Table of Contents

Illustrations
Introduction

One: A World Full of Gods
(Time travel in pagan Pompeii; the Roman context of Christianity)

Two: Jews and Christians, or, How the Dead Sea Scrolls Were Found and Lost
(Narrative and drama in three scenes about Jews, Christians, history, and us)

Three: The Christian Revolution
(Christian character and evolution: persecutors, martyrs, and bishops)

Four: Jesus and His Twin Brother
(Varieties of early Christianity; the apocryphal New Testament)

Five: Magic, Temple Tales, and Oppressive Power
(The time travelers continue: Egypt, Syria, and Ephesus)

Six: Pagans vs. Christians vs. Jews
(Competing stories in a semi-intellectual discussion of differences)

Seven: Recreating the Cosmos
(Creation in Jewish, Gnostic, and Manichean thought)

Eight: Jesus and the New Testament, or, The Construction of a Sacred Hero
(Jesus in the gospels and after)

Notes
Select Bibliography
Credits
Subject Index
Selective Index of Proper Names

About the Author

Keith Hopkins is a professor of ancient history at King's College, Cambridge, and a fellow of the British Academy.

Reviews

“Evokes the sights and sounds of the ancient world with daring and imagination… An intellectual tour-de-force that challenges us to see the history of Christianity through the eyes of those who actually lived it.”—Los Angeles Times

“A fascinating experiment, to be read carefully, critically, and thoughtfully.”—Library Journal
 
“Substantial information about the pagan context within which Christianity emerged, and Roman attitudes toward the new faith's practitioners. Juxtaposing the campaign against the Manichaeanism associated with Zoroastrianism in Persia, and similar campaigns associated with Christianity in Rome, helps spur readers new to the subject, in particular, to critical reflection on the interrelations of politics and religion, especially those involved in the strange triumph of Hopkins' title—the establishment of Christianity.”—Booklist

Judging by sober historical criteria, Hopkins fails to provide a convincing explanation of why Christianity defeated its rivals among the mystery cults, Gnostics and Hellenized Jews in Roman antiquity. Yet this is nevertheless a magnificent, rollicking failure, one that has readers laughing out loud in one paragraph and feeling dizzy in the next, struck by an insight so powerful that it demands reconsideration of what seemed secure knowledge just moments before. Hopkins is a Cambridge classicist and historian, but here he breaks every rule of historiography (except the need for copious endnotes). He opens with a pair of time travelers poking around ancient Pompeii, remarking on everything from the all-too-public toilets to the astonishingly libidinous artwork. Later, Hopkins has a television crew interviewing a survivor of the Qumran sect that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. Throughout, he includes invented letters from academics offering criticism of the work as it unfolds. In the end, however, the book is less than the sum of its parts. Readers learn much about Roman religiosity and the fluid conceptions of Jesus in the first three Christian centuries, but will arrive at the book's end still lacking an answer to the question with which Hopkins began: Why did this sect prevail? The view from the top is disappointing, but it remains an exhilarating climb. (Aug.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

"Evokes the sights and sounds of the ancient world with daring and imagination... An intellectual tour-de-force that challenges us to see the history of Christianity through the eyes of those who actually lived it."-Los Angeles Times

"A fascinating experiment, to be read carefully, critically, and thoughtfully."-Library Journal

"Substantial information about the pagan context within which Christianity emerged, and Roman attitudes toward the new faith's practitioners. Juxtaposing the campaign against the Manichaeanism associated with Zoroastrianism in Persia, and similar campaigns associated with Christianity in Rome, helps spur readers new to the subject, in particular, to critical reflection on the interrelations of politics and religion, especially those involved in the strange triumph of Hopkins' title-the establishment of Christianity."-Booklist