Incluye referencias bibliográficas e índices

An epigraphic portrait of Ephesus and its villages / James R. Harrison. An Ephesian tale : mystery cults, reverse theological engineering, and the triumph of Christianity in Ephesus / Guy MacLean Rogers. The Jewish community in Ephesus and its interaction with Christ-believers in the first century CE and beyond / Paul Trebilco. Acclaiming Artemis in Ephesus : political theologies in Acts 19 / Bradley J. Bitner. The gladiator graveyard of Ephesus as evidence for the study of martyrdom / Mikael Haxby. [Ekklesia] in Ephesians as godlike in the heavens, in temple, in [gamos], and in armor : idealogy and iconography in Ephesus / Fredrick J. Long. From Zeus or by Endoios? : Acts 19:35 as a peculiar assessment of the Ephesian Artemis / Stephan Witetschek. Ephesian cultic officials, their benefactors, and the quest for civic virtue : Paul's alternative quest for status in the epistle to the Ephesians / James R. Harrison. Ephesus and the numismatic background to [neokoros] / Michael P. Theophilos.

This collection of essays examines the urban context of early Christian churches in the first-century Roman world. A city-by-city investigation of the early churches in the New Testament clarifies the challenges, threats, and opportunities that urban living provided for early Christians. Readers will come away with a better understanding of how scholars assemble an accurate picture of the cities in which the first Christians flourished--Publisher's website.