Lost Letters of Pergamum: A Story from the New Testament World, The

The Lost Letters of Pergamum: A Story from the New Testament World. By Bruce W. Longenecker. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003, 192 pp., $14.99 paper.

Sixteen years ago, the Heidelberg NT scholar Gerd Theissen penned a delightful historical novel that explored the social context of the historical Jesus. In the Shadow of the Galilean (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987) was eminently successful in exploiting a seldom used genre (at least by NT scholars) for reconstructing and presenting NT backgrounds. After Theissen, one could only wonder when he or some other knowledgeable and literary soul might attempt a sequel, such as In the Shadow of the Tarsian.

Bruce Longenecker is that person. He has skipped Paul of Tarsus altogether, however, in favor of a setting at the end of the first century AD on the west coast of the Roman province of Asia. He also avoided the creation of an historical novel in favor of writing a collection of fictional correspondences between a Roman nobleman in Pergamum and Luke, the author of the canonical Luke-Acts.

Fictional writing is notoriously difficult to do well, but Longenecker has proven himself quite capable. The end result is a highly informative volume that college and seminary students, as well as lay people, will find enjoyable to read. One of the virtues of this approach is that it will put solid NT background information into the hands of people who may not otherwise read the standard texts by E. F. Ferguson, P. Barnett, B. Witherington, or F. F. Bruce. Lost Letters will also make an excellent supplemental text for a course on NT Backgrounds.

As the starting point of his volume, Longenecker discusses the (fictional) archaeological discovery of a cache of papyrus letters tucked away in a private home under excavation in Pergamum. This would be a rather miraculous find since no papyri of any kind have been discovered in Turkey (simply because the climate is not conducive to the preservation of papyri). The letters represent a "dialogue" over time between Luke and a man named Antipas, whom Longenecker creates based on the reference in Revelation 2:13 to "Antipas, my faithful witness, . . . [who] was put to death in your city [Pergamum]-where Satan lives." In the correspondence, Luke proves to be a sensitive witness to Antipas who is very open to and interested in Christianity.

This correspondence gives Longenecker the opportunity to discuss many topics of NT background that include but go far beyond the social and religious setting of Pergamum in the late first century. Readers will find this book rich with concise discussions of such Jewish-oriented topics as the various parties within Judaism (viz. the Pharisees, Essenes, Samaritans, Zealots, and the Sicarii), peasant life in Galilee, the historian Josephus, and the political figures of Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipas. This came as somewhat of a surprise to me since I assumed that the book would probably focus exclusively on the Asia Minor setting. The range of topics also makes the book more serviceable as a supplemental text.

The letters also give significant insight into the lifestyles of the urban elite in the Roman world. This includes such related topics as Greco-Roman religion (particularly the worship of Asklepios), the honor-shame culture, benefaction and patronage, trade guilds, and the function of the ruler cult in the Roman empire. Longenecker also provides a fascinating reconstruction of two very different house churches. He portrays one of these house churches as highly syncretistic and making great compromises with the world.

I found most of the fictional reconstructions in the volume not only credible and plausible, but also as helpful in gaining a holistic picture of life at that time. This is an additional virtue of Longenecker's approach that will prove exceptionally valuable to students of the NT. I found Longenecker's portrayal of how a pagan would read and react to Luke's Gospel particularly fascinating. One could subtitle this section of the book "Reading Luke in First-Century Pergamum." I also found his depiction of the social difficulties newcomers would have when they attended the house churches quite intriguing. It should also be noted that Longenecker reaches much more conservative conclusions than does Theissen in his assumptions, conclusions, and reconstructions.

By the time I finished the volume, several questions came to mind. Perhaps the biggest question has to do with whether Longenecker has presented us with a Luke that is a bit too modern given his emphasis on "dialogue" with Antipas. Since Luke's hero in the book of Acts was passionately committed to bold proclamation that often got him into trouble, I was rather surprised that Luke was not more forthright and bold in his proclamation of the gospel to Antipas. In addition to this, I wondered why docetism never makes an appearance in the book. Also, would a conscientious believer such as Antonius have really gone to a gladiatorial contest? Were there no slaves in the house churches in Pergamum? Finally, I was somewhat surprised that the first explicit reference to "faith in Jesus" is mentioned with regard to Demetrius (p. 165) and not in connection with Antipas. It led me to wonder when Antipas exercised faith in Christ. These are all minor and should not detract from my overall high estimation of the book.