Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 225
EAN: 9780300140163
ISBN: 0300140169
Label: Yale University Press
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 928
Publication Date: 1997-10-13
Publisher: Yale University Press
Studio: Yale University Press

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.
From its earliest days as a renegade religion in the Roman Empire through its various schisms and splits to present-day disagreements between Eastern Orthodox followers, Roman Catholics, and hundreds of different Protestant denominations, Christianity has been a source of great controversy--most of it centered on the reading of Scripture. There are those Christian conservatives who view the Bible as the literal word of God and the events detailed therein as historical fact. Other, more liberal Christians see the Good Book primarily as literature, a metaphor for how people should live. Mine the pages of the Biblical Archeological Review and you'll find scientists trying to prove or disprove the historical reality of Old and New Testament events and structures--everything from the Ark of the Covenant to King David's palace. In An Introduction to the New Testament, author Raymond E. Brown, a Catholic priest, ignores the swirl of conflict surrounding the Bible as historical artifact, concentrating instead on the message it contains.

Father Brown analyzes each of the 27 books in the New Testament, devoting painstaking attention to sources, dates, and authorship, as well as commentary on the spiritual, historical, and thematic aspects. He believes that modern-day Bible readers can only interpret it within its historical context. An Introduction to the New Testament, read with a Bible in hand, can only enrich and deepen your understanding of that germinal religious text.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Guide on Reading the Bible. Buy It!
Comment: `An Introduction to the New Testament' by leading NT scholar and writer, Raymond E. Brown may be the best possible introduction to its subject for the lay reader and for pastoral readers. I am relatively sure the book is also used as a text in college level courses on the New Testament, if only for the wealth of bibliography on each aspect of its subject.
I give this glowing praise with some reservations, since I have been bitten before by praising a book on a subject on which I have not read many different works; however, by now I have read numerous books on both New and Old Testament subjects, on both introductory and `scholarly' levels, and this experience assures me that this is a superior book for its audience.
As you read this volume, you may be surprised to discover that the author is a Catholic, since there is not one wit of `bias' which would diminish the work for our Protestant kin. Rather, the author brings in notions from Catholic practice for which the Protestant, even the deeply scripture - imbued Lutheran tradition, has no easy concept. My favorite is the notion expressed by the Latin (of course) phrase sensus plenior, or `fuller sense' of a reading of scripture. This is totally consistent with Herr Luther's dictum that a scriptural reading has but one meaning. It just means that one wants to find the broadest sense of the text, taking all things into account.
Another of the author's positions which warm's my heart (and assures me the author is intellectually sound) is his opinion that the politically correct terms for what we all commonly call the `Old Testament' are no more accurate than this ancient term which some feel is disrespectful to our Jewish cousins. All common alternatives such as `Hebrew' scriptures are actually less accurate than the adjective which says these came before the Christian scriptures.
The greatest service I can do for you, kind reader, is to point out that the proper audience for this book may be much wider than the title may suggest. I would offer it as a NT complement to James Kugel's `How to Read the Bible', which deals only with the Old Testament (as Professor Kugel is a Hebrew scholar). It is also an excellent replacement for such heavy tomes as `The Oxford Bible Commentary', which I have never found exceptionally helpful in getting into an unfamiliar book of the Bible.
A dramatic illustration of how good this book is compared to some other works is to compare it to the recent Lutheran introduction, `Opening the Book of Faith' on four ways to read the Bible. Brown gives ten (10) different ways the Bible has been studied, and that doesn't even include the Lutheran text's `lectio divina' and `theological' readings. The former is a classic devotional reading and the latter is the approach promoted by Lutheran theologians.
If I have any reservations at all about the book for serious students, it is the fact that it was published twelve years ago, and probably written up to two years before that, which means the bibliography may already be slightly dated. However, I still found the bibliography exceptionally good, even with its limiting itself to works in English, proper for a book written for the lay reader or beginning student.
I was tickled to find, at the very end, a bit of a polemic against the works of the Jesus Seminar in an overview of works on the historical Jesus. He shares the dim opinion of this enterprise held by Catholic colleague Luke Timothy Johnson. This is the only place in the book where Brown strays one iota from an even handed approach to Biblical scholarship.
If you are first starting out in serious Bible reading, this book is a Godsend!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The most comprehensive introduction you will find
Comment: Raymond Brown sure knows how to write an introduction. Though I am not exactly sure how long the New Testament is, surely it is dwarfed by the 800+ pages of Brown's commentary. He does an excellent job covering the books as well as discussing various approached to studying the New Testament. I used this for background while studying Mark. Thus, this work is approporate for specific research or a general understanding of the New Testament. Though it is not quick reading, if you have your bible handy it the learning process is better. Unlike many theologians, he does a good job of sticking to mostly understandable vocabulary. I would say this could be of use for all beginning and intermediate-level bible students as well as those extremely familiar with the doctrines surrounding the New Testament. High praise for Brown in attempting such a collasal task!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The best single source yet for New Testament study!
Comment: As others have stated, this if you only buy one book for a study on the nuts and bolts of the New Testament, this is it. It is extraordinary in its scope, magnificently researched, and best of all, it's written so well that it does not become tiring or try to impress you with huge complicated words or phrases. This is an outstanding volume for the common man and the advanced student as well. Thank you Raymond Brown for leaving us with this marvelous tool to understanding the times and structure of the New Testament - this book will serve as a legacy and the benchmark by which all others will be compared for ages to come.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Extremely helpful and easy to understand
Comment: I am a somewhat new Christian and have really felt a connection with God since becoming faithful. However, I became wary of Church dogma and completely literal, simplified views of info in the Bible. I knew it had to be deeper than that. I had a hunger to learn more about the history of the New Testament and it's books, letters, etc. to help me better understand it. This book was extremely helpful and easy to understand; but I can see how it would be good for people who already know about Biblical critisism. It has deepened my faith more reading this book which actually has a centrist point of view for the most part. Highly recommend to all. I had read Raymond E. Brown was the way to go for this information and I'd have to agree.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Introduction to the New Testament by Raymond Brown
Comment: This is a great book. Ray Brown is a scholar who has the ability to write so clearly that he is able to pull together years of study and scholarship and bring beginners, students and Scripture readers up to speed on the latest in Biblical understand. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about the Bible and how to read it and understand it.

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