Rather than asking the typical question about how Greco-Roman culture impinged on the Jesus tradition and altered it, this book turns the question around and demonstrates how the Jesus tradition altered both Jewish and Roman cultures. Graydon Snyder begins with an analysis of major New Testament material - how the Gospels used Jesus to undermine some cultural values, how Paul used the same tradition to suspend cultural expressions, and how John universalized Jesus by deculturizing him. Moving to the second century, Snyder shows in detail, with appropriate categorization, how scholars since F.C. Baur have perceived the transforming impact of Jewish and Roman culture on the nascent Jesus movement. He reverses the question and, with the aid particularly of non-literary data, shows how the Jesus tradition infiltrated Jewish and Roman cultures in selected cultural areas such as symbols, art, architecture, inscriptions, calendar, commensuality, gender, and health care. Includes photos and illustrations. Graydon F. Snyder is Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Chicago Theological Seminary.
