Before the New Testament or the creeds of the church were written, the devotional practices of the earliest Christians indicate that they worshipped Jesus alongside the Father.

Larry W. Hurtado has been one of the leading scholars on early Christology for decades. In Honoring the Son: Jesus in Earliest Christian Devotional Practice, Hurtado helps readers understand early Christology by examining not just what early Christians believed or wrote about Jesus, but what their devotional practices tell us about the place of Jesus in early Christian worship.

Drawing on his extensive knowledge of early Christian origins and scholarship on New Testament Christology, Hurtado examines the distinctiveness of early Christian worship by comparing it to both Jewish worship patterns and worship practices within the broader Roman-era religious environment. He argues that the inclusion of the risen Jesus alongside the Father in early Christian devotional practices was a distinct and unique religious phenomenon within its ancient context. Additionally, Hurtado demonstrates that this remarkable development was not invented decades after the resurrection of Christ as some scholars once claimed. Instead, the New Testament suggests that Jesus-followers, very quickly after the resurrection of Christ, began to worship the Son alongside the Father.

Honoring the Son offers a look into the worship habits of the earliest Christians to understand the place of Jesus in early Christian devotion.

In recent years, historians and biblical scholars have been in active pursuit of the Jesus of history. These efforts have relied heavily on extrabiblical documents, since many historians consider the Bible to be propagandistic and biased. Darrell Bock, however, argues that when read together, the Gospels provide a clear picture of Jesus and his unique claims to authority. Jesus according to Scripture seeks to show the coherent portrait of Jesus that emerges from the Gospels, a portrait that is rooted in history and yet has produced its own historical and cultural impact. Now available in paper, Jesus according to Scripture is an excellent textbook for courses on the life of Jesus at both the advanced college and seminary levels. Pastors, teachers, and all those interested in Jesus and the Gospels will also enjoy this scholarly yet accessible book.

One of Germany's best-known New Testament scholars, Prof. Peter Stuhlmacher of Tubingen exegete and theologian, scholar and pastor offers here three outstanding essays on Jesus Christ, his death, and the Lord's Supper. Ever concerned with the relationship of history and theology, Stuhlmacher focuses intently on the correlation of facts and faith. Recognizing that the New Testament is concerned with both what happened in Jesus and what Jesus' person and work mean, Stuhlmacher sketches the dynamic trajectory from the concrete to the confessional.The first essay examines how 'the proclaimer' became 'the proclaimed.' The second essay recognizes the several levels of New Testament interpretation of Jesus' death, moving from the merely factual understanding to the thoroughly theological explanation. The third essay examines the elements of Jesus' ministry that are often related to the church's later celebration of the Lord's Supper, arguing that the practice looked back to Jesus' death and resurrection and gave concrete expression to the church's ongoing experience of the Risen Lord's presence and power until his eschatological return.Stuhlmacher's careful work is concerned to discover and demonstrate what from the Jesus of history, from the life of the early church, from the New Testament itself, and from historical Christian faith is 'incumbent upon us.' All persons concerned with Jesus, with faith in him as God's Christ, and with faithful discipleship to Jesus Christ as Lord will find this book instructive and inspiring.
Marion L. Soards, Professor of New Testament Studies, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

In recent years, a number of New Testament scholars engaged in academic historical Jesus studies have concluded that such scholarship cannot yield secure and illuminating conclusions about its subject, arguing that the search for a historically "authentic" Jesus has run aground.

Jesus, Skepticism, and the Problem of History brings together a stellar lineup of New Testament scholars who contend that historical Jesus scholarship is far from dead.

These scholars all find value in using the tools of contemporary historical methods in the study of Jesus and Christian origins. While the skeptical use of criteria to fashion a Jesus contrary to the one portrayed in the Gospels is methodologically unsound and theologically unacceptable, these criteria, properly formulated and applied, yield positive results that support the Gospel accounts and the historical narrative in Acts. This book presents a nuanced and vitally needed alternative to the skeptical extremes of revisionist Jesus scholarship that, on the one hand, uses historical methods to call into question the Jesus of the Gospels and, on the other, denies the possibility of using historical methods to learn about Jesus.

We cannot know Jesus without knowing his story. Today the debate over who Jesus is rages on. Has the Bible bound Christians to a narrow and mistaken notion of Jesus? Should we listen to other gospels, other sayings of Jesus, that enlarge and correct a mistaken story? Is the real Jesus entangled in a web of the church's Scripture, awaiting liberation from our childhood faith so he might speak to our contemporary pluralistic world? To answer these questions we need to know what story Jesus claimed for himself. Christopher Wright is convinced that Jesus' own story is rooted in the story of Israel. In this revised and updated book he traces the life of Christ as it is illuminated by the Old Testament. And he describes God's design for Israel as it is fulfilled in the story of Jesus.