Books on Early Xtianity

[rjmrjmrjm]

This may not be the best place to post this, so mods, if you want to move it to culture or whatever feel free*

Does anyone know any good historically accurate books about early xtianity, spesifically before the fall of Rome?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[krobone]

The works of Flavius Josephus are an excellent starting point. He was a Jewish historian who found favor in the court of Vespasian around the time of Christ. Antiquities of the Jews is the book you should check out.

However, be forewarned that there is some controversy surrounding the book, particularly the authenticity of passages referring to Christ. It's possible they were partially re-written by later Christians to 'correct' Josephus's account of Jesus.

Also Pliny the Younger, a contemporary of Josephus, wrote a bit about the early Christians. Not sure what text would be most relevant, though.

 

[mossy_sloth]

if you are after ancient historians, then I think Eusebius is the best starting point. Particularly his Ecclesiastical History. The publishers SPCK put out a book called 'a New Eusebius' which is a compilation of extracts from ancient sources regarding early Christianity.

For pagan criticism of Christianity see the works of Porphyry of Tyre, Galen of Pergamum and Origen's famous work "Contra Celsum" which is a refutation of the arguments of pagan critic Celsus.

For syncretistic Christian sects (often grouped under the umbrella term of 'gnosticism') see the Nag Hammadi Corpus, though bear in mind that while many people are under the impression that this was a 'supressed' type of Christianity that has been withheld because of its deviation from the norm, one of the main reasons for these books exclusion from the canon was the fact that they were written much later than the texts that make up the New Testament (with the possible exception of the Gospel of Thomas which may have some redactional relation to the synoptics).

(The Younger) Pliny's section dealing with Christianity is most useful for early Roman policy towards the sect and can be found in section 96 of his Epistles in a letter to Trajan.

If you are after a more contemporary commentary, a fairly comprehensive work is Henry Chadwick's book 'The Early Church'. Of course there are a multitude of books on this subject! If you want a more comprehensive bibliography I would be happy to suggest more titles.

good reading!