Synopses & Reviews
The Cambridge Companion to the Bible, Second Edition focuses on the ever-changing social and cultural contexts in which the biblical authors and their original readers lived. The authors of the first edition were chosen for their internationally recognized expertise in their respective fields: the history and literature of Israel; postbiblical Judaism; biblical archaeology; and the origins and early literature of Christianity. In this second edition, all of their chapters have been updated and thoroughly revised, with a view towards better investigating the social histories embedded in the biblical texts and incorporating the most recent archaeological discoveries from the Ancient Near East and Hellenistic worlds.
Synopsis
'Provides in-depth information about the changing historical, social and cultural contexts in which the biblical authors and their original readers lived.'
Table of Contents
'The concept of God\'s people; Bibliographic essay; Part I. The Old Testament World: 1. The world of the ancestors; 2. The world of Israel\'s \'historians\'; 3. The world of Israel\'s prophets; 4. The world of Israel\'s worship; 5. The world of Israel\'s sages and poets; 6. The world of apocalyptic; Bibliographical essay; Part II. Jewish Responses to Greco-Roman Culture: 1. Preservation and adaptation: the encounter with Hellenism; 2. Antiochus IV and the Maccabean Crisis; 3. Roman invasion and Jewish response; 4. Herod the Great; 5. Herod\'s heirs; 6. Roman rule in the first century C.E.; 7. Mid-first-century crises; 8. The Jewish world after the fall of Jerusalem; Bibliographical essay; Part III. The Formation of the Christian Community: 1. Jesus and the covenant; 2. Paul: the Jesusmovement in the Roman world; 3. Christianity responds to formative Judaism; 4. Christianity responds to Roman culture and imperial policy; 5. Diversity in the church; 6. Attempts to unify faith and practice; Bibliographical essay.\n
'