Acknowledgements
This book is a revised version of my doctoral thesis which was carried out at the University of Aberdeen. I am tempted simply to copy the Acknowledgements section of my thesis and paste it here. After all, the names originally listed are most representative of the community/ies that supported, inspired, and gave joy to the research laid out in this book. However, since time and significant events have transpired since then, I will take the opportunity to elaborate my thanks to fewer people—without for a moment forgetting the many without whom this study would have been impossible and joyless.
First, Professor Phil Ziegler, my thesis supervisor. My gratitude to Phil makes me want to honor him by saying something original, but anyone who has met him, and anyone who has met anyone who has met him, knows that he is extremely kind, extraordinarily brilliant, and generous with his time and insight. This is public knowledge and all I can do is confirm it, gratefully.
Thanks are also due to the editors of this series, Hanna Reichel and Ashley Cocksworth, whose generous and critical counsel both affirmed and stretched my research, making this a better piece of scholarship than it otherwise would have been.
The cover image of this book is the work of Vasilis Meletiadis. I’m grateful to him for bringing together his artistry and historical and theological knowledge to create something so beautiful.
The Greek Bible College helped me to love Scripture, theology, and study. The faculty and staff there formed me, invested in me, and inspired me. It is my immense privilege to now be able to call my teachers “colleagues.”
My family—Dad, Mom, Kendra, Steve, Cody, Will, and Ellie—are witnesses to God in more ways than they know. I have long been aware of and grateful for the strange shape of my parents’ life, and I can now articulate that strangeness as correspondence to the God of the Gospel. A few weeks before her death, Mom sent me a message: “Truth oozes out your pores.” I had just answered a theological question of hers, and that was her response. It is a rare gift to have been raised by parents who have followed Christ in such profound and tangible ways, and who have shown nothing but love and support to me, and yet who do not take themselves or me very seriously. I will forever be grateful for the wisdom of faith that Mom lived out and that Dad continues to live out, even in the midst of deep grief. It is to them that this book is dedicated.
Finally,