Great changes have taken place in the approach of historians to the topic since the publication of East of Byzantium (1980). Instead of centre-periphery or top-down models they now see the relations between Byzantium and the east in terms of connectivity, networks and horizontal ties. This is connected with the spread of late antiquity as a concept and includes a great expansion in Syriac studies. Late antiquity now embraces the emergence of Islam and looks towards Eurasia; another challenge is posed by the rise of global history. But these developments, with the new focus on the fall of the western empire, raise major problems of identity for Byzantium itself, and indeed for western Europe.

Chapter 8 looks at Samuel in the theological context of the rest of the Scriptures: the Former Prophets or Deuteronomistic History, Chronicles, Psalms, Proverbs, Qohelet, and the New Testament.

This chapter evaluates the landscape of Pauline studies, demonstrating the need for reevaluation of Paul’s understanding of the relationship between Israel, the Jews, and the non-Jewish individuals receiving the spirit through Paul’s ministry. Contrary to many modern readings, Paul’s gospel is not systematically opposed to “legalism” or “ethnocentrism,” and his treatment of (former) gentiles as descendants not only of Abraham but of Israel begs explanation. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the composition and interpretive capacity of the recipients of Paul’s letters and a discussion of key terms in the Pauline letters.

Despite major investment in sanitation infrastructure, intestinal parasites spread by faecal contamination of food and water were a particular problem everywhere in the Roman world. Similarly, ectoparasites such as lice and fleas were common despite the Roman enthusiasm for washing in communal bathhouses and the use of delousing combs. However, some parasites seem to be much more regional in their distribution, likely due to climate variations. Fish and Taenia tapeworms, spread by eating raw or undercooked fish, pork, or beef were more common in northern Europe than southern Europe, possibly due to the fact that the hot climate in the south made raw fish and meat go off faster than in the cooler north. In contrast, malaria seems to have been much more common in the Mediterranean region than in northern Europe, as the warm climate of the south created breeding sites for the Anophales mosquito, which transmitted the parasite. Roman period medical texts by Galen and other physicians showed awareness of a number of parasites and tried to explain them in the context of the humoral theory. Treatment involved trying to rebalance the humours in order to return the individual to health.

The second chapter engages an area that should not exist, according to the traditional historiography. If Calvin, as a good evangelical reformer, avoided all entanglements with the tradition by maintaining his sole focus on the scriptures, a chapter that considers tradition and exegesis should be impossible. But the evidence demonstrates that is far from the case. In examinations of Calvin’s Commentaries on Romans and II Corinthians, and his Lectures on Genesis and Daniel, the readers will see an extraordinary array of considerations of the orthodox exegetical traditions. Further, evidence is presented to show moments when Calvin turned away from the plain sense of scripture in order to pursue the “fuller sense” that would allow him to provide the stronger doctrinal teaching – even at the cost of less-strict maintenance of the doctrine of the scriptures. This was carried out across his considerations of both testaments, and in both the earlier and later stages of his career.

Chapter 24 provides a history of thought on poetry translation ranging from the Roman poets translating Greek, to the experiments of Louis and Celia Zukovsky. They explore how poetic forms, for example the haiku and the sonnet, have been introduced to literary systems beyond their origins through translation, and how the poetry of the classical world has been reanimated through modernism’s shifts in practices and views of translation. They discuss the ‘translation’ of texts in a literary context by poets and versioners who may or may not read the source languages concerned. Throughout, the emphasis is on exemplification and on the connection between theoretical perspectives and paratextual reflection.

Chapter Five: Imperial Creations (192–284 CE) investigates the outcome of these negotiations between the citizens and their imperial overlords, as the balance of Roman involvement in Antioch shifted from provincial to imperial in an increasingly unstable climate. Antioch was not yet a completely imperially governed city, as the civic administration retained a visible degree of agency and still presented itself as a distinct body. Even so, the Antiochians were forced to adjust under intensified Roman rule as the imperial government exploited the city’s resources and interrupted civic operations.

David VanDrunen ties the natural law concepts found in both the Old and New Testaments to a sense of conscience. The notion of natural law appears early in the Old Testament, in God’s covenant with Noah. God instructs Noah that, for example, the killing of an innocent must be recompensed (thereby indicating that innocent people must not be wantonly killed). While there is not one Hebrew word for conscience in the OT, it does identify the “heart” (leb) and “kidneys” (kelayot) as the mechanisms by which the wise and discerning person applies what he knows to be true about the way the world works. In the New Testament, conscience is the “subjective human faculty that recognizes right and wrong and thus bears witness to a person’s standing before the law.” The Apostle Paul’s discussion of natural law in Romans chapters 2 and 3 reveals that although not all receive God’s express law (as did God’s people on Mt. Sinai), all people everywhere have an innate sense of moral rectitude to which their consciences testify. All persons everywhere therefore are subject to God’s righteous judgment.

This chapter discusses Romans and Galatians, the vexed question of Paul’s use of the Old Testament, his place within the Judaism of his day, early Jewish-Christian relations, and the “New Perspective.”

This chapter analyzes Paul’s understanding of the atoning nature of Christ’s death and resurrection. Since Paul regularly uses imagery from Israel’s sacrificial cult to interpret the meaning of Jesus’ death, this chapter delves into recent work on the logic of Israel’s cult so as to understand what a first-century Jew would mean to say if they compared the events of Golgotha with the rite of Yom Kippur. The chapter contrasts Luther’s and Calvin’s understanding of the cross, which paint Paul’s account on a canvas of a generic, universal struggle with the powers of sin, guilt, and evil, with an argument in which Paul interprets the difference the cross makes as addressing a specific historical situation in the life of Israel and its relationship to Israel’s God.