Survey of the New Testament, A [Hardcover]

Robert H. Gundry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 1994

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.

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> --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan; 3rd edition (September 23, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310595509
• ISBN-13: 978-0310595502
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,062,187 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.