Mikeal C. Parsons is the Kidd L. and Buna Hitchcock Macon Chair in Religion at Baylor University. He is the author of numerous books including most recently Luke: A Handbook on the Greek Text and Acts: A Handbook on the Greek Text, and the editor of The Acts of the Apostles: Four Centuries of Baptist Interpretation. Parsons lives in Waco, Texas.

"Not many books really break new ground. This one does. Parsons cast Luke's descriptions of the bent woman, Zacchaeus, the lame man, and the Ethiopian eunuch in a new light and shows how the gospel radically challenges cultural conventions and speaks a word of grace." --Alan Culpepper, Dean, McAfee School of Theology

• Introduction1 Soul and Body React on Each Other: Body and Character in Greek and Roman Literature2 The Movement of the Body Is a Voice of the Soul: Body and Character in Early Jewish and Christian Literature3 Your Eye Is the Lamp of Your Body: Luke and the Body-Soul Relationship4 Ought Not This Daughter of Abraham Be Set Free?: Getting the Story of the Bent Woman Straight5 Short in Stature, Son of Abraham: The Height of Hospitality in the Story of Zacchaeus6 His Feet and Ankles Were Made Strong: Signs of Character in the Man Lame from Birth7 What Is to Prevent Me?: Ambiguity, Acceptance, and the Ethiopian EunuchEpilogueAppendix: Abbreviations from the Progymnasmata