The Cambridge Companion to the Bible

Bruce D. Chilton is Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College. His most recent books include Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography (2000), Redeeming Time: The Wisdom of Ancient Jewish and Christian Festal Calendars (2002), Rabbi Paul: An Intellectual Biography (2004), and Mary Magdalene: A Biography (2005). Howard Clark Kee is William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of Biblical Studies, Emeritus, at Boston University. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the first edition of The Cambridge Companion to the Bible, Beginnings of Christianity: Introduction to the New Testament (2005), Understanding the New Testament, 5th edition, and Jesus in History, 3rd edition. Eric M. Meyers is Professor of Religious Studies at Duke University. He has authored or co-authored nine books, edited many others, and has published widely in the fields of Hebrew Bible, biblical archaeology, and Second Temple Judaism. He also served as editor in chief of the five-volume work, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East (1997). John Rogerson is Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield. He is the author of The Atlas of the Bible (1984), The Study and Use of the Bible, Volume 2 (1988), The Bible: A Cultural Atlas for Young Children (1993), and coauthor of The Old Testament World (1989). Amy-Jill Levine is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University. Her numerous publications address Christian Origins, Jewish-Christian Relations, and Sexuality, Gender, and the Bible. Her current projects include the editing of the fourteen-volume series, The Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Writing.

'The Cambridge Companion to the Bible was a remarkable contribution when it was first released in 1997, which only makes the achievements of this thoroughly updated Second Edition all the more impressive. The abundance of stunning new photos from Todd Bolen, the additional sidebars of useful, contextualized information, the new maps in each section, and the revised bibliographies and main text all make the Second Edition an essential book for serious students, clergy, and general readers alike.' Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town

• The concept of God's people; Bibliographic essay; Part I. The Old Testament World: 1. The world of the ancestors; 2. The world of Israel's 'historians'; 3. The world of Israel's prophets; 4. The world of Israel's worship; 5. The world of Israel's sages and poets; 6. The world of apocalyptic; Bibliographical essay; Part II. Jewish Responses to Greco-Roman Culture: 1. Preservation and adaptation: the encounter with Hellenism; 2. Antiochus IV and the Maccabean Crisis; 3. Roman invasion and Jewish response; 4. Herod the Great; 5. Herod's heirs; 6. Roman rule in the first century CE; 7. Mid-first-century crises; 8. The Jewish world after the fall of Jerusalem; Bibliographical essay; Part III. The Formation of the Christian Community: 1. Jesus and the covenant; 2. Paul: the Jesus movement in the Roman world; 3. Christianity responds to formative Judaism; 4. Christianity responds to Roman culture and imperial policy; 5. Diversity in the church; 6. Attempts to unify faith and practice; Bibliographical essay.