The New Testament in Its Literary Environment (Library of Early Christianity, Vol 8)

Rating:
Summary: A good survey of the literary genres of the New Testament
Review: Aune shows that the documents of the New Testament were not created in a vacuum and that they reflect the literary environment of the Greco-Roman world and also the Hebraic culture. He feels that the gospels are influenced to some degree by ancient Greco-Roman biographical style. He also sees Luke-Acts as an example of someone trying to write history, and he does a good job of explaining that Luke, like Thucydides and other ancient historians, used speeches to advance the story. He notes that while Luke didn't reproduce the speeches word for word, he did hit highlights and may have even have put some sections in his own words, which was an accepted way to record speeches at that time.

He also discusses the literary format of ancient letters as they relate to the letters of the New Testament. But I wish he would have focused more on how unique the NT letters are and how Paul's letters were far more profound (and longer) than the average ancient letter.

He also discusses the book of Revelation, and how this letter reflects other Jewish apocalyptic writings, and yet differs from them in other ways. One may disagree with the number of late dates Aune assigns some of the NT documents (for example, assigning 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus to the year 125 AD, 60 years after Paul died). But the book is still a solid entry in the Library of Early of Christianity series.

I should add though, that this isn't the easiest book in the world to read, certainly not as easy as Shaye Cohen's contribution to this serie. It is definitely geared more for the seminarian or the educated laymen.