"A landmark work. There has been no book on this topic of such significance since Harnack's Mission and Expansion over a century ago. Rich in its comprehensive coverage, Dr. Schnabel's book opens windows for the reader, letting in light from the New Testament, from the ancient church, and from the neighbors and rivals of the early church."

"The translation of Eckhard Schnabel's monumental history of the early Christian mission is a major publishing event. Not since Adolf von Harnack's classic The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, published a century ago, has the subject been surveyed in such encyclopedic breadth and depth. As was the case with its illustrious predecessor, a work of this scope and detail inevitably affords plenty to chew on and to disagree with. But there can be no doubt that readers of every persuasion are in Professor Schnabel's debt for this admirably comprehensive and accessible account of the rise of Christianity. It will become a standard reference work for students of the early church."

"Professor Eckhard Schnabel's Early Christian Mission is a masterpiece that stands in the tradition of Harnack and Lietzmann. Schnabel first judiciously traces the origins of early Christian mission and then skillfully identifies the diverse expressions of mission in the early Christian movement, from Jesus to Paul and beyond. In doing this he creates the historical, social and religious context in which the writings of the New Testament and related literature can be meaningfully read and appreciated and in the light of which the origins of Christianity can be understood with much greater precision. Professor Schnabel has placed us all in his debt."