Ben Witherington III

Who was Priscilla? Ben Witherington combines biblical scholarship and winsome storytelling to give readers a vivid picture of this important New Testament woman. In this work of historical fiction, Priscilla's story makes the first-century biblical world come alive as she looks back on her long life and remembers the ways she has participated in the early church.

The Life of an Early Christian

Priscilla

Intrigue is in the air as Nicanor returns to Corinth and reports to his patron Erastos on recent business dealings in Rome. Nicanor, a former slave, is a man on the make. But surprises keep springing up in his path. A political rival of Erastos is layinga plot, and a new religion from the East keeps pressing in his life. Spend an imaginary week in Paul's Corinth as the story of Nicanor winds through street and forum, marketplace and baths, taking usChristian world.Numerous full-page text boxes expand ona variety of aspects of life and culture as we encounter them in the narrative. into shop, villa and apartment, where we meet friends new and old. From our observing a dinner in the temple of Aesclepius to Christian worship in the home of Erastos, Paul'sdealings with the Corinthians in his letters take focused relevance and socail clarity. The result is an unforgettable introduction to life in a major center of the New Testament world. Throughout the text, helpful sidebars, maps and diagrams serve to further illuminate the sociocultural context of the early Christian world.

A Week in the Life of Corinth

Jason A. Myers

Witherington and Myers provide a much-needed introduction to the ancient art of persuasion and its use within the various New Testament documents. More than just an exploration of the use of the ancient rhetorical tools and devices, this guide introduces the reader to all that went into convincing an audience about some subject. Witherington and Myers make the case that rhetorical criticism is a more fruitful approach to the NT epistles than the oft-employed approaches of literary and discourse criticism. Familiarity with the art of rhetoric also helps the reader explore non-epistolary genres. In addition to the general introduction to rhetorical criticism, the book guides readers through the many and varied uses of rhetoric in most NT documents--not only telling readers about rhetoric in the NT, but showing them the way it was employed. "This brief guide book is intended to provide the reader with an entrance into understanding the rhetorical analysis of various parts of the NT, the value such studies bring for understanding what is being proclaimed and defended in the NT, and how Christ is presented in ways that would be considered persuasive in antiquity." - from the introduction

An Introductory Guide to the Art of Persuasion in and of the New Testament

New Testament Rhetoric, Second Edition

Travel to the Holy Land with New Testament scholar Ben Witherington and experience the birth and ministry of Jesus in this study guide that goes along with a four-session video study available seperately. Filmed throughout the places Jesus walked and dwelt among us, On the Road with Jesus, with Dr. Witherington's knowledge and perspective, will help you see God's grace at work and bring us back to lives of true meaning and purpose. As believers see places such as Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, and more, our faith will be deepened while following along the paths Jesus journeyed during his world-changing life and ministry.

Birth and Ministry

On the Road with Jesus

It's AD 70, and Jerusalem is falling to the Romans, its temple being destroyed. As Jews and Christians try to escape the city, we travel with some of them through an imagined week of flight and faith. In this imaginative and entertaining narrative, Ben Witherington leads us behind the veil of centuries to experience the historical and social realities of this epochal event.

A Week in the Fall of Jerusalem

Julie Noelle Hare

The Living Legacy is a resource for spiritual formation that involves original Christian poetry, theological analysis, and spiritual formation exercises following the lectio divina. Following the seasons of the Church Year, Witherington and Hare provide a guide to help those of us on spiritual journeys as we seek to explore 'the living legacy,' which is our faith in the biblical God.

The Soul in Paraphrase, the Heart in Pilgrimage

The Living Legacy

Ann Witherington

Art West has done it again. This time, he finds himself in hot water in Corinth, while excavating at a Roman villa with his fiancee, Marissa Okur, as they chart a sometimes bumpy course towards marriage. Art runs into a modern-day prophetess, survives an earthquake, and has to overcome annoying Greek authorities who stand in his way of making more discoveries of relevance to the study of the New Testament. Meanwhile his friend Kahlil el Said and his daughter who live in Jerusalem make a terrible discovery about her former husband the terrorist, with potentially dangerous and devastating consequences. The worlds of archaeology and the Bible converge once more with both heat and light shed on the origins of Christianity in this fourth installment in the series of seven Art West adventures.

The Fourth Art West Adventure

Corinthian Leather

Time is running out for Khalil el Said, as his cancer treatments have become less and less effective. And so it is that his old friends Art West (and his new wife, Marissa) and Grace Levine plan something very special for Khalil, while there is still time-- the opening of an el Said wing of the Israeli Museum of Antiquities, which includes many of the items he bequeathed to the museum over many years. All of this might be quite enough, but as the Wests and others arrive in Jerusalem, a huge explosion blows the top off of the Dome of the Rock. How did it happen? Will there be war? And who is this person hiding in the shadows who seems to be the spitting image of the well-known dead villain el Tigre? Along the way new archaeological discoveries come to light, and Yelena, the adopted daughter of Grace and Manny, must decide if her future lies in Israel or not. The old friends discover they are at a crossroads in all their lives--- which avenues will they take as the future beckons?

The Seventh Art West Adventure

Return to Zion

Art West is enjoying his new life in North Carolina when he gets a phone call from his old friend and classmate and fellow archaeologist, Charlie. It seems a major discovery has been made at a dig at the back of the Vatican property--the tomb of Andronicus and Junia, apostles of the Lord, and other Jewish Christians as well. Charlie is in over his head, and calls in Art for help. What will the Catholic hierarchy make of the evidence of a female apostle right under their own territory? Why has the press suspected the Vatican of trying to bury its Jewish past? Set in Rome and other Italian venues, this novel explores the evidence for women as apostles and leaders in early Christianity, and various interesting aspects of Roman culture--including the famous graffiti artists. Once again Art West and his friends Grace and Khalil are called in to interpret Christian history, this time for the Pope. As the novel demonstrates, Christian history is always full of amazing and interesting surprises.

The Fifth Art West Adventure

Roma Aeterna

Strange theories about Jesus seem to ooze from our culture with increasing regularity. Ben Witherington, one of the top Jesus scholars, will have none of it. There were no secret Gnostic teachings in the first century. With leading scholars and popular purveyors of bad history in his crosshairs, Witherington reveals what we can—and cannot—claim to know about the real Jesus. The Bible, not outside sources, is still the most trustworthy historical record we have today. Utilizing a fresh "personality profile" approach, Witherington highlights core Christian claims by investigating the major figures in Jesus’s inner circle of followers: Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Thomas, Peter, James the brother of Jesus, Paul, and the mysterious "beloved disciple." In each chapter Witherington satisfies our curiosities and answers the full range of questions about these key figures and what each of them can teach us about the historical Jesus. What Have They Done with Jesus? is a vigorous defense of traditional Christianity that offers a compelling portrait of Jesus’s core message according to those who knew him best.

Beyond Strange Theories and Bad History--Why We Can Trust the Bible

What Have They Done with Jesus?

The impact Jesus had on numerous lives during his earthly ministry is obvious from the Gospel records themselves. But what we do not have is personal testimonies by those persons whom Jesus helped, healed, befriended, or recruited as disciples. In this creative exploration of what sort of testimonies those original encounters might have produced, Ben Witherington paints a picture for us of what the well known and the less well known eyewitnesses might have said had they been asked. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of the historical context in which Jesus operated, Witherington brings these men and women out of the shadows and into the light of day.

Encounters with Jesus

Darlene Hyatt

Witherington gleans fresh insights from reading the text of Paul's epistle in light of early Jewish theology, the historical situation of Rome in the middle of first century A.D., and Paul's own rhetorical concerns.

A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary

Paul's Letter to the Romans

"Having completed commentaries on all of the New Testament books, a remarkable feat in itself, Witherington now offers ... a two-volume set on the theological and ethical thought world of the New Testament. The first volume looks at the individual witnesses, while the second examines the collective witness"--

The Individual Witnesses

The Indelible Image: The Theological and Ethical Thought World of the New Testament

Reading the books of the Law, the Pentateuch, in their original context is the crucial prerequisite for reading their citation and use in later interpretation, including the New Testament writings, argues Ben Witherington III. Here, he offers pastors, teachers, and students an accessible commentary on the Pentateuch, as well as a reasoned consideration of how these books were heard and read in early Christianity. By reading "forward and backward," Witherington advances the scholarly discussion of intertextuality and opens a new avenue for biblical theology.

Ben Witherington III

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