John R L Moxon

The Pastoral Epistles throw light on the early days of the church and the final phase of Paul's life. This commentary scrutinizes the biblical text while attending to the missional, pastoral, and spiritual challenges facing the worldwide Pentecostal and charismatic (or renewalist) movement. It is written for today's church without ignoring scholarly literature and cultural perspectives. The ministry of women, the appointment of elders, prophecy, church governance, living as a Christian in the Roman Empire, the end times, charismatic gifts, spiritual warfare, slavery, and ordination all feature.

Did Luke intend Peter's visionary command to eat 'unclean animals' in Acts 10 to suggest the dissolution of the Jewish Law? Whilst scholars have argued over sources, inconsistent redaction and later reception, many have failed to notice here the novel use of a type of transgression anxiety dream. John Moxon shows how by the incorporation of such naturalistic motifs, Luke takes "revelation" in a new and decidedly psychological direction, probably imitating similar developments in Graeco-Roman biography. If the vision reveals an illegitimate transfer of disgust within an exaggerated halakha of separation, then its target is prejudice and inconsistency, not the Jew-Gentile divide as such, as underlined by the ironic contrast with the pious Cornelius. In this reading, Luke's non-supercessionism is maintained, whilst showing him acutely aware of the kinds of nightmare holding many back from the nascent Gentile mission.