Jewish Context of the New Testament Story

Jewish Context of the New Testament Story December 20, 2011

This coming semester I’m teaching one of my favorite courses, Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament. In preparation I’ve already begun reading up again on things ancient Jewish. The books on the Second Temple period that I’m having students read as background are two brief introductions:

  • Lester Grabbe, An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism (T & T Clark, 2010) and
  • Shaye J.D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (2nd ed,WJK, 2006)

In the forward to Cohen’s first addition, Wayne Meeks, the editor of the series in which the first edition appeared, writes about the relationship between ancient Judaism and Christianity what for me was and continues to be a revolutionary and most essential assumption of the interpretation of the New Testament and early Christianity:

What may not be so self-evident is that this book, unlike many in similar series in the past, does not treat the history of Judaism as merely ancillary or preparatory to the history of Christianity. The history of Christianity’s beginnings is part of the history of Judaism in antiquity, and both are part of the history of Greco-Roman culture. (ix).


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