This volume is the first complete analysis of the apocryphal gospel fragment P.Oxy. 840 since its initial discovery nearly a century ago. The fragment recounts a dispute over ritual purity between Jesus and a Pharisaic chief priest in the temple. After an examination of prior research, this work explores the various palaeographical and historical questions raised by this apocryphal story and also offers a new Greek edition and English translation. In particular, P.Oxy. 840's controversial descriptions of ritual purity practices in Herod's temple are evaluated in light of what is known of...

New Testament Manuscripts: Their Texts and Their World comprises twelve essays dealing with manuscripts of the New Testament and/or what we can learn from them today. Starting from different angles the contributors -- distinguished scholars of international reputation -- focus on the fascinating and thrilling stories manuscripts tell, for instance about the times they were produced in or the people who handled them. The multitude of manuscripts used for establishing the critical text of the New Testament is often only perceived as abbreviations in form of single letters or numerals,...

After a general introduction Thomas J. Kraus points out the value of assessing original manuscripts for a profound knowledge of early Christianity. This is done with the help of seventeen of his essays previously published in diverse journals or books now translated into English, enlarged by the current status quo of research, and set in a logical sequence.

For the reconstruction of early Christianity, the lives of early Christians, their world of ideas, their ways of living, and their literature. Early Christian manuscripts - documents and literary texts - are pivotal archaeological artefacts. However, the manuscripts often came to us in fragmentary conditions, incomplete or with gaps and missing lines. Others appear to form a corpus, belong to an archive, or are connected with each other as far as theme or purpose are concerned. The present collection comprises of nine essays about individual or a set of certain manuscripts. With their essays...

The Catena in Marcum commonly attributed to Victor of Antioch, is the earliest anthology of patristic commentary on the gospel according to St Mark. Its compilation dates from the end of the fifth century and the beginning of the sixth century. Providing the first extended English translation, this book identifies the range of patristic sources employed by the editors, and the historiographical, literary and dogmatic concerns which informed the editing and compilation of this important text. It provides an invaluable resource for those interested in the history and development of the...

Challenging nearly two centuries of scholarship, this book offers the first close analysis of the apocryphal epistle to the Laodiceans. A near consensus in scholarship has emerged in which Laodiceans is dismissed as a random collection of phrases plucked from the undisputed Pauline letters, which lacks any organizational structure or theological sophistication. In The Apocryphal Epistle to the Laodiceans, Philip Tite offers a detailed analysis of this Latin letter by exploring the epistolary conventions utilized by the letter writer. What emerges is a pseudonymous text that is a carefully...

In Christian Origins and Greco-Roman Culture, Stanley Porter and Andrew Pitts assemble an international team of scholars whose work has focused on reconstructing the social matrix for earliest Christianity through the use of Greco-Roman materials and literary forms. Each essay moves forward the current understanding of how primitive Christianity situated itself in relation to evolving Hellenistic culture. Some essays focus on configuring the social context for the origins of the Jesus movement and beyond, while others assess the literary relation between early Christian and Greco-Roman...

In Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism, Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts assemble an international team of scholars whose work has focused on reconstructing the social matrix for earliest Christianity through reference to Hellenistic Judaism and its literary forms. Each essay moves forward the current understanding of how primitive Christianity situated itself in relation to evolving Greco-Roman Jewish culture. Some essays focus on configuring the social context for the origins of the Jesus movement and beyond, while others assess the literary relation between early...

In this new commentary on the controversial Gospel of Thomas, Simon Gathercole provides the most extensive analysis yet published of both the work as a whole and of the individual sayings contained in it. This commentary offers a fresh analysis of Thomas not from the perspective of form criticism and source criticism but seeks to elucidate the meaning of the work and its constituent elements in its second-century context. With its lucid discussion of the various controversial aspects of Thomas, and treatment of the various different scholarly views, this is a foundational work of...