This compendium of the texts and documents that shaped the history of the New Testament has been updated to include the discovery of recent decades such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and Gnostic texts from Nag Hammadi. It includes everything form the work of towering historical figures such as Aristotle, the Caesars, and Josephus to the letters and legal documents of everyday people. Jewish, Gnostic, and Pagan religious literature complete this vivid picture of the Mediterranean world at the time of the first Christians. This resource has been compiled by one of this century's premier New Testament scholars, and gives the reader direct access to the wider context in which Jesus preached, Paul taught, and the New Testament was written.
C. K. Barrett is Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham, England. He has established himself it the front rank of contemporary New Testament scholars by such works as The Holy Spirit in the Gospel Tradition, Commentary on St. John, and The New Testament Background.
