Early Jewish Writings and New Testament Interpretation is a concise,
introductory volume to orient undergraduates, seminarians, and
interested readers to some of the most important early Jewish writings
that currently inform New Testament interpretation. While the literature
of Early Judaism is vast, five specific literary categories stand at the
forefront of modern New Testament research. These include wisdom
writings, apocalypses, rewritten scriptural narratives, the Dead Sea
Scrolls, and the writings of Philo and Josephus. Individual chapters
explain their respective contributions toward interpreting the
theological ideas, socio-historical settings, and literary features of
specific New Testament writings.
The volume further describes literary collections that the church would
later classify as "apocrypha" and "pseudepigrapha," providing an
historically nuanced perspective on what "scripture" might have looked
like prior to the formation of the biblical canon. Interpreted within
their ancient context, many of these writings offer insight into a
religious environment in which Judaism and the nascent church were still
emerging religions that had not yet gone their "separate" ways. The
reader of the New Testament today can, therefore, understand the
indebtedness of the New Testament literature to traditions found in
contemporary Jewish works, while also appreciating the creative, new
ways in which the church interpreted them.
