Christian Origins and the Establishment of the Early Jesus Movement explores the events, people, and writings surrounding the founding of the early Jesus movement in the mid to late first century. The essays are divided into four parts, focused upon the movement’s formation, the production of its early Gospels, description of the Jesus movement itself, and the Jewish mission and its literature. This collection of essays includes chapters by a global cast of scholars from a variety of methodological and critical viewpoints, and continues the important Early Christianity in its Hellenistic Context series.

This book, third in the Eberts' "Early Jesus" series, breaks ground not covered in other books on the Gospels. First, it views Jesus' life and ministry in a socio-political/economic-religious context. It then presents a never-before-seen chronology of Jesus' ministry (across three chapters) and, something not usually done by other scholars, the Eberts have characterized each Gospel. They posit that Mark shows Jesus as the Healing, Suffering, and Trusting One; that Matthew shows Jesus as the Righteous and Just One; Luke shows Jesus as the Caringly Compassionate and Socially Just One; and John shows Jesus as One with the Living, Loving, and Active God. Harry and Paul Eberts" are brothers devoted to researching the New Testament. Both graduated from Heidelberg College in Ohio, and from Yale Divinity School. Harry received his Doctor of the Science of Theology (STD) from San Francisco Theological Seminary; Paul, his PhD in Sociology from the University of Michigan. Harry was ordained by the Presbyterian Church, USA, serving churches in California, Illinois, and Ohio. He taught at San Francisco Theological Seminary, and the Coptic Evangelical Church in both Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt. Paul has taught sociology at the University of Michigan, SUNY Binghamton, and Cornell University. He has been on discipline-related committees of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Sociological Association, and the Rural Sociology Society.

What have generations of New Testament scholars been hiding from us over all the ages? Harry and Paul Eberts challenge readers to rethink the New Testament. Most scholars have presumed there was a reasonably unified movement among the Christian churches led by Peter, Paul, James, and Philip immediately following Jesus' death and resurrection. The Eberts suggest that at least four parties vied with each other to attract converts to the belief that Jesus is the Christ: Peter/James/Stephen, Philip, and Apollos/ and Paul and Barnabas. Up to now, most scholars have presumed the Gospels to be at least somewhat "additive" in developing the character of Jesus. The Eberts suggest that each Gospel represents the viewpoint of one of the four parties, thus presenting differing views of the meaning of Jesus' life, his death, and his resurrection. There has been the regular presumption that St. Paul's letters were unified statements of his views of beliefs, behaviors, and practices in the early churches. The Eberts instead suggest that the letters show a shifting over time in Paul's theology and ethics as the apostles struggled with the other three Christian parties and with Gentiles to convert nonbelievers to Christianity. Harry and Paul Eberts are brothers devoted to researching the New Testament. Both are Yale Divinity School graduates.

How did the movement founded by Jesus transform more in the first seventy-five years after his death than it has in the two thousand years since? This book tells the story of how the Christian movement, which began as relatively informal, rural, Hebrew and Aramaic speaking, and closely anchored to the Jewish synagogue, became primarily urban, Greek speaking, and gentile by the early second century, spreading through the Greco-Roman world with a mission agenda and church organization distinct from its roots in Jewish Galilee. It also shows how the early church's witness can encourage the church today.

Estimated to date back to the very early Jesus movement, the lost Gospel known as Q offers a distinct and remarkable picture of Jesus and his significance--and one that differs markedly from that offered by its contemporary, the apostle Paul. Q presents Jesus as a prophetic critic of unbelief and a sage with the wisdom that can transform. In Q, the true meaning of the "kingdom of God" is the fulfillment of a just society through the transformation of the human relationships within it. Though this document has never been found, John Kloppenborg offers a succinct account of why scholars maintain it existed in the first place and demonstrates how they have been able to reconstruct its contents and wording from the two later Gospels that used it as a source: Matthew and Luke. Presented here in its entirety, as developed by the International Q Project, this Gospel reveals a very different portrait of Jesus than in much of the later canonical writings, challenging the way we think of Christian origins and the very nature and mission of Jesus Christ.

The Jesus Movement and the World of the Early Church explores the life and times of Jesus, his disciples, and the New Testament writers. Using multiple historical sources, Sheila McGinn offers a narrative history of Christianity's first one hundred years--exploring the political, social, and economic world in which the New Testament documents were produced and collected and tracing challenges and developments as the Jesus movement arose and interacted with the wider world of the Roman Empire.