The book is an investigation into the material reception of the Shepherd of Hermas as a case study of early Christian literary authority. An idiosyncratic early Christian apocalyptic work, the Shepherd was broadly copied and used often alongside biblical texts not only in Greek, but also in Latin, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian and, as authoritative even in non-Christian context, in Middle-Persian. Drawing on patristic sources, late antique book-lists, and several manuscript traditions, the book challenges long-held assumptions about the outlook of its earliest reception and about its fourth-century rejection. Rather than a narrative of decline, the book proposes a model of continuity and illuminates how the Shepherd was continuously used in theological, catechetical, and liturgical contexts across centuries, and maintained a consistent status as a scriptural secondary book—neither fully canonical nor discarded—throughout late antiquity.

Most accounts of Christian leadership in the first two centuries focus on the diversity of leadership structures and the various cultural influences that impacted it. This book demonstrates that within these structures and contexts early Christians shared a clear set of theological convictions about pastoral leadership. Through literary and theological analysis of relevant passages in the Apostolic Fathers and New Testament, The First Pastors demonstrates four shared convictions about pastoral ministry: (1) the necessity of a particular kind of virtue for pastoral leaders, (2) the authority of pastoral leaders, (3) the essentials of pastoral work, and (4) the reality of pastoral suffering. These shared convictions emerge from the variety of communities represented by these texts and are so well attested to that they suggest a much greater degree of unity than is presently assumed in the field. Moreover, even with the various dating issues surrounding the Apostolic Fathers and New Testament, the agreement between these sets of texts show second-century Christians carrying forward the convictions of the first century. Finally, they present an interesting example of the coexistence and interaction between unity and diversity in early Christianity: theological unity persisted in diverse communities with varying practices and contexts.

Asherah is one of the most popular goddesses known from the ancient world. In this second edition of the author’s 1993 monograph on the goddess, further articles and bibliography have been added to bring this expanding field of study more up-to-date. To date, this monograph contains the only full-length treatment of the Ugaritic material on Asherah in addition to a comprehensive examination of the textual sources from the Hebrew Bible, ancient Mesopotamia, Epigraphic South Arabian and Hittite sources, as well as the intriguing Hebrew inscriptions that perhaps mention the goddess.

A comprehensive survey of archaeological finds related to Syro-Aramaic Christianity in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, examining Soviet and modern Russian-language archaeological reports, analyzing the observations and conclusions of Soviet and modern archaeologists. This work features over 200 photographs and illustrations related to Syro-Aramaic Christian finds, as well as providing extensive Russian-language bibliographical information, and maps providing the location of sites where evidence of Christianity has been discovered.

This work represents the first time that a major part of the masorah of the great Leningrad Codex, that of the Former Prophets, is being published with an English translation and commentary. Almost nine-thousand notes are transcribed and annotated with biblical references.