Understanding The New Testament And Its Message

A solid, well-done introduction to the New Testament for undergraduates that explores teaching on faith issues, as well as the theology and spirituality of the New Testament. Reflections, study questions, charts, and indexes are included. +

In the comprehensive The New Testament: Its Background and Message, the late Thomas Lea presented a clear and concise introduction to the New Testament giving readers the key that unlocks the door to understanding these important texts. This influential work presents the background of the New Testament with broad strokes and with a focus on specific books including the Gospels, Acts, and Paul and his letters. Originally written in an easy-to-understand style and form, Lea’s text continues to unlock the message of the New Testament for both new students and seasoned scholars.

Explores the literature of the New Testament of the Bible, highlighting the many messages contained within the text and outlining issues that can be discussed by heralding these messages. Also provides background of the time period and locations in which the New Testament was written.

This survey textbook by two respected New Testament scholars is designed to meet the needs of contemporary evangelical undergraduates. The book effectively covers the New Testament books and major topics in the New Testament, assuming no prior academic study of the Bible. The authors pay attention to how the New Testament documents fit together as a canonical whole that supplements the Old Testament to make up the Christian Scriptures. They also show how the New Testament writings provide basic material for Christian doctrine, spirituality, and engagement with culture. Chapters can be assigned in any order, making this an ideal textbook for one-semester courses at evangelical schools. This is the first volume in a new series of survey textbooks that will cover the Old and New Testaments. The book features full-color illustrations that hold interest and aid learning and offers a full array of pedagogical aids: photographs, sidebars, maps, time lines, charts, glossary, and discussion questions. Additional resources for instructors and students are available through Textbook eSources.

Abridgement of An Introduction to the Old Testament. This abridged edition of an established major textbook brings the best of New Testament scholarship to the church and makes it accessible to the average reader. This book focuses on historical questions dealing with authorship, date, sources, purpose, and destination of the New Testament books. By focusing on the essentials, the authors ensure that each book is accurately understood within its historical settings. For each New Testament document, the authors also provide a summary of that book’s content and discuss the book’s theological contribution to the overall canon. This abridgement includes questions at the end of each chapter to facilitate group discussion and personal review. It will help a new generation of students and church leaders better grasp the message of the New Testament

This book introduces the New Testament in two senses: it not only provides basic literary and historical information on each of the twenty-seven writings but also orients readers to the religious, theological, and ethical issues related to the message and meaning of Jesus Christ. The overall goal is to help interested readers of the New Testament become informed, responsible interpreters of these writings and thereby enrich their personal faith and understanding. By giving special emphasis to how the New Testament has helped shape the church’s identity and theological outlook throughout the centuries, as well as the role it has played within the broader cultures of both East and West, this introduction also seeks to assist readers in exercising creative, informed leadership within their own communities of faith and in bringing a deeper understanding of early Christianity to their conversations with the wider public. Along with separate chapters devoted to each New Testament writing, there are chapters explaining how this collection of texts emerged as uniquely authoritative witnesses to the church’s faith; why they were recognized as canonical whereas other early Christian writings were not; how the four canonical Gospels are related to one another, including a discussion of the Synoptic Problem; how the Jesus tradition––his teachings, stories from his ministry, and the accounts of his suffering, death and resurrection––originated and developed into Gospels written in narrative form; and how the Gospels relate to Jesus Christ as he was and is. Also included is a chapter on the writings of Paul and how they emerged as a collection of authoritative texts for the church. This chapter includes a discussion of ancient letter-writing, special considerations for interpreting the Pauline writings, and Paul’s decisive influence within the history of the church and western culture.

As ancient literature and a cornerstone of the Christian faith, the New Testament has exerted a powerful religious and cultural impact. But how much do we really know about its origins? Who were the people who actually wrote the sacred texts that became part of the Christian Bible? The New Testament: A Very Short Introduction authoritatively addresses these questions, offering a fresh perspective on the underpinnings of this profoundly influential collection of writings. In this concise, engaging book, noted New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson takes readers on a journey back to the time of the early Roman Empire, when the New Testament was written in ordinary Greek (koine) by the first Christians. The author explains how the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and Revelation evolved into the canon of sacred writings for the Christian religion, and how they reflect a reinterpretation of the symbolic world and societal forces of first-century Greco-Roman and Jewish life. Equally important, readers will find both a positive and critical reading of the New Testament--one that looks beyond its theological orientation to reveal an often-surprising diversity of viewpoints. This one-of-a-kind introduction engages four distinct dimensions of the earliest Christian writings--anthropological, historical, religious, and literary--to provide readers with a broad conceptual and factual framework. In addition, the book takes an in-depth look at compositions that have proven to be particularly relevant over the centuries, including Paul's letters to the Corinthians and Romans and the Gospels of John, Mark, Matthew, and Luke. Ideal for general readers and students alike, this fascinating resource characterizes the writing of the New Testament not as an unknowable abstraction or the product of divine intervention, but as an act of human creativity by people whose real experiences, convictions, and narratives shaped modern Christianity.