Jesus & The Rise of Early Christianity

JESUS & THE RISE OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY
A History of New Testament Times

"This New Testament history is a comprehensive, critical, readable and perceptive presentation of the life and ministry of Christ and the following apostolic age. Rooted in the primary sources, it bids well to become the standard account of the beginnings of Christianity for the coming student generation."

-E. Earle Ellis, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

"This is a wonderful book, long needed and well executed. Although in some respects it is akin to a standard New Testament introduction and in other respects a thoughtful critique of the so-called Third Quest, in reality it is far more. While managing to interact with a substantial amount of secondary literature, Paul Barnett focuses on the coherence of the New Testament documents from the inside, with Jesus himself serving as the focal point and the engine that shapes the rise and growth of the earliest churches, and not least their convictions and behavior. While many others pull the New Testament documents apart, in this book Paul Barnett puts them back together- and connects them with the Old Testament as well. This volume deserves the widest circulation."

-Donald A. Carson, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

"Dr. Barnett's new book... fills a needed spot. It is written clearly and incisively, with a target audience of beginning students and their teachers in college and seminary. Pastors needing a refresher course will also find it profitable, and lay persons anxious to know how Christianity is a historical faith will be reassured and helped. In all, it is a notable achievement and a valuable adjunct to New Testament study. Highly commended as up-to-date and authoritative."

-Ralph P. Martin, Fuller Theological Seminary

"At long last we have a worthy sequel to F. F. Bruce's efforts to write a history of the New Testament period. Barnett, rightly in my judgment, focuses on the heart of the matter, which has to do with history and Christology and the intertwining of these two factors. He shows that positing a wide gulf between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith simply does not make good historical sense. He makes plain that Christology was at the heart of the agendas not only of the earliest Christian missionaries but also of their mentor and Lord, Jesus. He also shows that without the resurrection of Jesus in the flesh there would never have been either the worship of Jesus as Lord or the existence of the church. This book is a must read for those who care about the roots of the Christian faith."

-Ben Witherington III, Asbury Theological Seminary

"New Testament 'history' for some has come to mean quixotic questing. For Barnett it means plying the classic tools, methods and aims of the disciplines historian. He is the student of his sources, not their dictator. He gives us not the stones of his private speculation but the bread of sober learning. F. F. Bruce's New Testament History (1972) was the standard for a quarter century. Barnett now furnishes a fresh benchmark. His book will excite and inform all who long to see both church and academe rediscover the full-orbed historical nexus within which the Christian faith first took shape- and to which both faith and learning must continually return."

-Robert W. Yarbrough, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

PAUL BARNETT is Anglican bishop of North Sydney, Australia, visiting fellow in ancient history at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, and research professor at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia. His is the author of several books, including Behind the Scenes of the New Testament, Jesus and the Logic of History and a commentary on 2 Corinthians in the NICNT series.