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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

What draws people into biblical studies? For Katharine Doob Sakenfeld it began with a love of research in high school. Read her essay “Society of Biblical Literature Reminiscences” in Women and the Society of Biblical Literature edited by Nicole L. Tilford. buff.ly/Mt1E0Ld #TalkAboutHumanities

"First, a brief account of my journey toward Old Testament teaching and research. Already in high school my favorite assignments were research papers; I loved investigating, digging around in sources to figure things out. My undergraduate program at the College of Wooster included a freshman course in Old Testament. I was captivated from the start by
approaches never imagined in my home church experience: the documentary hypothesis, the historical context for prophetic oracles, even the
possibility that influences of another religion (Zoroastrianism) might be detected in some biblical texts."

—Katharine Doob Sakenfeld,
“Society of Biblical Literature Reminiscences”

#TalkaboutBiblicalstudies

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Consider adding What John Knows: Storytelling in the Fourth Gospel edited by Douglas Estes to your syllabus next semester. buff.ly/JmM7voU

Book Review
What John Knows: Storytelling in the Fourth Gospel
Douglas Estes, editor

Having these offerings pitched for students and sophisticated lay readers in a single format is a boon for both teachers and students of the Fourth Gospel. Much like the earlier volume on How John Works in terms of storytelling, this volume
could be used as a whole or supplementarily in presenting Johannine epistemology.

—Sherri Brown, Review of Biblical Literature

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Read "Findings: The Johannine Memory of Jesus as a Self-Standing Witness" by Paul N. Anderson in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5: Jesus Remembered within the Johannine Tradition edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher buff.ly/o0WWUTx

Findings: The Johannine Memory of Jesus as a Self-Standing Witness
Paul N. Anderson

The goal of the John, Jesus, and History Project...is not to advance any particular theory or set of theories regarding the Johannine community or situation, Johannine composition, John’s relation(s) to the Synoptics, or Johannine rhetoric. Rather, it is to draw—with broad disciplinary intentionality and expertise—the Johannine witness into what can be known about Jesus of Nazareth by making use of all worthy sources, which, critically, must include the Fourth Gospel.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Check out Jesus Remembered within the Developing Johannine Tradition: A Response by Marianne Meye Thompson in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5: Jesus Remembered within the Johannine Tradition edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/o0WWUTx

Jesus Remembered within the Developing Johannine Tradition: A Response
Marianne Meye Thompson

No doubt John would be puzzled by modern questions whether his gospel presents the Jesus of history, for it matters greatly in John that Jesus was a figure of the past and that his life displayed contours associated with a specific time and area: first-century Jerusalem, Galilee, Samaria, geographical and cultural features and literary traditions associated with these areas, and so on. I think the question is not whether John thought his narrative gave us Jesus as he really was but what that might have meant for John.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Read "The Divine Name in the Gospel of John: A Link to the Historical Jesus?" by Charles A. Gieschen in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5: Jesus Remembered within the Johannine Tradition edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher.

The Divine Name in the Gospel of John: A Link to the Historical Jesus?
Charles A. Gieschen

I will present the link with Synoptic traditions using the divine self-disclosure formula, positing the probability that the Gospel of John is presenting tradition that has its roots in the use of a divine self-disclosure formula by the historical Jesus. It is widely acknowledged that the divine name was not vocalized by Jews beginning in the second century BCE. This means that if the historical Jesus had the self-understanding of possessing the divine name, he would have used other ways to express this understanding, such as using this self-disclosure formula or indirect references to his unique name or word.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Read "Conquering the World: Remembering Jesus as Conqueror" by Ahreum Kim in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5: Jesus Remembered within the Johannine Tradition edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/Ci9w2Up

Conquering the World:
Remembering Jesus as Conqueror
Ahreum Kim

The conquering rhetoric in these texts provokes several questions. For example, what is the exact nature of these Johannine battles? How can the believers conquer the world with their πίστις? Moreover, why is the conquering image of Jesus and his believers so readily reinforced in Johannine tradition? What might be implied in retaining such imagery? The answers to these questions not only reflect the historical context of the time but also point to the development of ideas within Johannine tradition in reaction to the changing times.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Read Translating for Jesus: Philip and Andrew in John 12:20–22" by N. Clayton Croy in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5: Jesus Remembered within the Johannine Tradition edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/Ci9w2Up

Translating for Jesus:
Philip and Andrew in John 12:20–22
N. Clayton Croy

Our linguistic knowledge about individuals is modest, but there is enough evidence reasonably to conjecture that Philip and Andrew had a greater ability to speak Greek than Jesus. Their names, hometowns, and other details are suggestive of this difference. In addition, recent research in bilingualism and the role of translators in antiquity has increased our understanding of first-century language barriers and the ways they were overcome. All of this suggests that Philip and Andrew may have translated for Jesus at the Passover festival.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Check out "History in the Most Christological of Places: A Tentative Case for a Historical Event Underlying John 1:29–30" by Michael Vicko Zolondek in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5: Jesus Remembered within the Johannine Tradition buff.ly/Ci9w2Up

History in the Most Christological of Places: A Tentative Case for a Historical Event Underlying John 1:29–30
Michael Vicko Zolondek

For followers to leave one leader, and thus leave what was likely considered their fictive kinship group, to follow another leader, and thus enter into a different fictive kinship group, one would expect some significant event to have occurred and acted as the catalyst for this movement. Moreover, given that these followers accepted Jesus as their new leader, Jesus must have gained significant honor prior to this event.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Read "The Johannine Prologue as a Dependent Narrative Confession" by Amy Whisenand Krall in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5 edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

The Johannine Prologue as a
Dependent Narrative Confession
Amy Whisenand Krall

The Prologue (as a didactic hymn) depends on the rest of the gospel for its intelligibility. As the narrative riffs on terms such as light and life, it fleshes out their meanings, interpreting them christologically and inviting the audience into a way of understanding and living in the world.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Read "From Orality to Literacy within the Developing Johannine Tradition: A Response" by Francisco Lozada Jr. in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5 edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

From Orality to Literacy within the Developing Johannine Tradition: A Response
Francisco Lozada Jr.

Several questions arise for both the authors and the broader scholarly community: (1) The subjectivity of the reader warrants scrutiny, as historians may inadvertently reshape evidence to generate new interpretations. Not all sources (evidence) hold equal weight. (2) The role of power in interpreting the past should be examined critically; the power to declare the memory of Jesus can have significant implications. (3) The past may often distract us from the present. It would be insightful to explore not just how John moved from orality to literacy but how John operates within today’s context.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Read "From Orality to Literacy in the Johannine Memory of Jesus and His Ministry" by Paul N. Anderson in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5 edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

From Orality to Literacy in the Johannine Memory of Jesus and His Ministry
Paul N. Anderson

Here we see a record of valued firsthand memory—delivered orally before being preserved in written texts—reflected arguably in the intratraditional development of the Johannine Gospel alongside other memories preserved in Mark and other venues, and perhaps even in dialogue with them from day one to the final stages of their development. That being the case, why was John written, and how did its composition convey its purpose(s)?

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Read "Composing Colophons: The Fourth Gospel’s Endings among Closure Conventions" by Nicholas A. Elder in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5 edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

Composing Colophons: The Fourth Gospel’s Endings among Closure Conventions
Nicholas A. Elder

I engage the narratological concept of narrative closure to compare the Johannine colophons with other Second Temple and Greco-Roman narratives that provide closure outside their narrative worlds. John’s endings may be aberrant with respect to New Testament narratives, but they are not so different from endings from the Fourth Gospel’s wider literary context.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Read "ἐγώ εἰμι in Mark and John: Exploring the Johannine Trajectory of a Received Memory of Jesus" by Christopher W. Skinner in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5 edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

ἐγώ εἰμι in Mark and John: Exploring the Johannine Trajectory of a Received Memory of Jesus
Christopher W. Skinner

I am working with the hypothesis that John knew, used, and reworked Mark. For our purposes here, I proceed under the assumption that those responsible for the final form of John’s Gospel had direct access to some form of Mark’s written text. This allowed incorporation, alteration, and omission of material explicitly derived from the Second Gospel.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Read "'What Did He Say?': Repair Questions as Vestigial Features of Remembered Conversations of Jesus in John’s Gospel" by Douglas Estes in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5 edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

“What Did He Say?”: Repair Questions as Vestigial Features of Remembered Conversations of Jesus in John’s Gospel
Douglas Estes

As a starting point, I surveyed forty ancient texts close in time and character to the Fourth Gospel to see whether there were any clear occurrences of questions with repair qualities.... Of the forty ancient texts, only six have at least one question with notable repair qualities: Susanna, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Read "Memory, Scripture, and Tradition in the Gospel of John: Blending Jewish Scriptures and Tradition within John’s Remembrance of Jesus" by Rachel L. Danley in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5 edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

Memory, Scripture, and Tradition in the Gospel of John: Blending Jewish Scriptures and Tradition within John’s Remembrance of Jesus
Rachel L. Danley

This essay draws on conceptual blending theory to consider how John provides a historical remembrance of Jesus through his experience of Judaism, Jesus’s ministry, and the postresurrection Spirit. I suggest that the embodied ritual experience of early Jewish Christian believers may account for the movement between explicit and implicit uses of Jewish Scripture and tradition in John’s Gospel.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Read "The Fourth Gospel in First-Century Media Culture: A Response" by Holly Hearon in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5: Jesus Remembered within the Johannine Tradition edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

The Fourth Gospel in First-Century Media Culture: A Response
Holly Hearon

Focus on media...reminds us that the historical Jesus was both a meaning-making agent and interlocutor. What we have access to through the Fourth Gospel, as well as the other gospels, is the response of multiple interlocutors to Jesus as a generator of meaning-making communication events and, in turn, evidence of their own agency, generating new meaning in response to those communication events and ever shifting sociohistorical circumstance.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Check out "Larger Than Life but Not Docetic: Revisiting John’s Portrayal of Jesus" by William R. G. Loader in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5: Jesus Remembered within the Johannine Tradition edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

Larger Than Life but Not Docetic:
Revisiting John’s Portrayal of Jesus
William R. G. Loader

The following essay pushes back on the suggestion that John’s narrative, by virtue of its symbolic, sensory, and theological qualities, cannot also be historical in value. To this end, the following will apply a sensory focus to the text to explore the following question: What if the presence of sensory elements contributes to the historical quality of the gospel because they are sensory? That is, is it possible that a sensory element is the fruit of historical memory and not merely the result of theological motivation and mimetic practice?

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Read "Sensing History: Sensory Features of John’s Memory of Jesus and Links to History" by Jeannine M. Hanger in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5: Jesus Remembered within the Johannine Tradition edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

Sensing History:
Sensory Features of John’s Memory of
Jesus and Links to History
Jeannine M. Hanger

The following essay pushes back on the suggestion that John’s narrative, by virtue of its symbolic, sensory, and theological qualities, cannot also be historical in value. To this end, the following will apply a sensory focus to the text to explore the following question: What if the presence of sensory elements contributes to the historical quality of the gospel because they are sensory? That is, is it possible that a sensory element is the fruit of historical memory and not merely the result of theological motivation and mimetic practice?

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Read "John, Jesus, and the Spirit: John’s Remembering and Reenvisioning of Jesus" by James D. G. Dunn and James F. McGrath in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5 edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

John, Jesus, and the Spirit:
John’s Remembering and Reenvisioning of Jesus
James D. G. Dunn and James F. McGrath

Just as in the case of Paul and John, there is undoubtedly both continuity and discontinuity between the historical Jesus’s understanding of himself and that of any or all of his followers after him. It is only by way of a close examination of the similarities and differences of viewpoint in the early (but not necessarily only the very earliest) sources that remembered Jesus that we can hope to bring him into focus.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Read "Rethinking How We Can Use the Gospels as Historical Sources for Jesus-in-Context—With Special Attention to the Johannine Story of Jesus" by Richard A. Horsley in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5 edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

Rethinking How We Can Use the Gospels as Historical Sources for Jesus-in-Context—With Special Attention to the Johannine Story of Jesus
Richard A. Horsley

Most fundamental is to recognize that, in the ancient world, religion was inseparable from politics and economics. The gospel stories, like the books of the Hebrew Bible, are about all of life, not just religion. The main theme of Jesus’s proclamation, the kingdom of God, is a political metaphor. In the Lord’s Prayer, the kingdom of God is concretely focused on economic sustenance: sufficient food and the cancellation of debts. Biblical studies cannot remain prisoner to modern Western reductionism.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Read "Infinite Memory: The Gospel of John and the Jesus of History" by Tom Thatcher in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5 edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

Infinite Memory:
The Gospel of John and the Jesus of History
Tom Thatcher

The Gospel of John is now best understood not as a receptacle for a lost oral tradition but rather as an instance of a living collective memory. John’s book about Jesus and his associates was one of many ways that one person remembered those people and their activities. And since John must have envisioned some sort of audience for his book, we can reasonably say that the Fourth Gospel is one way that an entire group of people remembered Jesus, at least at one particular moment in time.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Read "Jesus Remembered Intratraditionally: The Fourth Gospel’s Narration, Composition, and Finalization" by Paul N. Anderson in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5 edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. buff.ly/B7XBXzz

Jesus Remembered Intratraditionally: The Fourth Gospel’s Narration, Composition, and Finalization
Paul N. Anderson

While the Gospel according to John is similar to the other canonical gospels, it is also different. So why is that? Does John’s story of Jesus root in an alternative memory of Jesus, though developed theologically? Is it based on different sources featuring rhetorical and mythological characteristics of contemporary religions? Does it reflect dependence on, dialectical engagements with, independence from, or influences on the Synoptics? Did its story evolve as a factor of addressing pressing issues within its situation history?

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The Invention of Early Christian Discourse, Volume 1: Rhetography, Rhetology and Storyline in Wisdom, Prophetic, and Apocalyptic Rhetorolect by Vernon K. Robbins is coming soon. Preorder your copy. buff.ly/8zpc56b

Coming Soon

The Invention of Early Christian Discourse, Volume 1: Rhetography, Rhetology and Storyline in Wisdom, Prophetic, and Apocalyptic Rhetorolect
Vernon K. Robbins

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

U-Wen Low's Dramatic Resistance: Interpreting Revelation through Multiple Lenses is coming soon from SBL Press. Check it out. buff.ly/iligxW5

Coming Soon

Dramatic Resistance: Interpreting Revelation through Multiple Lenses
U-Wen Low

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Check out Paul Unbound: Other Perspectives on the Apostle edited Mark D. Given buff.ly/Vw40LZA

Book Review

Paul Unbound: Other Perspectives on the Apostle
Mark D. Given, editor

What started as a suggestion to the editor to republish the book so that students could once again purchase it for a New Testament class has resulted in an edifying and valuable volume that charts methodological developments (such as they are) in Pauline studies
across time and topics. The contributors have revised their essays, provided addenda, and updated their bibliographies.

—Davina C. Lopez, Review of Biblical Literature

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Read Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions: Methodological Encounters and Debates edited by Martti Nissinen and Jutta Jokiranta. buff.ly/GH4dmlN

Book Review

Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions: Methodological Encounters and Debates
Martti Nissinen and Jutta Jokiranta, editors

Altogether, the essays in this substantial volume give valuable insights into the research done in CSTT and offer perspectives for further research and future collaboration....The case studies are more compelling because they demonstrate that combining different methodological approaches generates more refined insights....Ultimately, the volume encourages us to read sources with scholars from different backgrounds
and varying research interests.

—Reettakaisa Sofia Salo, Review of Biblical Literature

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Purchase the ebook of John Chrysostom, Homilies on Titus and Philemon by Pauline Allen for $5.00 through 23 August when you use code HOMILIES. buff.ly/21PzyKa

John Chrysostom, Homilies on
Titus and Philemon
Pauline Allen

The homilist deals with an objection that he claims to hear regularly among his flock: Why is God unwilling to save the bad? After reminding them that he previously promised to speak to them about Gehenna but had to defer that homily, he now embarks on the topic, arguing that God cannot leave the sins of the present generation unpunished when the people of the old dispensation were chastised.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Get the ebook of John Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians by Pauline Allen for $5.00 through 23 August when you use code HOMILIES. cart.sbl-site.org/books/061651E

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians

Chrysostom’s Homilies on Colossians betray a preoccupation with angels and angel worship that is explained by the persistence of these beliefs in and around Colossae, where the people were heirs to a syncretistic tradition that combined elements of Judaism and Hellenism.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The ebook of Pauline Allen’s John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians is $5.00 through 23 August when you use code HOMILIES.https://buff.ly/gkWd2Tw

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians
Pauline Allen

The need to update these translations by a modern, idiomatic, twentieth-century rendering of Chrysostom’s work is obvious.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Pauline Allen's translation John Chrysostom, Homilies on Titus and Philemon is available as an ebook for $5.00 through 23 August when you use code HOMILIES. buff.ly/21PzyKa

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Titus and Philemon
Pauline Allen

Chrysostom opens his preaching with an adjuration to the congregation to follow Paul’s advice in maintaining good works, adding that this includes almsgiving in particular. By “stupid controversies and genealogies and dissensions, and quarrels about the law” is meant contention with heretics, whose mind is made up, making it pointless to argue with them, except for talking to them about almsgiving and all other virtues.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Purchase the ebook of John Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians by Pauline Allen for $5.00 through 23 August when you use code HOMILIES. buff.ly/Smtwhgp

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians
Pauline Allen

The first point to be made is that the many series of Chrysostom’s homilies, exegetical and otherwise, must be treated with suspicion with regard to their homogeneity, which means that it is difficult to assign a particular series either to Antioch during John’s presbyterate or to Constantinople during his patriarchate.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Get the ebook of John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians by Pauline Allen for $5.00 through 23 August when you use code HOMILIES.https://buff.ly/gkWd2Tw

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians
Pauline Allen

Until new text editions are made of Chrysostom’s works employing modern scientific principles, Field must remain the guiding light, although many questions of a textual nature, especially with regard to the homilies on the Pauline epistles, have to be considered tentative.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Titus and Philemon by Pauline Allen is available as an ebook for $5.00 through 23 August when you use code HOMILIES. buff.ly/21PzyKa

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Titus and Philemon
Pauline Allen

The starting point of the homily is Paul’s quotation of a pagan poet who said that “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” Chrysostom states that there are at least three questions that need to be answered with regard to this quotation:
First, who said it? Second, why did the apostle quote it? Third, why does Paul adduce a testimony that is not correct?

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians by Pauline Allen is available as an ebook for $5.00 through 23 August when you use code HOMILIES buff.ly/Smtwhgp

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians
Pauline Allen

Chrysostom was a highly productive preacher and writer. Apart from his seventy-six homilies on Genesis, an incomplete set on the Psalms, and homilies on several Old Testament themes, there are ninety homilies on Matthew’s Gospel, eighty-eight on John’s, fifty-five on Acts, and treatments of Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

The ebook of John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians by Pauline Allen is $5.00 through 23 August when you use code HOMILIES.https://buff.ly/gkWd2Tw

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians
Pauline Allen

As in other homilies of our preacher, it is difficult to discern whether we are dealing with Chrysostom’s ideas, those of Paul as transmitted by the homilist in paraphrase and extrapolation, or objections real or imaginary from the congregation and other groups (again, this kind of variation is not unique among John’s homilies).

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The ebook of John Chrysostom, Homilies on Titus and Philemon by Pauline Allen is $5.00 through 23 August when you use code HOMILIES. buff.ly/21PzyKa

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Titus and Philemon
Pauline Allen

A bishop who appoints an unworthy
person to high office will be answerable for all the offenses committed
by them, because they are assailed by vainglory, love of money, and other
evils that affect cities, populations, citizens, children, and those beyond.
Therefore, a bishop especially needs God’s grace and peace, says Chrysostom,
thus anticipating verses 6–7, where the apostle dilates on the requisite
virtues for bishops.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The ebook of John Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians by Pauline Allen is $5.00 through 23 August when you use code HOMILIES. buff.ly/Smtwhgp

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians
Pauline Allen

In the capital John preached forcefully against social abuses, such as those of wealth and ostentation, which are vilified also in the homilies to the Colossians, and in favor of the proper observance of the Scriptures, activities that earned him many powerful enemies.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians by Pauline Allen is available as an ebook for $5.00 through 23 August when you use code HOMILIES.https://buff.ly/gkWd2Tw

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians
Pauline Allen

Other ancient commentaries in Greek and Latin on Paul’s Letter to
the Philippians are shorter, survive only in fragments, or are contained in
incidental treatments of the work.36 This is perhaps surprising, given that
the letter contains some passages of great christological significance.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Check out these translations of John Chrysostom’s homilies by Pauline Allen. Each ebook is $5.00 through 23 August when you use code HOMILIES. buff.ly/0NRitnf

Through 23 August, purchase ebooks of Pauline Allen’s John Chrysostom translations for $5.00 each with code HOMILIES

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philippians

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Titus and Philemon

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Praise for John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5: Jesus Remembered within the Johannine Tradition edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S.J., and Tom Thatcher. Preorder your copy from SBL Press buff.ly/Mulp3dS

Praise for John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5: Jesus Remembered within the Johannine Tradition
Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, S. J. , and Tom Thatcher, editors

This extensive collection of essays takes seriously the proposition that the gospels, including the Johannine Gospel, are sources for remembering the historical Jesus, although both “remembering” and “historical” here are notoriously problematic terms. Spanning a number of years and progressive scholarly interactions, the essays examine central issues in both concepts, grounding the discussion in analysis of the traditions, their formation and evolution. The results are simultaneously traditional and revisionist, with emphasis on both social (or constructed) memory and lived (or performed) renditions within social settings.

L. Michael White
R.N. Smith Professor Emeritus, The University of Texas at Austin
Author of Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite (2010)

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Check out the Early Christianity and Its Literature series. John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5 edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix S. J. Just, Tom Thatcher is coming soon. Receive 30% off when you use code IM2026 at checkout now through 9 August. buff.ly/zI6SuAq

Early Christianity and Its Literature

John, Jesus, and History, Volume 5: Jesus Remembered within the Johannine Tradition
Paul N. Anderson, Felix S. J. Just, Tom Thatcher, editors

Interpreting 2 Peter through African American Women's Moral Writings
Shively T. J. Smith

A Ransom for Israel: Jesus and Jewish Salvation in Matthew
Nicholas J. Schaser

Jairus’s Daughter and the Female Body in Mark
Janine E. Luttick

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Check out the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity series. The Invention of Early Christian Discourse, Volume 1 by Vernon K. Robbins is coming soon! Receive 30% off when you use code IM2026 at checkout now through 9 August during the International Meeting sale. buff.ly/f0YYzcv

Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity

The Invention of Early Christian Discourse, Volume 1: Rhetography, Rhetology and Storyline in Wisdom, Prophetic, and Apocalyptic Rhetorolect
Vernon K. Robbins

Exploring Colossians: Living the New Reality
Roy R. Jeal

Foundations for Sociorhetorical Exploration: A Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Reader
Vernon K. Robbins, Robert H. Von Thaden Jr., Bart B. Bruehler, editors

Exploring Second Corinthians: Death and Life, Hardship and Rivalry
B. J. Oropeza

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Check out volumes in the Semeia Studies series during the SBL Press International Meeting Sale. Receive 30% off when you use code IM2026 at checkout now through 9 August. buff.ly/e9ohBnl

Semeia Studies

Book covers

To the Ends of the Earth: The Necropolitics of the Acts of the Apostles
Eric C. Smith

Bridging the Interpretive Abyss: Reading the New Testament after the Cultural Studies Turn
Luis Menéndez-Antuña

Ask the Animals: Developing a Biblical Animal Hermeneutic
Arthur W. Walker-Jones and Suzanna R. Millar, editors

Reading in These Times: Purposes and Practices of Minoritized Biblical Criticism
Tat-siong Benny Liew, and Fernando F. Segovia, editors

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Agur’s Wisdom and the Coherence of Proverbs 30 by Alexander T. Kirk is available for 30% off when you use code IM2026 at checkout now through 9 August. buff.ly/stn6c9J

Book Review

Agur’s Wisdom and the Coherence of Proverbs 30 by Alexander T. Kirk

“Kirk’s monograph is elegantly written and persuasive, the accessibility of its argument enhanced by a clear outline....This is an exemplary piece, indispensable for anyone engaged in the study, not only of Proverbs, but of the Hebrew Bible broadly.”

—Steven S. Tuel, Review of Biblical Literature

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Purchase the ebook of Phoenician Inscriptions by Robert D. Holmstedt, Aaron Schade, and Philip C. Schmitzk for $5 through 2 August with code PHOENICIA buff.ly/KV0Vygm

Byblian inscriptions continue into the Persian and Hellenistic periods and offer some lengthy texts useful in assessing Phoenician, as well as offering glimpses into the religion, culture, political structures, and burial practices within Byblos.

—Robert D. Holmstedt, Aaron Schade, and
Philip C. Schmitz

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Today is the last day to purchase the ebook of Phoenician Aniconism in Its Mediterranean and Ancient Near Eastern Contexts by Brian R. Doak for $5. Use code PHOENICIA. buff.ly/xoUIoJo

Phoenician Aniconism in Its Mediterranean and Ancient Near Eastern Contexts
Brian R. Doak

Scholarly literature on forms typically deemed aniconic in some way—such as unmarked stones, pillars, or stelae—has sometimes exhibited a curious tendency to judge these expressions in a polarized manner, often trending toward either denigrating them as evidence of the extreme stupidity of their venerators or vaunting them as sublime examples of highly evolved spiritual sensibilities.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

The ebook of The History and Archaeology of Phoenicia by Hélène Sader is $5 through 2 August with code PHOENICIA. Get your copy before reading her new book Ancient Tyre between Myth and History. buff.ly/q3OzRdC

One has to admit that without archaeology little would have been known about Phoenician religion. Indeed, the archaeological record often complements the written documentation and provides precious information about the cult places and the religious performances, sacrifices, and rituals that were taking place there.

—Hélène Sader

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Phoenician Inscriptions by Robert D. Holmstedt, Aaron Schade, and Philip C. Schmitzk released earlier this year. The ebook is $5 through 2 August with code PHOENICIA. buff.ly/KV0Vygm

Outside Phoenicia, texts that are widely considered to share Phoenician script and grammatical features have been found throughout the Mediterranean, from the eleventh century BCE through the Roman period (i.e., Latino-Punic texts of the fifth century CE). The geographic distribution is as broad as the chronological one, with texts in Phoenician found primarily along routes the Phoenicians used for trade or colonization, that is, in various sites in the Levant, Anatolia, Northern Africa, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Sardinia, Malta, and Spain

—Robert D. Holmstedt, Aaron Schade, and
Philip C. Schmitz

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Check out Phoenician Aniconism in Its Mediterranean and Ancient Near Eastern Contexts by Brian R. Doak. The ebook is $5 through 2 August with code PHOENICIA. buff.ly/xoUIoJo

Phoenician Aniconism in Its Mediterranean and Ancient Near Eastern Contexts
Brian R. Doak

We can say that Phoenicians worshiped their deities in ways that, while distinct and unique to each city and context, make sense within the Northwest Semitic context of the mainland cities. The situation in the broader Mediterranean is more complex; in some cases colonies had clear relationships with their founding mainland cities, though we do not know to what extent we can assume this kind of relationship at every colony.

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SBL Press @sblpress.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Get the ebook of The History and Archaeology of Phoenicia by Hélène Sader for $5 through 2 August with code PHOENICIA. buff.ly/q3OzRdC

The chronology and periodization of the Iron Age is difficult to establish for all the Phoenician kingdoms: first, because of the discrepancy of the evidence between north and south, the latter being better documented, and second, because not all sites have yielded a complete sequence from the Late Bronze–Iron Age I transition to the end of the Persian period. In
addition, very few sites have provided carbon-14 determinations to establish absolute dates for the chronological and stratigraphic sequence.

—Hélène Sader

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