No passage in the New Testament ever describes the groups it assumes everyone knows. Yet, we beg for those descriptions and so scholars over the years have sketched and re-sketched, and then discarded and reconstructed what can be known about those groups. The most recent, and thoroughly readable — and every church library needs this book and I would say pastors need it and students need to know about it to save them a million errors of caricature — book that sketches these people is by William A. Simmons. The book is called Peoples of the New Testament World: An Illustrated Guide
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So, you ask, what’s in the book?
Illustrations aplenty and discussions of Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Zealots, tax collectors, sinners, people of the land, Samaritans, John the Baptist, Hebrews, Hellenists, Charlatans-Exorcists-magicians, Herodians, Roman rulers, centurions, patrons-clients, Greek philosophers, and slaves and free. And a splendid, colorful introduction to the historical context of the New Testament.
The book will be of eminent use to professors and teachers as a textbook or as a book to whom students can be sent for an initial sketch of the various groups.
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