Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire examines the formation of the "poor" as a distinct social class in Roman society, a class for which the church claimed special responsibility. This is the story of a society that gradually saw itself as responsible for a certain group of people, a group that previously no one cared about, and of those who benefited from this change in priorities. "The poor" serve as a kind of lens that reveals with wonderful clarity the delicate network of connections and social relations that made the late Roman Empire a changing world. Peter Brown seeks to restore the condition of the poor before the rise of Christianity, to stand for the true nature of the Christian rhetoric about the love of the poor: were its motives always sincere or were they sometimes selfish? Brown uses not only Greek and Latin sources, but also Jewish sources, to document the interrelationships between Middle Eastern societies and Roman classical traditions. He succeeds in shedding light on a crucial aspect of the transition from classical culture to Christian culture, the main point of which is the growth of a new concept regarding the debt owed by society and the church to the poor.

The book can be purchased here . Introduction by James H. Charlesworth This new edition of David Flusser's classic study of the historical Jesus, revised and updated by his longtime student R. Steven Notley, will be welcomed everywhere by students and scholars of early Christianity and Judaism. Reflecting Flusser's mastery of ancient literary sources and modern archaeological discoveries, The Sage from Galilee offers a fresh, informed biographical portrait of Jesus in the context of Jewish faith and life in his day. Including a chronological table (330 BC – AD 70), and twenty-eight illustrations, The Sage from Galilee is the culmination of nearly six decades of study by one of the world's foremost Jewish authorities on the New Testament and early Christianity. Both Jewish and Christian readers will find challenge and new understanding in these pages.

Thorough and meticulously researched, this study is based on a comprehensive reading of philosophical arguments drawn from all the major Jewish sources, published and unpublished, from the Geonic period in the ninth century until the dawn of the Haskalah in the late eighteenth century. The core of the book is a detailed discussion of the four doctrines of Christianity whose rationality Jews thought they could definitively refute: trinity, incarnation, transubstantiation, and virgin birth. In each case, Daniel Lasker presents a succinct history of the Christian doctrine and then proceeds to a careful examination of the Jewish efforts to demonstrate its impossibility. The main text is clearly written in a non-technical manner, with the Christian doctrines and the Jewish responses both carefully explained; the notes include long quotations, in Hebrew and Arabic as well as in English, from sources that are not readily available in English. At the time of its original publication in 1977 this book was regarded as a major contribution to a relatively neglected area of medieval Jewish intellectual history; the new, wide-ranging introduction prepared for this paperback edition, which surveys and summarizes subsequent scholarship, re-establishes its position as a major work.

This study is an annotated edition and commentary of an Arabic-Old French phrase book found on the last thirteen pages of a Coptic lexicographic treatise compiled in the thirteenth century and recopied in the sixteenth century (MS. BnF Copte 53). The main value of this work is twofold: first, it is a specimen of the Crusader Old French, of which little has been preserved; and second, it provides evidence for the vernacular language of the period. In the analysis of the material, an attempt has been made to reconstruct from a diachronic-diatopic perspective the vernacular French spoken at Acre in the mid-thirteenth century. This volume will be of interest for Romance linguists and philologists, as well as historians of the Crusades and the Latin East. Arabists and historians of the late medieval Muslim Middle East of this time will also find much of use in this work.

Messianic Jewish Manifesto offers an ideology, theology, and program for Messianic Judaism. A challenge to both Jews and Gentiles who honor Yeshua (Jesus) as Israel's Messiah and others involved with the movement catch the vision for its destiny, which is to heal the split between the Church and the Jewish people. Simultaneously 100% Messianic and 100% Jewish, we reject the "either-or" demanded by many Christians and Jews. Messianic Judaism is right, a radical solution, an idea whose time has come. A call to action for Messianic Jews and a source of information for others, whether in favor, opposed, or just curious.

For the first time the reader of the Hebrew language is presented with a book uncovering the unique activity of the German-Catholics in 19th century Eretz Israel. Those are the builders, for example, of the Dormition in Jerusalem and the Hospice in Tabgha.

Galatians is probably one of the most misunderstood and misused books of the New Testament because of the lack of understanding of its literary style and original context. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians is a fiery literary composition that was meant to grip its original readers with the importance of freedom from most of the commandments of the Torah that the Gospel offered its non-Jewish recipients. Like all the other Jewish polemical writers of his time, Paul used midrashic methods of interpretation as well as the language of passion, conflict, and exaggeration to pour forth his heart when he felt his congregation was being threatened by a Gospel of Works. This commentary helps the reader understand the delicate balance Paul sought between the Torah and the grace of Yeshua through its analysis of his literary methods and comparison to other Jewish texts from his time, especially 4QMMT from Qumran. The relevance of the necessary balance between faith and works is increasing in our own time as people seek Restoration to G-d’s original plan for his people, both in the Jewish people and in the Church. It shows both Paul’s love for the Torah and his awareness of its limitations to make a person righteous in the eyes of a holy G-d. This book is a must-read for those who want to understand the New Testament in its original context.

Carlo Maria Martini, S.J., (15 February 1927 – 31 August 2012) was an Italian Jesuit and cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Milan from 1980 to 2002 and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983. Martini entered the Society of Jesus in 1944 and was ordained a priest in 1952. His appointment as Archbishop of Milan in 1980 was an unusual circumstance, as Jesuits are not traditionally named bishops. He was on the liberal wing of the church hierarchy. Suffering from a rare form of Parkinson's Disease, he retired as Archbishop in 2002 and moved to the Pontifical Institute in Jerusalem. He died at the Jesuit Aloisianum College in Gallarate near Milan. Hours after his death, the Italian daily Corriere della Sera printed his final interview in which he described the Church as "200 years out of date." "Our culture has aged, our churches are big and empty and the church bureaucracy rises up. The Church must admit its mistakes and begin a radical change, starting from the Pope and the bishops. The pedophilia scandals oblige us to take a journey of transformation." In this book the Cardinal describes his connection to the holy city in spirit and body.

The Acts of the Apostles is the second part of Luke's masterpiece history of the life of Yeshua and the first generation of the Church and its leaders such as Paul and Peter. Besides being a book of history, however, it is also a Spirit-inspired work that contains many important lessons for the Church of today, especially for those believers seeking the Restoration of the Church with its Jewish Roots. This commentary will help the scholar or layperson seeking to navigate the colorful cultures and contexts of the ancient Mediterranean world to which the apostles spread the message of Yeshua and understand the "how" and the "why" of their methods of spreading an essentially Jewish faith to a pagan world. Shulam and LeCornu especially highlight the importance of the Diaspora Jewish context and its influence on the early Body of Messiah through comparing the beliefs and statements found in Acts to other ancient Jewish sources and ideas. As the reader journeys through the complexities and cultural contexts of the ancient world portrayed in Acts, he discovers that it still contains a wealth of parallels and lessons for our own time and culture. A deeper and richer understanding of the first followers of Yeshua the Messiah awaits those who truly investigate the Acts of the Apostles in this two volume set that will stir anyone's thirst for greater knowledge of the Bible and its Jewish context. Two volumes