Religion : Bible

This text is a classic by one of America's most widely respected New Testament scholars. It provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to the New Testament. more...

Price: $18.00

An innovative study showing how literary methodologies such as structuralism, narrative criticism and deconstructionism can be used to illuminate biblical texts. A detailed introduction makes it accessible to the non-specialist. more...

Price: $41.95

It's almost impossible to think of the Bible as anything other than the expression of the religious traditions that view it as Holy Scripture. Yet given that vital parts of it were written as much as a thousand years before the emergence of rabbinic Judaism and the birth of Christianity, there is no obvious reason why this should be true. In his groundbreaking new book, Joseph's Bones: Understanding the Struggle Between God and Mankind in the Bible, philosopher Jerome Segal offers a fresh and vigorous reexamination of the oldest part of the Bible. In Joseph's Bones, Segal asks you to imagine that you know nothing about Judaism or Christianity and one day pick up something called ''The Hexateuch'' (the first six books of the Bible). How would you understand the story it recounts? Who is God? And who are the Israelites? And perhaps most important, what is the relationship between God and humanity?. Segal maintains that if we approach the Bible without preconceptions, we will find something unexpected: a brilliant, sophisticated, and highly cohesive account of the human condition. He argues that the Bible reads like an existential novel about the struggle between God and mankind, and is far more sympathetic to mankind than to God. Segal frames his analysis by considering the tale of Joseph's bones. In the closing words of Genesis, as Joseph lies dying in Egypt, Joseph has the ''sons of Israel'' swear that when God returns the Israelites to the Promised Land, they will take his bones with them. Some four hundred years later, as the Book of Joshua closes, the Israelites honor this commitment by returning and burying Joseph's bones in Canaan, as their ancestors had pledged. Noting that throughout the early parts of the Bible God often seethes with anger at the Israelites, calling them ''faithless'' and ''wicked,'' Segal uses the story of Joseph's faith in his people and their fidelity to him to illustrate how the Bible does not always share God's perspective on the Israel more...

Price: $15.00

Judas Iscariot has been demonized as the quintessential traitor, the disciple who betrayed his master for the infamous thirty pieces of silver. But the recent sensational discovery and publication of the long lost Gospel of Judas , with its remarkable portrayal of Judas Iscariot as the disciple closest to Jesus, raises serious new questions. Was Judas the only member of the Twelve who truly understood Jesus? Did Jesus secretly collaborate with Judas to set in motion the series of events that would redeem all of humankind? In search of answers, Marvin Meyer, one of the world's leading experts on the Gospel of Judas presents a collection of the earliest accounts of Judas, which together paint a fuller portrait of this most enigmatic disciple. This book presents the essential texts that deal with the figure of Judas, including New Testament writings, Gnostic documents, and other early and later Christian literature. These are the earliest known testimonies about Judas and include selections from the gospels of Mark , Matthew , Luke , and John , the Acts of the Apostles , and relevant passages from Paul. The centerpiece of the book is the Gospel of Judas , followed by excerpts from three other Gnostic texts—the Dialogue of the Savior , the Concept of Our Great Power , and the "Round Dance of the Cross"—which may shed new light on the figure of Judas. A series of additional writings on Judas produced over the centuries provide glimpses of the vilification of Judas and the emergence of anti-Semitic themes. Meyer offers evidence of traitors before Judas—the Genesis story of Joseph's brothers who sold him into slavery, the duplicitous friend of the poet in Psalm 41, and Melanthius the goatherd in Homer's Odyssey —all of which raise the question of whether the story of Judas Iscariot could be simply a piece of religious fiction derived from earlier stories. Judas provides a rich collection of original sources that tell the story more...

Price: $17.95

Revealing the connection between today's women and their biblical counterparts, the author of What Matters Most uses stories of strong biblical women to show readers how to live a better and more fulfilling life, covering such issues as integrity, abuse, honor, sexuality, and relationships more...

Price: $16.99