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This volume contains five chapters which investigate the early Christian appropriations of Jewish apocalyptic material. An introductory chapter surveys ancient perceptions of the apocalyses as well as their function, authority, and survival in the early Church. The second chapter focuses on a specific tradition by exploring the status of the Enoch-literature, the use of the fallen-angel motif, and the identification of Enoch as an eschatological witness. Christian transmission of Jewish texts, a topic whose significance is more and more being recognized, is the subject of chapter three which analyzes what happend to 4,5 and 6 Ezra as they were copied and edited in Christian circles. Chapter four studies the early Christian appropriation and reinterpretation of Jewish apocalyptic chronologies, especially Daniel's vision of 70 weeks. The fifth and last chapter is devoted to the use and influence of Jewish apocalyptic traditions among Christian sectarian groups in Asia Minor and particularly in Egypt. Taken together these chapters written by four authors, offer illuminating examples of how Jewish apocalyptic texts and traditions fared in early Christianity.EditorsJames C. VanderKam is lecturing at the University of Notre Dame; William Adler is lecturer at North Carolina State University.Series: Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum TestamentumSection 1 - The Jewish people in the first century Historial geography, political history, social, cultural and religious life and institutions Edited by S. Safrai and M. Stern in cooperation with D. Flusser and W.C. van UnnikSection 2 - The Literature of the Jewish People in the Period of the Second Temple and the TalmudSection 3 - Jewish Traditions in Early Christian Literature

Twenty years on from its original appearance, this ground-breaking first volume in N. T. Wright's magisterial series,'Christian Origins and the Question of God', still stands as a major point of reference for students of the New Testament and early Christianity. This latest impression has been completely reset to make Wright's elegant and engrossing text more readable.'The sweep of Wright's project as a whole is breathtaking. It is impossible to give a fair assessment of his achievement without sounding grandiose: no New Testament scholar since Bultmann has even attempted - let alone achieved - such an innovative and comprehensive account of New Testament history and theology.'Richard B. Hays

This collection of essays is presented in honour of John C. Hurd on the occasion of his retirement as Professor of New Testament at Trinity College, Toronto, and in recognition of a distinguished career in the fields of Pauline studies and computing in the humanities. Given Professor Hurd's interest in Christian origins and methodology, it is appropriate that the contributors to this volume deal with the origin and development of various aspects of Judaism and Christianity. In particular they highlight how a greater attentiveness to method has resulted in a reshaping of our understanding of Christianity or Judaism. The volume is divided into three parts:'New Understandings of Paul','New Understandings of the New Testament', and'New Understandings of the Relationship between Judaism and Christianity'. Contributors include Walter Aufrecht, Karl Donfried, Robert Grant, John Kloppenborg, Gerd Ludemann and Wayne McCready.

The idea for this book arose out of the author's fifteen years of sustained engagement in Jewish-Christian relations. His purpose here is to speak about the practice of religious education in the church in which anti-Judaism is eliminated. O'Hare focuses on'the holiness of the religious community'which, he notes, can develop along triumphal, absolute, and exclusive lines. He suggests instead that'every time we unearth a defensive and xenophobic practice or pattern of speech in our religion and set it aside, we are doing something that adds to the health of our religious community, to its capacity to assist people to become holy.'Chapter 1 surveys what philosopher Jules Isaac calls the history of the'teaching of contempt'; chapter 2 deals with genuine religious pluralism and dialogue; chapter 3 is a short'Christology'devoid of triumphalism and exclusivism; chapter 4 focuses on religious education and its purpose to form holy people; chapter 5 is an appreciation of'the genius of Judaism,'its world view and life; chapter 6 focuses on practice, including elements of a paradigm shift in religious education, principles for such practice, and select examples of programs of religious education for interreligious reverence, especially between Jews and Christians.Padraic O'Hare teaches in the Religious Studies Department of Merrimack College, North Andover, MA, and is the author of The Way of Faithfulness: Contemplation and Formation in the Church, also published by Trinity Press.

This book contributes to the small but growing literature on the interaction between religion and power in antiquity. Edwards focusses on the eastern'Greek'provinces in the first and second centuries A.D.--the period during which Christianity, Judaism, and numerous other religions and cults exploded across the Roman Empire. His purpose is to show how the local elite classes appropriated and manipulated mythic and religious images and practices to establish and consolidate their social, political, and economic power. Edwards considers both archaeological and literary evidence. He examines coins, epigraphs, statuary, building complexes, mosaics, and paintings from across Asia Minor and Syria-Palestine looking for evidence of sponsorship by local elites and the meaning of such sponsorship. On the literary side, Edwards selects one representative figure from each of the three major religio-cultural traditions: the Greek writer, Chariton of Aphrodisias; the Jewish historian, Josephus; and the Christian evangelist, the author of Luke Acts. He illustrates how each writer's use of religion reflects the interaction of local elite groups with the'web of power'that existed in political, cultural, and social spheres of the Roman Empire.

It is a remarkable fact that the writings of Philo, the Jew from Alexandria, were preserved because they were taken up in the Christian tradition. But the story of how this process of reception and appropriation took place has never been systematically research.In this book the author first examines how Philo's works are related to the New Testament and the earliest Chritian writing, and then how they were used by Greek and Latin church fathers up to 400 c.e., with special attention to the contributions of Clement, Origen, Didymus, Eusebius, Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, and Augustine.Philo in Early Christian Literature is a valuable guide to the state of scholarly research on a subject that has thus far been investigated in a rather piecemeal fashion.

This volume is part of a series which provides a fundamental resource for feminist biblical scholarship, containing a comprehensive selection of essays, both reprinted and specially written for the series, by leading feminist scholars. The contributors to this volume are Lyn Bechtel, Mark Bredin, Athalya Brenner, Edna Brocke, Carole Fontaine, Lillian Klein, Amy-Jill Levine, Judith Lieu, Heather McKay, Adele Reinhartz, Jane Schaberg, Marla Selvidge, Leonore Siegele-Wenschkewitz, Beverly Stratton, Arie Troost, Pieter van der Horst, and Bea Wyler.

In this meticulously researched and compelling study, David Sim reconstructs the social setting of the Matthean community at the time the Gospel was written and traces its full history.Dr Sim argues that the Matthean community should be located in Antioch towards the latter part of the first century. He acknowledges the dispute within the early Christian movement and its importance. He defines more accurately the distinctive perspectives of the two streams of thought and their respective relationships to Judaism. A new and important work in Matthean studies.

Part I of this work determines where Paul is dependent on Jewish and Hellenistic exegesis of the Moses story where he provides a fresh interpretation. Part II brings form-critical studies of the Greek papyri to bear on the epistolary function of these verses. Part III investigates first-century homiletic patterns, exegetical techniques and material parallels in order to illuminate the sequence of Paul's thought. At issue in these verses is Paul's apostolic credibility. Paul selectively weaves together text, tradition and haggadah, using accepted methods of text interpretation and a common Jewish homiletical form, to provide his readers with reliable standards of apostolic accreditation and to defend himself against those who sought to discredit him as a failure in reaching his own people.

Jewish-Christian contact and controversy were central to early Christian experience. An understanding of this interaction and its continuation over the centuries is also central to any true understanding of the history of Christianity and of the history of Judaism. The twelve chapters of this book deal especially with the interconnected subjects of polemic and biblical interpretation. Nine are concerned with the ancient world, beginning with post-exilic Jewish writing and the New Testament and going on to later pagan, Jewish and Christian controversies. Three concentrate on medieval and early modern Jewish controversies. William Horbury makes an important contribution to the understanding of abundant primary sources, both Jewish and Christian, which remain in large part under-explored.

Hood's study contends that Aquinas's writings remain resistant to or skeptical of anti-Jewish trends in thirteenth-century theology. Aquinas sets out simply to clarify and systematize received theological and canonistic teachings on the Jews.

The Gospel of Thomas is one of the most debated early Christian writings. Discovered as a Coptic translation in the Nag Hammadi Library, its date, message and relation to the canonical gospels have been the subject of much divisive argument. This book offers new perspectives on the gospel and demonstrates the various ways in which it sheds light on the ideological and social history of early Christianity.Expert scholars go to the heart of current issues in Thomasine studies, such as the role of oral and written traditions in the composition of the gospel, Thomas'relationship with the Gospel of John and with Gnostic and ascetic tendencies in early Christianity, the gospel's attitude to women followers of Jesus and to Jewish ritual practices.

These studies break new ground in the exploration of early Christianity and Judaism towards the end of the Second Temple period.Professor Borgen introduces fresh perspectives on many central issues in the complexity of Judaism both within Palestine and in the Diaspora. He also examines the variety of tendencies which existed within Christianity as it emerged within Judaism and spread out into other nations.An invaluable study for all scholars, teachers and students of the New Testament in general and of Judaica, Classics and Hellenism

The Intellectual Foundations of Christian and Jewish Discourse argues that the Judaic and Christian heirs of Scripture adopted, and adapted to their own purposes and tasks, Greek philosophical modes of thought and argument. The authors explore how the earliest intellectuals of Christianity and Judaism shaped a tradition of articulated conflict and reasoned argument in the search for religious truth that was to be shared through continuing that argument with others.Neusner and Chilton examine, using the formative sources of Judaism and Christianity, the literary media of adaptation and reform: precisely where and how we identify in the foundation writings of Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism the new opposing modes of articulated conflict and reasoned argument that through Christianity and Judaism, Greek philosophy and science bequeathed to the West.