Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries

Editors: Oskar Skarsaune & Reidar Hvalvik

ISBN: 1565637631 ISBN-13: 9781565637634 930 pages

Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers, Incorporated July 2007

John’s Comments

Following his book In The Shadow of the Temple Oskar Skarsaune has teamed up with Reidar Hvalvik to collate an impressive collection of scholarly articles from some of the most respected scholars writing on the subject of historic Jewish involvement in the church.

Jewish Believers in Jesus:The Early Centuries deals with the first five centuries of Church history with particular reference to the way Jewish believers identified themselves and expressed their faith.

Jewish authorship of important extra-biblical texts such as the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament Apocrypha, and some of the patristic material is examined and analysed and compared to rabbinic and archaeological evidence to give a clearer understanding of how Jewish believers in jesus expressed their Jewish identity together with their faith in the Messiah. The nature of the debate, and at times the lack thereof, between the Christian and jewish communities gives the modern reader an insight into some of the complexities faced by Jewish followers of Jesus who retained their Jewish identity.

Contributors

Alexander, Philip S. DPhil (Oxford); Professor of Post-Biblical Jewish Literature in the Department of Religions and Theology at the University of Manchester, England. From 1992 to 1995 he was President of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

Bauckham, Richard. PhD (Cambridge); F.B.A.; Professor of New Testament Studies and Bishop Wardlaw Professor at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.

Carleton Paget, James. PhD (Cambridge); Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies and Fellow of Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, England.

Ekenberg, Anders. DrTheol (Uppsala); Lecturer in the Department of theology at Uppsala University, Sweden. Elgvin, Torleif. PhD (Jerusalem) Member of the international team responsible for publishing the Dead Sea Scrolls since 1992. Since 2004 he has been an Associate Professor in Biblical Studies at the Evangelical Lutheran University College, Oslo, Norway.

Evans, Craig A. PhD (Claremont); Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity College, Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Hagner, Donald A.. PhD (University of Manchester); George Eldon Ladd Professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.

Hällström, Gunnar af. DrTheol (Helsinki); Associate Professor in Patristic Studies at Åbo Akademi University and Professor of Systematic Theology and Patristic Studies at the University of Joensuu, Finland.

Hidal, Sten. DrTheol (Lund); Professor of Biblical Studies/Old Testament at the Faculty of Theology, Lund University, Sweden.

Hirschberg, Peter. DrTheol (Tübingen); Chaplain and Lecturer in Biblical Theology at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Hvalvik, Reidar. DrTheol (Oslo); Professor of New Testament Studies at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo, Norway.

Kinzig, Wolfram. DrTheol (Heidelberg); Professor of Church History at the University of Bonn, Germany.

Lahey, Lawrence. PhD (Cambridge); Dissertation: “The Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila: Critical Greek Text and English Translation of the Short Recension with an Introduction” (2001). Visiting Professor of Early Christianity in the Department of Classical Studies at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Skarsaune, Oskar. DrTheol (Oslo); Professor of Church History at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo, Norway.

Stanton, Graham. PhD (Cambridge); Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Fitzwilliam College.

Strange, James F. PhD (Drew University); Professor of Religious Studies and Director of Graduate Studies at the College of Art and Sciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida.