How is it that a first-generation Jewish messianic movement undertook a mission to the pagan world and rapidly achieved a momentum that would have a lasting impact on world history? In this monumental two-volume study, Eckhard Schnabel provides a unified and detailed picture of the rise and growth of early Christian mission. He begins with a search for a missionary impulse in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism and then weighs the evidence for a mission of Jesus to Gentiles. But the center of focus is the apostolic missionary activity as it is related in Acts, Paul's letters, and the rest of the New Testament. This study seeks to describe all the evidence relevant to the missionary strategy and expansion of the early church, to explain the theological dimensions of the early Christian mission, and to integrate numerous studies published in recent decades into a synthetic picture. Schnabel's detailed analysis will form a solid basis for a new understanding of the rise of Christianity and the nature of Christian mission--both then and now.
