An Introduction to the New Testament

by Raymond Edward Brown

Publisher:

Doubleday

, 1997

Overview

From the experience of a lifetime of scholarship, preaching, teaching, and writing, Raymond E. Brown covers the entire scope of the New Testament with ease and clarity. He walks readers book-by-book through the basic content and issues of the New Testament. While a wealth of information is contained in these pages, the work’s most impressive features are the basic summaries of each book, a historical overview of the ancient Greco-Roman world, discussions of key theological issues, and the rich supplementary materials, such as illustrative tables, maps, bibliographies, and appendixes. Using this basic data, Brown answers questions raised by today’s readers, relates the New Testament to our modern world, and responds to controversial issues, such as those raised by the Jesus Seminar. Every generation needs a comprehensive, reliable introduction to the New Testament that opens the biblical text to the novice. Raymond E. Brown’s An Introduction to the New Testament is the most trustworthy and authoritative guidebook for a generation seeking to understand the Christian Bible. Universally acknowledged as the dean of New Testament scholarship, Father Brown is a master of his discipline at the pinnacle of his career. Who else could cover the entire scope of the New Testament with such ease and clarity? This gifted communicator conveys the heartfelt concern of a beloved teacher for his students, as he walks the reader through the basic content and issues of the New Testament. Those opening to the New Testament for the first time and those seeking deeper insights could not ask for more in a primer to the Christian Bible.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Letters became his means of communication with converts who lived at a distance from him.⁸ Thus in the 50s of the 1st century Paul produced the earliest surviving Christian documents: I Thess, Gal, Phil, Phlm, I and II Cor, and Rom. There is a somewhat different tone and emphasis to each, corresponding to what Paul perceived as the needs of the respective community at a particular time. This fact should make us cautious about generalizations in reference to Pauline theology. Paul was not a systematic theologian but an evangelizing preacher, giving strong emphasis at a certain moment to one aspect of faith in Jesus, at another moment to another aspect—indeed to a degree that may seem to us inconsistent.” (Pages 5–6)

“In NT times euaggelion (‘good announcement,’ the word we translate ‘gospel’) did not refer to a book or writing but to a proclamation or message.” (Page 99)

“Third, conformity with the rule of faith. The term ‘canon’ or norm may have first referred to the standard beliefs of the Christian communities before it referred to the collection of writings that became standard.” (Page 11)

“Does the earliest canonical Gospel derive from memories of what Jesus did and said in his lifetime, or is it mostly an imaginative creation retrojecting beliefs about the postresurrectional Jesus into his lifetime?” (Page 99)

“Structuralism (or Semiotics) concentrates on the final form of the NT works.” (Page 24)

Product Details

• Title: An Introduction to the New Testament
• Author: Raymond Edward Brown
• Series: Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Print Publication Date: 1997
• Logos Release Date: 2010
• Pages: 928
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible. N.T. › Theology; Bible. N.T. › Canon; Bible. N.T. › Introductions
• Resource ID: LLS:INTRONTANCHOR
• Resource Type: text.monograph.introduction.new-testament
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:06:28Z

About Raymond Edward Brown

Raymond E. Brown was a Sulpician priest and bible scholar. He taught for many years at Saint Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore and was professor emeritus of biblical studies at the Union Theological Seminary in New York. Over his lifetime he was awarded more than dozen honorary doctorates from American and European universities and was commended by Pope Paul VI for his “learning, prudence, and Catholic regard for the Magisterium of the Church.” Brown was the author of three books in the Anchor Yale Bible series on the Gospels and Epistles of John. He died in 1998.