David A. deSilva earned a bachelors degree in English from Princeton University, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in New Testament from Emory University. He has taught at the Candler School of Theology and is currently assistant professor at Ashland Theological Seminary. He has also served as an interim preacher for Lutheran and United Methodist churches and interned at St. George's Episcopal Church in Helmetta, NJ. He has written over a hundred of articles and reviews and has previously published two other books, Despising Shame: The Social Function of the Rhetoric of Honor and Dishonor in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Scholars Press, 1995) and 4 Maccabees (Sheffield Academic Press Guides to the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, 1998). He has four forthcoming books in process: Honor Discourse and the New Testament (Liturgical Press), Hebrews: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Eerdmans), The New Testament in its Cultural Environment (InterVarsity Press), and Introduction to the Old Testament Apocrypha (Baker). In addition to his academic pursuits, he has been very active in music ministries throughout his life and is currently director of choirs at the First United Methodist Church in Ashland, OH.