A comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to Romans, and a systematic survey of recent studies in the field.

This work provides a survey of the history of the earliest Christian church in the period up to the fall of Jerusalem. It concentrates on: the figure of Paul; judicious and critical use of information in the Book of Acts; Judaizing versions of Christianity; and the Johannine tradition. The approach steers a middle way between an over-simplified account which fails to warn students where scholarly opinion is divided, and an in-depth academic study which attempts to document and discuss every hypothesis. Wedderburn focuses on aspects of central importance: the changing shape of church life and...

The assumption that Romans 6 and 1 Corinthians 15 reflects a borrowing of ideas from Graeco-Roman mystery initiations is not the likeliest explanation of these texts nor does justice either to recent studies of the mysteries nor to the difficulty in reinterpreting --resurrection-- to refer to a spiritual state which the baptized enjoyed in the present. Spiritual phenomena may have shown early Christians in the Graeco-Roman world that they had --life, -- but not --resurrection.-- --Dying with Christ-- has other roots than the mysteries and the latter should not be interpreted in the light of...