This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshitta carried out by an international team of scholars. The fully vocalized and pointed Syriac text, and the English translation, are presented on facing pages so that both can be studied together. Supplementary information is given in annotations, Addenda, and Appendices.

Lazarus compares and discusses comic elements used for didactic purposes in two separate literary traditions: Old Testament narrative and Aristophanic Comedies. Given that humour relies on taking people's ideas of what is normal and making them incongruous, this volume examines these very different texts to see how they use that comic incongruity to help define what it means to be human within the hierarchy of the universe.

The less-discussed character in the Bible is the woman: two talking animals therein have sometimes received more page space. This volume shines the light of close scrutiny in the less-trodden direction and focuses on biblical and allied women, or on the feminine side of Creation. Biblical women are compared to mythical characters from the wider Middle East or from contemporary literature, and feminist/womanist perspectives are discussed alongside traditional and theological perspectives.

An analysis of the religious experiences of the Greco-Roman sophist, Aelius Aristides. As a member of the cult of Asclepius, Aristides recorded his nocturnal dreams, waking visions and spiritual healings in a diary entitled the Sacred Tales. A study of this diary sheds light on the spiritual environment of the Roman world in the first and second century CE.

This volume incorporates all the articles and reviews published in volume 12 (2012) of the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures.

This volume collects selected papers from the seventh annual conference of the Asia-Pacific Early Christian Studies Society (APECSS), held in Seoul, Korea on 5–7th July 2012, on the theme "Preaching and Ministry in Early Christianity".