Bruce Malina

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  Phoebe : Patron And Emissary

  $11.95

  Human beings are embedded in a set of social relations. A social network is one way of conceiving that set of relations in terms of a number of persons connected to one another by varying degrees of relatedness. In the early Jesus group documents featuring Paul and coworkers, it takes little effort to envision the apostle’s collection of friends and friends of friends that is the Pauline network. The persons who constituted that network are the focus of this set of brief books. For Christians of the Western tradition, these persons are significant ancestors in faith. While each of them is worth knowing by themselves, it is largely because of their standing within that web of social relations woven about and around Paul that they are of lasting interest. Through this series we hope to come to know those persons in ways befitting their first-century Mediterranean culture.

  Imagine trying to find a window into the life of an individual who lived approximately two thousand years ago in a culture vastly different from our own. Consider the added difficulty when that individual is a woman and the only written record of her consists of two biblical verses (Rom 16:1-2). In this volume Joan C. Campbell takes on the challenge and provides a surprisingly full and rich account of Phoebe of Kenchreai. With Campbell, we visit Phoebe’s hometown, we wander the city streets with her, and we meet her associates. Along the way, we gain insight into the social roles that Paul ascribes to her (sister, “deacon,” and patron) and what these roles entailed in first-century Mediterranean Jesus groups. This book is important reading for anyone interested in the contribution of women to emerging Christianity and for contemporary deacons who seek to understand the biblical roots of their ministry.

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  Social Science Commentary On The Book Of Acts

  $34.00

  Like earlier volumes in the Social Science Commentary series, this volume situates Acts squarely in the cultural matrix of the first century Mediterranean world, elaborating its codes of patron and client, mediatorship, honor and shame, healing and sickening, wizardry and witchcraft accusations, and the understanding of the Spirit of God as well as deities and demons as personal causes of significant events.

  Part 1: Jesus First Command to the Twelve – Their Activities Among Israelite Majority Populations (Acts 1:4-12:25)

  Part 2: Jesus Second Command to Saul/Paul – His Activities Among Israelite Minority Populations (Acts 12:25-25:31)

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  Social Science Commentary On The Letters Of Paul

  $39.00

  Abbreviations
  Preface
  Introduction

  1 THESSALONIANS
  I. 1 Thess 1:1 Letter Opening (Superscription)
  II. 1 Thess 1:2-3:13 About The Relationship Between The Change Agents And The Jesus Group They Formed
  III. 1 Thess 4:1-5:24 Directives And Exhortations
  IV. 1 Thess 5:25-28 Letter Closing: Salutation And Blessing

  1 CORINTHIANS
  I. 1 Cor 1: 1-8 Letter Opening (Superscription)
  II. 1 Cor 1:9-6:20 Reaction To A Report From Chloe’s People
  III. 1 Cor 7:1-15:58 Response To Corinthian Questions
  IV. 1 Cor 16:5-24 Letter Closing: Salutations And Blessings

  2 CORINTHIANS
  I. 2 Cor 2:14-6:13 Letter 1: Written Before The Dispute
  II. 2 Corinthians 10-13 Letter 2: Written During The Dispute
  III. 2 Cor 1:1-2:13 [7:5-16] Letter 3: Written After The Dispute
  IV. 2 Cor 8:1-24 Insert: Part Of A Letter Of Recommendation For Titus About The Collection For Jerusalem
  V. 2 Cor 9:1-15 Insert: Part Of A Letter About The Collection For Jerusalem

  GALATIANS
  I. Gal 1:1-5 Letter Opening (Superscription)
  II. Gal 1:6-9 Introduction
  III. Gal 1:10-2:21 Paul Defends His Honor (Form: Encomium)
  IV. Gal 3:1-6:10 Paul Defends His Gospel (Form: Public Argument)
  V. Gal 6:11-18 Conclusion

  ROMANS
  I. Rom 1:1-7 Letter Opening (Superscription)
  II. Rom 1:8-10 Letter Thanksgiving
  III. Rom 1:11-17 Introduction And Travel Plans
  IV. Rom 1:18-32 They And The Ten Commandments
  V. Rom 2:1-16 You Judeans And Judging Hellenists
  VI. Rom 2:17-3:20 Israelites
  VII. Rom 3:21-8:39 The Present Time: Now
  VIII. Rom 9:1-11:36 Recalcitrant Israel
  IX. Rom 12:1-13:14 You: Jesus-Group Values
  X. Rom 14:1-15:13 They (the Weak) And The Torah Commandments
  XI. Rom 15:15-32 Conclusion And Travel Plans
  XII. Rom 15:33 Letter Ending
  XIII. Rom 16:1-29 Appendix: Letter Of Recommendation For Phoebe And Doxology

  PHILIPPIANS
  I. Phil 1:1-11 Superscription
  II. Phil 1:12-2:15 Body A: Paul’s Prison Circumstances And Its Significance For The Philippians
  III. Phil 2:16-3:21 Body B: Ingroup And Outgroup Relations
  IV. Phil 4:1-23 Concluding Remarks

  PHILEMON
  I. Phlm 1-3 Superscription
  II. Phlm 4-7 Thanksgiving: The Exordium
  III. Phlm 8-16 Body Of The Letter Part A: Perobatio
  IV. Phlm 17-22 Body Of The Letter Part B: Peroratio
  V. Phlm 23-25 Conclusion

  Reading Scenarios For The (Authentic) Letters Of Paul
  Bibliography
  List Of Reading Scenarios

  Additional Info
  This latest addition to the Fortress Social-Science Commentaries on New Testament writings illuminates the values, perceptions, and social codes of the Mediterranean culture that shaped Paul and his interactions -both harmonious and conflicted – with others. Malina and Pilch add new dimensions to our understanding of the apostle as a social change agent, his coworkers as innovators, and his gospel as an assertion of the honor of the God of Israel.

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  Social Science Commentary On The Synoptic Gospels (Reprinted)

  $39.00

  Contemporary biblical interpretation has narrowed the gap between modern reader and ancient author—but chiefly regarding individual events and ideas. This commentary mines cultural anthropology, macro-sociology, and social psychology to elucidate the values, conflicts, and mores of ancient Mediterranean culture. Through detailed textual notes and “reading scenarios,” it brings life and light to the synoptic texts.

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  Social Setting Of Jesus And The Gospels

  $39.00

  What do the social sciences have to contribute to the study of Jesus and the Gospels? This is the fundamental question that these essays all address-from analyses of ancient economics to altered states of consciouseness, politics, ritual, kinship, and labeling

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  New Testament World (Revised)

  $42.00

  Ancient Palestine’s values seem quite different from the modern industrial West’s. Malina, long in the forefront of cultural anthropology, illumines questions of honor and shame, individual vs. group identity, envy and the evil eye, kinship and marriage, cleanness vs. uncleanness.

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  Social Gospel Of Jesus

  $20.00

  1. Why Proclaim The Kingdom Of God?
  2. Mediterranean Violence And The Kingdom
  3. Hidden Social Dimensions Of The Kingdom
  4. The Kingdom And Political Economy
  5. The Kingdom And Jesus’ Self-Denying Followers
  6. The Social Gospel Of Jesus And Its Outcomes

  Additional Info
  Scholars are agreed that the central metaphor in Jesus’ proclamation was the kingdom of God. But what did that phrase mean in the first-century Palestinian world of Jesus? Since it is a political metaphor, what did Jesus envision as the political import of his message? Since this is tied to the political economy, how was that structured in Jesus’ day? How is the violence of Jesus’ Mediterranean world addressed in the kingdom? And how does “self-denial” fit into Jesus’ agenda?

  Malina tackles these questions in a very accessible way, providing a social-scientific analysis, meaning that he brings to bear explicit models and a comparative approach toward an exciting interpretation of what Jesus was up to, and how his first-century audience would have heard him.

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  Social Science Commentary On The Book Of Revelation

  $32.00

  The author of Revelation presents himself as John, the astral seer, who professes faith in the Resurrected Jesus and who belonged to the house of Israel. John writes of traveling in to the sky; but this perspective of “sky-visions” is completely neglected in the traditional commentaries and studies on Revelation. Malina and Pilch demonstrate the necessity of taking ancient sky-interpretation seriously for reading the book of Revelation in its first-century context.

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  Social Science Commentary On The Gospel Of John

  $34.00

  )”Distinctive commentary that provides reading scenarios and textual notes that describe the Mediterranean world. Scattered throughout are mini-essays on honor and shame, coalitions and factions, patronage, the three-zone personality, and more. Draws on customs in the Middle East,”—Modern Liturgy.

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  Portraits Of Paul

  $48.00

  These pioneers in applying cultural anthropology to the New Testament re-examine Acts and the Epistles, drawing contrasts between modern and ancient views of personality. They show how public speeches were shaped by conventions of rhetoric and morality, while honor/shame and gender distinctions cause us to misread Paul.

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