A Home for the Homeless: A Social-Scientific Criticism of 1 Peter, Its Situation and Strategy

Jack Elliott's A Home for the Homeless is one of the most exciting works in biblical scholarship that I have read in recent years, and the best book on 1 Peter that I have ever read. In my mind he is certainly on the right track in detecting the life-situation addressed in this important epistle. It is consoling to find that amid the plethora of writings on the Bible really worthwhile discoveries can still be made. --Raymond E. Brown author of Recent Discoveries and the Biblical World Already an acknowledged expert on 1 Peter, John Elliott here combines New Testament exegesis and a keen knowledge of the Hellenistic world with the emergent sociological analysis of the New Testament. Elliott has produced a fascinating statement on the broad social setting and religious meaning of an important but often overlooked piece of early Christian literature. It is clearly a significant methodological statement which has ramifications beyond a study of 1 Peter. --John R. Donahue, SJ author of The Gospel in Parable The power of this book lies in its demonstration of how we move from philology and literary studies to history and sociological reconstruction. Elliott is the first to show that from the meanings of words and their theology we are able to draw insight in the social reality, therefore relevance, of an important religious text from Judeo-Christian antiquity. The book is a methodological model, but also a tour de force of intellect and imagination. --Jacob Neusner author of Rabbinic Literature and the New Testament Attempts to look through the New Testament texts into the lives of real human communities of the past received a significant boost with the first publication of A Home for the Homeless. Elliott's work has had a central and provocative role in the debate that has grown and matured during the subsequent decade and which continues vigorously today: What are the appropriate ways of using methods of the social sciences to understand texts from antiquity? --Wayne A. Meeks author of The First Urban Christians John H. Elliott is Professor Emeritus of New Testament at the University of San Francisco. He is also the author of 'The Elect and the Holy, ' 'What Is Social-Scientific Criticism?, ' and '1 Peter' (Anchor Bible).