Exploring the New Testament, Volume 1
A Guide to the Gospels and Acts, Third Edition
3rd Edition
Published on 18. February 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-0-281-08462-3 (ISBN)
Description
'A superb one-stop shop for students.'
Dr Elizabeth Shively
Tried, tested and trusted by students and teachers across the world, this widely respected study guide enables you to engage with an array of essential topics, including:
- the Jewish and Greco-Roman background to the New Testament
- literary genres and forms
- issues of authorship, date and setting
- the content and major themes of each book
- well established and newer methods of study
- the latest scholarship in the quest for the historical Jesus
- the intersection of New Testament studies with contemporary faith and culture
Now in its third edition, this popular textbook has been fully revised and updated, and includes new sections on:
- the impact of social memory theory on Gospel studies
- recent work on characterization in narrative studies of the Gospels
- women in the Gospels
- reading the Gospels and Acts theologically
- how the Hebrew Scriptures are read by the New Testament authors
- the resurrection and Ascension of Jesus
- Luke's presentation of Jesus' identity and mission
- updated bibliographies, highlighting the most important and influential works published in the past decade
Drawing on the authors' decades of experience in teaching these topics, this comprehensive textbook gives students a strong understanding and a solid foundation for further study.
Dr Elizabeth Shively
Tried, tested and trusted by students and teachers across the world, this widely respected study guide enables you to engage with an array of essential topics, including:
- the Jewish and Greco-Roman background to the New Testament
- literary genres and forms
- issues of authorship, date and setting
- the content and major themes of each book
- well established and newer methods of study
- the latest scholarship in the quest for the historical Jesus
- the intersection of New Testament studies with contemporary faith and culture
Now in its third edition, this popular textbook has been fully revised and updated, and includes new sections on:
- the impact of social memory theory on Gospel studies
- recent work on characterization in narrative studies of the Gospels
- women in the Gospels
- reading the Gospels and Acts theologically
- how the Hebrew Scriptures are read by the New Testament authors
- the resurrection and Ascension of Jesus
- Luke's presentation of Jesus' identity and mission
- updated bibliographies, highlighting the most important and influential works published in the past decade
Drawing on the authors' decades of experience in teaching these topics, this comprehensive textbook gives students a strong understanding and a solid foundation for further study.
Reviews / Votes
'A superb one-stop shop for students looking for resources that open up the New Testament world and its writings.' * Dr Elizabeth Shively, Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies and Director of Teaching, School of Divinity, University of St Andrews * Presents the issues clearly, encouraging students to interact with the text. . . very useful for both students and teachers. * Evangel * A well-proportioned overview of background material, introductory detail and controversial issues. * James D. G. Dunn, Emeritus Lightfoot Professor of Divinity, Durham University * I know no better book for its purpose. * Richard Bauckham, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Studies, University of St Andrews *More details
Series
Edition
3rd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 246 mm
Width: 189 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
741 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-281-08462-3 (9780281084623)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
David Wenham | Steve Walton
Exploring the New Testament, Volume 1
A Guide to the Gospels and Acts, Third Edition
E-Book
02/2021
SPCK Publishing
€22.49
Available for download
Persons
Dr David Wenham has taught New Testament at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and Trinity College, Bristol. His most recent books include From Good News to Gospels (Eerdmans, 2018) and, as joint editor, Earliest Perceptions of Jesus in Context (Bloomsbury, 2018).
The Revd Professor Steve Walton is Associate Research Fellow and part-time Tutor in New Testament at Trinity College, Bristol. His recent books include jointly editing both Poverty in the Early Church and Today (Bloomsbury T. & T. Clark, 2019) and The Urban World and the First Christians (Eerdmans, 2017).
The Revd Professor Steve Walton is Associate Research Fellow and part-time Tutor in New Testament at Trinity College, Bristol. His recent books include jointly editing both Poverty in the Early Church and Today (Bloomsbury T. & T. Clark, 2019) and The Urban World and the First Christians (Eerdmans, 2017).
Content
How to use this book vii
A. SETTING THE SCENE
The historical context of
Jesus and the New Testament 3
From the Persian period to the Jewish war 3
Sources of information 3
Old and New Testaments 3
Jewish sources 3
Greek and Roman historians 5
Before the Romans 6
The Greeks 7
The Maccabees versus the Seleucid empire 7
The Hasmonean dynasty 10
The Romans 13
The Herod family 13
Pontius Pilate 18
After Pilate 19
Jesus' context 21
Essay topics 23
Further reading 23
2 Judaism in first-century Palestine 25
Five key marks of second temple Judaism 25
One true God 25
God has chosen Israel 28
God has provided a way to live 29
God has given the people a land, focused
in the temple 34
Hope for the future 36
Parties and groups within first-century
Judaism 37
Pharisees 39
Sadducees 40
Essenes 42
The 'fourth philosophy': the revolutionaries 42
Common Judaism 43
Further reading 44
B. APPROACHING THE GOSPELS
What are the Gospels? 47
What does 'gospel' mean? 48
The Gospels as like other ancient literature 49
The Gospels as unlike other ancient literature 51
Truth in both views? 52
Why were the Gospels written? 52
Why these Gospels? 54
Some issues for today 55
Essay topics 55
Further reading 55
4 Where did the Gospels come from? 57
Luke 1:1-4 57
Using a Gospels synopsis 58
Source criticism 58
Form criticism 70
Redaction criticism 74
And now? 79
Essay topics 80
Further reading 80
5 Understanding the Gospels today 81
Tools for interpreting the Gospels 81
Narrative criticism 84
Social-scientific approaches 88
Rhetorical criticism 89
Reader-response approaches 90
'Ideological' approaches 91
Structuralism 92
Post-structuralism and deconstruction 93
An approach to exegesis of the Gospels 94
The process of study 94
Pull the ideas together 97
Presentation 98
Essay topics 99
Further reading 99
Methods of interpretation: parables, miracles,
apocalyptic 100
The parables of Jesus 100
The miracles of Jesus 104
Apocalyptic imagery 108
Essay topics 110
Further reading 111
The historicity of the Gospels 111
A subjective issue 111
What sort of documents? 113
What sources of information did they have? 113
Doubts about the historicity of the contents 114
Arguments for historicity from the contents 116
Essay topics 120
Further reading 120
Using the Gospels today 120
What are we to make of four different Gospels? 120
What about teaching and using the
Gospels today? 122
An example: how to 'preach' Jesus and
the Gospels 122
C. UNDERSTANDING JESUS
The quest for the historical Jesus 127
Individuals and movements 127
Rationalism and Hermann Samuel Reimarus 127
H. G. Paulus and miracles 128
David Strauss and myth 128
The liberal lives of Jesus 129
A. Schweitzer and the eschatological Jesus 129
Rudolf Bultmann, myth and existentialism 130
The new quest 131
The Jesus Seminar 131
The third quest 132
Other modern views of Jesus 132
Issues 133
Presuppositions and subjectivity 133
Miracles 133
Sources 134
The religious context 134
Criteria and method 135
History matters 140
Essay topics 140
Further reading 140
7 The life of Jesus in the light of history 143
Birth and beginnings 143
John the Baptist 145
Galilee 147
The road to Jerusalem 149
Last days in Jerusalem 150
Essay topics 153
Further reading 153
8 The teaching and aims of Jesus 155
Why did Jesus die? 155
Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem 156
Jesus' demonstration in the temple 156
The final steps 158
Jesus' perspective 158
Jesus and the kingdom of God 160
God's reign in the OT and Judaism 160
Jesus and the kingdom 161
God's reign in Jesus' ministry 161
God's coming reign 163
The character of the kingdom 166
Welcome for 'sinners' 166
The kingdom of the Father 168
The response required 168
Jesus' ethics and his view of the torah 169
Jesus' teaching about the torah 169
Jesus' criticism of the torah 171
Was Jesus consistent? 172
Who did Jesus think he was? 174
Jesus as Israel 174
Jesus, his disciples and the renewed Israel 176
Jesus' reshaping of Israel 177
The aims of Jesus 178
Jesus as Messiah 179
Jesus as the Son of God 181
Jesus as the Son of Man 183
Summing up: Jesus and the purposes of Yahweh 184
Some issues for today 185
Essay topics 186
Further reading 186
D. GETTING INTO THE FOUR GOSPELS
Mark 191
Structure 191
A walk through Mark 191
Some key themes 202
Christology 202
Discipleship 203
Background and purpose 204
Authorship and date 205
Some issues for today 206
Essay topics 206
Further reading 207
10 Matthew 209
A look into the Gospel 209
How the Gospel is structured 211
Style 213
Theological themes 214
Jesus fulfils the OT story 214
Jesus fulfils the law and brings the higher
righteousness 215
Practical obedience and judgement 216
Jesus brings good news to the world: Jesus,
Gentiles and the church 217
The church 219
Kingdom and Christology 219
Sources of Matthew's Gospel 220
The two source theory 220
Background and purpose 222
Authorship and date 223
Some issues for today 224
Essay topics 225
Further reading 225
11 Luke 227
Luke-Acts: a two-volume work 227
Structure 227
Journeying with Jesus in Luke's Gospel 228
Some key themes 235
Salvation 235
Salvation for all 236
The Holy Spirit 237
Prayer and praise 237
Luke's sources 238
Luke's readers, purpose and authorship 239
Some issues for today 239
Essay topics 240
Further reading 240
12 John 243
A walk through the Gospel 243
Style 244
Theological themes 245
Jesus as Jewish Messiah 245
Jesus as divine Son 246
Reasons for believing: signs and witnesses 247
Is Jesus human in John? 248
The death of Jesus: how does it work? 249
Eternal life 251
The Holy Spirit 253
Future hope? 254
Believing 254
The sources of the Gospel 255
Dislocations in the text 255
A signs source 256
Theological variation 256
The synoptic Gospels 256
The background and purpose of John's
Gospel 257
Possible explanations of the differences 257
Authorship and date of the Gospel 262
In favour of the traditional identification 262
Against the traditional identification 262
Some issues for today 263
Essay topics 264
Further reading 264
E. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
Acts 267
Acts as Luke's volume two 267
What kind of book is Acts? 268
Style and presentation 270
Parallelism 270
Prophecy and fulfilment 270
Structure 271
A reading of Acts 271
Setting the scene 271
Mission in Jerusalem 272
Three big men 273
The gospel spreads in Syria-Palestine 274
Paul begins to travel; The Jerusalem meeting 275
Paul's second and third journeys 276
To Jerusalem and then Rome 281
Acts and history 285
Titles and geography 285
Time and dates 285
A chronological outline of Acts 286
Acts and Galatians 287
Speeches 288
Acts and theology: some major themes 290
God 290
Jesus 291
The Holy Spirit 292
Mission and the church 293
Luke's readers and purpose 294
Readers 294
Why did Luke write? 295
Authorship and date 295
Who is Luke? 295
When did Luke write? 297
Reading Acts today 297
Some issues for today 298
Essay topics 299
Further reading 299
Glossary 301
A. SETTING THE SCENE
The historical context of
Jesus and the New Testament 3
From the Persian period to the Jewish war 3
Sources of information 3
Old and New Testaments 3
Jewish sources 3
Greek and Roman historians 5
Before the Romans 6
The Greeks 7
The Maccabees versus the Seleucid empire 7
The Hasmonean dynasty 10
The Romans 13
The Herod family 13
Pontius Pilate 18
After Pilate 19
Jesus' context 21
Essay topics 23
Further reading 23
2 Judaism in first-century Palestine 25
Five key marks of second temple Judaism 25
One true God 25
God has chosen Israel 28
God has provided a way to live 29
God has given the people a land, focused
in the temple 34
Hope for the future 36
Parties and groups within first-century
Judaism 37
Pharisees 39
Sadducees 40
Essenes 42
The 'fourth philosophy': the revolutionaries 42
Common Judaism 43
Further reading 44
B. APPROACHING THE GOSPELS
What are the Gospels? 47
What does 'gospel' mean? 48
The Gospels as like other ancient literature 49
The Gospels as unlike other ancient literature 51
Truth in both views? 52
Why were the Gospels written? 52
Why these Gospels? 54
Some issues for today 55
Essay topics 55
Further reading 55
4 Where did the Gospels come from? 57
Luke 1:1-4 57
Using a Gospels synopsis 58
Source criticism 58
Form criticism 70
Redaction criticism 74
And now? 79
Essay topics 80
Further reading 80
5 Understanding the Gospels today 81
Tools for interpreting the Gospels 81
Narrative criticism 84
Social-scientific approaches 88
Rhetorical criticism 89
Reader-response approaches 90
'Ideological' approaches 91
Structuralism 92
Post-structuralism and deconstruction 93
An approach to exegesis of the Gospels 94
The process of study 94
Pull the ideas together 97
Presentation 98
Essay topics 99
Further reading 99
Methods of interpretation: parables, miracles,
apocalyptic 100
The parables of Jesus 100
The miracles of Jesus 104
Apocalyptic imagery 108
Essay topics 110
Further reading 111
The historicity of the Gospels 111
A subjective issue 111
What sort of documents? 113
What sources of information did they have? 113
Doubts about the historicity of the contents 114
Arguments for historicity from the contents 116
Essay topics 120
Further reading 120
Using the Gospels today 120
What are we to make of four different Gospels? 120
What about teaching and using the
Gospels today? 122
An example: how to 'preach' Jesus and
the Gospels 122
C. UNDERSTANDING JESUS
The quest for the historical Jesus 127
Individuals and movements 127
Rationalism and Hermann Samuel Reimarus 127
H. G. Paulus and miracles 128
David Strauss and myth 128
The liberal lives of Jesus 129
A. Schweitzer and the eschatological Jesus 129
Rudolf Bultmann, myth and existentialism 130
The new quest 131
The Jesus Seminar 131
The third quest 132
Other modern views of Jesus 132
Issues 133
Presuppositions and subjectivity 133
Miracles 133
Sources 134
The religious context 134
Criteria and method 135
History matters 140
Essay topics 140
Further reading 140
7 The life of Jesus in the light of history 143
Birth and beginnings 143
John the Baptist 145
Galilee 147
The road to Jerusalem 149
Last days in Jerusalem 150
Essay topics 153
Further reading 153
8 The teaching and aims of Jesus 155
Why did Jesus die? 155
Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem 156
Jesus' demonstration in the temple 156
The final steps 158
Jesus' perspective 158
Jesus and the kingdom of God 160
God's reign in the OT and Judaism 160
Jesus and the kingdom 161
God's reign in Jesus' ministry 161
God's coming reign 163
The character of the kingdom 166
Welcome for 'sinners' 166
The kingdom of the Father 168
The response required 168
Jesus' ethics and his view of the torah 169
Jesus' teaching about the torah 169
Jesus' criticism of the torah 171
Was Jesus consistent? 172
Who did Jesus think he was? 174
Jesus as Israel 174
Jesus, his disciples and the renewed Israel 176
Jesus' reshaping of Israel 177
The aims of Jesus 178
Jesus as Messiah 179
Jesus as the Son of God 181
Jesus as the Son of Man 183
Summing up: Jesus and the purposes of Yahweh 184
Some issues for today 185
Essay topics 186
Further reading 186
D. GETTING INTO THE FOUR GOSPELS
Mark 191
Structure 191
A walk through Mark 191
Some key themes 202
Christology 202
Discipleship 203
Background and purpose 204
Authorship and date 205
Some issues for today 206
Essay topics 206
Further reading 207
10 Matthew 209
A look into the Gospel 209
How the Gospel is structured 211
Style 213
Theological themes 214
Jesus fulfils the OT story 214
Jesus fulfils the law and brings the higher
righteousness 215
Practical obedience and judgement 216
Jesus brings good news to the world: Jesus,
Gentiles and the church 217
The church 219
Kingdom and Christology 219
Sources of Matthew's Gospel 220
The two source theory 220
Background and purpose 222
Authorship and date 223
Some issues for today 224
Essay topics 225
Further reading 225
11 Luke 227
Luke-Acts: a two-volume work 227
Structure 227
Journeying with Jesus in Luke's Gospel 228
Some key themes 235
Salvation 235
Salvation for all 236
The Holy Spirit 237
Prayer and praise 237
Luke's sources 238
Luke's readers, purpose and authorship 239
Some issues for today 239
Essay topics 240
Further reading 240
12 John 243
A walk through the Gospel 243
Style 244
Theological themes 245
Jesus as Jewish Messiah 245
Jesus as divine Son 246
Reasons for believing: signs and witnesses 247
Is Jesus human in John? 248
The death of Jesus: how does it work? 249
Eternal life 251
The Holy Spirit 253
Future hope? 254
Believing 254
The sources of the Gospel 255
Dislocations in the text 255
A signs source 256
Theological variation 256
The synoptic Gospels 256
The background and purpose of John's
Gospel 257
Possible explanations of the differences 257
Authorship and date of the Gospel 262
In favour of the traditional identification 262
Against the traditional identification 262
Some issues for today 263
Essay topics 264
Further reading 264
E. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
Acts 267
Acts as Luke's volume two 267
What kind of book is Acts? 268
Style and presentation 270
Parallelism 270
Prophecy and fulfilment 270
Structure 271
A reading of Acts 271
Setting the scene 271
Mission in Jerusalem 272
Three big men 273
The gospel spreads in Syria-Palestine 274
Paul begins to travel; The Jerusalem meeting 275
Paul's second and third journeys 276
To Jerusalem and then Rome 281
Acts and history 285
Titles and geography 285
Time and dates 285
A chronological outline of Acts 286
Acts and Galatians 287
Speeches 288
Acts and theology: some major themes 290
God 290
Jesus 291
The Holy Spirit 292
Mission and the church 293
Luke's readers and purpose 294
Readers 294
Why did Luke write? 295
Authorship and date 295
Who is Luke? 295
When did Luke write? 297
Reading Acts today 297
Some issues for today 298
Essay topics 299
Further reading 299
Glossary 301