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The Historical Jesus in Context is a landmark collection that places the gospel narratives in their full literary, social, and archaeological context. More than twenty-five internationally recognized experts offer new translations and descriptions of a broad range of texts that shed new light on the Jesus of history, including pagan prayers and private inscriptions, miracle tales and martyrdoms, parables and fables, divorce decrees and imperial propaganda. The translated materials--from Christian, Coptic, and Jewish as well as Greek, Roman, and Egyptian texts--extend beyond single phrases to encompass the full context, thus allowing readers to locate Jesus in a broader cultural setting than is usually made available. This book demonstrates that only by knowing the world in which Jesus lived and taught can we fully understand him, his message, and the spread of the Gospel. Gathering in one place material that was previously available only in disparate sources, this formidable book provides innovative insight into matters no less grand than first-century Jewish and Gentile life, the composition of the Gospels, and Jesus himself.
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Copyright © 2006 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1SY Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, Princeton University Press. All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The historical Jesus in context / A.J. Levine, Dale C. Allison, Jr., and John Dominic Crossan, editors. p. cm. —(Princeton readings in religions) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-691-00991-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN-13: 978-0-691-00992-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-691-00991-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN-10: 0-691-00992-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Jesus Christ—Historicity. I. Levine, Amy-Jill, 1956– II. Allison, Dale C. III. Crossan, John Dominic. IV. Series. BT303.2.H4845 2004 232.9'08—dc22 2006012027 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Berkeley Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ pup.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
PRINCETON READINGS IN RELIGIONS ———
Princeton Readings in Religions is a series of anthologies on the religions of the world, representing the significant advances that have been made in the study of religions in the last thirty years. The sourcebooks used by previous generations of students, whether for Judaism and Christianity or for the religions of Asia and the Middle East, placed a heavy emphasis on “canonical works.” Princeton Readings in Religions provides a different configuration of texts in an attempt better to represent the range of religious practices, placing particular emphasis on the ways in which texts have been used in diverse contexts. The volumes in the series therefore include ritual manuals, hagiographical and autobiographical works, popular commentaries, and folktales, as well as some ethnographic material. Many works are drawn from vernacular sources. The readings in the series are new in two senses. First, very few of the works contained in the volumes have ever been made available in an anthology before; in the case of the volumes on Asia, few have even been translated into a Western language. Second, the readings are new in the sense that each volume provides new ways to read and understand the religions of the world, breaking down the sometimes misleading stereotypes inherited from the past in an effort to provide both more expansive and more focused perspectives on the richness and diversity of religious expressions. The series is designed for use by a wide range of readers, with key terms trans