**Rethinking early Christian identity with the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles  **Shaping the Past to Define the Present comprises both new and revised essays by esteemed New Testament scholar Gregory E. Sterling on Jewish and early Christian historiography. A sequel to his seminal work, Historiography and Self-Definition, this volume expands on Sterling's reading of Luke-Acts in the context of contemporary Jewish and Greek historiography. These ...

The essays gathered here provide a panoramic view of current thinking on biblical texts that play important roles in contemporary struggles for social justice – either as inspiration or impediment. Here, from the hands of an ecumenical array of leading biblical scholars, are fresh and compelling resources for thinking biblically about what justice is and what it demands. Individual essays treat key debates, themes, and texts, locating each within its historical and cultural settings while ...

When love is all you have, how do you protect it from those who want to take it from you?I’ve loved Dove Tryst my whole life. There wasn’t a time when I ever thought she wouldn’t be mine. Even when we hated each other, we loved each other.But now I’m sitting here alone, trying to figure out where it all went wrong and more importantly, how.She’s engaged to my enemy. Days from walking down the aisle toward a man who isn’t me. And she’s asked me to object.I kn...

New York Times bestselling author J. Sterling takes you to the East Coast in this Grumpy / Sunshine romance that you’re going to adore!After finding out that her husband was cheating on her, Ava Starling packed her things and never looked back. She always planned on coming home to run her family’s seafood restaurant, but she never expected that she’d be doing it alone. Ava was finally in a good place; healing, no longer angry, peaceful and content.At least that’s what she told hers...

What happens when you call off your engagement to your high school sweetheart and go on the honeymoon anyway? New York Times bestselling author J. Sterling brings you this fun and flirty story about finding love when you least expect it!I was engaged to my high school boyfriend, about to get married and live a life I no longer wanted. After breaking up, when he insisted that I go on our planned honeymoon anyway … alone … I wasn’t about to say no.Never in my wildest dreams d...

New York Times bestselling author J. Sterling brings you a story about a successful millionaire seeking a fake girlfriend in order to secure his company’s future. You’ll love falling for this entertaining and romantic book.Joseph Martin has been my best friend’s boss for years. So when she comes to me with this half-baked idea of me posing as Joseph’s girlfriend to help him out, I’m tempted to tell her to take a hike.But then she begs.And pleads.And says tha...

New York Times bestselling author J. Sterling brings you a steamy workplace romance about falling for your boss when it’s strictly forbidden.I’ve had a crush on my coworker Declan since the day I started working at Rockline Studios. Trust me, if you could see this man, you’d have a crush on him too.It’s been two years since my first day of work … two years since my head has been filled with fantasies and daydreams about the things I could do to him. Two years of … SITTING B...

"Arguably the most distinctive feature of the early Christian literature," writes Bart Ehrman, "is the degree to which it was forged." The Homilies and Recognitions of Clement; Paul's letters to and from Seneca; Gospels by Peter, Thomas, and Philip; Jesus' correspondence with Abgar, letters by Peter and Paul in the New Testament--all forgeries. To cite just a few examples. Forgery and Counterforgery is the first comprehensive study of early Christian pseudepigrapha ever produced in English...

Highly respected New Testament scholar Craig Keener is known for his meticulous and comprehensive research. This commentary on Acts, his magnum opus, may be the largest and most thoroughly documented Acts commentary available. Useful not only for the study of Acts but also early Christianity, this work sets Acts in its first-century context.In this volume, the first of four, Keener introduces the book of Acts, particularly historical questions related to it, and provides detailed e...

This book provides information from Church history concerning the recognition of the canonical status of the several books of the New Testament. Canonization was a long and gradual process of sifting among scores of gospels, epistles, and other books that enjoyed local and temporary authority - some of which have only recently come to light among the discoveries of Nag Hammadi. After discussing the external pressures that led to the fixing of the limits of the canon, the author gives susta...

This book aims at combating the Hostility Theory which claims that the Christians in the pagan Roman Empire had no images and rejected them as idolatrous. Did the early Christians, during the first three centuries, 33–313, have images in their churches or places of worship and homes? If they did not, was that because they thought that all images were idols or close to being idols? Did they think that making and having images of Old Testament people and events as well as of Jesus, the apost...

Christianity Today 2004 Award of Merit (Biblical Studies)Keener's commentary explores the Jewish and Greco-Roman settings of John more deeply than previous works, paying special attention to social-historical and rhetorical features of the Gospel. It cites about 4,000 different secondary sources and uses over 20,000 references from ancient literature.