ï~~358 Reviews
Chapter 8 concludes the book by recapitulating the "New Voices in Ancient History" that these papyri allow us to hear, positioning the ambivalence,
ambiguity, and lack of theological diversity in the documents against the picture drawn by Christian literary sources, and underlining the social diversity
and variety of perspectives one encounters among the documentary papyri.
By its careful and exhaustive study of all the relevant documents, this book
offers new insights into the subjects with which it deals. It also provides a full
and excellent introduction for the student and non-specialist; that the texts of
all the documents dealt with are provided along with translations is especially
useful in this regard. The vocabulary and circumstances found in the papyri are
compared throughout with the testimony of literary texts, resulting in many
useful observations and advances in the understanding of the papyri. This
important new study of early Christianity in Egypt is a most welcome addition
to the literature on the subject.
Macquarie University Malcolm Choat
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