The New Testament in Antiquity: A Survey of the New Testament within Its Cultural Context Review

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The New Testament in Antiquity: A Survey of the New Testament within Its Cultural Context ReviewIn a word, this survey of the New Testament is beautiful. Practically every page of it presents images, maps, or excurses which illuminate the text of the NT by bringing the background to life. For instance, on page 128, when discussing the birth of Jesus and the census that was taken (as recorded in the gospels), there is an excursus which features a fascinating piece of writing from a work by the early church father Lactantius on what happened during a typical Roman census. Another example is on page 394 in the chapter on the epistle to the Hebrews. The whole page is a scaled drawing of the entire Temple complex that existed during Jesus' days on earth. There are wonderful features like this on practically every page of the book.
One aspect of this book, which some would see as either a negative or positive, is that it comes from a decidedly conservative evangelical view. In the preface, the three authors stated that they wanted "a volume that is responsive to the confessional commitments of the evangelical tradition... We wanted a scholarly text that treated the pages of the New Testament as Scripture, which has spoken to the church through the centuries." (pg 9). Interestingly, all three of the authors are professors at the same institution - Wheaton College.
Naturally, because of the evangelical outlook of the book, the traditional stance is taken in regards to such issues like the authorship of the New Testament books. However, due to this evangelical stance, I would recommend to someone to use this New Testament survey in conjunction with a less conservative one. I mean, after all, the three authors view on something like the authorship of the Pastoral Epistles is the minority view in scholarship today. And while the authors do deal with what the "other side" says about such issues in the book, a more in-depth look at the "other side" would be desirable from using another book in combination with this one. Some would disagree, but I think it is very wise for people to have a very good understanding from both sides of the fence. For a less evangelical-conservative survey on the New Testament, I would recommend the surveys by Ehrman or Brown.
This book contains a total of 27 chapters. The first four chapters concentrate on how to study the New Testament, the historical setting of the New Testament, the world of Jesus in His Jewish Homeland, and the Mediterranean world of Paul. The next three chapters are on the story and teachings of Jesus, as well as the sources of His story (e.g. the canonical gospels, Q, Gospel of Thomas, Pliny, Josephus, etc). There is a good, but brief, section on the inter-relatedness of the Gospels as well as the Q source. The next 19 chapters deal with the books of the New Testament. And the final chapter is on the transmission of the New Testament throughout the centuries and gives an introductory look at textual critical issues. There are two appendices - a Scripture Index, and Subject Index.
All in all, a very splendid and wonderful looking survey of the New Testament.The New Testament in Antiquity: A Survey of the New Testament within Its Cultural Context Overview

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