ISBN13: 9780802822215 Condition: Used - Very Good Notes: 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold! 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.
This is a well written, well organized, comprehensive, and highly readable book that explains the political environment of the 1st century, 2nd Temple era, society and culture, and the various religious realities of the day as well as what existed politically and religiously leading up to 1st century Judean life.I bought the book for a class and while it isn't necessary to read it straight through, it's so well written thst you may do just that. I will continue to ..
