The New Testament Story

by Ben Witherington III

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2004

Overview

This informative, clearly written book introduces the New Testament in two ways. First, it explains where the New Testament came from, and two it examines the New Testament writings themselves. Ben Witherington first tells how and why the New Testament documents were written and collected and how they came to be known as the New Testament that we have today. He then discusses the main stories and major figures in the New Testament. Witherington looks particularly at the Gospels, examining how and why their stories differ and pointing out what these ancient biographies actually say about Jesus. He also surveys the ways that these stories were told and retold, explaining how this literary development has influenced Christian theology, ethics, and social thought.

At once scholarly and accessible—it really is written in plain English—Witherington’s guide to the origins and message of the New Testament is eminently suitable as a text for college and seminary students. Each chapter is followed by a section of exercises and questions for study and reflection. The New Testament Story will also prove valuable to individual readers and ideal for church classes and group Bible studies.

Key Features

• Presents theological explorations of Christian living
• Addresses major questions in practical theology

Contents

• The Story of the New Testament
  • The Tools and the Text
  • The Pedagogy and the Passion: Sayings and Passion Stories about Jesus
  • Letters and Homilies for Converts
  • All the Good News That Was Fit to Print
  • The Selection, Collection, and Rejection of Texts
• The Stories in the New Testament
  • Borrowed Tales from the Earlier Testament
  • Stories of Paul and Peter: The Trials and Tribulations of Apostles
  • Tales of the Holy Family
  • Stories of Jesus outside the Gospels
  • Stories of Jesus inside the Gospels
• Appendix 1: Basic Acts Time Line
• Appendix 2: Chronology of Paul’s Life and Letters

Top Highlights

“This in turn means that letters, and in particular Pauline letters, are our earliest New Testament documents, chronologically speaking,¹⁰ and letters are the documents in the New Testament most clearly connected to scribes.” (Page 8)

“Knowing this ancient authors wrote their texts as much for the ear as for the eye” (Page 4)

“Ancients seldom expected a verbatim transcript of anything except occasionally when one was dealing with legal or royal proceedings.” (Page 3)

“scribes, called amanuenses, were available most anywhere and could take down almost any kind of document for a fee” (Page 7)

“material that only Matthew and Luke share in common (i.e. it is not found in Mark). This material is called Q” (Page 31)

Endorsements

The New Testament is a collection of a wide variety of stories. Ben Witherington is a sure guide through this library of stories and how they were collected. His book is a fresh take on introducing the New Testament. It comes highly recommended for its treatment of the wealth of testimony to the story.

—Darrell L. Bock, professor of New Testament, Dallas Theological Seminary

Synthesizing much of his earlier work in a very readable way, Ben Witherington traces the development of New Testament stories into our New Testament books and canon. Along the way he rightly challenges time-worn schemes of an evolution from lower to higher Christology and also retells stories of New Testament individuals without losing the distinctives of the various New Testament sources where we find them.

—Craig S. Keener, professor of New Testament, Asbury Theological Seminary

What a valuable book for the beginner eager to probe the New Testament more deeply! Ben Witherington has packaged his enormous learning in clear, understandable, accessible ways. With its excellent illustrations and charts, The New Testament Story will be an open window into the world of stories found in the Bible.

—James C. Howell, senior pastor, Myers Park United Methodist Church

The depth and big-picture perspective of Witherington’s work will succeed in bringing serious Bible students a fresh appreciation for the New Testament story.

—Publishers Weekly

Product Details

• Title: The New Testament Story
• Author: Ben Witherington III
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2004
• Logos Release Date: 2015
• Pages: 293
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Bible. N.T. › Introductions
• ISBNs: 9780802827654, 0802827659
• Resource ID: LLS:NWTSTMNTSTRY
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:01:28Z

About Ben Witherington III

Ben Witherington III (PhD, University of Durham) is Jean R. Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. A prominent evangelical scholar, he is also on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. Witherington has written over forty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. His other works include The Indelible Image, Women and the Genesis of Christianity, The Gospel Code, A Week in the Life of Corinth and commentaries on the entire New Testament. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications and is a frequent contributor to Patheos and Beliefnet. Witherington is an elected member of the prestigious Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. He is a John Wesley Fellow for Life, a research fellow at Cambridge University and a member of numerous professional organizations, including the Society of Biblical Literature, Society for the Study of the New Testament and the Institute for Biblical Research. He previously taught at institutions like Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. An ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church and a popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings around the world. He has led numerous study tours through the lands of the Bible and is known for bringing the text to life through incisive historical and cultural analysis. Along with many interviews on radio and television networks across the country, Witherington has been seen in programs such as 60 Minutes, 20/20, Dateline and the Peter Jennings ABC special Jesus and Paul—The Word and the Witness.

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