How is New Testament in its World Different?

Last updated on: October 1, 2019 at 5:37 am by Michael F. Bird

How is New Testament in its World Different? 2019-09-30T22:00:24-04:00 Michael F. Bird

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I did an interview with Zondervan about why I teamed up with N.T. Wright to write The New Testament in its World, what makes our book distinctive, and how our textbook can make a difference:

The idea of this book is very simple. There’s lots of New Testament introductions out there, and they’re like taco trucks on the highway. I looked on this highway, and I said to myself, “Where’s my taco truck?”

More seriously:

Every semester I work with students. I know the deficiencies in their knowledge, the gaps in their understanding, and what we need to fill in. That is why in our discussion of each book of the New Testament, we open with a general description of why you should be interested in the book—giving you a basic summary of its contents and announcing its major themes. Then we explain all the critical issues connected to the book, those things about authorship and date, that kind of thing. We then provide a mini-commentary on the book as well. After that, we provide some suggestions for reflection, or for how this book can really impact churches and Christians today.

Along the way, we add a lot of background information, it is positively drenched in historical detail. We also talk a little bit about the history of interpretation and various parallels. In the book’s feature called “Emails from the Edge” we even present a dialogue—a fictitious dialogue—a series of email exchanges between a professor and a student, about some of the things the student is wrestling with. They’re typical student questions; and hopefully, pretty good answers. This book will have a different feel, a different texture, a different vibe than most New Testament introductions doing the rounds.

This book is not just a mountain of information that’s being data-dumped on students. We are very concerned with the questions, “So what? What does this mean? How is this going to affect the way I eat my grits or my corn flakes in the morning?” I think that will give students a good resource and free up instructors, so they can cover in class the things that they are passionate about: whether that’s getting into the text, or the themes, or the theology, or offering their own narration of the text. We’re covering all the bases that need to be covered. The book will hopefully be satisfying for professors and rewarding for students.

This volume is genetically connected to N.T. Wright’s Christian Origins and the Question of God series. In many ways, it’s a condensed summary of the arguments he put forward in those volumes, certainly on Jesus and the Resurrection, and the Apostle Paul. Some blocks from those books will appear in this New Testament intro in an updated form. But there’s also lots of new writing that hasn’t been seen before, lots of gaps to be filled in, and more details to be added. So a singular and coherent narrative emerges about the story of the first Christians.

Check out the website for NTiiW and pre-order for the November 19th release and you will get some great freebies as a reward, including:

A Short Guide to Writing & Research: An Interview with N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird
(PDF + video)
A Study Guide for The New Testament in Its World (PDF)

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