"The aim of this book is to show how the New Testament and other early Christian writings depicted the return of Jesus and other end-times topics. Further light is shed by descriptions of the first-century Jewish context and later developments in Christian thinking. The goal is not to construct a systematic eschatology for today that will convince everyone - an impossible task - but to understand the diversity of Christian teaching by illuminating the historical, social, and theological settings of the early Christian writings on the topic."--BOOK JACKET.