"This volume examines the centrality of relationships in the understanding of identity in early Christianity and Judaism"--

List of ContributorsAbbreviationsIntroductionPart I. Gospel of JohnChapter One: Befriending the Beloved Disciple Requires Interventions - Amy-Jill Levine, Vanderbilt University Divinity School, USAChapter Two: Intimacy with Jesus: Construction of Closeness by Gender Diversity in John - Peter Wick, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, GermanyChapter Three: Was Pilate a "Friend of the Emperor? (John 19:12)? - Ruben Zimmermann, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, GermanyChapter Four: John among the Synoptics? Understanding the Institutional World of the Fourth Gospel in Light of Other Early Gospels - Anders Runesson, University of Oslo, NorwayChapter Five: False Friends in the First Gospel - R. Alan Culpepper, Mercer University, USAPart II. Letters of PaulChapter Six: "Put Out of the Synagogue": A Pauline Unpacking of a Johannine Trope - Paula Fredriksen, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, IsraelChapter Seven: Befriending Paul: The Letter to Philemon as a Test Case - Esther Kobel, University of Basel, SwitzerlandChapter Eight: Paul's "Beloved" Friends - Stephen Westerholm, McMaster University, USAChapter Nine: "As to the Law-a Pharisee" (Phil 3:5c): Do We Have a Friend in Paul? - Kathy Ehrensperger, The University of Potsdam, GermanyChapter Ten: The Wet Nurse as a Model for Communal Relationships in 1 Thessalonians - Margaret MacDonald, Saint Mary's University, CanadaPart III. Further Texts and Contexts in Jewish AntiquityChapter Eleven: Wine, Dine, and Bind: Sacrificial Food and Community Formation in Asia Minor - Meredith J. C. Warren, The University of Sheffield, UK and Shayna Sheinfeld, Augsburg University, USAChapter Twelve: Socializing with the Impure (or Not): Interactions and Impurity in Late Second Temple Judaism - Cecilia Wassén, Uppsala University, SwedenChapter Thirteen: How to be Better Neighbors: Rewriting the Conquest in Greek Terms - Albert I. Baumgarten, Bar Ilan University, IsraelChapter Fourteen: Negotiating National and Sectarian Identities in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Case of Words of the Luminaries and the Ya?ad's Covenant Ceremony - Esther Chazon, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, IsraelPart IV. Scriptures on the Silver Screen 2.0Chapter Fifteen: Lovers or (Just) Friends? Jesus and Mary Magdalene in the Gospel of John and in Film - Caroline Vander Stichele, Tilburg University, the NetherlandsChapter Sixteen: What a Friend We Have In Jesus: A Consideration of Jesus as Friend in Jesus Films - Richard Walsh, Methodist University, USAChapter Seventeen: Dividing the Red Soup: An Antimodel in Bruce Almighty - Jan Willem van Henten, University of Amsterdam, the NetherlandsChapter Eighteen: The Quick and the Dead in Film Treatments of the Raising of Lazarus - Jo-Ann A. Brant, Goshen College, USACollated BibliographyReinhartz BibliographyIndex