This volume provides a detailed assessment of the influence of Hellenistic culture upon the New Testament as a literary work. There is no denying the impact of Jewish literature upon the New Testament, but even those Jewish antecedents were themselves often imprinted with Hellenistic characterists. Dormeyer's method is to consider in turn the literary forms of the New Testament, outlining with many examples the parallels between the New Testament and Hellenistic literature. Throughout, Dormeyer is at pains to stress the contours of the special quality of the New Testament literature as the product of a quite small community that nevertheless brought into being a number of authors of exceptional talent.
