James Carleton Paget - The New Cambridge History of the Bible, Volume 1 : From the Beginnings to 600

Recent years have witnessed significant discoveries of texts and artefacts relevant to the study of the Old and New Testaments, and remarkable shifts in scholarly methods of study. The present volume mirrors the increasing specialisation of Old Testament studies, including the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, and reflects rich research activity that has unfolded over the last four decades in Pentateuch theory, Septuagint scholarship, Qumran studies and early Jewish exegesis of biblical texts. The second half of the volume discusses the period running from the New Testament to 600, including chapters on the Coptic, Syriac and Latin Bibles, the Gnostic use of the scriptures, pagan engagement with the Bible, the use of the Bible in Christian councils, and in popular and non-literary culture. A fascinating in-depth account of the reception of the Bible in the earliest period of its history.

James Carleton Paget is Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow and Tutor at Peterhouse. He is the author of The Epistle of Barnabas (1994) and of Jews, Christians and Jewish Christians in Antiquity (2010).

Joachim Schaper is Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages at the University of Aberdeen. He is the author of Eschatology in the Greek Psalter (1995), Priester und Leviten im achmenidischen Juda (2000) and Wie der Hirsch lechzt nach frischem Wasser (2004), and editor of Die Textualisierung der Religion (2009).

The New Cambridge History of the Bible series comprises four vol-umes which take into account the considerable advances in scholarship made in almost all biblical disciplines during the previous forty years. The volumes respond to shifts in scholarly methods of study of the Old and New Testaments, look closely at specialised forms of interpretation and address the new concerns of the twenty-first century. Attention is paid to biblical studies in eastern Christian, Jewish and Islamic contexts, rendering the series of interest to students of all Abrahamic faiths. The entire New Cambridge History of the Bible offers a comprehensive account of the development of the Bible from its beginnings to the present day, but each volume can also be read independently, providing a substantial contribution to the scholarship of the period it covers. The New History will provide an invaluable resource for scholars, researchers and students alike.