Includes bibliographical references and index.

Greco-Roman culture in the history of the New Testament interpretation: an introductory essay / Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts -- Greco-Roman social contexts for Christian origins -- Manuscripts, scribes, and book production within early Christianity / Michael J. Kruger -- What do we know and how do we know it? Reconstructing early Christianity from its manuscripts / Stanley E. Porter -- Recent efforts to reconstruct early Christianity on the basis of its papyrological evidence / Stanley E. Porter -- Jesus and parallel Jewish and Greco-Roman figures / Craig S. Keener -- The exorcisms and healings of Jesus within classical culture / Tony Costa -- Cash and release: Atonement and release from oppression in the Imperial context of Luke's Gospel / Matthew Forrest Lowe -- Luke and Juvenal at the crossroads: Space, movement, and morality in the Roman Empire / Osman Umurhan and Todd Penner -- Jesus, the beloved disciple, and Greco-Roman friendship conventions / Ronald F. Hock -- The imitation of the "Great Man" in antiquity: Paul's inversion of a cultural icon / James R. Harrison -- Ephesians: Paul's political theology in Greco-Roman political context / Fredrick J. Long -- Exiles, islands, and the identity and perspective of John in Revelation / Brian Mark Rapske -- Greco-Roman literary contexts for Christian origins -- Source citation in Greek historiography and in Luke( -Acts) / Andrew W. Pitts -- On sources and speeches: Methodological discussions in ancient prose works and Luke-Acts / Sean A. Adams -- Luke as a Hellenistic Historian / Paul L. Maier -- The genre of the Fourth Gospel and Greco-Roman literary conventions / Andreas J. Köstenberger -- Classical Greek poetry and the Acts of the Apostles: imitations of Euripides' Bacchae / Dennis R. MacDonald -- Pauline prescripts and Greco-Roman Epistolary conventions / E. Randolph Richards -- Letter openings in Paul and Plato / James Starr -- Progymnasmatic love / R. Dean Anderson -- "This is a great metaphor!" Reciprocity in the Ephesians household code / Cynthia Long Westfall -- Turning Kepavn on its head: the rhetoric of reversal in Ephesians 5:21-23 / Michelle Lee-Barnewell -- Frank speech at work in Hebrews / Benjamin Fiore -- How Greek was the author of "Hebrews"? A study of the author's location in regard to Greek / David A. deSilva -- The Didache as a Christian Enchiridion / William Varner -- The classroom in the text: Exegetical practices in Justin and Galen / H. Gregory Snyder.

In Christian Origins and Greco-Roman Culture, Stanley Porter and Andrew Pitts assemble an international team of scholars whose work has focused on reconstructing the social matrix for earliest Christianity through the use of Greco-Roman materials and literary forms.

English.

Print version record, digital images.