Judaism and Christianity in First-Century Rome

by Karl P. Donfried (Editor), Peter Richardson (Editor)

Rome, as the center of the first-century world, was home to numerous ethnic groups, among which were both Jews and Christians. The dealings of the Roman government with these two groups, and their dealings with each other, are the focus of this engaging book.

Genres: History, Theology

344 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

Reviews

[Bridget Jeffries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for this book overall as it contains a number of incredibly useful and informative essays, especially the ones by Brändle & Stegemann, Walters, and Lane. Caragounis's essay was awful though, full of assumptions, assertions, and outdated sources (even by 1998 standards).

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of papers from a seminar by SNTS (Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas), all under the headline of Jews and Christians in first century Rome (A.D. of course). These in turn are split into three groups: archaeology and epigraphy, social studies, and finally "Developmental studies" (i.e. religious changes in these groups at this place during this time).

Admittedly it is the kind of book you read if this is something that interests you. If it does you will like this book, with its long, well-argued and well-researched texts (even if they don't always agree, but these are subjects where we do not always have all the answers and we have to accept that - and that can lead to this kind of result). If this subject does not interest you the book will be a bore and you'd better stay away from it (this is not meant as an introduction to this subject and would function very poorly if used as such).

I really liked it, it was interesting, well written and well edited, and I learnt quite a lot!