Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism ─ Social and Literary Contexts for the New Testament

This collection of essays is the second volume in a three-part series on Early Christianity in its Hellenistic contexts. This particular volume focuses on the background of Hellenistic Judaism against which Early Christianity arose. After an editorial introduction, the text is divided into two portions. The first explores the social contexts of Hellenistic Judaism, while the second considers literary and religious contexts. The essays in this first section interrogate the connections between Hellenism and biblical canons, conceptual boundaries between resurrection and immortality in Hellenistic Judaism, the ethnic context of Paul's letters, and Paul's anthropology beyond the Judaism/Hellenism divide. The second section of essays turns to issues like whether John the Baptist was a member of the Qumran community, rhetoric and persuasion in the wisdom of King Solomon, dialectics in its Talmudic and Hellenistic contexts, "ancient science fiction" in ancient stories about journeying into space, prophecy in the Torah, and more. There are two indexes in the back, one for modern and one for ancient sources. The contributors are American and European professors of bible studies or theology, as well as seminarians and theologians. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Stanley E. Porter, Ph.D. (1988), University of Sheffield, is President and Dean, and Professor of New Testament, at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He has published numerous monographs, edited volumes, and articles in the field of New Testament studies and related disciplines, including Hermeneutics: An Introduction to Interpretive Theory (2011).Andrew W. Pitts is a Ph.D. candidate in Christian Theology at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and has published articles in journals such as JBL, JGRChJ and CBR, as well as a number of chapters in edited volumes.