Reviews for Between Jesus and Paul: Studies in the Earliest History of Christianity

The average rating for Between Jesus and Paul: Studies in the Earliest History of Christianity based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-09-23 00:00:00 Justin Henderson This volume consists of six related essays on the period between 30 and 50 AD, between the crucifixion and the first letter of Paul. Like me, you might find some of them more interesting than others. At the start, I didn't know if I was going to continue this or give up, because of the untranslated Greek and Latin words and short phrases. Fortunately, that tapered off fairly quickly and only rarely returned. As might be expected, our source for this time period is The Acts of the Apostles. Hengel takes a middle-of-the-road approach between fundamentalists and sceptics. The texts are written with the assumption that Christianity is true, but that isn't essential to his historical arguments and can be ignored by the careful reader. Or, the reader can take pleasure in a history text that doesn't for once assume Christianity to be false. The choice is up to you. I learned a few things here. Not as much as I hoped. I think perhaps you should look for something aimed more at the general reader. Unless you're a specialist, of course, in which case you should look for something more recent.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-11-19 00:00:00 Elizabeth Schafer Very scholarly, and heavy on the reader’s ability to read Ancient Greek, but this piece was very helpful in my research on the period.