Product Description

The third edition of this widely used textbook features a substantial revision. Most significantly, Dr. Gundry has shortened his harmonistic treatment of Jesus' life and expanded his individual treatment of the four Gospels.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #688905 in Books
• Published on: 1994-09-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 496 pages

From the Back Cover
Most surveys of the New Testament provide the student with background information and technical introductory material, but they do little to help the reader understand the text of the New Testament. A Survey of the New Testament, by contrast, is a guide to reading and interpreting the New Testament itself. General questions of introduction and background are still covered, but whenever possible in the context of assigned readings from the New Testament. In addition, comments on the assigned New Testament readings help the student interpret the text and understand the flow of thought from section to section. A major change in the third edition is that the harmonistic treatment of Jesus' life has been shortened and the discussion of the individual gospels has been expanded. Additional features: - Each section begins with leading questions that help focus the student's reading - The theological perspective is evangelical and orthodox, but other positions are frequently noted, and suggestions for further reading include literature from different persuasions - Section headings and marginal headings make it easy to follow the structure of the text - Questions for further discussion help the student think through the contemporary relevance of the New Testament writings - Bibliographies have been updated - The book has a new, user-friendly design with many added illustrations

About the Author
Robert H. Gundry (Ph.D., Manchester) is a scholar-in-residence and professor emeritus of New Testament and Greek at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. Among his books are Mark: A Commentary on His Apology for the Cross; Matthew: A Commentary on His Handbook for a Mixed Church Under Persecution; Soma in Biblical Theology; and Jesus the Word according to John the Sectarian.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Book!
The book is an excellent survey of the New Testament text. The book presents various opinions on issues presented that are relevant to the study of the New Testament such as the various types of higher criticism. The book also highlights many of the important theological themes throughout the New Testament from an orthodox evangelical prespective. I have gone through the book three times now and I have benefited from reading it every time. The book presents a historically accurate and orthodox survey of the New Testament. This has been confirmed to me by reading various books on Church history such as "The Story of Christian Theology" by Roger Olson and "Gods Peoples" by Spickard & Cragg.

Good NT Survey of Evangelical Views
Zondervan's entry in the NT survey textbook field has many features to commend it: an opinionated evangelical scholar who writes well and is not afraid to share his conclusions even while acknowledging other viewpoints, a good number of photos and illustrations (thank you, Zondervan), and a good size for either a one-semester or two-semester survey course. The bibliographies feature some good selections for further reading.

Gundry is at his best in the early background chapters of the book. While much more could be given by way of background, Gundry does a relatively good job of providing a brief, concise overview of several topics. His chapters on the gospels and Acts are suitably detailed.

Nonetheless, there are significant flaws. First, the level of detail drops off dramatically when Gundry gets to Paul's epistles. Second, Gundry occasionally promotes some ... well, interesting (to be charitable) but uncommon viewpoints, as in his comments regarding the author of the Gospel of John's calculation of time. (Gundry's system puts Jesus on the cross in the early morning hours even though he admits that this would not have been a standard reckoning of time.)

The book's biggest drawback, though, comes from its narrow perspective: Gundry only in the briefest sense touches upon current issues in biblical criticism. Consequently, the reader gets a good sense of some of the traditional views (particularly those common to non-denominational evangelicalism) but is given little sense of other traditional views or contemporary challenges to those views. For example, Gundry rarely tackles challenges to traditional views of authorship, and when he does so, it's in the most superficial sense imaginable. Another example lies in his treatment of the book of Revelation: Gundry outlines differences among premillenialists quite well, but you'd never know from his discussion the reasons why other evangelicals take other millenarian positions.

In the end, Gundry provides an engaging overview of some evangelical points of view, but not others, and without tackling many non-evangelical viewpoints. For what it is, this is a very good textbook; you just may be left wishing for more.

Great Book
An excellent book that sets out explains to the reader the history of the New Testament as well as carries on a dialogue with the text itself in which the book focuses on theology, major themes, and background for the reader to better understand the text. A fantastic feature of this book is that it contains many different points of view on the various subjects. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to read an Orthodox survey of the New Testament.