The nine essays in this volume, written by leading international scholars in New Testament studies, examine in new depth the method of comparison so frequently deployed in the study of the New Testament. They raise and reflect on deep questions on the possibility and validity of such comparative exercise, on the methods that are most effective and intellectually defensible, on the purpose of such comparison, and on the perils and pitfalls in such exercises. Addressing these questions at both a theoretical, hermeneutical level, and through case-studies of actual examples, the book provides a much needed and up-to-date methodological resource for the numerous comparative projects spawned by New Testament studies throughout the world.

Table of Contents:

List of Contributors
Translations
Abbreviations

Chapter 1: Introduction - John M.G. Barclay, Durham University, UK, and B.G. White, The King's College, New York, USA
Chapter 2: 'O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us, To see oursels as others see us': Method and Purpose in Comparing the New Testament - John M.G. Barclay, Durham University, UK
Chapter 3: Making Friends and Comparing Lives - C. Kavin Rowe, Duke University Divinity School, USA
Chapter 4: The Past is a Foreign Country: On the Shape and Purposes of Comparison in New Testament Scholarship - Troels Engberg-Pedersen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Chapter 5: The Possibility of Comparison, the Necessity of Anachronism and the Dangers of Purity - Dale B. Martin, Yale University, USA
Chapter 6: Beyond Compare, or: Some Recent Strategies for How Not to Compare Early Christianity with Other Things - Matthew V. Novenson, University of Edinburgh, UK
Chapter 7: On Comparing and Calling the Question - Margaret M. Mitchell, University of Chicago Divinity School, USA
Chapter 8. A Response to Friend-Critics - C. Kavin Rowe, Duke University Divinity School, USA
Chapter 9. Relational Hermeneutics and Comparison as Conversation - Jonathan A. Linebaugh, University of Cambridge, UK
Chapter 10: Comparing Like with Like? The New Testament in its Christian Literary Environment - Francis Watson, Durham University, UK
Chapter 11: Resemblance and Relation: Comparing the Gospels of Mark, John and Thomas - Simon Gathercole, University of Cambridge, UK
Bibliography
Index