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| How to Use This Book | |
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| Setting the Scene | |
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| The Historical Context of Jesus and the New Testament-- From the Persian Period to the Jewish War | |
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| Sources of Information | |
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| Old and New Testaments | |
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| Jewish Sources | |
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| Greek and Roman Historians | |
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| Before the Romans | |
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| The Greeks | |
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| The Maccabees Versus the Seleucid Empire | |
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| The Hasmonean Dynasty | |
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| The Romans | |
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| The Herod Family | |
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| Pontius Pilate | |
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| After Pilate | |
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| Jesus'' Context | |
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| Essay Topics | |
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| Further Reading | |
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| Judaism in First-Century Palestine | |
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| Five Key Marks of Second Temple Judaism | |
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| One True God | |
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| God Has Chosen Israel | |
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| God Has Provided a Way to Live | |
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| God Has Given the People a Land, Focused in the Temple | |
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| Hope for the Future | |
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| Parties and Groups Within First-Century Judaism | |
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| Pharisees | |
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| Sadducees | |
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| Essenes | |
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| The "Fourth Philosophy:" The Revolutionaries | |
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| Common Judaism | |
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| Further Reading | |
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| B. Apporaching the Gospels | |
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| What Are the Gospels? | |
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| What Does "Gospel" Mean? | |
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| The Gospels As Like Other Ancient Literature | |
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| The Gospels As Unllike Other Ancient Literature | |
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| Truth in Both Views? | |
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| Why Were the Gospels Written? | |
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| Why These Gospels? | |
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| Some Issues for Today | |
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| Essay Topics | |
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| Further Reading | |
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| Where Did the Gospels Come From? | |
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| Luke 1:1-4 | |
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| Using a Gospels Synopsis | |
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| Source Criticism | |
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| Form Criticism | |
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| Redaction Criticism | |
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| And Now? | |
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| Essay Topics | |
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| Further Reading | |
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| Understanding the Gospels Today | |
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| Tools for Interpreting the Gospels | |
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| Narrative Criticism | |
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| Social-scientific Approaches | |
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| Rhetorical Criticism | |
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| Reader-response Approaches | |
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| "Ideological" Approaches | |
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| Structuralism | |
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| Post-structuralism and Deconstruction | |
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| An Approach to Exegesis of the Gospels | |
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| The Process of Study | |
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| Pull the Ideas Together | |
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| Presentation | |
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| Essay Topics | |
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| Further Reading | |
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| Methods of Interpretation: Parables, Miracles, Apocalyptic | |
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| The Parables of Jesus | |
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| The Miracles of Jesus | |
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| Apocalyptic Imagery | |
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| Essay Topics | |
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| Further Reading | |
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| The Historicity of the Gospels | |
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| A Subjective Issue | |
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| What Sort of Documents? | |
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| What Sources of Information Did They Have? | |
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| Doubts About the Historicity of the Contents | |
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| Arguments for Historicity from the Contents | |
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| Essay Topics | |
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| Further Reading | |
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| Using the Gospels Today | |
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| What Are We To Make of Four Different Gospels? | |
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| What About Teaching and Using the Gospels Today? | |
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| An Example: How to "Preach" Jesus and the Gospels | |
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| C. Understanding Jesus | |
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| The Quest for the Historical Jesus | |
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| Individuals and Movements | |
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| Rationalism and Herman Samuel Reimarus | |
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| H. G. Paulus and Miracles | |
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| David Strauss and Myth | |
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| The Liberal Lives of Jesus | |
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| A. Schweitzer and the Eschatological Jesus | |
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| Rudolf Bultmann, Myth and Existentialism | |
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| The New Quest | |
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| The Jesus Seminar | |
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| The Third Quest | |
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| Other Modern Views of Jesus | |
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| Issues | |
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| Presuppositions and Subjectivity | |
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| Miracles | |
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| Sources | |
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| The Religious Context | |
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| Criteria and Method | |
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| History Matters | |
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| Essay Topics | |
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| Further Reading | |
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| The Life of Jesus in the Light of History | |
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| Birth and Beginnings | |
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| John the Baptist | |
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| Galilee | |
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| The Road to Jerusalem | |
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| Last Days in Jerusalem | |
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| Essay Topics | |
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| Further Reading | |
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| The Teaching and Aims of Jesus | |
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| Why Did Jesus Die? | |
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| Jesus'' Arrival in Jerusalem | |
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| Jesus'' Demonstration in the Temple | |
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| The Final Steps | |
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| Jesus'' Perspective | |
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| Jesus and the Kingdom of God | |
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| God''s Reign in the OT and Judaism | |
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| Jesus and the Kingdom | |
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| God''s Reign in Jesus'' Ministry | |
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| God''s Coming Reign | |
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| The Character of the Kingdom | |
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| Welcome for "Sinners" | |
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| The Kingdom of the Father | |
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| The Response Required | |
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| Jesus'' Ethics and His View of the Torah | |
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| Jesus'' Teaching About the Torah | |
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| Jesus'' Criticism of the Torah | |
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| Was Jesus Consistent? | |
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| Who Did Jesus Think He Was? | |
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| Jesus As Israel | |
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| Jesus, His Disciples and the Renewed Israel | |
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| Jesus'' Reshaping of Israel | |
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| The Aims of Jesus | |
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| Jesus As Messiah | |
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| Jesus As the Son of God | |
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| Jesus As the Son of Man | |
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| Summing Up: Jesus and the Purposes of Yah | |