This collection of freshly translated texts leads to a new appreciation of the richness and variety of the religious world within which Christianity emerged as a powerful new force. Bringing together for the first time under a single cover documents from Jewish, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Syrian, and little-known early Christian sources, the material is arranged to bring out as clearly as possible the ways in which early Christian worship of Jesus Christ as Savior and God both echoed contemporary worship of other savior gods and at the same time stood in sharp contrast to such worship.
This revised and enlarged edition contains a new introduction on texts and traditions in late antiquity, a reworked translation of The Gospel of Peter, selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses, plus such documents as Papyrus Egerton 2, Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 840, and The Apocryphon of James. In addition, the table of contents has been expanded to allow easier access to the documents contained herein.
Table of Contents:
Preface to the Revised and Enlarged Edition
Note on the Translations
Introduction
Part 1: The Christian Savior
The Coptic Gospel of Thomas
The Acts of the Holy Apostle Thomas
Jesus after the Resurrection
The Gospel of Philip
The Gospel of Peter
Fragment of an Uncanonical Gospel
A Letter from Pilate to Claudius and The Trail of Pilate in Rome
Jesus' Medical Correspondence with King Abgar
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
The Birth of Jesus
Fragments of an Unknown Gospel
The Gospel of James
The Apocryphon of James
Part 2: Greek, Jewish, and Roman Parallels Illustrating the Milieu of the Gospels
Prefaces
The Sacred History of Asklepios
Twh Prefaces from Arrian
Isocrates
Birth and Youth
The Birth of Plato (1)
The Birth of Plato (2)
The Birth of Alexander the Great
The Birth of Augustus
The Birth and Childhood of Phthagoras
The Birth of Herakles
Teachings
Aesop's Fables
Rabbinic Parables
Sayings of Thales, Aristippos, And Aristotle
Sayings of Alexander and Others
Epictetus
Two Stories from Epictetus
Miracles
Asklepios
Phthagoras
Vespasian
A Syrian Exorist
Chanina ben Dosa
A Jewish Boy Calms the Sea
The Rabbis Reject Miracles
The Murder of Julius Caesar
The Wine Miracle of Dionysos
Sacraments
The Salvation of Lucius
The Messianic Banquet at Qumran
Apocalyptic Predictions
2 Esdras
A Roman "Messianic" Prophecy Virgil
The Footsteps of the Messiah
Martyrdom
Zeno
Eleazar
Rabbi Akiba
Ascensions and Epiphanies
Romulus
The Dream of Scipio
Apotheosis of Antinous
Herakles
Part 3: Greek and Jewish "Gospels"
The Life of Apollonios of Tyana
Poimandres
The Life of Moses
Alexander the False Prophet
Ovid
About the Author :
David L. Dungan is Professor of Religion at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
David R. Cartlidge is Professor of Religion at Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee.
