Everyday Life in Graeco-Roman Times: Documentary Papyri and the New Testament (2024)

Everyday life in Graeco-Roman times has fascinated generations of scholars, students, and people interested in the New Testament alike. One of the most unique sources to access ancient everyday affairs are documentary papyri because they provide access to the ancient world both before and while it was shaped into one in which Christianity began to predominate. These textual sources allow the modern reader to meet everyday people from the past through their own writings and in texts about their daily affairs, joys, and sorrows. Documentary papyri provide an abundance of information to contextualize the New Testament and its authors, and to better understand its stories and messages. This volume aims at highlighting some of these contexts and to shed new papyrological light on the New Testament. The essays in this volume have been written in honour of Peter Arzt-Grabner, who has illuminated the New Testament through documentary papyri for more than three decades.