In 1996 I was struck by the thought that it would be really useful for professors of New Testament to have an anthology of ALL the Christian books written in the first century of the religion, not just a translation of the NT itself.  I looked around and couldn’t find one.  I told my editor at Oxford Press, and he couldn’t believe it.  But lo and behold. So we agreed I should produce one.  I decided that it should be all the surviving books written by Christians during its first hundred years, so 30-130 CE (though the first surviving book was probably not written till 20 years after Jesus’ death), that I would use the NRSV translation for the NT (with permission), and then include all the other books that could be plausibly dated to the period. The idea is that the New Testament contains *some* of the earliest Christian literature, not all of it.  And if anyone is interested in a historical study of the NT, they need to read it in light of [...]

I continue here describing my book Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene  (Oxford University Press, 2005), with a final excerpt from the Introduction.  In my previous post I discussed how historical accounts and literary fictions mix in the accounts we have of these three key followers of Jesus.  I pick up from there: ****************************** Some scholars would argue that we ourselves are not so different from the storytellers of the ancient world, that when we recount what happened in the past, we too do so not merely to show what “really” happened, but because what happened is important to us, today, for our own lives.  That is to say, at the end of the day, no one has a purely antiquarian interest, an interest in the past for its own sake.  Instead, we are interested in the past because it can help us make sense of the present, of our own lives, our own beliefs, values, priorities, of our own world and our experience of it.  If this view is right -- and I [...]

Since I often get asked about topics I've written about, I have been doing a long thread discussing the various books I've published.  For the next several posts I'll talk about my edition of the "Apostolic Fathers Volume 1" and "Apostolic Fathers Volume 2" for the Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press, 2003).  The "Loeb" series provide bi-lingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin writings.  "Bi-lingual" means that the original (Greek or Latin) text of the writing is on one side of the page with an English translation on the other side.  These are designed for students and scholars who know the ancient languages at least to some extent, as a way of helping them study the texts even if their knowledge of the languages is not as good as it could be (when is it ever?). So these volumes are probably not for most blog readers!  But the General Introduction I provided to the two volumes is reasonably accessible and explains what these writings are, where they came from, and why they are important.  [...]

What were the major issues, concerns, and debates confronting the earliest Christians?  My book After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, 2015) addresses these issues.  I've explained the book in my two previous posts.  Here is my third, again giving an excerpt from the General Introduction, explaining the rubrics I used in the book to cover the vital topics of Christian Origins, chapter by chapter.  At the end I provide a bibliography for further reading, books that cover the history of the period broadly and competently. ****************************** Christians of all theological persuasions in the second and third centuries realized that having a set of books deemed authoritative or “scriptural” could not, in itself, provide guidance over what to believe or how to behave.   Books needed to be interpreted in order to be understood, and to be understood correctly.  And the early centuries of the church witnessed numerous debates over just how books were to be read and used.  Among the debates was the question of whether a [...]

What were the key issues, controversies, developments, and concerns of the Christian communities of the first three centuries?   These are the topics considered in my book After the New Testament:  A Reader in Early Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, 2015). In the previous post I explained that the book is a collection of most of the most important writings from the second and third centuries -- the period right after the books of the New Testament were themselves written.  Here I talk about the various themes that I used to organize my collection, themes that I judged to be the most significant for anyone trying to understand Christianity in earliest times.  This will take two posts. ****************************** By way of introduction to this collection of ancient Christian writings, I should say a word about the nature of the rubrics I'll be using and the logic of their sequencing.  This need not entail a lengthy discussion: each chapter begins with a sketch of the important historical aspects of the topic, and each individual [...]

What happened in early Christianity just *after* the period of the New Testament?  It's an unknown period for most people, but of vital importance for anyone interested in the Christian religion.  For the next three posts I'll explain by discussing my book devoted to the topic, After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, 2015) In some ways, I think After the New Testament is the most *useful* book I've ever done.  It is an anthology of important ancient Christian texts in readable English translations, each with introductions that explain what they are about and why they matter.  Some of these are texts you may have heard of.  Some, I bet not!  But they are all important and intriguing. In these posts I will explain my book by excerpting the General Introduction, which introduces readers to the fascinating world of Christian Origins and shows it's importance and the problems its study poses for scholars. ****************************** General Introduction (Part 1) Over the past century and a half, archaeological [...]