New Testament History

The Apocrypha of the Bible examines the history of the books excluded from the Bible, the characters and events told by the books, and the discoveries that have influenced Biblical studies in the last few centuries.

In The Misunderstood Jew, scholar Amy-Jill Levine helps Christians and Jews understand the "Jewishness" of Jesus so that their appreciation of him deepens and a greater interfaith dialogue can take place. Levine's humor and informed truth - telling provokes honest conversation and debate about how Christians and Jews should understand Jesus, the New Testament, and each other.

James was a vegetarian, wore only linen clothing, bathed daily at dawn in cold water, and was a life-long Nazirite. In this profound and provocative work of scholarly detection, eminent biblical scholar Robert Eisenman introduces a startling theory about the identity of James - the brother of Jesus - who was almost entirely marginalized in the New Testament.

Before the gospels were written, there were proto-gospels, notes, lists, and collections used to construct the gospels we have today. Some gospels were used and built upon to form other, expanded gospels. The “Q” Document was used as a memory tool and literary scaffolding by Matthew and Luke in the writing of their gospels. Although many scholars believe Mark had access to the oldest parts of Q, others believe he did not. Since Mark predates Matthew and Luke, they believe Mark was used as a template for Matthew and Luke.

Leading Bible scholar John Dominic Crossan, the author of the pioneering work The Historical Jesus, provides new insight into the Christian culture wars which began in the New Testament and persist strongly today. For decades, Americans have been divided on how Christians should relate to government and lawmakers, a dispute that has impacted every area of society and grown more rancorous over the past forty years. But as Crossan makes clear, this debate isn’t new; it can be found in the New Testament itself, most notably in the tensions between Luke-Acts and Revelations.

Bridging the end of the Old Testament period and the beginning of the New Testament period, this book surveys the history and theological developments of four significant eras in Israel's post-exilic history: the Late Persian Era (465-331 BC), the Hellenistic Era (332-167 BC), the Hasmonean Era (167-63 BC), and the Roman Era (63-4 BC). In doing so, it does away with the notion that there were four hundred years of prophetic silence before Jesus.

In this audio recording of Covenant History, listeners will learn about God’s creation, humanity’s rebellion, and God’s plan to renew the world. The books of the Bible are arranged in an order that helps you hear the unfolding drama more easily. Each book of the Bible is accompanied by an introduction that invites you to find the story behind the story, unlocking the context of the book of the Bible so that you experience a more in-depth listening experience. This audio Bible study uses the New International Version (NIV) which is an accurate, readable, and clear translation.

Missionary, theologian, and religious genius, Paul is one of the most powerful human personalities in the history of the Church. E. P. Sanders, an influential Pauline scholar, analyzes the fundamental beliefs and vigorous contradictions in Paul's thought, discovering a philosophy that is less of a monolithic system than the apostle's convictions would seem to suggest.

What does it mean for Jesus to be “deified” in early Christian literature? Litwa’s samples take us beyond the realm of abstract theology to dwell in the second- and third-century imagination of what it meant to be a god and shows that the Christian depiction of Christ was quite at home there.

In the fifth and final installment of his best-selling Jesus series, David Limbaugh digs into the New Testament epistles with passion and imagination, showing that the testimony of Jesus’ earliest followers provides irrefutable proof of his resurrection.

Modern readers of the New Testament often notice its varying ideas about women. Some passages encouraged women to be submissive and remain silent. Yet in others, women characters owned property, headed households, or spoke with approval. Women in the New Testament World helps listeners understand this conflicting evidence. It argues that social norms of the time encouraged traditional feminine virtues. However, as Susan Hylen argues, women in the culture enacted these virtues in a variety of ways, including active leadership in households, associations, and cities.

This remarkable work paints a comprehensive and colorful picture of the world that Jesus knew. From detailed, convincing portraits of John the Baptist, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Jesus himself, and other key figures, to the Jewish and Hellenistic leaders often ignored in scripture, Who's Who in the Age of Jesus is a critical, in-depth look at one of the most tumultuous eras in human history.

The New Testament Apocrypha refers to texts written by early Christians that were not included in the Bible used by the main branches of Christianity today. These texts vary in subject matter, with some being accounts of Jesus, others being about the nature of God, and still others being accounts and teachings of Jesus' apostles. What makes them fascinating is not just the history behind why they are considered non-canonical, but what they tell us about the early Church and early Christianity. Moreover, they offer insight into what sources were used to write them, and whether they shared the same sources as the texts that comprise the Bible today. Given their historical and religious importance, there is still a fierce debate over the authenticity of many of these texts.

The Gospel According to Judas, by Benjamin Iscariot, sheds new light on the mystery of Judas (including his motives for the betrayal and what happened to him after the crucifixion) by retelling the story of Jesus through the eyes of Judas, using the canonical texts as its basic point of reference. Ostensibly written by Judas' son, Benjamin, and following the narrative style of the Gospels, this re-creation is provocative, compelling, and controversial.

Some questions about the New Testament canon are far from settled, either in the academy or the church—to say nothing of misconceptions and confusion. This is a crucial topic, given the importance of the canon's formation for our understanding of early Christianity and the nature of the Christian faith itself. In Creating the Canon, Benjamin P. Laird explores misunderstood, disputed, and overlooked matters tied to the composition, collection, and authority of the New Testament canon.

Luke opens The Book of Acts with this: “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.” (Acts 1:1-2) Luke’s Gospel documents all that Jesus began to do and teach in his physical body from his birth through his resurrection. His second account, the Book of Acts, tells what Jesus continued to do and teach through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in his new, mystical body, the Church.

This honest book will help you discover a different Jesus from the flannelgraph Sunday school figure, the sweetly smiling Victorian Savior, and all the cultural clichés that have tamed Jesus and kept him in comfortable religious boxes. Philip Yancey cuts through existing views and preconceptions of Jesus - citing opinions from church history, modern history, and popular culture; discussing how different people and cultures view Jesus; dissecting popular quotes about Jesus; and much more - and he offers a more accurate perspective by pointing us back to the Bible.

Between 50 and 90 CE, the various writings that comprise the New Testament were written, including the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of Paul, and other letters to more general communities of the early Church. But what is recognized as the 26 books of the New Testament today, in literally hundreds of English translations, actually took several more centuries to be determined as "canonical" by the Church.

圣经是一本上帝神跨越约一千六百年通过感动四十多个作者而编写的六十六本书的合集这些作者中有先知国王祭司贵族渔夫农民教育水平不一尽管这些人互相不认识但是他们写的这些书从头到尾前后呼应天衣无缝圣经里有八百多个预言到现在为止只剩下不到二十个还没有得到应验只是因为时候未到

Dan Brown's International best-seller The DaVinci Code has raised many questions in the minds of readers. The DaVinci Code, in blurring the lines between fact and fiction, popularizes the speculations and contentions of numerous more serious books that are also attracting wide attention. How should we respond to such claims that we now have documents that reveal secrets about Jesus, secrets long suppressed by the church and other religious institutions?