Griechische Grabinschriften und neutestamentliche Eschatologie

Imre Peres examines about 1,000 Greek epitaphs from the age of Hellenism and the early Roman empire which give information about the Greeks' concept of life after death. A large number of these epitaphs are printed in the original and in a translation. The author deals in particular with deification, exaltation, ascension, heavenly dwellings, communion with the gods, divine nature and the resurrection as well as the contrast between the Greek and the Christian understanding of hope. He also examines the conceivable connections between significant New Testament texts and Hellenistic ideas of the future, demonstrating how New Testament eschatology was adapted by »Greeks,« what was comprehensible for the Greeks and how the »transformation« of early Christian eschatology began in the early church.