The World of Jesus and the Early Church: Identity and Interpretation in the Early Communities of Faith
Overview
Prominent scholars in the fields of Archaeology, New Testament Studies, and the Dead Sea Scrolls have come together in The World of Jesus and the Early Church to focus on early Jewish and Christian communities of faith and their impact on the collections of texts that were their scriptures (and would become, in due time, part of their various canons).
Professors, students, and pastors who are interested in how these communities lived—how they developed, what they believed, and how they regarded and preserved the written documents that were their scripture—will be interested in this comprehensive volume drawn from presentations made to key conferences on the subject. This book’s emphasis on a variety of communities of faith (not just Christian) and their early (and critical) influence on the development of religious canonical materials sets it apart from others on New Testament-period culture.
Key Features
- Explores the culture and beliefs of early Jewish and Christian communities
- Focuses on the basis and progress of commmnity identity
- Examines how these communities interpreted Scripture and how it influenced them
Contents
Part One: Identity in Jewish and Christian Communities of Faith
- The Site of Qumran and the Sectarian Communities in the Dead Sea Scrolls
- From the Earthly to the Heavenly Temple: Lines from the Bible and Qumran to Hebrews and Revelation
- The Scrolls and the Scriptures on the Margins: Remembered in Canon and Forgotten in Caves
- Disputed Issues in the Study of Cities, Villages, and the Economy in Jesus’ Galilee
- Children in House Churches in Light of New Research on Families in the Roman World
- The Family Buried Together Stays Together: On the Burial of the Executed in Family Tombs
- The Trial of Jesus at the Jerusalem Praetorium: New Archaeological Evidence
Part Two: Interpreting the Scriptures in Jewish and Christian Communities
- The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Interpretation of Scripture
- Excavating Ideas: The Qumran Scrolls of Samuel
- The Oldest Attested Hebrew Scriptures and the Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription
- Biblia Hebraica Quinta
- What do Earliest Christian Manuscripts Tell Us about their Readers?
- Bold Claims, Wishful Thinking, and Lessons about Dating Manuscripts from Papyrus Egerton 2
Contributors
- Craig A. Evans
- John J. Collins
- Torleif Elgvin
- Dorothy M. Peters
- Mark A. Chancey
- Margaret Y. MacDonald
- Shimon Gibson
- George J. Brooke
- Keith Bodner
- Stephen J. Andrews
- James A. Sanders
- Larry W. Hurtado
- Paul Foster
Praise for the Print Edition
This volume explores recent understanding of the way in which the early Jewish and Christian communities of faith functioned and how they defined themselves, as well as how they interpreted their scriptures. The collected essays encompass archaeological, sociological, economic, ritual, and textual discoveries; shed light on these communities of faith; and draw out implications for both the academy and the church today. John Collins, Margaret Y. MacDonald, Larry Hurtado, and James A. Sanders are among the 13 contributors.
—Interpretation
The contributions to this collection are all excellent work by some leading scholars. . . . There is much insight that can be gained from these pages.
—Theological Book Review
Product Details
- Title: The World of Jesus and the Early Church: Identity and Interpretation in the Early Communities of Faith
- Editor: Craig A. Evans
- Publisher: Hendrickson
- Publication Date: 2011
- Pages: 280
- Resource Type: Collected Essays
- Topic: Early Church
Craig A. Evans earned his PhD in biblical studies at Claremont Graduate University and received his decretum habilitationis from Budapest. He is Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament; Acadia Divinity College Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada; John Bisagno Distinguished Professor of Christian Origins (Houston Theological Seminary); a New Testament scholar; and a prolific author and popular teacher/speaker.
Evans is well-known for his work on the Gospels, the Historical Jesus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the archaeology of the New Testament. His passion for archaeology has him frequently participating in Middle East digs and leading Holy Land tours. He has regularly appeared in television and radio interviews, such as the History Channel, BBC, and Dateline NBC, served as a consultant on the National Geographic Society's Gospel of Judas project and for The Bible television miniseries, and is featured in documentaries like Fragments of Truth and the Archaeology and Jesus series.
He's written hundreds of articles and reviews and published more than 70 books, including Jesus and His Contemporaries, Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies, Mark in the Word Biblical Commentary, Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels, God Speaks, and Jesus and the Remains of His Days: Studies in Jesus and Archaeology. He coauthored Jesus, the Final Days with N. T. Wright.