Early Christian reader
Subtitle: Christian texts from the first and second centuries in contemporary English translations including the New Revised Standard Version of the New Testament
By: with introductions and annotations by Steve Mason and Tom Robinson.
Contributors: Mason, Steve, 1957-.; Robinson, Thomas A. 1951-
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Peabody, MA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 780
Subjects: Christian literature, Early.
Description: For studying early Christianity in its historical context, standard editions of the New Testament are less than ideal. They present the earliest Christian writings out of chronological order and omit writings similar in age and historical importance to the books of the New Testament. In Early Christian Reader, these texts are arranged in a more historically meaningful order. The books of the New Testament are presented in the NRSV, the most widely accepted version in university classrooms today. Also included are translations of the letters of Ignatius, 1 Clement, the Didache, the Gospel of Thomas and the Epistle of Barnabas. Introductions to each work discuss date and place of composition, authorship, basic themes, and the Jewish and Hellenistic contexts. Generous notes illumine specific historical, lexical, and interpretive issues. Thus Early Christian Reader thus offers an objective, informed entrée into the complex world of the earliest Christian literature. Useful appendixes, maps, and charts make this an ideal text for the university or college classroom.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.