1. List the 5 primary sources that have most affected your scholarship, thoughts about antiquity, and/or understanding of the NT/OT.
2. Books from the Bible are off limits unless you really want to list one, I certainly will not chastise you for it.
3. Finally, choose individual works if you can. This will be more interesting than listing the entire corpus of Cicero as one of your choices.

For now I’ll simply list the texts (an impossible task in itself) and later post on why I chose each one. So here’s my list:

1. Didache
2. Mishnah
3. Josephus’s Antiquities
4. The Progymnasmata (I know, not a single work)
5. Gospel of Thomas

Now, these are five sources that I have found particularly helpful for my own work or very interesting. I must admit, however, that compiling such a list is an awful task. Where are the sectarian writings from Judean Desert? Philo? The Hellenistic Moralists? The Epistle of Barnabas, or other apostolic fathers? The Pseudo-Clementines? As a classicist, how could I have left out the epics or the dramas? So, while I’m focusing on these five, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the most important. I trust that people’s lists will vary widely.

As part of my duty, I tag Mike Whitenton, John Anderson, Rob Kashow, Daniel Kirk, Alan Bandy, and Nick Norelli.