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As allegiance to Jesus Christ spread across the Roman Empire in the second century, writings, practices, and ideas erupted in a creative maelstrom. Many of the patterns of practice and belief that later become normative emerged, in the midst of debate and argument with neighbours who shared or who rejected that allegiance. Authoritative texts, principles of argument, attitudes to received authority, the demands of allegiance in the face of opposition, identifying who belonged and who did not, all demanded attention. These essays explore those divergent voices, and the no-less diverse and lively debates they have inspired in recent scholarship.
The Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (BEEC) focuses on the history of early Christianity, covering texts, authors, ideas, and their reception. Its content is intended to bridge the gap between the fields of New Testament studies and patristics, connecting a number of related fields of study including Judaism, ancient history and philosophy, covering the whole period of early Christianity up to 600 CE.
The BEEC aims both to provide a critical review of the methods used in Early Christian Studies and also to update the history of scholarship.
The BEEC addresses a range of traditions, including iconographic, martyrological, ecclesiastical, and Christological traditions, as well as cultic phenomena, such as the veneration of saints. The history of the transmission of texts and the reception of early Christian writers are also addressed. The BEEC focuses on early Christianity from a historical perspective in order to uncover the lasting legacy of the authors and texts until the present day.

Volume 6 (She - Zos & Index) is also available as part of the 6-volume Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity set.
This series publishes the NT text as it is recoverable from the writings of the Greek Fathers. Only data from critical texts of the Fathers will be published. Each volume will include a full presentation (or critically reconstructed text) of the NT (or portions thereof) of a given Father or selected works of a given Father. Each study will also include an evaluation of the data, both in terms of its reliability and of the relationship of the Father’s text to known textual groups.
In this volume Julien M. Ogereau investigates the origins and development of Christianity in the Roman province of Macedonia in the first six centuries CE. Drawing from the oldest literary sources, Ogereau reconstructs the earliest history of the first Christian communities in the region and explores the legacy of the apostle Paul in the cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Beroea. Turning to the epigraphic and archaeological evidence, Ogereau then examines Christianity’s dissemination throughout the province and its impact on Macedonian society in late antiquity, especially on its epigraphic habits and material culture.
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This book offers the first detailed commentary on the Gnostic treatises reported by Irenaeus in Adversus Haereses 1.29–30. It is argued that these texts represent the earliest tangible layer of the Gnostic literary tradition and served as sources for the Apocryphon of John and other later works. They also formed the starting point for Valentinus and his followers, who sought to reconcile the ideas of the Gnostics with apostolic Christianity. The book also shows that Irenaeus and later heresiologists referred to “the Gnostics” as a specific group among the great mass of heretics.
Each volume of Early Christianity in Greece focuses on the rise and expansion of Christianity in a specific geographic region up to the end of the reign of Justinian I in 565 CE. The monographs take into account all relevant literary and non-literary evidence, paying special attention to epigraphical material collected during the Topoi project B 5-3 in Incriptiones Christianae Graecae, placing it within its archaeological context, and document the current state of research. Because of the interrelatedness of epigraphical and archaeological evidence, the volumes are prepared in close collaboration between historians of early Christianity, epigraphists and archaeologists.
The digital world pervades the everyday lives of most people, and online tools have become an essential part of academic research in many disciplines. This reality is true also for biblical studies and related disciplines, areas that work with complex literary traditions, multiple manuscript cultures, and many methodological approaches to the problems at the centre of our discussions. This book shines a light on multiple new and emerging approaches to big disciplinary questions in biblical studies and beyond by highlight projects that are using digital tools, crafting computer-assisted approaches, and re-thinking the resources fundamental to the history of research.
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This volume celebrates the scholarship of Professor Johan C. Thom by tackling various important topics relevant for the study of the New Testament, such as the intellectual environment of early Christianity, especially Greek, Latin, and early Jewish texts, New Testament apocrypha and other early Christian writings, as well as Greek grammar. The authors offer fresh insights on philosophical texts and traditions, the cultural repertoire of early Christian literature, critical editions, linguistics and interpretation, and comparative analyses of ancient writings.
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The only narratives of Jesus’ birth locate the event in Bethlehem, but the adult Jesus is consistently associated with Nazareth. How do we reconcile these two indisputable facts? Some dismiss Bethlehem as a theologoumenon, a theological fabrication. Others insist on Bethlehem based on the census of Quirinius. In the present volume, N. Clayton Croy argues that both are wrong. Instead Jesus’ birthplace was determined by the scandalous nature of Mary’s pregnancy, with it being necessary for Mary and Joseph to escape the inevitable shame of an ill-timed conception and decamp to a less hostile environment. In this light, a Bethlehem-born Jesus who grew up in Nazareth should never have been considered problematic.
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Religious Polemics and Encounters in Late Antiquity: Boundaries, Conversions, and Persuasion explores the intricate identity formation and negotiations of early encounters of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). It explores the ever-pressing challenges arising from polemical inter-religious encounters by analyzing the dynamics of apologetic debate, the negotiation and formation of boundaries of belonging, and the argumentative thrust for persuasion and conversion, as well as the outcomes of these various encounters, including the articulation of novel ideas. The Late Antique authors studied in the present volume represent a variety of voices from North Africa, passing through Rome, to Palestine. Together, these voices of the past offer invaluable insight to shape the present times, in hope for a better future.