Documents for the Study of the Gospels: Revised and Enlarged Edition

by David R. Cartlidge and David L. Dungan

Book Overview

This collection of freshly translated texts leads to a new appreciation of the richness and variety of the religious world within which Christianity emerged as a powerful new force. Bringing together for the first time under a single cover documents from Jewish, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Syrian, and little-known early Christian sources, the material is arranged to bring out as clearly as possible the ways in which early Christian worship of Jesus Christ...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0800628098
• ISBN13: 9780800628093
• Release Date: February 1994
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating collection of texts; a must-read for people studying the gospels

This book is a collection of texts from time periods and genres similar to the gospels of the new testament. While some of the texts consist of things that "didn't make it into the Bible" so to speak, others are texts of a different sort, more tangentially related (i.e. less related to Christianity). There is not much discussion: this book is pretty much just the texts. Each text has a brief introductory paragraph which is quite useful for understanding its role, but these introductions are very helpful. I think this book would be an excellent read for anyone who is seriously studying the gospels. It is also be interesting to study these texts from a religious perspective. Some, such as the infancy gospel of Thomas, present a picture of Jesus which is provocative and even outrageous, and which many people, such as myself, would have strong disagreements with. However, they're still interesting to read. My favorite text in the collection is the (coptic) gospel of Thomas, which seems almost like a blend of some Buddhist ideas with Christianity. At the very least, this book provides some interesting and provocative reading material to anyone interested in the gospels, for any reason.