Writing this book has taken a good deal of my energy and time since 1959,
when it was suggested to me by Eugene Exman and Melvin Arnold.
The most difficult
part I found to be the expression of the principles of interpretation (Part
I) and the attempt to co-ordinate them with what I had already learned about
the New Testament.
Obviously much remains to be done;
I hope that others
will do it.
I have argued repeatedly in the book that the New Testament cannot be understood
apart from its context in the early Christian Church.
This statement, of
course, can be reversed.
The early Church is incomprehensible unless one
reads the New Testament -
and I should add that, on a much lower level, the
same thing can be said about this book.
It is an introduction to the New
Testament and is not intended to be a substitute for it.
The omission of practically all references to current literature on the
New Testament is intentional.
My views concerning modern American study in
this field are set forth in an essay to appear under the auspices of the
Ford Foundation Project in the Study of the Humanities, and generally speaking
I have tried to set forth my own views without too much reference to those
of others.
Most of the statements about the New Testament which 1 read are
based on presuppositions which usually are not stated.
This book at least
has the merit of stating the presuppositions, whether or not they are adequately
worked out.
It would be wrong to hold my principal New Testament teachers responsible
for anything in this book;
but conscious and unconscious influences are hard
to trace; and I should certainly not refrain from mentioning the debt I owe,
for encouraging me in these studies, to my father and to my teachers at the
Harvard Divinity School: H. J. Cadbury and A. D. Nock.
The quality of their
scholarship has inspired me for more than twenty years.
top
| PART I: PROLEGOMENA | |
|---|---|
| I. | What the New Testament Consists of - the Canon |
| II. | Materials and Methods of Textual Criticism |
| III. | The Nature of Translation |
| IV. | Literary Criticism |
| V. | Historical Criticism |
| VI. | The Necessity of Theological Understanding |
| PART TWO: NEW TESTAMENT LITERATURE | |
| VII. | The Gospels |
| VIII. | The Gospel of Mark |
| IX. | The Gospel of Matthew |
| X. | The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts |
| XI. | The Gospel of John |
| . | Apocryphal Gospels |
| I. | The Pauline Epistles |
| XIV. | The Non-Pauline Epistles |
| XV. | The Book of Revelation |
| XVI. | The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers |
| PART THREE: NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY AND THEOLOGY | |
| 3. | Christian Beginnings |
| XVII. | The Graeco-Roman World |
| XVIII. | Palestine in Graeco-Roman Times |
| XIX. | The Problem of the Life of Jesus |
| XX. | The Mission of Paul |
| XXI. | The Church in the New Testament |
| Conclusion |