This book offers the first sustained attempt to read the Gospel of Mark both as an ancient biography and as a form of ancient rhetoric. Ben Witherington applies to Mark the socio-rhetorical approach for which he is well known, opening a fresh new perspective on the earliest Gospel.
Written when the fledging Christian faith was experiencing a major crisis during the Jewish war, Mark provides us with the first window on how the life and teachings of Jesus were presented to a largely non-Jewish audience.
According to Witherington, the structure of Mark demonstrates that this Gospel is biographically focused on the identity of Jesus and the importance of knowing who he is—the Christ, the Son of God. This finding reveals that Christology stood at the heart of the earliest Christians’ faith. It also shows how important it was to these earliest Christians to persuade others about the nature of Jesus, both as a historical figure and as the Savior of the world.
Gleans fresh insight from reading Pauls text in the light of rhetorical concerns and patterns, early Jewish theology, and the 1st century historical situation in Macedonia.
Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians is the first of three volumes extending Ben Witherington's innovative socio-rhetorical analysis of New Testament books to the latter-Pauline and non-Pauline corpora. A second volume will continue the focus on letters and homilies for Hellenized Christians (1-2 Peter), while a third will focus on letters and homilies for Jewish Christians (Hebrews, James and Jude). By dividing the volumes according to the socio-religious contexts for which they were written, Witherington sheds fresh light on the documents, their provenance, character and importance. Throughout, Witherington shows his thorough knowledge of recent literature on these texts and focuses his attention on the unique insights brought about through socio-rhetorical analysis that either reinforces or corrects those gleaned from other approaches. Strikingly, based on his rhetorical analysis of the Pastorals, he makes the case for Luke as Paul's amanuensis for these letters. He also makes a strenuous argument against New Testament pseudepigrapha. "Bridging the Horizons" sections point to the relevance of the text for believers today, making this volume of special value to pastors and general readers as well as students and scholars.
In this commentary on Hebrews, James and Jude, Ben Witherington III applies his socio-rhetorical method to elucidate these letters within their primarily Jewish context, probing the social setting of the readers and the rhetorical strategies of the authors of the letters.
This volume completes Ben Witheringtons own contributions to the Eerdmans socio-rhetorical series of commentaries on the New Testament. Besides the usual features of this series, Witherington offers an innovative way of looking at Colossians, Ephesians,
This commentary on Matthew offers a unique interpretive approach that focuses on the socio-historical context of the Gospel and the nature of Matthew’s exhortation to his first-century Christian audience. / By merging a careful study of Matthew’s Gospel in relation to the social context of the ancient Mediterranean world with a detailed look at what we know of first-century Jewish-Christian relations, Craig Keener uncovers significant insights into the Gospel not found in any other Matthew commentary. / In addition, Keener’s commentary is a useful discipleship manual for the church. His approach recaptures the full “shock effect” of Jesus’ teachings in their original context and allows Matthew to make his point with greater narrative artistry. Keener also brings home the total impact of Matthew’s message, including its clear portrait of Jesus and its call for discipleship, both to the Gospel’s ancient readers and to believers today. / Thoroughly researched, the book includes a 150-page bibliography of secondary sources, and more than 150 pages of indexes.
This groundbreaking commentary is the first to provide a detailed social and rhetorical analysis of the book of Acts. At the same time it gives detailed attention to major theological and historical issues.
