Jesus Creed
No passage in the New Testament ever describes the groups it assumes everyone knows. Yet, we beg for those descriptions and so scholars over the years have sketched and re-sketched, and then discarded and reconstructed what can be known about those groups. The most recent, and thoroughly readable — and every church library needs this book and I would say pastors need it and students need to know about it to save them a million errors of caricature — book that sketches these people is by William A. Simmons. The book is called Peoples of the New Testament World: An Illustrated Guide
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So, you ask, what’s in the book?
Illustrations aplenty and discussions of Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Zealots, tax collectors, sinners, people of the land, Samaritans, John the Baptist, Hebrews, Hellenists, Charlatans-Exorcists-magicians, Herodians, Roman rulers, centurions, patrons-clients, Greek philosophers, and slaves and free. And a splendid, colorful introduction to the historical context of the New Testament.
The book will be of eminent use to professors and teachers as a textbook or as a book to whom students can be sent for an initial sketch of the various groups.
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