by Everett Ferguson
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Product Description
Having long served as a standard introduction to the world of the early church, Everett Ferguson's "Backgrounds of Early Christianity" has been expanded and updated in this third edition. The book explores and unpacks the Roman, Greek, and Jewish political, social, religious, and philosophical backgrounds necessary for a good historical understanding of the New Testament and the early church. New to this edition are revisions of Ferguson's original material, updated bibliographies, and fresh discussions of first-century social life, of Gnosticism, and of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Jewish literature.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Background To New Testament Times, 2008-09-14
This work, now in its third edition, remains the best and most comprehensive textbook available about the world in which the New Testament was born. Just about every subject you would want to know about is included, such as writing in the ancient world, apocryphal literature and Hellenist and Roman philosophy in addition to political history. It contains charts, photographs and maps. The bibliographies are excellent and not too long.
Another work, which covers some of the material but is a bit more manageable in length is Jeffers' THE GRECO-ROMAN WORLD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT ERA.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
 good, factual reference work., 2007-05-11
This is a fact filled book that will be a good study tool to learn about the new testament background. Covers many aspects of Greco-Roman culture such as politics, social customs, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs, etc. Also covers Jewish beliefs of the new testament era as well. Sometimes ties in subject matter with the new testament content. A gold mine of information. Well researched by a good scholar, this book just reports the facts. Reads almost like an encylopaedia, and as such it is a good reference book. I give it 4 stars instead of 5 simply because it is a bit of a dry read, but I guess that's the nature of a reference work. For similar, but shorter and easier reads, check out The World That Shaped The New Testament by Calvin Roetzel and also, Exploring The New Testament World by Albert A. Bell.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Concise and intuitive, 2007-01-11
Ferguson does a great job at presenting the information in such a way that the reader is able to understand and still gather a considerable amount of information. I am currently using this book, as well as two atlases, for a Greco-Roman survey class and appreciate the simple, to-the-point aspect of his book. The professor really could have just used this book by itself, instead of using all three.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Aboslutely the best, 2006-11-03
This is THE book on NT backgrounds. Ferguson gives you a broad sweep of nearely everything you need to know when studying hte NT and an extensive bibliography of additional resources for picking up the rest. I read this book early on in my carreer and still refer to it almost weekly. In the more specialized material I now study, his work is the basis that allows me to understand it. In short, if you read nothing else on NT backgrounds, read this. If your going to enter into advanced study of NT backgrounds, read this first. I even reccomend this book to 'lay' churchmembers without any theological training. It is simply the best.
The next best thing to Fergusson is C. K. Barrett, "NT Background: Selected Documents." This is a collection of excerpts from 1st Century primary sources. Still, READ FERGUSON FIRST!
9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Readable, general introduction , 2006-04-13
Very good general introduction to the social, political, and religious background of early Christianity. Covers everything from the coins in use to the condition of slaves. Written in simple, readable English. One of the best features is that every section has a bibliography with books that cover the subjects in greater depth.
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