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A key to understanding the Gospel of John is, in many respects, its prologue; yet questions regarding its origin and background, its structure, use of Greek philosophical terms, and indeed its relationship to the rest of the gospel still remain open. The papers in this volume address each of these questions and were presented at the first meeting of the Colloquium Ioanneum, a group of distinguished international Johannine scholars broadly representing different nationalities, religious traditions and approaches to the gospel. The first part offers differing assessments of the background, literary, and theological elements of the prologue, while the second examines presuppositions, methods, and perspectives involved in philosophical interpretation of the Gospel of John. Contributors:John Ashton, R. Alan Culpepper, Jörg Frey, Christos Karakolis, Craig R. Koester, William R. G. Loader, George L. Parsenios, Udo Schnelle, Michael Theobald, Marianne Meye Thompson, Jan G. van der Watt, Catrin H. Williams, Ruben Zimmermann, Jean Zumstein

Philipp Harms presents the concepts and methods of modern international macroeconomics in a comprehensive yet accessible way. He motivates the topics discussed with regard to their practical relevance and enables the reader to assess the contributions of theoretical approaches and results. Among the topics covered are the determinants of current accounts and international capital flows, the mechanisms behind the fluctuations of real and nominal exchange rates as well as the scope and limits of economic policy in open economies. Real and monetary phenomena are analyzed within a coherent analytical framework, and the theoretical results are confronted with the available empirical evidence. The English edition updates the data presented in the German version, adopts new conceptual developments, and repeatedly refers to the recent financial crises.

In vielen Staaten bezieht die öffentliche Hand zur Erfüllung von Aufgaben der Daseinsvorsorge auch private Unternehmen ein. Azar Aliyev untersucht den Konzessionsvertrag als ein Instrument solcher öffentlich-privater Partnerschaften im russischen und kasachischen Recht. Konzession ist in beiden Staaten gesetzlich als Vertrag über Errichtung, Modernisierung, Betrieb und Rückübereignung von öffentlichen Infrastrukturobjekten durch Private definiert. Ebenso wie in Deutschland spielen dabei Privatrecht und öffentliches Recht zusammen; allerdings liegt der Schwerpunkt der Diskussion in den untersuchten Staaten anders als in Deutschland nicht im Verwaltungs-, sondern im Privatrecht.Die Arbeit diskutiert die Konzession auch als Mittel, im Kontext eher labiler juristischer Infrastruktur "Inseln der Stabilität" für langfristige und komplexe Großprojekte zu schaffen. Dabei werden viele Grundsatzfragen des Zivilrechts sowie des Wirtschaftsprivat- und Wirtschaftsverwaltungsrechts aufgegriffen und analysiert.

In this work, JiSeong James Kwon examines a variety of scholarly arguments concerning the distinctive literary and historical relationship between the book of Job and the second part of the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55), so-called Deutero-Isaiah. The general methodology in a comparative study between biblical texts has been the author-oriented approach which traces the complex interrelationships between corresponding texts, considering many verbal and thematic similarities. But this approach often arises from the misleading concepts of literary dependence from an early source to a later one. Here, JiSeong James Kwon argues that scribes were writers of biblical materials and belonged to a group of the literate elite in Judahite society. Resemblances between the two books result from the production of a scribal culture. This view may shed a light on traditional researches influenced by form-criticism, which divides the literate groups in Israelite society into different professional groups-priests, sages, and prophets.

In this study, Jonathan S. Milgram demonstrates that the transformation of inheritance law from the biblical to the tannaitic period is best explained against the backdrop of the legal and social contexts in which the tannaitic laws were formulated. Employing text and source critical methods, he argues that, in the absence of the hermeneutic underpinnings for tannaitic innovations, the laws were not the result of the rabbinic imagination and its penchant for inventive interpretation of Scripture. Turning to the rich repositories in biblical, ancient near eastern, Second Temple, Greek, Elephantine, Judean desert, and Roman sources, the author searches for conceptual parallels and antecedents as well as formulae and terminology adopted and adapted by the tannaim. Since the tannaitic traditions reflect the social and economic contexts of the tannaitic period - the nuclear family on privatized landholdings in urban centers - the author also considers the degree to which tannaitic inheritance laws may have emerged out of these contexts.

This collection of essays contains the papers given at the Sixth International East-West Symposium of New Testament Scholars in Belgrade, Serbia. The symposium was a project of the Eastern Europe Liaison Committee of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas. Main subject matters of the volume are the Holy Spirit in New Testament writings (particularly Luke-Acts, the Gospel of John and Paul), the reception and interpretation of biblical texts about the Holy Spirit in patristic theology, ancient Christian liturgy and iconography, and reflection on the role of the Holy Spirit in church life. Contributions from seminars are devoted to extra-biblical ancient Jewish and early Christian sources. All topics are discussed from a "Western" (Protestant and Roman-Catholic) theological and exegetical perspective as well as from an Orthodox point of view. An introduction reflects the results of the symposium, sketches recent research on the Holy Spirit in the New Testament scholarship and briefly points to texts and problems belonging to the topic but not dealt with in the volume. Contributors: Demetrios Bathrellos, Katharina Bracht, Harald Buchinger, Andreas Dettwiler, Predrag Dragutinovi¿c, John Fotopoulos, Oksana Gubareva, Carl R. Holladay, Bishop Irinej of Novi Sad and Bachka, Christos Karakolis, Taras Khomych, Rodoljub S. Kubat, Joel Marcus, Daniel Marguerat, Tobias Nicklas, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, Armand Puig i Tàrrech, Volker Rabens, Vladan Tatalovi¿c, Ekaterini Tsalampouni, Manuel Vogel, James Buchanan Wallace, Nicholas Thomas Wright

Much scholarly attention has been paid to the Greek Bible translations employed in the Byzantine Church, whereas those used in the Byzantine synagogue have so far been largely ignored. Nicholas de Lange attempts to remedy this lack by collecting together all the available evidence for such translations from the Cairo Genizah fragments and other manuscript sources, setting it within its context in Byzantine Judaism. He traces the history of the translations over a period of a thousand years and demonstrates the persistence of a certain approach to translation which ultimately goes back to ancient Judaism and has left its mark on the Septuagint and in the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as in the Rabbinic literature and the Targums. Much attention focuses on the lost translation of Akylas (also known as Aquila) which played a key role in the dissemination of Rabbinic Judaism in the Greek-speaking communities of the Near East and Europe. There are traces also of the Septuagint, something which raises intriguing questions about a continuing Kulturkampf in Byzantium between Hellenism and Rabbinism; might this have implications for the understanding of Byzantine Karaism and Jewish-Christian relations? Byzantine Judaism played a key role in the transmission of Jewish religious culture from the Near East to Western Europe, meaning that this study has wide ramifications. The book is intended as a contribution to Greek Bible studies, Byzantine studies and Jewish studies. Most of the source materials were discovered and published by the author, with this being the first time they have been brought together and studied in book form.

After the Vietnamese War, civil relations with foreign elements have increased and, consequently, private international law has gained some importance in Vietnam. However, both the relevant legal provisions and the practice of the courts in Vietnam are insufficient. Trinh Nguyen studies Vietnamese private international law in light of European developments. She focuses in particular on the general issues, contracts and torts. She describes and assesses the currently effective provisions of Vietnamese law and the corresponding judicial practice of the courts. Together with the knowledge of European private international law, with the main emphasis on the Rome I and Rome II Regulation, she makes use of comparative law to propose future developments for Vietnam based on the critical evaluation of the western doctrine.

Parable research has to a large degree ignored the Sermon on the Mount (SM) and for its part, research into the SM has likewise left the parables by the wayside. However, the use of parabolic language in more than one third of the SM influences its interpretation and indeed opens up a new approach to it. In the current volume, Ernst Baasland focuses on this important factor, whilst also taking the rhetoric of Jesus' teaching into consideration. The author maintains that rhetorical features have a great bearing on the interpretation of the text with the overall structure illuminating the entire composition of the sermon. Fresh insights into its oration therefore serve to challenge the source problem in a new way. The religious and philosophical settings of this most well-known of Christ's preachings are clarified by its parables and rhetoric; and the sermon's Jewish background has often been investigated. While the author continues with that particular task, he simultaneously affords more emphasis to the parallels in (Greek) Hellenistic literature. The combining of all these factors leads to a clearer comprehension of the Sermon on the Mount's philosophy of life and provides a better understanding of this classical text.

In this close reading of Second Corinthians and examination of prevailing attitudes toward death in Greco-Roman Corinth, Richard I. Deibert proposes Paul's physical mortality as the window through which to understand both the mystery of his collapsing authority in Corinth and the heart of his gospel. In his own experience of physical dying, Paul experiences the "deadness" of the resurrected Jesus, which paradoxically communicates life to him and through him to his congregations. Paul discovers that death has been transfigured into a source of life and, consequently, that human mortality has been infused with saving power. This study of human mortality clarifies, both for Paul's day and for our own, how crucial it is to guard the human person as an inseparable unity of body and soul, and to keep theology grounded in experience. Richard I. Deibert's work is of vital interest not only to students of early Christian and New Testament history, but also to students of anthropology, philosophy, and theology.

How are bodies and affects formed in liberal market societies? And, conversely, what roles do affects and bodies play in the genesis and stabilization of and changes to market societies? These are the questions examined by the authors in several insightful and theoretically ambitious case studies. The collection aims to present new approaches from the History of Emotions, Affect Studies, Actor-Network-Theory and other fields, putting them to the test in the analysis of capitalist societies. These investigations - by sociologists, ethnologists and historians - will tackle developments in the USA, Europe and Australia from the 19th through to the 21st Century. They will also - via their analyses of issues such as speculation, industrial production, advertising and ethics - examine historical and contemporary phenomena, shedding light on emerging viewpoints on work, consumption, class and gender. Contributors:Fiona Allon, Peter-Paul Bänziger, Franck Cochoy, Christoph Conrad, Alexander Engel, Susan J. Matt, Alexandra Michel, Anne Schmidt, Thomas Welskopp

Covenant and election are two theological concepts that dominate the landscape of the Hebrew Bible. If they became the main structuring concepts of the Hebrew Bible, they were not so from the beginning. Their centrality was the result of their utilization by exilic and post-exilic scribes and tradents to focus Israel's traditions into a coherent structure as fitted the revelation of one God. The essays in this collection examine covenant and election across the biblical literature, from the priestly document through Deuteronomy to Jeremiah and the book of Chronicles. They show how the ideas were shaped and refined under the conditions of national disaster and rebuilding.

The volume traces back to a symposium held at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg and offers a broad comparative analysis of company and capital markets law in Germany and the Nordic states. It details the special elements of company law in Scandinavia that developed amid the twin forces of innovative experimentation and the drive for harmonization, contrasting them with the distinctive features of German company law. Further contributions deal with the newly created entrepreneur company in Germany and Denmark, as well as the role of shareholders and boards in public companies. It also contains detailed analyses of the law of company groups in Germany and the Nordic states. the volume is further rounded out with contributions on capital markets law and takeover law, including issues involving acting in concert, ownership disclosure and the interaction between the legislator and the takeover panel in Sweden. With contributions by:Paul Krüger Andersen, Jan Andersson, Holger Fleischer, Jesper Lau Hansen, Søren Friis Hansen, Christian Kersting, Mårten Knuts, Troels Michael Lilja, Göran Nyström, Erik Sjöman, Evelyne JB Sørensen, Tobias Tröger, Dirk Verse, Frauke Wedemann

Daniele Pevarello analyzes the Sentences of Sextus, a second century collection of Greek aphorisms compiled by Sextus, an otherwise unknown Christian author. The specific character of Sextus' collection lies in the fact that the Sentences are a Christian rewriting of Hellenistic sayings, some of which are still preserved in pagan gnomologies and in Porphyry. Pevarello investigates the problem of continuity and discontinuity between the ascetic tendencies of the Christian compiler and aphorisms promoting self-control in his pagan sources. In particular, he shows how some aspects of the Stoic, Cynic, Platonic and Pythagorean moral traditions, such as sexual restraint, voluntary poverty, the practice of silence and of a secluded life were creatively combined with Sextus' ascetic agenda against the background of the biblical tradition. Drawing on this adoption of Hellenistic moral traditions, Pevarello shows how great a part the moral tradition of Greek paideia played in the shaping and development of self-restraint among early Christian ascetics.

Recent studies highlight the character of Deuteronomy's laws of public officials (Deut. 16.18-18.22) as the first draft for a constitutional government of the future. Sarah Pearce explores what these laws meant for Jewish interpreters and their communities in the Second Temple period. Her focus is on the reception and transformation of Deuteronomy's laws on the organisation of justice (Deut. 16.18-17.13): the appointment of local judiciaries; the authority and function of the central court; and the prohibition of single testimony. The author offers a detailed commentary on these laws in sources including the Masoretic Text, the Samaritan Pentateuch, Greek Deuteronomy, the Books of Chronicles, the Temple Scroll, the Damascus Document, Philo of Alexandria, and Josephus. Her aim is to understand the ancient interpreters of Deuteronomy, first and foremost, in their own terms and their own contexts.

This study brings insights from character ethics in addition to the much discussed biblical scholarship on social justice in order to elucidate the concept of righteousness present in the book of Proverbs. The author's choice of Proverbs as a wisdom text in relation to the concept of righteousness reflects the realization that previous scholarship has not dealt with righteousness as a concept in its own right but as a corollary to the issue of social justice. Like character ethics, Proverbs use its depiction of the righteous person as its prominent pedagogic device of moral discourse. In other words, instead of offering abstract statements about morality, Sun Myung Lyu portrays the life of the righteous person as the paradigm of moral life, which is pregnant with numerous realizations into specific actions befitting diverse life situations. What the righteous person embodies is righteousness, the character in toto, which encompasses yet transcends specific virtues and actions. After presenting a comparative study of Proverbs with the Psalms and the ancient Egyptian wisdom texts, the author concludes that despite many similarities and parallels, Proverbs still stands out in its strong emphasis on character formation and internalization of virtues as foundations of morality in general and righteousness in particular.

Asle Eikrem strives to develop a systematic philosophical understanding of the constitutive structures of religious discourses. Different philosophical traditions (phenomenology, hermeneutics, pragmatics, metaphysics or analytical philosophical thinking) have articulated these structures in their own distinctive ways. The author aims to show how insights from partly conflicting traditions can be coherently reconstructed within the framework of a comprehensive philosophical presentation. The central thesis guiding his work is inspired by the deep-metaphysics of German philosopher Lorenz B. Puntel, and states that the relation between the pragmatic, semantic and ontological structures of religious discourses must be understood as internally necessary. They cannot be thought independently from each other. The pragmatic and semantic structures of religious discourses must be understood as substructures in a comprehensive ontological dimension (Being) that is characterized as practicable and expressible.

Hope is a fundamental but controversial human phenomenon. For some it is Pandora's most mischievous evil, for others it is a divine gift and one of the highest human virtues. It is difficult to pin down but its traces seem to be present everywhere in human life and practice. Christianity as a comprehensive practice of hope cannot be imagined without it: Christians are not believers in dogmas but practitioners of hope. In other religious traditions the topic of hope is virtually absent or even critically rejected and opposed. Half a century ago hope was at the center of attention in philosophy and theology. However, in recent years the discussion has shifted to positive psychology and psychotherapy, utopian studies and cultural anthropology, politics and economics. This has opened up interesting new vistas. Contributors: William J. Abraham, Daniel Ambord, Nancy Bedford, Michael Ulrich Braunschweig, Aaron D. Cobb, John Cottingham, Ingolf U. Dalferth, Yaniv Feller, M. Jamie Ferreira, Duncan Gale, Kirsten Gerdes, Deidre Green, Arne Grøn, Michael Lamb, Richard Livingston, Yi Shen Ma, Alan Mittleman, Hirokazu Miyazaki, Jürgen Moltmann, Bruce Paolozzi, Raymond E. Perrier, Friederike Rass, Hartmut von Sass. Bernard N. Schumacher, Ola Sigurdson, Tyler Viale, Claudia Welz

The early Christian texts discussed in this book are often treated as "gnostic" ones. The studies by Ismo Dunderberg collected here, however, approach them as witnesses to the views of educated second-century Christians engaged in dialogue with philosophical traditions. Following the idea that ancient philosophical schools first and foremost provided their adherents with a way of life, the author explores issues related to morality and lifestyle in non-canonical gospels and among groups that were gradually denounced as heretical in the church. Prominent themes he deals with in this book include the soul's progress from material concerns to a life dominated by spirit, the control of emotions (such as desire, anger and grief), the avoidance of luxury, the ideal "perfect human" as a tool in moral instruction, classifications of humankind into distinct groups based upon their moral advancement, and Christian debates about the value of martyrdom. In addition Dunderberg offers a critical review of some recent trends and attitudes towards New Testament scholarship, especially those in which the non-canonical texts discussed in this book are either ignored or deemed as irrelevant, irrational, and sometimes even dangerous.

Ethnic values changed as Imperial Rome expanded, challenging ethnocentric values in Rome itself, as well as in Greece and Judea. Rhetorically, Roman, Greek, and Judean writers who eulogized their cities all claimed they would receive foreigners. Further, Greco-Roman narratives of urban tensions between rich and poor, proud and humble, promoted reconciliation and fellowship between social classes. Luke wrote Acts in this ethnic, economic, political context, narrating Jesus as a founder who changed laws to encourage receiving foreigners, which promoted civic, missionary growth and legitimated interests of the poor and humble. David L. Balch relates Roman art to early Christianity and introduces famous, pre-Roman Corinthian artists. He shows women visually represented as priests, compares Dionysian and Corinthian charismatic speech and argues that larger assemblies of the earliest, Pauline believers "sat" (1 Cor 14.30) in taverns. Also, the author demonstrates that the image of a pregnant woman in Revelation 12 subverts imperial claims to the divine origin of the emperor, before finally suggesting that visual representations by Roman domestic artists of "a category of women who upset expected forms of conduct" (Bergmann) encouraged early Christian women like Thecla, Perpetua and Felicitas to move beyond gender stereotypes of being victims. Balch concludes with two book reviews, one of Nicolas Wiater's book on the Greek biographer and historian Dionysius, who was a model for both Josephus and Luke-Acts, the second of a book by Frederick Brenk on Hellenistic philosophy and mystery religion in relation to earliest Christianity.

Revelation is a central category in many religions. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mormonism or Unificationists are difficult if not impossible to imagine without it. For some, revelation signifies a decisive event in the past, for others it is a present reality. It plays a central role in shaping religious identities, and it is the reason for much criticism. Some follow a religion only because of its claim to divine revelation, whereas others criticize it as "hearsay upon hearsay" (Paine) on which they would never rest their belief. Some religions have built elaborate institutions of priests and privileged interpreters to safeguard their revelation, control access to it and to protect the right way of interpreting and communicating it. But claims to revelation have also been criticized as strategies of self-immunization, which allow religions to avoid critical public debate of their views and teachings, or legitimize the position of those in power. The 33rd Conference of Philosophy of Religion at Claremont Graduate University in 2012 addressed these complex issues by concentrating on three areas of debate: I. Revelation and Reason, II. Hermeneutics of Revelation, III. Phenomenology of Revelation. Contributors:William J. Abraham, Marlene Block, John D. Caputo, Thomas Carlson, Ingolf U. Dalferth, Stephen T. Davis, Oona Eisenstadt, James L. Fredericks, Kirsten Gerdes, Eric E. Hall, Joshua Kira, Jeff Murico, Bruce Paolozzi, George Pattison, Michael Ch. Rodgers, Claudia Welz

The economic analysis of international law is a field of research which is still very new but which for several years has been growing and become extremely promising. For this reason the organizers of the XIVth Travemünde Symposium on the economic analysis of law decided for the second time to bring together economists and jurists from Europe and non-European countries in order to discuss some of those problems of international law which are still unsolved. The articles resulting from this, published in this volume, discuss how natural disasters, civil wars or economic collapses affect international law and how international law deals with these extreme conditions. Contributors: Gad Barzilai, Martina Caroni, Jerg Gutmann, Hans-Joachim Heintze, Heike Krieger, Tim Krieger, Matthias Lemke, Peter Lewisch, Thilo Marauhn, Martin Nettesheim, Andreas Niklisch, Stefan Oeter, Amnon Reichman, August Reinisch, Eli Salzberger, Hans-Bernd Schäfer, Deborah Shmueli, Hans-Heinrich Trute, Roland Vaubel, Wolfgang Weigel

Frederik Poulsen investigates the role of the Old Testament in biblical theology. Analyzing the works of Brevard Childs and Hans Hübner, he addresses main issues regarding the different versions of the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Septuagint) and the significance of the New Testament's use of the Old. The author explores the interpretative implications of these issues by focusing extensively on Isaiah 42:1-9. The Hebrew version as such is ambiguous regarding the servant figure being portrayed, his identity, and his task. The Septuagint renders several key terms and statements differently and the reception of the passage in the New Testament reveals a manifold of diverse interpretations. Common to all versions is the servant's role as a mediator between God and the nations. Frederik Poulsen shows that this central task is constantly being reapplied to new servant figures.

Julien M. Ogereau explores the socio-economic dimension of Paul's koinonia with the Philippians from a Graeco-Roman perspective. After conducting a rigorous philological study of the business terminology Paul employs in Philippians in the light of documentary sources (papyri and inscriptions), he offers a thorough socio-economic reading of the letter that is informed by ancient cultural conventions. Challenging recent scholarship, Ogereau concludes that Paul's relationship with the Philippians followed the well-established pattern of economic partnerships ( koinonia/societas), whereby Paul supplied the ars and opera (skill and labour), while the Philippians contributed the pecunia (funds).

William D. Barker analyzes a wide array of possible ancient Near Eastern backgrounds to Isaiah 24-27. He finds that there is a uniquely Ugaritic background to the chapters, with evidence of a literary framework and narrative progression that has been intentionally adopted and creatively adapted from either the Ba'al Myth (KTU 1.1-1.6) itself or a shared tradition between ancient Ugarit and ancient Israel. Barker also closely examines Isaiah 24-27 in the light of the Ugaritic material and thereby contributes to the resolution of some of the historic questions about the interpretation, genre, dating, and function of Isaiah 24-27. A new epithet for the chapters is also proposed.

What is the relationship between the preeminent, cosmos-reconciling 'Christ' of Col 1:15-20 and the imprisoned 'Paul' of 1:24-29, who enigmatically 'completes' the former's afflictions as he declares to 'every person' the mystery, long concealed but only now revealed by Israel's God to his holy ones? After finding solid exegetical ground through an unprecedented and exhaustive study of the rare verb antanapleroo (in 1.24), Bruce Clark tackles this most intriguing, if challenging question. He argues that Col 1, in accord with 2 Cor 5:18-6:4, presents Paul as the utterly unique diakonos ('minister') of the universal ekklesia and, therefore, as one whose afflictions uniquely complete Christ's own, so that together, revealing the righteousness of God, they initiate the divine reconciliation of 'all things.'

From the inception of critical Jesus research, the questions of Jesus' understanding of his authority and his aims have been central to this field of inquiry. Up to this day, scholars are making efforts toward resolving those questions. This volume is a collection of contributions that were originally presented at the second Nordic Symposium on the Historical Jesus in Lund 2012. Researchers from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden continue and broaden a conversation that was initiated in Turku 2010. The topics of Jesus' identity and aims are coupled under the concept of "mission," which includes his notion of being sent, the purposes that he aimed to fulfill, and the means of carrying out these purposes. Contributions to the volume discuss methodological problems, analyze proposals made in previous research, and suggest new understandings of various aspects of the mission of Jesus. Contributors: Jostein Ådna, Ville Auvinen, Renate Banschbach Eggen, Eve-Marie Becker, Per Bilde, Samuel Byrskog, Tobias Hägerland, Matti Kankaanniemi, Halvor Moxnes, Mogens Müller, Kari Syreeni

The International Congress of Comparative Law , organised by the International Academy of Comparative Law , took place in Vienna from 20th to 26th July 2014. A number of different legal topics were discussed, such as: comparative law and unification of laws, legal education, private international law, environmental law, intellectual property, labour law, public international law, tax law and constitutional law. The reports written by the national commentators are based on the questionnaire set out by the general reporting secretary, who is an expert on their subjects. Most of the German reports are published in this book. Contributors: Andreas von Arnauld, Lydia Auerswald, Ino Augsberg, Christoph Busch, Hans-Georg Dederer, Sabrina Dotterweich, Pierre Hauck, Tobias Helms, Sebastian Graf von Kielmansegg, Gregor Kirchhof, Dominik König, Stefan Korioth, Dirk Looschelders, Dorothea Ludwig, Mark Makowsky, Lothar Michael, Michael Mirschberger, Alexander Peukert, Thomas Pfeiffer, Hanns Prütting, Hermann Pünder, Oliver Remien, Anne Röthel, Adam Sagan, Anne Sanders, Alexander Schall, Stefanie Schmahl, Dennis Solomon, Ulrich Stelkens, Michael Stürner, Dirk A. Verse, Matthias Weller, Jochen Werner

Bradley Arnold examines the argumentative logic and central aim in Paul's letter to the Philippians. A historical context is mapped out that is useful for these purposes, examining the broad structure of thought in ancient moral philosophy (namely, Aristotle, Epicureanism, and Stoicism), ancient athletics, and vivid description. The author then uses these areas to elucidate the nature of Paul's argument in Philippians. In an exegetical analysis of the entire letter he demonstrates that Paul's argument is structured similarly to the pattern of thinking in ancient moral philosophy and that within this framework Paul utilizes athletics at key places to conceptualize the nature of Christian existence. He argues that Paul sums up his perspective on life with the image of the runner in Phil 3:13-14, which functions as a vivid description. This imagery plays a central role in Paul's rhetorical aim in this letter, presenting in nuce his persuasive appeal for the Philippians to pursue Christ as the t¿¿¿¿ of life.