This is a portrait and analysis of the environment in which the Christian faith first grew, as well as an account of the Church's responses to that environment. It provides the student and reader with a perspective on the world surrounding the Church. It covers not only the world of the advent of Christ and the work of the apostles, but also the much less-studied world in the "gap" between the Old and New Testaments. The text seeks to familiarizes the reader with the cultural, social, political, and religious landscape as it was shaped in the five centuries preceding the appearance of Christ.

The World of the Early Church: A Companion to the New Testament

Patten, Priscilla

Patten, Rebecca

Religion & Spirituality

Edwin Mellen Pr

Before the times

Strawberry Hill Press

"To many students of the New Testament the environment into which the Christian gospel was born is an unknown world. They read it only in the light of their own time and interpret it by their own experience. In reality, its several books were written for a culture that has long since passed out of existence and for modes of thought that are not remembered or understood by the modern world, except for professional scholars. That culture, however, bears a remarkable parallelism to our own in many ways; and while its terminology is very different, its basic philosophical principles still survive. "This volume will clarify many obscure allusions and illuminate a number of difficult texts in the New Testament. It will provide a better knowledge of the Palestinian background of the life of Christ and the church of the first century, as well as aid in understanding the struggle of the church as it confronted the complex social and religious world around it. It should assist any reader as he/she attempts to interpret the nature and problems of the present church in light of its past problems." --from the preface

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