Prayers from the Ancient World: Greco-Roman, Jewish and Christian Prayers

This valuable collection of ancient prayers enables readers to consider ancient prayers and ancient religions from a broad comparative perspective. This volume collects 60 prayers from a span of 12 centuries (c.700BCE-500CE) that represent three great religious traditions in antiquity. The first section presents 20 prayers from the Greco-Roman world, the second, 20 prayers from the Jewish world, and the third, 20 prayers from the early Christian world. The collection illustrates the different perspectives within each of the larger religious traditions by drawing from numerous groups and movements. It does not include prayers from the canonical biblical texts, since these are generally well known. Rather, it provides an orientation to the world of the biblical texts. Readers working in a wide range of fields, such as the classics, ancient philosophy, ancient religions, comparative religion, Hebrew Bible, Judaism, New Testament and early Christianity, should find this volume useful.