Product Description: The context of Jesus, his followers, and the early movement What do the social sciences have to contribute to the study of Jesus and the Gospels? This is the fundamental question that these essays all address - from analyses of ancient economics to altered states of consciousness, politics, ritual, kinship, and labeling...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Now in paperback, this monumental work by two continental New Testament scholars is the first comprehensive social history of the earliest churches. Integrating the historical and social data, it locates the ancient Judeans and the Jesus Movement in their respective matrices...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)