Bart D. Ehrman
— University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"In this masterful volume we find that greatest of rarities—a collection of ancient texts scarcely known (let alone studied) by scholars of Christian antiquity. With these fresh translations of some thirty apocryphal works, each with a gratifyingly full introduction and bibliography, Burke, Landau, and all the contributors have provided us with a rigorous but highly accessible volume that will long prove to be a scholarly vade mecum."
April D. DeConick
— Rice University
"A treasure trove of early Christian writings dating from the second century onward. Created by Tony Burke and Brent Landau as a supplement to more traditional collections of apocryphal literature, this book contains amazing stories from the Christian imagination about Jesus and other biblical characters whose legends were popular witnesses to the Christian faith in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Many of the texts introduced and translated here are being made available to us for the first time. A must-have collection."
Paul Foster
— University of Edinburgh
"Magnificent. . . . The thirty writings brought together here present a fascinating snapshot of the concerns, interests, and piety of various early believers expressed in the form of literary texts. This volume will become a standard work in the field; serious scholars of early Christianity and interested readers will learn much while being entertained and captivated by these enigmatic ancient texts."
Andrew Gregory
— University College, Oxford
"This fine collection brings together thirty recently published or long known but often neglected Christian texts, variously inspired by or responding to characters or events presented in the books of the New Testament, together with one Jewish parody of the life of Jesus. Editors and contributors alike are to be congratulated on their achievement, which paves the way for a wider appreciation and understanding of these varied, fascinating, and sometimes surprising texts, some of which may at times have been more popular than their biblical counterparts."
— Expository Times
"A wonderful collection of English translations and introductions to 30 almost completely unknown extracanonical writings. . . . Unlike those in many other US handbooks, the bibliographies show a clear awareness of German, French, Italian, Spanish and even Russian secondary literature."
Peter M. Head in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
"This book will be useful for historians and theologians interested in popular Christianity across the centuries and for scholars interested in the reception of NT characters in diverse types of Christianity."
Southwestern Journal of Theology
“Promises to become a standard work in the field for many years to come.”
Religious Studies Review
“The breadth of documents presented coupled with the quality of scholarship with which they are handled makes this book an indispensable resource for the study of early Christian literature.”