Historical Environment of the New Testament - RETA2003

• Title: NZPV2-Historical Environment of the New Testament
• Guaranteed by: Katedra biblických studií (27-BS)
• Faculty: Protestant Theological Faculty
• Actual: from 2024 to 2025
• Semester: winter
• Points: 2
• E-Credits: 2
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:2/0, C [HT]
• Capacity: unlimited / unknown (unknown)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: Dávid Cielontko, Ph.D.

Annotation

The course focuses on the historical setting in which the New Testament writings were composed. Geographically, this setting is Palestine and the eastern Mediterranean; chronologically, it spans the period from the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC to the beginning of the 2nd century AD.

The course offers an overview of important historical events, religious and cultural realities, everyday life, and contemporary literary and archaeological monuments.

Last update: Cielontko Dávid, Ph.D. (22.09.2025)

Course completion requirements

The conditions for obtaining credit are regular attendance (no more than 3 excused absences) and preparation for class in the form of reading the assigned literature. At the end of the course, students must read Josephus Flavius, The Jewish War (in English translation, ideally Loeb edition) and write a short reflection.

Last update: Cielontko Dávid, Ph.D. (22.09.2025)

Literature

Primary Reading:

Cielontko, David - Tobias Nicklas - Lily C. Vuong - Predrag Dragutinovic (eds.), The World of the New Testament: Encountering Texts in Context, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, forthcoming.

Additional Literature:

BARRETT, C. K. The New Testament Background: Selected Documents. Revised and Expanded Version. London: SPCK 1987.

BROOKE, George J., HEMPEL, Charlotte, T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls, London: T&T Clark, 2018.

BURKE, Tony, Secret Scriptures Revealed: A New Introduction to the Christian Apocrypha, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2013.

CROSSAN, John Dominic, REED, J.L.: Excavating Jesus. Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts, San Francisco: Harper & Row 2001.

ERLEMANN, Kurt et a.: Neues Testament und Antike Kultur (5 volumes), Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener 2004-2008.

GREEN, Joel B., McDONALD, Lee Martin, The World of the New Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017.

HUEBNER, Sabine R., Papyri and the Social World of the New Testament, Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2019.

JEREMIAS, Joachim, Jerusalem zur Zeit Jesu, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1963. / Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, London: SCM Press, 2012.

KLOPPENBORG, John: Christ's Associations: Connecting and Belonging in the Ancient City, New Haven: Yale Univ Press, 2019.

LONGENECKER, Bruce W. In Stone and Story: Early Christianity in the Roman World, Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2020.

MAGNESS, Jodi. Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit: Jewish Daily Life in the Time of Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 2011.

MEEKS, Wayne A. The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul. New Haven: Yale University Press 1983.

PEARSON, Briger A., Ancient Gnosticism: Traditions And Literature, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007.

PEARSON, Birger A., Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity, Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1990.

SCHRÖTER, Jens, ZANGENBERG, Jürgen, Texte zur Umwelt des Neuen Testaments, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013.

WITHERINGTON, Ben. New Testament History: A Narrative Account, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic Press, 2003.

Last update: Cielontko Dávid, Ph.D. (22.09.2025)