Ben Witherington
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Who God Is
$16.99Add to cartDo you know the character of our God–do you know who God is?
What does it mean to say that God is love, light, life, and spirit? In Who God Is, world-renowned New Testament scholar Ben Witherington III explores the nature and character of the God of the Bible by focusing specifically on the nouns used to describe who God is. This rich exploration has its foundation in a deep reading of the biblical text. Reflecting on these descriptions of God gives us a fresh understanding of the beauty and uniqueness of the character of our God.
Week In The Fall Of Jerusalem
$17.00Add to cart22 Chapters
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It’s A.D. 70. Jerusalem and its temple have been destroyed by the Romans. As Jews and Christians escape the terror, we travel with some of them through an imagined week of flight and faith. A scribe heads for Galilee in search of records of Jesus’ life and teachings. And a company of women makes its way to a new life in Pella.
Letters And Homilies For Hellenized Christians
$55.00Add to cartLetters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians, Volume 2 is the third of three volumes extending Ben Witherington’s innovative socio-rhetorical analysis of New Testament books to the latter-Pauline and non-Pauline corpora. By dividing the volumes according to the socioreligious 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. “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 to students and scholars.
Letters And Homilies For Jewish Christians
$50.00Add to cartIn 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.
Letters And Homilies For Hellenized Christians Vol 1
$65.00Add to cartSKU (ISBN): 9780830824571Ben WitheringtonBinding: Trade PaperPublished: 2014Publisher: InterVarsity Press Print On Demand Product
Rest Of Life
$19.50Add to cartWhen was the last time you heard a sermon on the theological importance of play? What do rest, eating, studying, and sex have to do with the kingdom of God? Strangely, although these activities generate a great deal of interest and take up a considerable portion of our lives, they seldom receive detailed theological or ethical discussion from a biblical point of view. In The Rest of Life Ben Witherington explores these subjects in the light of biblical teaching about the kingdom of God and the Christian hope for the future, showing why the normal activities of life should reflect kingdom values. In other words, “all of our activities should be doxological — to the glory of God and for the edification of others.” This topical study focuses on practical, everyday issues in six accessible, concise chapters, making it ideal for individual study and small-group discussion.
Pauls Letter To The Philippians
$39.50Add to cartSkeptical of the trend among many biblical scholars to analyze Paul’s short, affectionate letter to the Philippians in light of Greco-Roman letter-writing conventions, Ben Witherington instead looks at Philippians as a masterful piece of long-distance oratory–an extension of Paul’s speech, dictated to a scribe and meant to be read aloud to its recipients.
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary Witherington examines Paul’s short but powerful letter in light of Greco-Roman rhetorical conventions, identifying Paul’s purpose, highlighting his main points and his persuasive strategies, and considering how his original audience would have heard and received Paul’s message.
Work : A Kingdom Perspective On Labor
$20.50Add to cartRedefines work as a good gift from God
Most Christians spend most of their waking hours working, yet little has been written of late on the biblical theology and ethics of work. In this brief primer on work in the Bible, Ben Witherington shows that work is neither the curse nor the cure of human life but, rather, something good that God has given to us to do.
Unpacks the concept of work and its relationship to rest, play, and worship, showing the place of work in the normal cycle of human life
Discusses work as calling, work as ministry, work as a way to make a living, the unbiblical notion of retirement, and more
Offers Bible-based insights from Genesis to Revelation
Revelation And The End Times
$13.99Add to cart1. The Character Of Biblical Prophecy
2. The Return Of The King
3. The Other World – Heaven And Hell
4. Raising The Dead
5. The Afterlife – The Rapture, The Millennium, And The New Heaven And EarthAdditional Info
Of perennial interest to all Christians, the Book of Revelation contains passages of great beauty and comfort, as well as passages that may strike the casual reader as bizarre, bewildering, and even frightening.In this four-week, video-based study, popular biblical scholar Ben Witherington helps readers unravel God’s message for them as contained in this hopeful yet often misunderstood biblical book.
We Have Seen His Glory
$20.50Add to cartPrelude
We Have Seen His Glory: The Day Is Coming And Now Is
Glorifying The Creator And Redeemer
Worship As Sabbatical
The Legacy Of Judaism
Glorifying God In A Bolder Way
Illuminating The Good News
Work And Worship – Labors Of Love?
Doxology: The End And Aim Of All Things
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We Have Seen His Glory asks – and answers – the question of what worship would and should look like in light of the eschatological future, of kingdom come. Ben Witherington here contends that it cannot be a matter of merely continuing ancient practices. Instead, it must also be a matter of preparation for worship in the Kingdom of God when it comes on earth. / “I am convinced that one of the great problems to having a more reflective and more Christian approach to worship is that even many of our ministers and worship leaders have very little understanding of what the New Testament actually says about worship, what it is meant to be, what it entails, and what we ought to do. In this study I hope to remedy some of that problem and tease some minds into active thought about what worship should look like if we really believe that God’s Kingdom is coming. . . . It is time for us to explore a more Biblical and Kingdom-oriented vision of worship.” / – Ben Witherington, from the prelude
Imminent Domain : The Story Of The Kingdom Of God And Its Celebration
$13.50Add to cartWhat is the kingdom of God? Where is it? How should the church celebrate the coming of the kingdom? In this popularly written study Ben Witherington addresses these and various other questions about the ever-elusive kingdom of God. Clearly defining the kingdom in terms of God’s dominion, Witherington discusses both its present (“already”) and future (“not yet”) dimensions, and he brings out at length the implications of kingdom thinking for theology, ethics, and worship.
Filled with practical wisdom on the kingdom of God and how to celebrate it faithfully, Imminent Domain fills a real niche.
Letters To Philemon The Colossians And The Ephesians
$40.50Add to cartThis volume completes Ben Witherington’s 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, and Philemon as inter-related documents written at different levels of moral discourse. Colossians is first order moral discourse (the opening gambit), Ephesians is second order moral discourse (what one says next after the opening salvo to the same audience), and Philemon is third order moral discourse (what one says to a personal friend or intimate). Witherington successfully analyzes these documents as examples of Asiatic rhetoric, explaining the difference in style from earlier Pauline documents. He further shows that Paul is deliberately engaging in the transformation of existing social institutions. As always, Witherington’s work is scholarly and engaging, and will be welcome on any shelf.
What Have They Done With Jesus
$16.99Add to cartStrange theories about Jesus seem to ooze from our culture with increasing regularity. Ben Witherington, one of the top Jesus scholars, will have none of it. There were no secret Gnostic teachings in the first century. With leading scholars and popular purveyors of bad history in his crosshairs, Witherington reveals what we can-and cannot-claim to know about the real Jesus. The Bible, not outside sources, is still the most trustworthy historical record we have today.
Utilizing a fresh “personality profile” approach, Witherington highlights core Christian claims by investigating the major figures in Jesus’s inner circle of followers: Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Thomas, Peter, James the brother of Jesus, Paul, and the mysterious “beloved disciple.” In each chapter Witherington satisfies our curiosities and answers the full range of questions about these key figures and what each of them can teach us about the historical Jesus. What Have They Done with Jesus? is a vigorous defense of traditional Christianity that offers a compelling portrait of Jesus’s core message according to those who knew him best.
1-2 Thesssalonians : A Socio Rhetorical Commentary
$33.50Add to cartGleans fresh insight from reading Paul’s text in the light of rhetorical concerns and patterns, early Jewish theology, and the 1st century historical situation in Macedonia.
Gospel Code
$28.00Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
Blurring the line between fact and fiction, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code raises a controversial question. Did the early church suppress ancient documents revealing long-buried secrets about Jesus? Witherington takes you back to the time following Christ’s death to reveal what we can really know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the canonical Gospels, and their Gnostic rivals.
New Testament Story Print On Demand Title
$30.50Add to cartA Print on Demand Title
This informative, clearly written book introduces the New Testament in two main ways: (1) it explains where the New Testament came from, and (2) it examines the New Testament writings themselves.
Ben Witherington first tells how and why the New Testament documents were written and collected and how they came to be known as the New Testament that we have today. He then discusses the main stories and major figures in the New Testament. Witherington looks particularly at the Gospels, examining how and why their stories differ and pointing out what these ancient biographies actually say about Jesus. He also surveys the ways that these stories were told and retold, explaining how this literary development has influenced Christian theology, ethics, and social thought. Each chapter ends with a section called “Exercises and Questions for Reflection and Study” (written by Darlene Hyatt), making this book especially useful for Sunday school classes and group Bible studies.
Brother Of Jesus
$15.99Add to cartThe first definitive account of what scholars and the media are calling ‘the most important archaeological discovery’ about Jesus and his family.
This is the definitive story of the recent discovery of the first-century ossuary (limestone bone box) with the legend ‘James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus’, and its implications for understanding Jesus, his family (mother, father, brothers), his followers, the first Christians and the Jewish Christian movement in Jerusalem that James led. This ossuary is the first ever archaeological discovery directly confirming the existence of Jesus, and his relationship to his father, Joseph, and brother, James, who became the leader of the important Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem. No one is as qualified and well connected to recount the discovery and its authentication as Hershel Shanks, whose magazine first broke the story.
Shadow Of The Almighty
$19.50Add to cartThe Shadow of the Almighty introduces readers to the nature of God by exploring the biblical references to God as “Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit.” This fruitful approach offers fresh insight into the meaning of the biblical language used for God, giving readers the background necessary for properly understanding the trinitarian perspective of the New Testament and of the Christian faith.
Divided into four chapters, the book looks at “Father” language in early Judaism, at “Father” language in early Christianity, at “Son” language, and at language designating the Spirit. This thorough review of the traditional God language across the biblical texts shows what the earliest Christians understood by using these terms and, ultimately, what these terms mean for modern faith and practice.
While much of this material is deceptively familiar, the authors’ close examination of how and where the different terms are used reveals some surprising results. It makes clear, for example, that speaking of God in trinitarian terms was not as radical a departure from early Jewish monotheism as many have thought, and it shows that while early Christianity was characterized by disparate ideas, the first Christians nevertheless shared a common understanding of God. Equally engaging findings of the book include the authors’ support for the traditional gendered term “Father” when speaking about God.
Complete with helpful questions at the end of each chapter, The Shadow of the Almighty provides an excellent place to begin a deeper study of God.
Paul Quest : The Renewed Search For The Jew Of Tarsus
$42.00Add to cartIn this paper edition of The Paul Ben Witherington examines the various profiles of the historical Paul that have been newly discovered or refurbished. One of the great gains of this quest has been a reencounter with Paul the Jew. The flood of new insight into Judaism of the first century has illuminated features of Paul that were previously obscured. In this timely work, a reacquaintance with the classical Roman world has filled in even more details of Paul’s life and work.
Gospel Of Mark
$45.50Add to cart472 Pages
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This superb commentary offers the first sustained attempt to read the Gospel of Mark both as an ancient biography and as a form of ancient rhetoric. Leading New Testament scholar Ben Witherington applies to Mark the socio-rhetorical approach for which he is well known, opening a fresh new perspective on the earliest Gospel. Witherington’s work provides us with a fascinating view of how the life and teachings of Jesus were presented to a largely non-Jewish auidence – and what this presentation of Jesus still holds for Christians today.
Jesus The Sage
$32.00Add to cartIn the early Jesus movement, wisdom in the person of Jesus was believed to have returned to heaven, exalted to the right hand of God, and to reign from there. But Jesus as wisdom had left both his legacy and his influence behind. The sayings of Jesus recorded in the Gospels reflect not only the influence of the Israelite wisdom traditions, but also the tradition of the personification of wisdom.
In this provocative volume newly available in paperback, Ben Witherington provides both an introduction to Israel’s wisdom traditions and insight into how Jesus and his sayings fit in that tradition. Beyond this, he demonstrates the on-going significance and influence of these traditions on other New Testament writings. He concludes that Jesus may be viewed primarily as a prophetic sage emphasizing instruction, insight, and humor in a vein counter to the dominant culture.
Jesus Paul And The End Of The World
$35.00Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
Ben Wetherington takes a hard look at the Gospel texts and makes a thorough and critical assessment of Paul’s eschatology. For each topic examined; the language of imminence, the dominion of God, the community of Christ, the Israel of God, the day of the Lord and the resurrection of the dead; he compares and contrasts Jesus and Paul. The result is an important contribution to our understanding of New Testament eschatology.
Grace In Galatia
$60.50Add to cartFocusing on Paul’s most polemical letter, Ben Witherington’s groundbreaking Grace in Galatia features the latest discussion of major issues in Pauline studies. Paul’s view of the law and the relationship between the historical data in Galatians and Acts are meticulously explored, while special sections at the end of each chapter highlight the relevance of the text for today’s believer. An illuminating, accessible commentary for general readers, as well as students and scholars!
Jesus Quest
$38.00Add to cartIn recent years, John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, and Burton Mack have sparked controversy with their conclusions on the historical Jesus. Professor Witherington, in this popular critical review, presents the work of E.P. Sanders, N.T. Wright, and other noted scholars to give a clear, balanced understanding of the debate.
Christology Of Jesus
$32.00Add to cartHow did Jesus understand himself? Ben WitheringtonIII, is a Professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, a member of the Society for the Study of New Testament, and author of “Jesus the Sage” and “The Jesus Quest”
History Literature And Society In The Book Of Acts
$124.00Add to cartThese essays use an interdisciplinary approach for recent Book of Acts scholarship. Insights from the social sciences, narratological studies, Greek and Roman rhetoric and history, and classics, set Acts in its original historical, literary and social context. These methods of interpretation have only recently been applied to Acts in a systematic way. This is a valuable overview of some of the chief preoccupations of current biblical studies from leading scholars in Old and New Testament studies and the history of antiquity.
Johns Wisdom : A Commentary On The Fourth Gospel
$55.00Add to cartJesus as depicted in the Fourth Gospel is remarkably dissimilar to the Jesus found in the Synoptic Gospels. In this book, Ben Witherington III places the Gospel of John within its proper literary, historical, social, and theological contexts, especially those dealing with the wisdom traditions of Hellenistic Judaism. What emerges is a compelling argument that the Gospel of John has an agenda for mission in addition to concerns for discipleship and community life.
Conflict And Community In Corinth
$45.99Add to cartThis unprecedented commentary by Ben Witherington III sheds fresh light on the context and content of Paul’s message by analyzing 1 and 2 Corinthians in terms of Greco Roman Rhetoric– the standard means of persuasion in his day– and ancient social conditions and customs. This innovative approach, combined with commentary that discusses the text according to its rhetorical units rather than the usual verse-by-verse procedure, offers a new way of looking at Paul’s relationship with his Corinthian converts.
Friendship And Finances In Philippi The Letter Of Paul To The Philippians
$17.00Add to cartSKU (ISBN): 9781563381027Ben WitheringtonBinding: Trade PaperPublished: 1994New Testament In Context CommentariesPublisher: Trinity Press International Print On Demand Product
Pauls Narrative Thought World
$50.00Add to cartIt is a common belief that Paul’s letters are not stories but rather theological ideas and practical advice. Ben Witherington thinks otherwise. He is convinced that all Paul’s ideas, arguments, practical advice, and social arrangements are ultimately grounded in stories, some found in the Hebrew scriptures and some found in the oral tradition. Witherington says that Paul’s thought was shaped by four interrelated stories comprising a larger drama: the story of a world gone wrong; the story of Israel in that world; the story of Christ, which arises both out of the story of Israel and out of the story of God as creator and redeemer; and the story of the Christians, which indicates a world set right again. According to Witherington, the story of Christ is the crucial turning point that affects how the story will ultimately be resolved.
Women In The Earliest Churches
$58.99Add to cartThis book examines the roles and functions that women assumed in the early Christian communities from AD 33 to the Council of Nicaea. It surveys, too, the views about women held by various New Testament authors including Paul and the Evangelists.
Women And The Genesis Of Christianity
$46.99Add to cartThis study explores the role of women in New Testament times. Beginning with the woman’s place in Judaism, in the Hellenistic world, and in the Roman Empire, Witherington demonstrates how Jesus broke significantly with convention in how he viewed women, offering as he did a wholly new conception of the legitimate rights of women in society.
Women In The Ministry Of Jesus
$62.00Add to cartA fascinating and original contribution to the exegesis of Biblical passages relevant to the current debate on women’s roles in the Church and society.