Religious Studies

The contributors examine how wisdom traditions - from Amenemope and the Septuagint through Second Temple literature - shape New Testament theology, ethics, and communal identity. Seventeen essays trace wisdom motifs across the Gospels, Acts, the Pauline and Johannine literature, James, and Hebrews.

In the present volume, the manifold practice of biblical exegesis is taken up methodically and transferred into an integrative overall model of textual interpretation. Students receive the fundamental “tools” for a scholarly, reflective treatment of New Testament texts and their receptions.

Daniel Maier offers the first comprehensive reconstruction and contextualisation of the earliest extant Christian vision of Paradise, as preserved in the complex transmission of the Apocalypse of Peter. He undertakes a detailed analysis of all extant witnesses, including the often-neglected Pseudo-Clementine framework of the Ethiopic manuscripts.

Alberto Solano reinterprets Hebrews through the lens of Sinai, portraying its audience not as wandering but waiting at the mountain's foot. He argues that believers participate in heavenly realities while on earth, challenging supersessionist readings and showing how Jesus' work builds upon - rather than replaces - Sinai's revelation.