Table of Contents

The concept of God's people; Bibliographic essay; Part I. The Old Testament World: 1. The world of the ancestors; 2. The world of Israel's 'historians'; 3. The world of Israel's prophets; 4. The world of Israel's worship; 5. The world of Israel's sages and poets; 6. The world of apocalyptic; Bibliographical essay; Part II. Jewish Responses to Greco-Roman Culture: 1. Preservation and adaptation: the encounter with Hellenism; 2. Antiochus IV and the Maccabean Crisis; 3. Roman invasion and Jewish response; 4. Herod the Great; 5. Herod's heirs; 6. Roman rule in the first century CE; 7. Mid-first-century crises; 8. The Jewish world after the fall of Jerusalem; Bibliographical essay; Part III. The Formation of the Christian Community: 1. Jesus and the covenant; 2. Paul: the Jesus movement in the Roman world; 3. Christianity responds to formative Judaism; 4. Christianity responds to Roman culture and imperial policy; 5. Diversity in the church; 6. Attempts to unify faith and practice; Bibliographical essay.

Promotional Information

Provides in-depth information about the changing historical, social and cultural contexts in which the biblical authors and their original readers lived.

About the Author

Bruce D. Chilton is Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College. His most recent books include Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography (2000), Redeeming Time: The Wisdom of Ancient Jewish and Christian Festal Calendars (2002), Rabbi Paul: An Intellectual Biography (2004), and Mary Magdalene: A Biography (2005). Howard Clark Kee is William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of Biblical Studies, Emeritus, at Boston University. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the first edition of The Cambridge Companion to the Bible, Beginnings of Christianity: Introduction to the New Testament (2005), Understanding the New Testament (5th ed.), and Jesus in History (3rd ed.). Eric M. Meyers is Professor of Religious Studies at Duke University. He has authored or co-authored nine books, edited many others, and has published widely in the fields of Hebrew Bible, biblical archaeology, and Second Temple Judaism. He also served as editor in chief of the five-volume work, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East (1997). John Rogerson is Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield. He is the author of The Atlas of the Bible (1984), The Study and Use of the Bible, Volume 2 (1988), The Bible: A Cultural Atlas for Young Children (1993), and coauthor of The Old Testament World (1989). Amy-Jill Levine is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University. Her numerous publications address Christian Origins, Jewish-Christian Relations, and Sexuality, Gender, and the Bible. Her current projects include the editing of the fourteen-volume series, The Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Writing.

Reviews

'The Cambridge Companion to the Bible was a remarkable contribution when it was first released in 1997, which only makes the achievements of this thoroughly updated Second Edition all the more impressive. The abundance of stunning new photos from Todd Bolen, the additional sidebars of useful, contextualized information, the new maps in each section, and the revised bibliographies and main text all make the Second Edition an essential book for serious students, clergy, and general readers alike.' Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town 'This resource book offered by Cambridge University Press is a rich, accessible, and reliable reference. It provides state-of-the-art scholarship that connects each of the Biblical books to its socio-historical context. Its offer of 'social history' is broad and deep. Such a perspective is crucial in the current 'battle for the Bible,' and the work here is exceedingly well done. Its publication will immediately make it a primary reference for serious students of the Bible.' Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary An excellent update of a masterful work! The Cambridge Companion to the Bible, Second Edition is packed with indispensable information for understanding the world's best-selling and most influential book. It somehow manages to be both studious and exhilarating, thorough yet remarkably concise. No other Bible companion is as competently informed by modern archaeological research or by historical analysis of the societies for which the biblical writings were produced. The main text, trustworthy and illuminating in its own right, is supplemented by more than 250 sidebars that render the volume ripe for browsing and provide a wealth of information on intriguing topics. As a bonus, the Companion also treats the significant apocryphal works that did not come to be numbered among the 'sacred sixty-six' books of the Christian canon but that are revealing of Jewish and Christian religion nevertheless.' Mark Allan Powell, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, author of Loving Jesus 'A clear, up-to-date and authoritative account of the Bible by the leaders of the field, the new edition of the Cambridge Companion defines the context in which the Bible is read for history, literature, religion and theology, the best path into Scripture now in print.' Jacob Neusner, Bard College, Distinguished Service Professor of the History and Theology of Judaism