ContentsIntroduction to T&T Clark Handbook to Early Christian Meals in the Greco-Roman World, Peter-Ben Smit and Soham Al-SuadiPart One Authors & Collections1 Meals in the Works of Philo of Alexandria, Maria Sokolskaya2 Dining with Dignity: Josephus’s Rhetorical Use of the Essene Common Meals, William den Hollander3 Plutarch’s Septem sapientium convivium: An Example of Greco-Roman Sympotic Literature, Matthias Becker4 Meals at Qumran: Literary Fiction, Liturgical Anticipation, or Performed Ritual?, Claudia D. Bergmann5 Hermetic Texts in Nag Hammadi Codex VI, Jan Heilmann6 Meals in the Apostolic Fathers, Andrew McGowan7 ‘Prepare Yourself.’ Spatial Rhetoric in Rabbinic and Synoptic Meal Parables, Eric OttenheijmPart Two Gospel Tradition8 The Gospel of Mark – The Commitment of the ‘Unleavened’ to the Kingdom of God Agenda of Jesus, Martin Ebner9 Meals in the Gospel of Luke, Matthias Klinghardt10 The Primary Role of Meals in Matthew’s Construction of Diasporic Identity, Hal E. Taussig11 ‘Let Anyone Who is Thirsty Come to Me, and Let the One Who Believes in Me Drink’: The Johannine Jesus as the True Provider of Earthly and Heavenly Nourishment, Esther Kobel 12 Interpretations of the Eucharist in the Gospel of Philip, Silke Petersen Part Three Acts13 Meals as a Literary Motif in Acts of the Apostles, Dennis E. Smith14 The Contribution of Meal Scenes to the Narrative Theology of Acts of Paul, Annette Merz15 Eucharists and other Meals in the Apocryphal Acts of John and Acts of Andrew, Jan N. Bremmer16 Meals in Joseph and Aseneth, Angela StandhartingerPart Four Epistolary Literature17 “The Meal in 1 Corinthians 11”, Soham Al-Suadi18 Meals in the Letter to the Romans – The Debate about the Food on the Table, Kathy Ehrensperger 19 Pseudepigraphic Letters of Paul, Soham Al-Suadi 20 Meals in the Johannine Letters, Jan Heilmann 21 Meals in the Further Epistolary Literature of the New Testament, Hans Joachim Stein 22 Useless Foods: Communal Meals in Hebrews, Gabriella Gelardini Part Five Apocalyptic Literature23 Food in Fourth Ezra, Peter-Ben Smit24 Meals and Banqueting Culture in the Apocalypse of John, Markus Öhler Part Six Texts of Daily Life25 Meals and Magic: Eating for Revelation in the Eighth Book of Moses (PGM XIII/ Leiden I 395), Monika Amsler 26 Meals in Ancient Medicinal Texts, John Wilkins 27 Material Meals: Space, Inscription and Image as the Texts of Daily Life, Lillian I. Larsen and Jesper Blid Name Index Ancient Sources

Meals and dining, often overlooked by biblical scholars, were as definitive for early Christian groups as they were for both Hellenistic and Roman culture. Offering extensive treatment of the New Testament and key literature contemporary with it, the Handbook surveys how meals are portrayed in texts and demonstrates how deeply dining ritual was tied to ethnic identity, social regulation, gender issues, politics, and religion.

What significance does the ritual meal have in early Christian communities? How can this inform our understanding of Christian origins? This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of this crucial issue in early Christian identity, drawing from the New Testament and Greco-Roman literature.

T&T Clark Handbooks is a series of single-volume reference works which map the parameters of a discipline or sub-discipline and present the ‘state-of-the-art’ in terms of research. Each Handbook offers a systematic and structured range of specially commissioned essays reflecting on the history, methodologies, research methods, current debates and future of a particular field of research. T&T Clark Handbooks provide researchers and graduate students with both cutting-edge perspectives on perennial questions and authoritative overviews of the history of research.