keithr@tekecs.UUCP (Keith Rowell) (09/18/86)
Here are a few interesting books about early Christianity that I
have managed to find in the two years I have been researching
this subject. I trust that the Christians among you are at
least acquainted with some of these books -- perhaps having
gone through the same sort of scholarly search that I have
before you decided that Christianity was for you. I am still
studying and haven't made up my mind yet. Some of these books
are pretty far out, some are heavy duty scholarly works. The
bias is toward "non-ark-saver" works, though. I have not read
all the works, but plan to get around to them all in the near
and distant future.
I hope both believers and non-believers will mail me back a list of
their favorite books about the Bible and early Christianity.
I have done my best to annotate the list so that you can better
decide if a book might be worth your while.
Keith Rowell
Allegro, John M. The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross: A Study of
the Nature and Origins of Christianity Within the Fertility
Cults of the Ancient Near East. Bantam, 1971 (1970). A review
by Ralph Patai (of Hebrew Myths fame -- coauthored with Robert
Graves) says Allegro's philological links between Summerian and
ancient Hebrew are poppycock. This shows how a real scholar --
Allegro helped translate the Dead Sea Scrolls -- can still shoot
pretty wide of the mark. This is the craziest, though apparently
serious, interpretation of ancient Christianity that I know of,
but I like it anyway.
Augstein, Rudolf. Jesus Son of Man. Translated by Hugh Young.
Urizen Books, 1977 (1972). Very critical work that grew out of
a series that the "German Time magazine" Der Spiegel did on
Christianity in the 70's.
Bammel, Ernst and C.F.D. Moule (Editors). Jesus and the
Politics of His Day. Cambridge University Press, 1984.
An anthology of mainstream Bible scholars discussing the recent
work done by S.G.F. Brandon and others on the connection Jesus may
have had with the Zealot party. The Zealots were an extremist
offshoot of the Pharisees who advocated armed overthrow of the
Roman occupation.
Barnstone, Willis (ed.) The Other Bible. Harper and Row, 1984.
Most Christians and others are not aware of the enormous variety
of Bible-like writings (acts, gospels, apocalypes, etc.) that
existed in the ancient world. This work is a popular
compilation of numerous ancient writings. If you get serious
about this, you will want to seek out the scholarly versions of
this kind of book.
Barrett, C.K. (ed.) The New Testament Background: Selected
Documents. Harper and Row, 1961 (1956). Here is a more
scholarly version of Barnstone's book, but Barnstone gives more
writings that are directly comparable to NT writings. This book
is used in college courses teaching an introductory course on
the Bible.
Benko, Stephen. Pagan Rome and the Early Christians. Indiana
University Press, 1984. A scholar's look at some of those
unsavory things that the early pagan "press" published about the
early Christians -- cannibalism and all that. There is a nice
rundown on Galen and Celsus, two early pagan critics of
Christianity.
Beskow, Per. Strange Tales about Jesus: A Survey of Unfamiliar
Gospels. Fortress Press, 1983. Nice little book -- one of a
kind as far as I know -- that discusses some of those strange
writings about JC, like -- was he Saint Issa, what is the Archko
Volume, what are the legends from late gospel stories of JC, etc?
Brandon, S.G.F. Jesus and the Zealots: A Study of the Political
Factor in Primitive Christianity. Scribner's, 1967. Not the
first, but probably the most thorough presentation of the
evidence that JC was primarily a Zealot revolutionary figure of
his time, similar to Judas the Galilean and Theudas (sp?) the
Egyptian, and others, mentioned in the Jewish/Roman historian
Josephus's works. See Carmichael's, Maccoby's, and Schonfield's
books for more popular accounts of the Jesus-as-revolutionary
theme.
Brandon, S.G.F. The Trial of Jesus of Nazareth. Stein and Day,
1968. Try this scholar's book for a hard-headed look at the evidence.
Bruce, F.F. Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New
Testament. Eerdmans, 1974. Good book by an ark-saver that
surveys what the ancients knew about JC. Bruce concludes that we
have some reliable outside reports, but a non-ark-saver would
conclude otherwise on many reports he thinks are reliable. The
facts are, as I see it, that we know precious little about JC
outside the NT. And, since the earliest Christians were actively
selling an alternative religious system and since virtually all
copies of pagan writings that we have were copied by Christians,
I think it prudent to be very skeptical of pagan affirmations
of Christian realities.
Campbell, Joseph. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology.
Penguin Books, 1976 (1964). How can we hope to understand the
Old and New Testaments until we put them in context? (Hey, I'll
answer that one. We can't.) We need to be familiar with what
scholars of comparative religions have to say about our sacred
cows. Campbell's and Eliade's books are excellent for this.
Carmichael, Joel. The Death of Jesus. Macmillan, 1962. The
first modern popular account of the Jesus-as-revolutionary theme.
This book is easy to read. Carmichael says the trial is the key
to unraveling the mystery of Jesus.
Cartlidge, David R. and David L. Dungan. Documents for the
Study of the Gospels. Fortress Press, 1980. Here is another
anthology of writings contemporary with the NT writings. This
kind of book helps dispel the fiction that many Christians like
to promote that the NT writings are unique or at least
different. Unfortunately, you have to do a little digging in
libraries and bookstores to turn up these books. The better
Bible colleges will expose their students to this kind of
material.
Davies, Stevan L. The Gospel of Thomas and Christian Wisdom.
Seabury Press, 1983. This author argues that the Gospel of
Thomas is not primarily Gnostic even though it was found in the
Egyptian desert along with the many Gnostic manuscripts in the
Nag Hammadi find. This "gospel" is actually a list of 114 of the
"secret" sayings of Jesus. Some of the sayings are identical to
NT sayings and many are astonishingly similar, but some are
completely new. A Christian reading this "gospel" will find it
eerily familiar. Davies argues that this should be dated
earlier than the NT gospels.
Doresse, Jean. The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics:
An Introduction to the Gnostic Coptic Manuscripts Discovered at
Chenoboskion. Viking Press, 1960. These are the Nag Hammadi
manuscripts discovered in Egypt just before the first of the
Dead Sea Scrolls. These manuscripts may turn out to be more
important for a correct interpretation of early Christianity
than the Dead Sea Scrolls. (See Davies above.) This book is a
good introduction to gnostic ideas, too. It has a table of
references from the Gospel of Thomas to the canonical gospels.
(See Robinson below for translations of the manuscripts
themselves.)
Eliade, Mircea. A History of Religious Ideas: From Gautama
Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity. University of Chicago
Press, 1982. This is volume two of a three volume work that you
need to read to give you some perspective on Christianity.
Christians generally try to give the impression that
Christianity is the "different" religion. But the more scholars
study it, the more they find similarities with other religious
traditions. This is a very good place to start if you want to
understand Christianity in its rightful context.
Finegan, Jack. Encountering New Testament Manuscripts: A
Working Introduction to Textual Criticism. Eerdmans, 1974. Do
you know what a palimpsest is? A collophon? Etc? If
not, you are ignorant of a very important aspect of NT study.
How can you say you know much about the NT if you don't come to
grips with ink, papyrus, codices, etc? (I'll answer that. You
can't.) I feel you must be acquainted with at least what
Finegan gives you in this book to begin to understand how
the NT came about. All theology, doctrine, etc., must be
consistent with textual analysis on this level. By a careful
analysis of the NT at this level, scholars have established that
some editing occurred in the manuscripts at an early period. This
has implications that cannot be ignored by theology and the
Christian lay believer.
Grant, Michael. Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels.
Scribner's, 1977. This famous historian of ancient Rome has
written a good introduction to Jesus and his times. One of
Grant's rules for historically accurate information is: "...
anything really surprising in the Gospels is quite likely to be
authentic - anything, that is to say, which clashes with what we
should *expect* to find in something written after the time of
Jesus." Grant can pull this off because of his enormous
erudition about the ancient world.
Grant, Michael. The Jews in the Roman World. Dorset, 1973.
This book is quite dry, but gives a lot of background necessary
for a good understanding of the NT. Those Christians among you
who depend on the summary of the ancient world milieu you find
in those introductions to the NT you studied in Bible college
may be a little surprised if you take the time to round out your
understanding with a little "non-ark-saver" historical material.
The two views don't always agree.
Grant, Robert M. A Historical Introduction to the Net
Testament. Harper and Row, 1963. This outstanding scholar's
book has three main parts: a discussion of literary, historical,
and other forms, of NT criticism, a survey of the NT writings
themselves, and a section on the history and theology of the
times. You can depend on Grant not to pull any intellectual
punches, but at the same time he is not overly critical.
This is a balanced presentation for people who want the
historical and scholarly "truth" about the NT -- this is always
provisional, remember, for us rationalists.
Hadas, Moses and Morton Smith. Heroes and Gods: Spiritual
Biographies in Antiquity. Harper and Row, 1965. This book
shows how heroes get "born". Pythagoras, Moses, Jesus, and
Apollonius of Tyana are all treated. Hadas and Smith give us
yet another book that provides that all-important context by
which our judgment can mature. Beware of studying anything out
of context. I asked an intelligent, educated Christian friend
of mine some questions about the early Christian context, *but
he was almost wholly ignorant of it*! And he gives 10% of his
gross income to his chosen church! This shows the power ideas
have over us. The sadness, as always, is ideas that are born of
ignorance.
Johnson, Paul. A History of Christianity. Atheneum, 1979.
This is the best one-volume history of the subject that I know
of. If you don't have the time or inclination to read anything
else about Christianity, read this book. From my non-believer
point of view, Johnson alternately gives charitable and "right
on" opinions about the twists and turns of Christianity down
through the ages up to the present. The first two chapters
cover the first three centuries. Before this book I didn't
understand how orthodox Christianity became dominant. There are
two reasons: 1) It very early built up a hierarchy of Christ
interpreters -- the deacons, bishops, etc., and 2) With the
emperor Constantine, it became sanctioned by the Roman Empire.
That is, it institutionalized itself and eventually attached
itself to (and replaced) the biggest institution of the time,
the Roman Empire. (Thus, we can speculate that Mormonism will
be around in 100 to 200 years from now, but the evangelical
churches of today will have come and gone.)
Jones, Vendyl M. Will the Real Jesus Please Stand? Seven Riddles
of Israel and Messiah. Tyler, Texas: Institute of
Judaic-Christian Research, 1983. This is a crazy Christian (?)
work that looks like it might have some important things to add
to the JC puzzle. Can anybody tell us?
Joyce, Donovan. The Jesus Scroll. New American Library, 1972.
This book looks like it belongs on the periphery of serious NT
work. The thesis is that during the excavation of Masada a
scroll was found written by somebody named Jesus of
Gennesareth(sp?). Trouble is the scroll was smuggled out of the
Masada excavation and into America and lost. The scroll author
is supposed to be Jesus Christ and shows that he died at Masada,
had kids, etc. I think I'll write to Joyce sometime and see
what he has to say about all this now. Anyone know anything
about this book? (The famous *Holy Blood, Holy Grail* book has
the Jesus-didn't-die theme too, I believe.)
Larson, Martin A. The Religion of the Occident, or The Origin
and Development of the Essene-Christian Faith. Philosophical
Library, 1959. This lay scholar does a good job of acquainting
the reader with the many facets of the JC puzzle. Larson thinks
that there is a very close tie between the Essenes (that is,
people of the Dead Sea Scrolls) and Jesus. Reading through this
book without some background may be dangerous. I'll give myself
another year or so of background reading and try it again.
Lucas, Jerry and Del Washburn. Theomatics. Stein and Day,
1974(?). If Jerry Lucas and Del Washburn are right in their
book, "theomatics" is a fundamental feature of NT (and probably
other ancient) writings. They say that the NT is full of
gematria ("theomatics") in a profound way. (The authors are apparently
ignorant of the term "gematria" since this is what they are
describing throughout the book and they never use the term.
These dang fundamentalist Christians are at it again -- charging
full steam ahead while thoroughly steeped in ignorance.)
Gematria is basically numerology. Assign numbers to letters and
then add up the letters in the phrases. Gematria only works in
the original Greek, not in translation, of course. It turns out
Jesus' basic number is 888. There is a chapter on good ol' 666
and one on the 153 fishes too. This is crazy stuff that just
might be right!
McCown, Chester Charlton. The Search for the Real Jesus: A
Century of Historical Study. Scribner's, 1940. A scholar's
look at the work of Reimarus, Schleiermacher, Wrede, etc., up to
the time of publication. This is just another book that gives some
perspective on the historical study of the NT. Schweitzer's
cited below is an older version of this.
Mead, G.R.S. Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Gnostics -- A
Contribution to the Study of the Origins of Christianity.
University Books, (1960). Reprint of earlier edition. An
eccentric style and refreshing perspective make this a different
study of early Christianity.
Mead, G.R.S. Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.? An Enquiry into the Talmud
Jesus Stories, the Toldoth Jeschu, and Some Curious Statements
of Epiphanius -- Being a Contribution to the Study of Christian
Origins. University Books, 1968. (This is a reprint from
around 1900.) This kind of information is hard to find. Does
anyone know of later investigations about Jesus and the ancient
Jewish writings? One would think that if Jesus were such an
outstanding figure of the time as Christians make him out to be
that we would find more contemporary Jewish writings of the time
about him. But we don't. However, let us not forget the two
absolutely devastating Roman wars against the Jews in A.D. 66-70
and circa A.D. 135. This probably wreaked havoc on whatever
writings there may have been.
Perrin, Norman and Dennis C. Duling. The New Testament: An
Introduction -- Proclamation and Parenesis, Myth and History.
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982. Second edition. This is THE
most scholarly introduction to the NT. If you want to know what
the most sophisticated, learned opinions about Jesus and the NT
are, this is the place to start. A very good bibliography will
take you the rest of the way, unless you turn into a scholar
yourself!
Robinson, James M. (ed.) The Nag Hammadi Library in English.
Harper and Row, 1978. Some pretty far out writings are
translated here for us. Most of the manuscripts postdate
canonical NT writings except perhaps for the Gospel of Thomas.
(See Davies above.) Magical concepts and gnostic philosophy are
found in most of these writings. Enter a world of long ago and
far away...
Rudolph, Kurt. Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism.
Translation edited by Robert McLachlan Wilson. Harper and Row,
1983 (1977). The best work on gnosticism I have come across.
Sandmel, Samuel. Judaism and Christian Beginnings. Oxford
University Press, 1978. This work is by a mainstream Jewish
scholar and is yet another good book on that all important
background information needed to interpret the NT writings.
Schonfield, Hugh. The Essene Odyssey: The Mystery of the True
Teacher and the Essene Impact on the Shaping of Human Destiny.
Element Books, 1984. Schonfield's further musings on the
relationship of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls
people, probably the Essenes of Josephus fame.
Schonfield, Hugh. The Original New Testament. Harper and Row,
1985. Though the book doesn't say, this is a revision of his
original translation of the NT made in the 50s or 60s and
published as the Authentic New Testament. To me it is quite
refreshing to read the story of Jesus and Paul's letters couched
not in the usual Biblical style of English, but in new words and
turns of phrase.
Schonfield, Hugh. The Passover Plot: New Light on the History
of Jesus. Bernard Geis Associates, 1965. A best seller a while
back. Many older, literate Christians have even read this book!
But it is not satisfying to them because Jesus is not
acknowledged to be the Son of God -- the resurrection is not
interpreted as a supernatural event.
Schonfield, Hugh. Those Incredible Christians: A New Look at
the Early Church. Element Books, 1985 (1968). This is
Schonfield's version of the events after the death of Jesus.
How the early church came to be, what Paul's role in it was, etc.
Schweitzer, Albert. The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A
Critical Study of Its Progess from Reimarus to Wrede.
Macmillan, 1961 (1910). Long and boring, but it summarizes the
work of mainly German NT scholarship of the 19th century. The
gospels were thought to be mainly history until about 1800 when
the genius of scholarship turned to the NT writings. You might
think that study of the NT would be kind of cut and dried, but it's
not at all. Intriguing puzzles abound at every turn.
Smith, Homer W. Man and His Gods. Little, Brown, 1952. This
critical book by a Columbia University professor sets
Christianity in context. But for my tastes his scholarly brush
is a bit to wide to delineate the intricacies of early
Christianity. Ultimately unsatisfying for me because he fails
to shore up opinions and "facts" with ANY footnotes.
Smith, Morton. Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of
Mark. Harvard U. Press, 1973. Reminds me of those books on
mathematical logic I used to browse through in the library where
the only thing in English was the chapter headings. Do you know
ancient Greek? Do you have a thorough knowledge of paleography and
ancient world history? How about your Latin and ancient Hebrew?
Are they up to snuff? Does he prove his thesis that Jesus taught
secret doctrines and rituals which were excised from the canonical Mark?
You tell me. From the blurb: "Mr. Smith here presents an
impressive body of evidence that the letter and the Gospel it
quotes from are, indeed, genuine. Drawing on every piece of
documentation he could find, he analyzes the letter line by line
and discusses the stylistic and structural relationship of the
secret Gospel [of Mark] to the canonical Gospels." Lots of
mainstream scholars are uncomfortable with Smith.
Smith, Morton. Jesus the Magician. Harper and Row, 1978. This
is a popular account of researches Smith has made concerning
Jesus' possible connections with magic as it was anciently
understood. Definitely worth reading for yet another slant on
Jesus.
Smith, Morton. The Secret Gospel: The Discovery and
Interpretation of the Secret Gospel According to Mark. Dawn
Horse Press, 1982 (1973). This is the popular account of
Smith's discovery and analysis of a document that seems to
indicate that some early versions of the gospel of Mark may have
had descriptions of rituals and doctrine intended only for a
secret inner circle of early Christians.
Smith, William Benjamin. The Birth of the Gospel: A Study of
the Origin and Purport of the Primitive Allegory of the Jesus.
Philosophical Library, 1957. An early American study of early
Christianity. (I loaned it to a fellow early Christianity lay
scholar enthusiast, like me, but he has taken off for Southern
California.) It looks good, but is probably outdated nowadays.
Sparks, H.F.D. (ed.) The Apocryphal Old Testament. Clarendon
Press, 1984. Like the NT, the OT has a lot of writings that
never made it into the orthodox canon. This is a scholarly
translation of many of those writings. The Sibylline (sp?)
Oracles, the Apocalypse of Abraham, etc., are represented. It
sure opens one's eyes to read some of the material that didn't
make it to the status of the "inspired word of God".
Vermes, Geza. Jesus the Jew: A Historian's Reading of the
Gospels. Fortress Press, 1981 (1973). This scholar of ancient
Jewish lore and writings says that modern Christian NT
scholarship has misinterpreted Jesus because it is largely
ignorant of Talmud, Midrash, etc. This seems true to me, so
maybe Vermes has a point. I would like to see more Jewish
scholars tackle the problems in early Christianity -- their
perspective is fresh and exiting.
Walker, Barbara G. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and
Secrets. Harper and Row, 1983. This is a thorough-going
deprecation of anything Christian. It constantly interprets
Christian practices and doctrines in the most negative way
possible. Walker has a good bibliography, in which she seems to
have listed most books in English that are entirely critical of
Christianity. For a decidedly one-sided, but very interesting
and, I might say, chastening, look at Christianity, take a
gander at this book. The articles on non-Christian subjects are
good, as far as I can tell.
Wilken, Robert L. The Christians as the Romans Saw Them. Yale
University Press, 1984. Good, balanced book about the early
Christians from the Roman perspective. This is a careful
analysis of what Pliny the Younger, Suetonius, Josephus, and
others said about Christians.
Yadin, Yigael. The Temple Scroll: The Hidden Law of the Dead
Sea Sect. Random House, 1985. This is a famous Israeli
archeologist's (recently deceased, unfortunately) description
and analysis of yet another of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls.
Lots of pictures and information about the Essene understanding
of the Jewish Temple are here.