Customer Reviews

Introducing the New Testament

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John Drane's Introducing the New Testament is impressive for what it is and isn't. Drane has managed to combine the readability of the more narrative New Testament Histories with the scholarly depth of an Introduction to the New Testament. And instead of ending up with the weakness of both, he merged their respective strengths. As a result, Introducing the New Testament is highly readable and very informative, even as to issues such as the Synoptic Problem and the dating and authorship of the Gospels and other New Testament documents.

As with a New Testament History, Drane opens up by providing background material on the broader world out of which Christianity grew, including the Greek heritage, the mystery religions, Judaism, and Palestine. He then narrates through Jesus' birth and early years, his ministry, his death, and the resurrection. There is an excellent side discussion on dating Jesus' birth.

In the next section, Drane spends more time exploring Jesus' precise message. The focus of the discussion is, appropriately, Jesus' declaration of the Kingdom of God. After this able discussion, Drane moves on to focusing on the four gospels themselves. I was impressed with the sophistication of many of his points regarding authorship, dating, and historicity. Though not presented with the footnotes and scholarly references that an Introduction would, it is obvious that Drane is conversant with a wide range of opinions and is writing from a high level of knowledge and understanding. One of the outstanding features of this section is his side discussion on "Identifying the authentic words of Jesus." Therein he identifies the main criteria of testing the historicity of Jesus's sayings, and identifies the problems and limitations with such an endeavor. According to Drane, the entire enterprise is premised on the problematic assumption that there was a high level of creativity in the early Church.

Drane next moves on to the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman world, including an excellent treatment of the dating of Acts. He also covers Paul the Apostle's activities, with solid discussions of each of his letters. There is a helpful discussion of the early church's recognition of the New Testament and first-rate discussions of the remaining books of the Bible (especially James and Hebrews).

Though the serious scholar may miss the footnotes and citations that commentaries and New Testament Introductions provide, the beauty of this book is that it delivers much the same sophistication and information of those works to the layperson. And it does so in an entertaining manner that does not get stale or tedious.

John Drane has impeccable credentials as a conservative theologian and an evangelical Christian, and yet (unlike some other "evo" authors) he can write in an honest and even-handed way about more liberal opinions than his own.

This makes Drane a particularly valuable resource for theologically conservative students who need to know about controversial modern views in Bible scholarship, but do not want to feel that their text book is necessarily endorsing them or taking a condescending approach to the divine inspiration and historical authenticity of Holy Scripture.

This book is not primarily about doctrine - it is first and foremost a book about the Bible, designed to help a Christian reader understand what the Bible is really saying. In doing so it takes for granted the basic principle of Bible exegesis that you cannot work out what the Bible is saying to the Church today without understanding what it was saying (and why) to the Church of the 1st and 2nd centuries.

This would thus be an invaluable book for any first-year theology student or for the general reader wishing to know more about the historical and cultural roots of the New Testament and the early church. Although other writers have produced more stylish and attractive prose, Drane is wonderfully clear, interesting and easy to follow. More intricate explanations are in self-contained sections carefully boxed beside the main narrative, so that they can be skipped by the more casual reader without interrupting the book's flow.

The book's monochrome illustrations and diagrams are not of outstanding originality or beauty, but they are invariably well chosen and helpful. Moreover the physical binding of the paperback edition I am using is robust and has a nice feel to it.

Strongly recommended.

This is great. It's intelligent, makes-sense stuff. While most academics handle this kind of content in a verbose, scholarly, i've-got-a-big-vocabulary-and-fiddly-style way, Drane's language is clear and simple.

I read an earlier edition, and the layout of the book was great too. It's in that magazine-style with big pictures, interesting insets, good headings. You can pick and choose what to read if you're keen for a browse, or eat it all up. I was surprised with the quality of the content, upon first glance at the layout you think it must be quite elementary - but it's not. It's good stuff.

The copy I read was from the library - now it's on my wish-list (mom).

I bought this book as a required text for a course I took at my Bible college. The format and style of the book make it a great read for anyone who wants to understand the content and context of the New Testament. It does not require the reader to have extensive background knowledge and is a very accessible source of information for those of us with little or no background in Biblical studies.

The information in the book is well organized. One could choose to selectively read the sections or chapters he or she finds to be interesting without worry of missing the overall continuity, and therefore decreased comprehension. There is a table of contents one can utilize to find somewhat encyclopedic treatment of a variety of relevant topics. I found the whole book to be worthwhile, and read it in its entirety, but I will also likely refer back to relevant sections in the future.

The reason I did not award this book five stars is because it's lack of citations. There are countless claims contained herein which I believe ought to be backed up by some academic sources to add to the credibility of this work. The information and claims in the book do not seem to be flawed, or contradictory to scholarly thought, but in such a work, it would be beneficial for the author to provide evidence of scholarly agreement.

Professor Drane's introductions to the Old and New Testaments have been in existence since well before a was a theology study and professor myself. In each successive new edition and volume he has produced, I have very much appreciated the vivid clarity of his style, the directness of his approach, and the gorgeously illustrated format of these books. Dr. Drane really approaches this material as a history of Jesus and the birth of the early Christian movement. Chapters 2-7 are essentially a life of Jesus; chapters 12-15 are essentially a history of Paul. The Gospels as texts in their own right, and as proclamations about Jesus to be heard each on its own terms, receive strikingly little attention. Chapter 8 introduces readers to the genre of "Gospel," and chapter 9 -- a mere 30 pages -- gives some background information on each of the Gospels, devoting perhaps a page or two to each Gospel's purpose and, thereby, distinctive contribution. In the course of talking about Paul's life, Dr. Drane does introduce each of Paul's letters but here, again, some of them receive disappointingly short schrift. Philippians gets a mere column; the Pastorals a mere page. Some of the General Epistles and Revelation do fare better.

If you're a general reader picking up a book on the New Testament to get a better handle on its unfolding story and a general overview of the texts themselves, this is a beautiful book written by a master of the material, one who cares deeply also about the material's implications for living out the faith! I would have a hard time using it, however, in an actual course on "Introduction to the New Testament," however, where what is needed (it seems to me) is a lot more attention to the writings themselves, the historical and cultural environment of these writings, and their message.

I had to buy this book for school. Nice short chapters and the writers get right to the point. Also breaks down hot button issues such as eschatology. It breaks down the four gospels, the church, Jesus, Paul, ect. Good information showing other views as well.

I've been using this book as a textbook for my theology degree. It's very readable. There is plenty of information, but thankfully the publishers haven't fallen too far into the modern trap of making the pages too busy with text boxes and asides. Although there are separate sections running parallel to each other they are clearly distinguishable and are long enough that you don't feel like you're reading ads in a newspaper.

The writing is clear and simple English, not to scholarly for the average reader. I always think that if a person can't express their thoughts in plain English, they probably haven't understood very well for themselves.

I don't think I could have gotten a better book on line or in a college book store. It was in better shape then described by the seller. Exceptional quality !