Aug 3, 2020

A New New Testament Backgrounds Resource

Years ago, Bruce Longenecker's Lost Letters of Pergamum was a required text for a New Testament Introduction class for which I was a teaching assistant. Then some time after that Intervarsity Press began publishing a series of books with the title A Week in the Life of . . . . These volumes were an attempt to familiarize readers with the Greco-Roman backgrounds of the New Testament through fictional, but historically-accurate, accounts. The fictional stories are a means of introducing material in a creative and memorable way.

In a similar vein, Dr. Christopher Stanley, a professor at
St. Bonaventure University, has written two volumes of a projected trilogy set in Roman Asia Minor about, "A slave without a past. A master without a future. A journey of discovery that will forever change the lives of both men." While I haven't had a chance to finish either volume, what I have read so far seems very promising.

The books are accompanied by a very nice website here where you can order the book through Amazon and access free supplementary resources, such as plot summaries, commentary, etc. The links alone are well worth a visit. You can also peruse the books by downloading the first five chapters here

So if you are still looking for some summer reading or maybe ways to introduce students or church members to New Testament backgrounds you might want to check these volumes out.

https://www.aslavesstory.com

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