In a comprehensive and detailed survey on its remarkably widespread employment in the Roman empire, Dr. Hengel examines the way in which "the most vile death of the cross" was regarded in the Greek-speaking world and particularly in Roman-occupied Palestine. His conclusions bring out more starkly than ever the offensiveness of the Christian message: Jesus not only died an unspeakably cruel death, he underwent the most contemptible abasement that could be imagined. So repugnant was the gruesome reality, that a natural tendency prevails to blunt, remove, or deomesticate its scandalous impact. Yet any discussion of a "theology of the cross" must be preceded by adequate comprehension of both the nature and extent of this scandal.

Hengel's classic work refers not only to all of Josephus' works, but also to every relevant Rabbinic tractate, Qumran text, contemporary Latin or Greek author and biblical, apocryphal or pseudepigraphical and early Christian text.

he time between the conquests of Alexander the Great and the Maccabaean wars is one of the obscurest periods of Jewish history. Yet it is vitally important for our understanding of Judaism in the period up to and including the New Testament era because it was then that the foundations of first-century Judaism were being laid.In his now classic — and encyclopaedic — study/tic/aim and Hellenism, Martin Hengel demonstrated how Greek influence on Judaism at this stage was far greater than has usually been supposed, and painted a fascinating picture of a hitherto unexplored culture. Here, in a much slimmer book, he summarizes the results of that larger volume and in some aspects takes it further. First he outlines the history of Palestine from Alexander's expedition to the death of Antiochus III in 187 BC. He then shows the political, social and cultural features of the Hellenistic world, asking in particular how it was possible for a non-Greek to become accepted in it. Finally, he explores the development of Judaism in the various countries of the Diaspora and in Palestine itself.

Text: English, German (translation)

In this volume, originally presented as the 1987 Stone Lectures aat Princeton Theological Seminary, Professor Hengel brings his own distinctive approach to the Johannine Literature. Hengel examines complex questions of origin and authorship. In the process he shows that many ancient traditions regarding the Gospel's place of origin and its authorship have been far too quickly and carelessly dismissed. Professor Hengel opens his discussion with references to the Fourth Gospel in the second century. Through internal evidence fro the Johannine letters, he moves back into the first century to examine the community to which these letters relate and he provides an outline of the person and character of the elder who is the focal point of the Johannine school, and through him traces a history of the Gospel tradition back to a figure who witnessed the death of Jesus in Jerulasalem. The final chapter offers startling conclusions that will doubtless fuel the debate that began with the advent of modern critical scholarship.