Early Christian Mission

by Eckhard J. Schnabel

How is it that a first-generation Jewish messianic movement undertook a mission to the pagan world and rapidly achieved a momentum that would have a lasting and significant impact on world history? This momentous question has surprisingly eluded the concentrated focus of historians and New Testament scholars. Perhaps it is because the story of early Christian mission encompasses so much of the history of early Christianity. And to tell that history is to traverse a broad spectrum of issues in contemporary New Testament studies, all of which have been investigated in specialized depth, though frequently unconnected to a unified picture. On the other hand, as Eckhard Schnabel comments, those who have attempted to paint "the portrait of early Christian missions" have "often painted with brush strokes too broad." As a result, an "undifferentiated picture of early Christian mission" is widely held. In this monumental study, Schnabel gives us both a unified and detailed picture of the rise and growth of early Christian mission. He begins with a search for a missionary impulse in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism. He then weighs the evidence for a mission of Jesus to Gentiles. But the center of focus is the apostolic missionary activity as it is related in Acts, Paul's letters and the rest of the New Testament. Here is a study that seeks to describe all the evidence relevant to the missionary strategy and tactics of the early church, to explain the theological dimensions of the early Christian mission, and to integrate the numerous studies published in the last decades into a synthetic overall picture. Schnabel?s detailed and immensely informed analysis will reward careful reading and reflection, and form a solid basis for a new understanding of the rise of Christianity and the nature of Christian mission--both then and now. When you order this item you will receive two Jesus and the Twelve (Volume 1) and Paul the Early Church (Volume 2). An outline of both is in Volume 1 and the indexes are in Volume 2.

Genres: Christian History, Theology, Biblical Studies, Church History, History

1928 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2004

About the author

Eckhard J. Schnabel (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen) is professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has taught previously at Freie Theologische Akademie (Giessen, Germany), Wiedenest Bible College (Bergneustadt, Germany) and Asian Theological Seminary (Manila, Philippines).

His books include Early Christian Mission (volumes 1 & 2) and Der erste Brief des Paulus an die Korinther, and he is the author of numerous articles, including "Luke" (with David W. Pao) in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament and contributions in InterVarsity Press's Dictionary of Paul and His Letters and Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments.

Reviews

[Matthew Fretwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Same as Vol. 1. Fantastic! Exhaustive and scholarly. Needs to be on every book shelf.

[Drew Van Gorder · Rating 3 out of 5]

These two books were required reading for one of my seminary courses on the New Testament. They were pretty heady, but they also exhaustively detailed what the first hundred years or so were like for Christians. They also helped to explain why the religion of Christianity spread so quickly throughout antiquity.

[Eric Herendeen]

It goes through the history of the theology of Missions in Judaism and Christianity. Informative.