The Cambridge Companion to the Bible
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Provides in-depth information about the changing historical, social and cultural contexts in which the biblical authors and their original readers lived. James F. DeRoche - Library Journal This updated second edition of the well-received 1997 reference work is beautifully illustrated with maps, tables, informative sidebars, and photographs and will appeal to many readers on that basis alone. Following a thorough introduction with its own bibliographical and biographical essay, various contributing biblical scholars present the text in three parts: "The World of the Hebrew Bible"; "Jewish Responses to Greek and Roman Cultures, 322 B.C.E. to 200 C.E."; and "The Formation of Christian Communities." Each part is followed by a lengthy bibliographical essay that interested readers will find valuable. Stressing the evidence not only of the biblical text itself but also of archaeology, history, language, literary studies, and culture, this is an eminently scholarly work-but it never gets beyond the comprehension level of the nonspecialist reader. It will not please biblical inerrantists and has nothing to say that specifically supports the doctrine of one or another church. However, many other readers, Christian or not, will find it very informative, up-to-date, and useful. Recommended for all public and academic libraries.
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 Jesus movement 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.
