Christianity in the Making, 3 Volumes (Vol. I, Jesus Remembered; Vol. 2, Beginning From Jerusalem; Vol. 3: Neither Jew Nor Greek)

Grand Rapids, Mich. (2003, 2009 and 2015): William B. Eermans Publishing Co. First Editions. Large Thick Octavos. In three volumes. Many scholars consider these volumes of over 3,000 pages the definitive study of early Christianity from its earliest beginnings to the period at the end of the 2nd Century. In the first volume, Jesus Remembered, Dunn has excavated the gospels to disclose Jesus of Nazareth and his mission, within the methods of Palestinian Judaism. In the second volume, beginning from Jerusalem, he examines the origins of the church from Paul's mission found in Acts and the Pauline epistles. The third volume: Neither Jew nor Greek, he traces the tradition from the destruction of the Jerusalem temple until the landmark formulation of Irenaeus, who established the four gospels as the essential truth of the Christian church. His work in details relates the extra-canonical literature as well as the Gospel of Thomas, as well as the importance of how Bar Kokhba's revolt forced the 2nd century post-apostolic writers to reinterpret that event and the Greco-Roman culture. Dunn insist that James, the brother of Jesus, merits recognition equal to that of Peter and Paul because of how he kept the influence of Jerusalem central to the Christian faith expanded throughout the Roman world. It is an essential reference to the serious student of the earliest days of Jesus as well as how Jesus was remembered, and his message spread throughout the Roman empire in the first two centuries. Vol. I. xvii, 1019 pages; Vol. 2. xv, 1347 pages; Vol. 3. xiv, 946 pages. A fine set bound in tan cloth, spines lettered in dark brown, each in their original dust jackets. A lovely set. No names, bookplates ot notes. (the set is in print in paperback only at $224).