The Book of Acts in Its Graeco-Roman Setting locates the Book of Acts within various regional and cultural settings in the eastern Mediterranean. These studies draw on recent archaeological fieldwork and epigraphic discoveries to describe the key cities and provinces within the Roman Empire. The relevant societal aspects of these regions, such as the Roman legal system, Roman religion, and the problem of transport and travel, all help contextualize the book of Acts.

This volume provides a unique opportunity not only to learn about the custodial system of the Graeco-Roman world, but to better view Paul's persona and Christian mission as well. Brian Rapske's outstanding study shows Luke himself to be an ardent helper of Paul the missionary prisoner. "The author has produced an invaluable resource for both Acts and Pauline scholars, having placed the prison narratives of Paul in both their cultural and literary settings. The footnotes alone demonstrate the wealth of socio-cultural knowledge that Rapske brings to his reading of the Acts account as well as his understanding of the Pauline missions via- -vis his suffering in prison." - Journal for the Study of the New Testament

Volume 5 in a series which strives to place the Book of Acts within its first-century setting, Irina Levinskaya employs impressive archaeological research to throw light on the relation of Jews to the societies in which they lived during the period of dispersion. She surveys commonly held views and challenges current views regarding the true nature of Jewish missionary activity.

No longer can Acts be seen as a simple apologia that articulates Christianity's harmlessness vis-à-vis Rome. Rather, in its attempt to form communities that witness to God's apocalypse, author Kavin Rowe argues that Luke's second volume is a highly charged and theologically sophisticated political document. Luke aims at nothing less than the construction of a new culture - a total pattern of life - that inherently runs counter to the constitutive aspects of Graeco-Roman society.

Working to place the Book of Acts within its first-century setting, well-known historians and biblical scholars from Australia, the United States, Canada, Russia, Germany, France, Israel, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom have collaborated here to provide a stimulating new study that replaces older studies on Acts, including aspects of The Beginnings of Christianity. The composition of Acts is discussed beside the writing of ancient literary monographs and intellectual biographies. Recent epigraphic and papyrological discoveries also help illumine the text of Acts. Archaeological fieldwork, especially in Greece and Asia Minor, has yielded valuable information about the local setting of Acts and the religious life of urban communities in the Roman Empire. These volumes draw on the best of this research to elucidate the Book of Acts against the background of activity in which early Christianity was born. The Book of Acts in Its Palestinian Setting is devoted to a series of studies of those parts of the narrative of Acts that are specifically set in Palestine. The geographical, political, cultural, social, and religious aspects of first-century Jewish Palestine are all explored in order to throw light on Luke's account of the Palestinian origins of early Christianity. There are fresh assessments of the historical significance of key features, persons, and events in Luke's narrative.

This study contends that Plato's theory of constitutional decline provides the philosophical core of Shakespeare's Roman works; that Lucrece, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra form a "Platonic" tetralogy collectively spanning the stages of timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyrrany; that this decline is prefigured and encapsulated in Titus Andronicus; and that all five works are oblique commentaries on England's political milieu. --book jacket.

A distinguished group of scholars here provides a comprehensive survey of the theology of the early church as it is presented by the author of Acts. The twenty-five articles show the current state of scholarship and the main themes of theology in Acts.