Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Preliminary Material / Abraham J. Malherbe , Frederick W. Norris and James W. Thompson -- What Gnostics Knew / Harold W. Attridge -- Attitudes Toward Foreigners in 2 Maccabees, Eupolemus, Esther, Aristeas, and Luke-Acts / David L. Balch -- En-Spirited Waters: Baptism in the Confessions of Augustine / Pamela Bright -- Cyprian's Eschatology: Explaining Divine Purpose / J. Patout Bums -- The Reading of the Personal Letter as the Background for the Reading of the Scriptures in the Early Church / Claude E. Cox -- The Papias Fragments on Mark and Matthew and their Relationship to Luke's Prologue: An Essay on the Pre-History of the Synoptic Problem / Denis Farkasfalvy -- Further Reflections on the Fourfold Gospel Canon / William R. Farmer -- A Late-Antique Tunic Fragment in St. Louis / Paul Corby Finney -- Eusebius and the Little Labyrinth / John T. Fitzgerald -- Lions in Early Christian Literature / Robert M. Grant -- Cicero's Sketch and Lactantius's Plan / Rowan A. Greer -- Incense Offerings in the Syriac Transitus Mariae: Ritual and Knowledge in Ancient Christianity / Susan Ashbrook Harvey -- Pseudo-Orpheus: Tracking a Tradition / Carl R. Holladay -- The Athanasian Understanding of Scripture / Charles Kannengiesser -- Conversion to Paul's Gospel / Abraham J. Malherbe -- The Chreia in the Desert: Rhetoric and the Bible in the Apophthegmata Patrum / Kathleen McVey -- Encyclopedia Revisited / Frederick W. Norris -- Fourth- and Fifth-Century Homilists on the Ascension of Christ / Hendrik F. Stander -- A Cult from Philadelphia: Oikos Religion or Cultic Association? / Stanley K. Stowers -- The Appropriate, the Necessary, and the Impossible: Faith and Reason in Hebrews / James W. Thompson -- The Public Priestesses of Pompeii / Roy Bowen Ward -- A Select Bibliography of the Writings of Everett Ferguson / Craig Churchill -- Index of Canonical and Deuterocanonical Works / Abraham J. Malherbe , Frederick W. Norris and James W. Thompson -- Index of Ancient References / Abraham J. Malherbe , Frederick W. Norris and James W. Thompson -- Index of Authors / Abraham J. Malherbe , Frederick W. Norris and James W. Thompson.

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This volume honors Professor Everett Ferguson of Abilene Christian University on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday. Reflecting the interests of the honoree, the twenty-one contributions focus on various aspects of the early church and its environment. Together the articles form a broad tapestry of interrelated topics informed from the disciplines of philosophy, patristic theology, archaeology, rhetoric, art, Greco-Roman religion, and biblical studies.