Hellenistic commentary to the New Testament1995

The Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament, the product of collaboration between German and American New Testament scholarship, is the most complete collection of Hellenistic texts correlated to the New Testament available in English. Translations of 976 texts (compared with 626 in the German edition) are cited that directly illustrate the religious world into which early Christianity was born.

Many of the texts are extensive enough to give a thorough sampling of how, for instance, miracle stories and birth stories of quasi-divine beings were told in the Hellenistic world, and how revelatory or conversion experiences were expressed in Greco-Roman religions. The texts are arranged according to the canonical order of New Testament books. Thorough cross-references and indexes make it...