Customer Reviews

Miracles in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook for the Study of New Testament Miracle Stories (The Context of Early Christianity, 1)

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The new testament content comes from the ancient mediterranean, a time when and where there were tales of "miracles". It may surprise some bible believers but the time and culture in and around the new testament had stories of wonders and miraculous deeds done by other figures. This book is an introductory compilation to some of the more well known ones at the time. What is so good about this book is that it has compiled many tales of miracles from ancient times, and it would take a long time to look them all up on your own, but in this book many of them are documented all in one cover. Reading these will wake one up to the ideological context of the "miraculous" in the culture that the new testament stems from. This need not be taken as showing that the new testament miracles are simply tales of it's time though. Some go that way, some don't. I think it's somewhere in the middle. The new testament miracles are most plausibly real deeds done by Jesus (and some from the apostles), and these deeds were indeed spectacular, and as such they may have been remembered and/or written using some of the wonder worker tales of the day back then. This doesn't make the new test. miracles any less real, it just means that the reality behind the miracle events may not be exactly as presented- this does not deny or undervalue the true significance of the things done by Jesus and the apostles though. Anyhow, for those who want to wrestle with this a bit more, new testament scholar Craig Blomberg has a pretty good conservative treatment of this in his book, The Historical Reliability of The Gospels. (look for a new edition of this due out in Jan. 2008) Another work that provides miraculous tales of antiquity in relation to the new testament is Documents For The Study of The Gospels by David Cartlidge.

5 Stars! Not an easy read since it is in small print, but it contains excellent selections of primary/original sources on miracles from the time of Jesus (Greek, Roman, Jewish and Egyptian). One can compare the stories of Jesus miracles with those of mythological gods, hero's, doctors, exorcists and magicians from his time. One can also read selections from ancient philosophers and historians that implicitly or explicitly reveal the worldviews of various groups. The Bibliography is robust and encourages further exploration. This would make for a great reference to put on reserve in order to aid those pursuing studies of the New Testament.I say this having a degree in Western Civ. and Biblical Studies. I enjoyed this work very much!