New Testament context?

[torcot]

Hello, I need some good books on the culture and context that Jesus and the apostles lived in. Can't really find any with simple google searches. What do you recommend?

 

[St_Worm2]

Try this link: Josephus.org - The Flavius Josephus Home Page

 

[torcot]

Got the works of Josephus, haven't read them yet but I am working on Eusubius Ecclesiastical history.

Edit to add, also need some good books on Church history some that go into depth.

 

[St_Worm2]

Edit to add, also need some good books on Church history some that go into depth.

Click here: HISTORY of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH by Philip Schaff

This is an eight volume set that runs from the 1st Century through the post-Reformation. It is my favorite church history.

--David
p.s. - Schaff, Josephus, and Eusubius are all available in Logos Bible software which would make studying them considerably easier and more efficient. They are only free online, of course.

 

[1watchman]

Torcot, you might write to BTP (www.bibletruthpublishers.com) and pose your question there. They will probably have a suitable book on your interest.

 

[jlmagee]

The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim.
A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ by Emil Schurer.
Philo

Two websites:

earlychristianwritings.com
earlyjewishwritings.com

Philo (probably) and Schurer (possibly) may be available online as well.

I have found these very informative in a number of areas.

 

[Deegie]

Edit to add, also need some good books on Church history some that go into depth.

Torcot, two suggestions for you:

Christianity: The First 3000 Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch
The Story of Christianity (2 vols) by Justo Gonzalez

Gonzalez was one of my seminary texts for Church History. MacCulloch's is a newer book that I haven't read, but is getting good reviews from people I know. As for them going into depth, well...either choice will be over 1,000 pages of reading. I think that qualifies.

 

[jlmagee]

Torcot, two suggestions for you:

Christianity: The First 3000 Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch
The Story of Christianity (2 vols) by Justo Gonzalez

Gonzalez was one of my seminary texts for Church History. MacCulloch's is a newer book that I haven't read, but is getting good reviews from people I know. As for them going into depth, well...either choice will be over 1,000 pages of reading. I think that qualifies.

Read both. Awesome.

 

[pathfinder777]

Hello, I need some good books on the culture and context that Jesus and the apostles lived in. Can't really find any with simple google searches. What do you recommend?

Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Semitic Background of the New Testament, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1997).

Joachim Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1975). A classic.

Luke Timothy Johnson, Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity, Anchor Yale Reference Libary (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).


These are excellent resources..

In Christ

 

[Deegie]

Here's another possibility. Perhaps a little less-known than the ones in the post immediately above, but I liked it.

Wayne A. Meeks, The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003).