The present volume offers a glimpse at one currently thriving expression of the distinguished history of religions school approach to the New Testament and early Christian literature. Begun circa 1884 at the University of Gottingen and pioneered by scholars such as Albert Eichhorn, Wilhelm Bousset, Johannes Weiss, and William Wrede, today applications of this approach are diverse. In North America, the University of Chicago has long been a hub of this type of investigation. Over the last century, many of these studies have produced groundbreaking results. Essays in this collection apply this...

The authors of this volume explore the notion of community as reflected upon in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers. Various aspects are dealt with, including concerns for organising the community, developing a sacramental and liturgical praxis, constructing identity against outsiders, spreading the Christian message, and building towards a better community. The interplay between ideal and reality in the sources offers some reliable information about day-to-day concerns and concrete situations in Christian communities from the end of the first century up to about 150 CE. Contributors: Paul...

What happened in the last few years of Paul's life? Did he ever get to Spain? How and why did he die? Were his plans fulfilled or frustrated? How should we interpret our scant sources? And what light can be shed on these matters by the social, historical, and legal context of Paul's life? In this fresh investigation of the central historical questions, a group of leading international scholars bring together their collective expertise on the apostle Paul and on the Roman, Jewish and early Christian worlds in which he lived and died. Through new scrutiny of all the key sources, a number of...

The contributors of this volume address the question of identity among Christ-believers from the viewpoint of prayer. Prayer brings into the discussion several dimensions that make up religious identity. It is attested rather early that prayer was theology performed, and thus intertwined with emerging theologies. Furthermore, prayer was Christocentric in orientation and focus. As of yet, these aspects have not received due attention in scholarly discussions. Christian identity, albeit fragile and complex, was taking shape already in the first century and found itself on the verge between...

The authors of this volume elucidate the remarkable role played by religion in the shaping and reshaping of narrative forms in antiquity and late antiquity in a variety of ways. This is particularly evident in ancient Jewish and Christian narrative, but also in some "pagan" novels such as that of Heliodorus. These essays, from different points of view, illuminate the interplay between narrative and religion, and show how religious concerns and agendas shaped narrative forms in Judaism and early Christianity. These compelling and innovative articles are all based on fresh and often...

David L. Balch argues that Luke-Acts participates in the ethnic, economic, and political debates of the first century CE. Cities and peoples are to receive immigrating foreigners (Act. 10.28); the proud urban rich are to humble themselves and become one community with the poor. Imperial Rome's expanding to include diverse peoples was the driving force that drove conflicts around ethnic inclusion and exclusion in Rome itself, but also in Athens and Jerusalem. Luke's biography of Jesus narrates him as founder who fulfilled Isaiah's prophecies and changed Moses' laws by receiving foreigners (Luk...

While the early Christian texts discussed in this book are often treated as "gnostic" ones, they are here approached as witnesses to the views of educated Christians engaged in dialogue with philosophical traditions. Following the idea that ancient philosophical schools provided their adherents with ways of life, Ismo Dunderberg explores issues related to morality and lifestyle in non-canonical gospels and among groups that were gradually denounced as heretical in the church. He deals with the soul's progress from material concerns to a life dominated by spirit, the control of emotions, the...

The purpose of this comprehensive sourcebook by David W. Chapman and Eckhard J. Schnabel is to publish the extra-biblical primary texts that have been cited as relevant for understanding Jesus' trial and crucifixion. The texts in the first part deal with Jesus' trial and interrogation before the Sanhedrin, and the texts in the second part concern Jesus' trial before Pilate. The texts in part three represent crucifixion as a method of execution in antiquity. For each document the authors provide the original text (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, etc.), a translation, and commentary. The...

The purpose of this comprehensive sourcebook by David W. Chapman and Eckhard J. Schnabel is to publish the extra-biblical primary texts that have been cited as relevant for understanding Jesus' trial and crucifixion. The texts in the first part deal with Jesus' trial and interrogation before the Sanhedrin, and the texts in the second part concern Jesus' trial before Pilate. The texts in part three represent crucifixion as a method of execution in antiquity. For each document the authors provide the original text (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, etc.), a translation, and commentary. The...

This volume collects the contributions of a group of scholars who started rethinking, in 2004, the traditional category of New Testament Apocrypha according to the new perspectives of a greater continuity not only between early Jewish and Christian scriptural productions, but also between early Christian and late antique apocryphal literatures. This is the result of the confluence of two, so far, alternative approaches: on the one hand, the deconstruction of the customary categories of "Jewish Christianity" and "Gnosticism," and on the other, the new awareness that the production of new...