Survey of the New Testament, A (4th Edition) [Deluxe Edition] [Hardcover]

Robert H. Gundry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

The 4th edition of this widely used guide to reading and interpreting the New Testament This revised edition of Gundry's survey of the New Testament goes beyond providing background information and technical introductory material and leads students to read the New Testament itself. Whenever possible general questions of introduction and background are tied to assigned readings covering the entire New Testament. In addition, comments on these readings help students with interpretation and follow the flow of thought from one passage to another. Features include: * New design with four-color format and more photos and improved maps * Chapters begin with list, of study goals and end with summary, overview and of people, places, terms to remember, and review questions * Outlines, section headings, subheadings, and bolded items make it easy to follow structure of discussion * Phonetic pronunciations for unfamiliar names and terms * Breakouts with illustrative quotes from ancient, nonbiblical literature * Discussion questions on the contemporary relevance of the New Testament * Updated bibliographies * Conservative evangelical theological perspective also notes other positions and literature

Editorial Reviews

Review

''Professor Gundry's 4th edition continues to be the preferred textbook for an undergraduate New Testament survey course. Gundry's 'Further Discussion' recommendations at the end of each chapter have facilitated many lively discussions in the classroom. A wonderful feature of this textbook is the 'How Much Did You Learn?' questions, which I require students to answer in a notebook, along with keeping key definitions from the textbook. With the new images and maps, this new edition will continue to guide undergraduate students through the strange world of first century Palestine for many generations to come. I recommend its use wholeheartedly.' Spring Arbor University -- Brian Lugioyo <br><br>

From the Back Cover

The 4th edition of this widely used guide to reading and interpreting the New Testament

This revised edition of Gundry’s survey of the New Testament goes beyond providing background information and technical introductory material and leads students to read the New Testament itself. Whenever possible general questions of introduction and background are tied to assigned readings covering the entire New Testament. In addition, comments on these readings help students with interpretation and follow the flow of thought from one passage to another.

Features include: • New design with four-color format and more photos and improved maps • Chapters begin with list, of study goals and end with summary, overview and of people, places, terms to remember, and review questions • Outlines, section headings, subheadings, and bolded items make it easy to follow structure of discussion • Phonetic pronunciations for unfamiliar names and terms • Breakouts with illustrative quotes from ancient, nonbiblical literature • Discussion questions on the contemporary relevance of the New Testament • Updated bibliographies • Conservative evangelical theological perspective also notes other positions and literature

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan; 4 New edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310238250
• ISBN-13: 978-0310238256
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert H. Gundry (PhD, Manchester) is a scholar-in-residence and professor emeritus of New Testament and Greek at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. 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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good NT Survey of Evangelical Views, December 21, 2005

By 

Chip Webb (Fairfax Station, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Survey of the New Testament, A (4th Edition) (Hardcover)

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.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book!, March 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Survey of the New Testament, A (Hardcover)

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.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, July 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Survey of the New Testament, A (Hardcover)

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.