Ancient Texts For New Testament Studies: A Guide To The Background Literature

Evans sets his task as affording nonspecialists access to the “remarkable amount of ancient literature that in various ways is relevant to New Testament interpretation.” To this end he describes the project: “The purpose of this book is to arrange these diverse literatures into a comprehensive and manageable format.” This purpose is realized in several ways: “the various components of these literatures [will] be listed and briefly described”; “specific examples will be offered to illustrate how they contribute to New Testament exegesis”; and brief bibliographies will be included, which are broken down into “texts,” “translations,” “surveys,” and “commentary, critical study.” In the actual exposition of blocks of texts, he generally adds etymologies of the labels of the documents: “apocrypha” comes from “hidden away,” not for the uninitiated; “midrash” from “to search,” and the like. In terms of the blocks of texts considered, they fall into three general categories: (1) Israelite (Old Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha; Dead Sea Scrolls, versions of the Old Testament, Philo and Josephus, Targumim and rabbinic literature); (2) Christian literature (New Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, early church fathers, gnostic writings); and (3) “Other Writings” (Greco-Roman authors, Corpus Hermeticum, Samaritan writings, and papyri-inscriptions-coins-ostraca). [Full Review]