In recent years the New Testament writings have increasingly been read in the cultural and political context of the early Roman Empire. In Roman Imperial Texts, students and scholars now have a ready handbook of the most important sources for this context. A selection of the most important sources for the cultural and political context of the early Roman Empire and the New Testament writings, Roman Imperial Texts includes freshly translated public speeches, official inscriptions, annals, essays, poems, and documents of veiled protest from the Empire's subject peoples.
Mark Reasoner is associate professor of theology at Marion University in Indianapolis. He is the author of Romans in Full Circle: A History of Interpretation (2005) and The Strong and the Weak: Romans 14.1 - 15.13 in Context (2004) and, with Neil Elliott, Documents and Images for the Study of Paul (Fortress Press, 2010).
Preface/Introduction/Timeline Part 1. Divine Sons and Their Gospels Augustus Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Vespasian Titus Domitian Part 2. Identity in Community Sample Letters from the Mediterranean World Documents from Collegia and Synagogues Cities of the New Testament World Part 3. The Eternal City and Its Hold on the World Praise for Rome Voices of Dissent Hidden Transcripts
"From Matthew to Revelation, the New Testament presents good news that can be adequately interpreted only in view of its setting in the Roman Empire. Scholars, students, and all readers of the New Testament are therefore in Mark Reasoner's debt for preparing this first-rate collection of relevant Roman imperial sources, presented fairly with minimal interpretation. I trust it will receive wide circulation and use." Michael J. Gorman St. Mary's Seminary & University "There is currently a great deal of debate about the ways in which the New Testament writers responded to the Roman Empire. To understand and assess the debate it is vital for students (and scholars!) to encounter at first hand the texts and artefacts that inform us about that imperial context. With extensive quotation of primary sources and well-informed commentary and explanation, Mark Reasoner has provided an excellent sourcebook to enable us to do just that. This is a very welcome resource." David G. Horrell University of Exeter "This book is a long-needed and essential tool for scholars, teachers, and students who explore the rise of Christianity from 'the grandeur that was Rome.' A helpful introduction explains the contested place of Roman Imperial sources in New Testament scholarship and argues persuasively that careful attention to sources such as these is an important, too often neglected, stimulus for assessing ways in which the New Testament 'includes or omits' Rome in its multiple frames of reference. The book is an especially welcome enhancement of the Roman sources collected in more general New Testament 'backgrounds' anthologies and will be as useful in the classroom as in the study." Alexandra Brown Washington and Lee University
