The Intepretation of the New Testament in Greco-Roman Paganism

by John Granger Cook

In the early centuries of what came to be called the Christian era, that new religion competed not only with Judaism but also with various traditional Greco-Roman religious beliefs and practices. "Pagan" intellectuals read the emerging Christian scriptures and responded with critiques that provoked lengthy and repeated rejoinders from contemporary Christian leaders. In some cases, these criticisms anticipated perspectives that re-emerged many centuries later in modern scholarship. John Granger Cook offers the first detailed description of the exegesis of five of the most important ancient pagan critics of the New Celsus, Porphyry, the anonymous pagan reported by Macarius Magnes, Hierocles, and the emperor Julian.

Genres: Nonfiction

385 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

Reviews

[Paul]

For what it’s trying to do, John Granger Cook’s extensive detailing of pagan criticism of the New Testament in the early days of Christianity probably hits the mark – which is to say, it pain-stakingly reviews the arguments of five works written against Christianity by Celsius, Porphyry, an anonymous pagan who was likely also Porphyry, Hierocles and Julian the Apostate. If you need a resource on what these works say about a particular verse or biblical doctrine, this is your book.

Unfortunately, what Cook apparently was not trying to do was write an easily digestible, cohesive book that could be read straight through. If he were, he would have structured it much differently. As it is, INTGRP is organized first by work and then by topic, which means that where multiple critics make similar arguments against similar verses or doctrines, the reader must slog through the same concepts, sometimes even the exact same phrases, multiple times. Likewise, Cook assumes readers are so familiar with the Bible that he never feels it necessary to first explain or summarize the passage in question before detailing the pagan criticism of it. The result is a book that somehow feels too long while also not providing enough detail to fully grasp the arguments without keeping other sources handy.

I understand Cook is writing an academic work for academic readers. It makes sense that he probably intended this book more as a resource for students studying one of these works. The information is good, and I certainly learned more about the subject than the little I knew going into it. But for general readers, the text is inaccessible, redundant and tedious, and I don’t think it’s necessary to essentially shield good information from the public in that way.