Product Description: In this book Hans-Josef Klauck provides a comprehensive introduction to the apocryphal gospels - the biblical and related writings which do not form part of the accepted canon of Scripture.Klauck classifies the material in various helpful ways: Agrapha (isolated sayings if Jesus), Fragments, Jewish Christian Gospels, Two Gospels of the Egyptians, Infancy Gospels, Gospels about Jesus' Death and Resurrection, Gospels from Nag Hammadi, Conversations with the Risen Jesus, Dialogues of Jesus with No Location, Legends about the Death of Mary, Lost Gospels, the Toledot Jeshu (an anti-gospel) ...read more

This is a comprehensive guide to the world of religion in the Graeco-Roman environment of early Christianity. The volume paints a carefully nuanced portrait of the Christians'' religious context'

Many forms of magic and paganism were practiced at the time of Jesus. This text explains what they were and how the first Christians reacted to them. Included are accounts of the many experiences of the first Christians recorded in Acts such as Peter encountering the Samaritan magician Simon, and in Athens Paul finds the city full of idols but also discovers an altar "to an unknown god".