The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings: A Reader

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of The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings : A Reader by Bart D. Ehrman

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Summary: Excellent Resource
Review: Bart Ehrman has compiled a wonderful reader containing original, firsthand sources from the New Testament/Apostolic Era. Many people are not aware of the variety of early Christian writings that were not included in the current canon. Ehrman has compiled gospels, letters, and stories from the first 100 years of the Christian faith (about 30-130 AD) into one very useful book. Here is what this book contains:

1) Every book of the New Testament canon

2) The Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, the Secret Gospel of Mark, the Unknown Gospel, the Gospel of the Ebionites, the Gospel of the Nazareans, and the Gospel According to the Hebrews. However, not all of these are complete and many exist only in fragments or in quotations from Church Fathers.

3) The Acts of Paul and Thecla

4) 3 Corinthians, 1 Clement, the Didache (an early church manual), the 7 genuine letters of Ignatius, the Letter of Polycarp to the Philippians, the Epistle of Barnabas and the fragments of Papias

5) The Preaching of Peter

6) The Shepherd of Hermas and the Apocalypse of Peter (these have been abridged slightly because they are very long)

Each book includes a nice introduction that discusses such issues as authorship, date, content, and theology. The translations of the New Testament books are from the New Revised Standard Version. The early Christian writings are translated by a variety of authors, but all are fairly easy to read. Ehrman also includes a general introduction that examines important issues like canonization and biblical texts. This book is meant to be a companion to Ehrman's textbook, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, but even used alone it is an extremely useful resource. Overall, I highly recommend this book, especially for those who wish to get a firsthand look at the first 100 years of the Christian faith.