Johan Smit het ‘n groot bydra gelewer tot die inhoud van hierdie boek. Ek het Johan Smit ontmoet na ‘n skrywe van my in BRIEWE BEELD sowat 3 jaar gelede. Met my eerste besoek aan hom in Edenvale het hy vir my sy skrywes gewys aan tydskrifte en persone. Persone het ingesluit : Dr. Adrio Konig, Dr. Isak Burger, Dr. Bernard Ficker, Dr. Deon Jonker, Prof. J.S. Malan, Prof. A.D. (Andries ) Du Toit en nog vele geleerdes. Nadat ek ‘n paar van sy briewe gelees het en met hom gesels het, was dit soos ‘n soete geur wat ek gekry het, met die wete dat hierdie man ontsaglike kennis het van : Die Bybel en al die variasies van Christenskap, die geskiedenis van die Christelike geloof, asook baie ander gelowe en Godsdienste. Hy het ‘n goeie kennis van die reg en van getuienis lewer in die hof, wat hy baie behendig gebruik as hy getuienisse in die Bybel aanhaal en ontleed. Daar is ook net geen einde aan hierdie man se algemene kennis nie. Om sy briewe te lees dwing net soveel respek en bewondering af as om ‘n meester-kunstenaar te aanskou terwyl hy sy kunswerk skilder of beeldhouwerk doen.

Walls shows how the demographic transformation of the church has brought us to a new "Ephesian moment." The church is challenged as never before to become one global body with its many cultural and ethnic members contributing their gifts. Former patterns of domination need to be superseded. His seer's eyes probe beneath the surface to bring the readerinsights into Pentecostalism, African traditional religion, and the ironic ways in which the Western missionary movement often accomplished things--both for good and for ill--that its agents never dreamed of

This book is a readable and analytical survey of those important but little-known Christian documents of the second and third centuries which are collectively referred to as the New Testament Apocrypha, and is intended to serve both as an introductory guide for interested clergy and laity, but also as a useful reference for those pursuing higher research. Questions of the manufacture of the codices, the transmission of the texts, the discovery of the lost and hidden books, and of the classification of the documents are considered, and the books are placed and critically examined in their geographical and social setting.