection
$29.95Add to cartThroughout this century the Epistle of James has been viewed consistently as a disjointed set of instructions. In A Spirituality of Perfection Patrick Hartin differs from this approach by showing that the “call for perfection” provides a unifying meaning for the epistle. Examining the concept of perfection against the background of the Graeco-Roman world, the Old Testament, and the Septuagint, Father Hartin shows that perfection provides a key to defining the spirituality of the Epistle of James.
Father Hartin shows how the notion of perfection plays a key role in the definition of God, as well as the way one is called “to be in the world.” He adopts a fresh approach toward understanding the categories of wisdom, eschatology, and apocalyptic as they illuminate the epistle’s advice. He allows James to be read in its own right, instead of through the eyes of other traditions, such as Paul, and shows that what James intends by perfection is different from our modern understanding-that the concept of perfection unlocks an important self-understanding in Christianity.
Just as every generation of believers aims at putting its faith into action, A Spirituality of Perfection culminates with the question: “What direction does the Epistle of James give Christians of the twenty-first century for putting their faith into action?”
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Ezra And Nehemiah
$44.95Add to cartEzra-Nehemiah has been neglected in biblical studies, but it is important as one of the few windows into the Persian period of Israel’s history, the setting for so much of the final shape of the Hebrew Bible. To know this period is to know what influenced these redactors. In Ezra and Nehemiah Gordon Davies provides that knowledge using rhetorical criticism, a methodology that reveals the full range and progress of the book’s ideas without hiding its rough seams and untidy edges.
The purpose of rhetorical criticism is to explain not the source but the power of the text as a unitary message. This approach does not look at plot development, characterization, or other elements whose roughness makes Ezra-Nehemiah frustrating to read. Instead, it examines the three parts of the relationship-the strategies, the situations, and the effects-between the speaker and the audience. Rhetorical criticism’s scrutiny of the audience in context favors the search for the ideas and structures that are indigenous to the culture of the text.Rhetorical criticism is interested in figures of speech as means of persuasion. Therefore, to apply it to Ezra-Nehemiah, Davies concentrates on the public discourse-the orations, letters, and prayers-throughout its text. In each chapter he follows a procedure that: (1) where it is unclear, identifies the rhetorical unit in which the discourse is set; (2) identifies the audiences of the discourse and the rhetorical situation; (3) studies the arrangement of the material; (4) studies the effect on the various audiences; (5) reviews the passage as a whole and judges its success. In the conclusion, Davies explains that Ezra-Nehemiah makes theological sense on its own terms, by forming a single work in which a range of ideas is argued.
Biblical scholars as well as those interested in literary criticism, communication studies, rhetorical studies, ecclesiology, and homiletics will find Ezra and Nehemiah enlightening.
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Romans
$69.95Add to cartWhile widely acknowledged as the single most influential document in Christian history, Paul’s Letter to the Romans has also attracted the most comment. Standing at the head of Paul’s writings in the New Testament and so eloquently delivering his Gospel, Romans has presented Paul to generations of readers: from Augustine in the fifth century, through the Reformation era, down to the present day.
This commentary adopts a literary-rhetorical approach, viewing the letter as an instrument of persuasion designed to transform readers through a celebratory presentation of the Gospel. Reflecting upon the fate of Jews and Gentiles, Paul wins his audience to a vision of a God who always acts inclusively. The God who, in the person of Israel’s Messiah (Jesus), has acted faithfully to include the Gentile peoples within the community of salvation, will not fail to see to the eventual inclusion of Israel as well. In the victory of grace displayed already in the risen humanity of Jesus, the original design of the Creator for human communities and for the world begins to come true.
The interpretation of Paul’s letter to Rome has accompanied and stimulated the path of Christian theology down to today. Romans touches upon virtually all main issues of Christian theology as well as presenting a rewarding introduction to Paul. Byrne facilitates full access to Paul and his Gospel through the letter, allowing Christians today to hear Paul’s voice as intelligibly and powerfully as it has spoken to past generations. Includes an updated bibliography and appendix.
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1 Kings : Studies In Hebrew Narrative And Poetry
$69.95Add to cartThe narratives of Solomon and Jeroboam, of Elijah and Ahab, have fascinated readers for millennia. They are the principal foundation of our knowledge of the history of Israel during the early years of the divided monarchy, and their reliability and verifiability as historical sources have long been the subject of intense scholarly analysis and debate. But even apart from questions of historical authenticity, they are gripping stories of richly drawn characters caught up in the complex tale of Yahweh’s dealings with Israel: Solomon the wise is the builder of Yahweh’s Temple, yet he becomes an idolater; Jeroboam is chosen by Yahweh as king, yet he worships the golden calves; Elijah is a prophet second only to Moses, yet he tries to renounce his calling; and Ahab is the worst of Israel’s kings, yet shows traces of greatness. This study explores the narrative world created by the ancient Israelite author – the people who inhabit it, the lives they live and the deeds they do, and the face of God who is revealed in their stories.
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Interpreting The Old Testament
$24.95Add to cartThis introduction to Old Testament exegesis responds to the directives of the Second Vatican Council that instructs biblical interpreters to investigate the meaning the sacred writers intended to express. Thus it acquaints readers with an introduction to the methods commonly used in biblical scholarship today.
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Apocalypse
$24.95Add to cartThis interpretation is written in the conviction that the key to understanding this work is its literary form: revelatory narrative and allegorical narrative. It reveals the structure of the narrative and its basic underlying pattern of persecution, judgment and salvation. It shares with us the message that even as Christ passed through suffering and death to the resurrection beyond, so too may we.
