Jesus and the Manuscripts: What We Can Learn from the Oldest Texts

by Craig A. Evans

Publisher:

Hendrickson

, 2020

Overview

Jesus and the Manuscripts, by popular author and Bible scholar Craig A. Evans, introduces readers to the diversity and complexity of the ancient literature that records the words and deeds of Jesus. This diverse literature includes the familiar Gospels of the New Testament, the much less familiar literature of the Rabbis and of the Qur’ān, and the extracanonical narratives and brief snippets of material found in fragments and inscriptions. This book critically analyzes important texts and quotations in their original languages and engages the current scholarly discussion. Evans argues that the Gospel of Thomas is not early or independent of the New Testament Gospels but that it should be dated to the late second century. He also argues that Secret Mark, like the recently published Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, is probably a modern forgery. Of special interest is the question of how long the autographs of New Testament writings remained in circulation. Evans argues that the evidence suggests that most of these autographs remained available for copying and study for more than one hundred years and thus stabilized the text.

Key Features

• Introduces readers to the diversity and complexity of the ancient literature
• Walks readers through the various works of ancient literature, both biblical and non-biblical, that mention Jesus
• Analyzes important texts and quotations in their original languages and engages the current scholarly discussion

Contents

• Introduction
• 1 How Old and How Many? The Oldest Witnesses to Jesus
• 2 The Autographic Jesus: How Long Were Late Antique Books in Use?
• 3 Jesus in the “Jewish Gospels”
• 4 Jesus and Doubting Thomas: On the Genesis and Age of a Syrian Gospel (Part One)
• 5 Jesus and Doubting Thomas: On the Genesis and Age of a Syrian Gospel (Part Two)
• 6 Cross Purposes: From Matthew to the Gospel of Peter
• 7 Jesus and Judas: Making Sense of the Gospel of Judas
• 8 The Sexual Jesus: Straight, Gay, or Married?
• 9 Panther, Prophet, or Problem Child? Jesus in Rabbinic, Islamic, and Popular Christian Traditions
• 10 Jesus in Small Texts: Agrapha, Amulets, Fragments, and Inscriptions
• 11 Jesus and the Beginnings of the Christian Canon of Scripture
• 12 Jesus in Print: Erasmus and the Beginnings of Textual Fundamentalism

Product Details

• Title: Jesus and the Manuscripts: What We Can Learn from the Oldest Texts
• Author: Craig A. Evans
• Publisher: Hendrickson
• Print Publication Date: 2020
• Logos Release Date: 2023
• Pages: 650
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Jesus Christ › Historicity; Bible. N.T. › Manuscripts; Bible. N.T. › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. Gospels. Arabic › Versions; Rabbinical literature › Relation to the N.T; Apocryphal books (N.T.)
• ISBNs: 9781683071624, 168307162X
• Resource ID: LLS:JSSMNSCRPTSTXTS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-02-07T16:58:56Z

About Craig A. Evans

Craig A. Evans (Ph.D.) is an esteemed, internationally recognized biblical scholar, author, and a regular guest on TV documentaries. He is John Bisagno Distinguished Professor of Christian Origins at Houston Theological Seminary. He was formally Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity College. Before working at Acadia, Evans taught at Trinity Western University in British Columbia for twenty-one years, where he directed the graduate program in biblical studies and founded the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute. Evans has lectured at Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, and Yale. He also regularly lectures and gives talks at popular conferences and retreats on the historical Jesus, archaeology, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Bible.

He is the author or editor of more than fifty books and hundreds of articles and reviews. 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 appeared in television and radio interviews, such as the History Channel, BBC, and Dateline NBC. Evans 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.