Ben F. Meyer’s work had a massive impact on the work of N.T. Wright, Ben Witherington, John P. Meier, and many others. His method of critical realism—balancing rationalism with idealism—helped turn the tide in Jesus studies toward a more traditional view of Jesus’ life and early Christianity. This collection gathers some of Meyer’s most influential works—including The Aims of Jesus and Critical Realism and the New Testament—which have shaped the way a generation of scholars think about Jesus as a historical figure.

The purpose of this volume is to take the central event in the life of primitive Christianity—the launching of the mission to the Gentiles—as a paradigm of changing Christian self-definition and as the force that brought Christian identity into the light of thematic consciousness. This has entailed reconstructing the history of the launching of the mission. The Early Christians explores questions of the earliest Christian self-definition and self-consciousness.