Sharon Betsworth examines the narratives, parables, and teachings of and about children in the gospels and the literature of Early Christianity. Betsworth begins with a discussion of the social-historical context of children and childhood in the first century before discussing the role of children in all four gospels. She shows that for Mark and Matthew, children are integral to understanding each evangelist's perspective on the reign of God and on Jesus' identity in each Gospel. In the Gospel of Luke the childhood of Jesus is shown to be crucial to the broader themes of the Gospel. In the Gospel of John, Betsworth examines the metaphorical use of the word 'children' looking at 'children of light' and of 'darkness'. She then explores stories of Jesus' childhood in the non-canonical Infancy Gospels of James and Thomas, as well as the childhood of his mother, Mary in the latter shedding light upon views of children, discipleship, and the person of Jesus in early christianity and in the ancient world more generally.

Essays that explore early Christian texts and the broader world in which they were written This volume of twelve essays celebrates the contributions of classicist Judith Perkins to the study of early Christianity. Drawing on Perkins's insights related to apocryphal texts, representations of pain and suffering, and the creation of meaning, contributors explore the function of Christian narratives that depict pain and suffering, the motivations of the early Christians who composed these stories, and their continuing value to contemporary people. Contributors also examine how narratives work to create meaning in a religious context. These contributions address these issues from a variety of angles through a wide range of texts. Features: Introductions to and treatments of several largely unknown early Christian texts Essays by ten women and two men influenced or mentored by Judith Perkins Essays on the Deuterocanon, the New Testament, and early Christian relics

Providing a wealth of detail about childhood and family structure, this book explores the hidden lives of children at the origins of Christianity. "Let the Little Children Come to Me" pays careful attention to the impact of gender, class, and slave status on children's lives.

Bart Ehrman--the New York Times bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus and a recognized authority on the early Christian Church--and Zlatko Plese--a foremost authority on Christian Gnosticism--here offer a valuable compilation of over 40 ancient gospel texts and textual fragments that do not appear in the New Testament. This comprehensive collection contains Gospels describing Jesus's infancy, ministry, Passion, and resurrection, and includes the controversial manuscript discoveries of modern times, such as the Gospel of Thomas and the most recent Gospel to be discovered, the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. Each translation begins with a thoughtful examination of important historical, literary, and textual issues in order to place the Gospel in its proper context. This volume is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in early Christianity and the deeper meanings of these apocryphal Gospels.

The Suffering Self is a ground-breaking, interdisciplinary study of the spread of Christianity across the Roman empire. Judith Perkins shows how Christian narrative representation in the early empire worked to create a new kind of human self-understanding - the perception of the self as sufferer. Drawing on feminist and social theory, she addresses the question of why forms of suffering like martyrdom and self-mutilation were so important to early Christians. This study crosses the boundaries between ancient history and the study of early Christianity, seeing Christian representation in the context of the Greco-Roman world. She draws parallels with suffering heroines in Greek novels and in martyr acts and examines representations in medical and philosophical texts. Judith Perkins' controversial study is important reading for all those interested in ancient society, or in the history `f Christianity.

"Silly," "stupid," "irrational," "simple." "Wicked," "hateful," "obstinate," "anti-social." "Extravagant," "perverse." The Roman world rendered harsh judgments upon early Christianity--including branding Christianity "new." Novelty was no Roman religious virtue. Nevertheless, as Larry W. Hurtado shows in Destroyer of the gods, Christianity thrived despite its new and distinctive features and opposition to them. Unlike nearly all other religious groups, Christianity utterly rejected the traditional gods of the Roman world. Christianity also offered a new and different kind of religious identity, one not based on ethnicity. Christianity was distinctively a "bookish" religion, with the production, copying, distribution, and reading of texts as central to its faith, even preferring a distinctive book-form, the codex. Christianity insisted that its adherents behave differently: unlike the simple ritual observances characteristic of the pagan religious environment, embracing Christian faith meant a behavioral transformation, with particular and novel ethical demands for men. Unquestionably, to the Roman world, Christianity was both new and different, and, to a good many, it threatened social and religious conventions of the day. In the rejection of the gods and in the centrality of texts, early Christianity obviously reflected commitments inherited from its Jewish origins. But these particular features were no longer identified with Jewish ethnicity and early Christianity quickly became aggressively trans-ethnic--a novel kind of religious movement. Its ethical teaching, too, bore some resemblance to the philosophers of the day, yet in contrast with these great teachers and their small circles of dedicated students, early Christianity laid its hard demands upon all adherents from the moment of conversion, producing a novel social project. Christianity's novelty was no badge of honor. Called atheists and suspected of political subversion, Christians earned Roman disdain and suspicion in equal amounts. Yet, as Destroyer of the gods demonstrates, in an irony of history the very features of early Christianity that rendered it distinctive and objectionable in Roman eyes have now become so commonplace in Western culture as to go unnoticed. Christianity helped destroy one world and create another.

Comprised of contributions from scholars across the globe, The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative is a state-of-the-art anthology, offering critical treatments of both the Bible's narratives and topics related to the Bible's narrative constructions. The Handbook covers the Bible's narrative literature, from Genesis to Revelation, providing concise overviews of literary-critical scholarship as well as innovative readings of individual narratives informed by a variety of methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks. The volume as a whole combines literary sensitivities with the traditional historical and sociological questions of biblical criticism and puts biblical studies into intentional conversation with other disciplines in the humanities. It reframes biblical literature in a way that highlights its aesthetic characteristics, its ethical and religious appeal, its organic qualities as communal literature, its witness to various forms of social and political negotiation, and its uncanny power to affect readers and hearers across disparate time-frames and global communities.

An important new look at community and identity in early Christianity.

The greatly anticipated third volume of Pope Benedict's already internationally bestselling examination of the life of Jesus Christ and His message for people today. This renowned theologian, biblical scholar and Pastor of over a billion Roman Catholics helps us to rediscover the essence of the Christian Religion.

As a more economical alternative to the standard hardbound edition, this softbound version of Egermeier's Bible Story Book brings you all the same text, artwork and study guides (minus the expanded map section).