Early Church in Its Context

Abraham J. Malherbe, Buckingham Emeritus Professor of New Testament, Yale Divinity SchoolFrederick W. Norris, Dean E. Walker Professor of Church History, Emmanuel School of ReligionJames W. Thompson, Professor of New Testament, Abilene Christian University

• What gnostics knew, H.W. Attridge; Attitudes towards foreigners in two Maccabees, Eupolemus, Esther, Aristeas, and Luke-Acts, D.L. Balch; En-spirited waters: baptism in the "Confessions" of Augustine", P. Bright; Cyprian's eschatology: explaining divine purpose, J. Patout Burns; The reading of the personal letter as the background for the reading of the Scriptures in the early Church, C.E. Cox; The Papias fragments on Mark and Matthew and their relationship to Luke's prologue: an essay on the pre-history of the synoptic problem, D. Farkasfalvy; Further reflections on the fourfold Gospel Canon, W.R. Farmer; A late-antique tunic fragment in St. Louis, P.C. Finney; Eusebius and "The little Labyrinth", J.T. Fitzgerald; Lions in early Christian literature, R.M. Grant; Cicero's sketch and Lactantius's plan, R.A. Greer; Incense offering in the Syriac "Transitus Mariae": ritual and knowledge in ancient Christianity, S.A. Harvey; "Pseudo-Orpheus": tracking a tradition, C.R. Holladay; The Athanasian understanding of Scripture, C. Kannengiesser; Conversion to Paul's Gospel, A.J. Malherbe; The Chreia in the desert: rhetoric and the Bible in the "Apophthegmata Patrum", K. McVey; Encyclopedia revisited, F.W. Norris; Fourth- and fifth-century homilists on the Ascension of Christ, H.F. Stander; A cult from Philadelphia: Oikos religion or cultic association? S.K. Stowers; The appropriate, the necessary and the impossible: faith and reason in Hebrews, J.W. Thompson; The public priestesses of Pompeii, R.B. Ward.