A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament (review)

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A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament: The Gospel Promised
Michael J. Kruger (ed.)
Crossway, 2016

a biblical theological introduction to the nt

Released alongside a Biblical-Theological Introduction to the Old Testament, this book seeks to do for the New what its companion volume did for the Old. Like the former book, this one has multiple contributers, meaning that some chapters and stronger than others. Any New Testament Introduction will have to work harder than an Old Testament one to stand out in a crowded field. Being a ‘Biblical-Theological’ introduction should give this a unique angle, and the Old Testament volume managed to do this, for example by placing each book firmly in its canonical context. However this volume reads more like any standard NT Introduction, with all the usual background issues of authorship, date etc covered.

There is a lot of good to be gleaned between the two covers, for example a helpful distinction is made between the gospel and the implications of the gospel, with N. T. Wright cited as one scholar who gets it wrong (Benjamin Gladd on Mark). The book contains three chapters by Guy Waters, who is always worth reading. While not his main point, one comment made me really think about the priority of preaching. He notes that during three years in Ephesus, Paul devoted hours of public instruction to the church, leaving them ‘one of the best taught bodies that Paul had served’. I’m sure today people would try and tell Paul that there are more useful things he could be doing! However there were also statements I wasn’t so sure about – should we really speak of Jesus ‘fleeing’? (Gladd).

Overall the book enters a crowded market and doesn’t do enough to make it stand out. There is still much of benefit here, and I will add it to the list of things to read before starting into a book of the Bible, but there’s probably not enough that couldn’t be gleaned from the introduction to a commentary or a standard NT Introduction.

Thanks to Crossway for a complimentary copy of this book through their Beyond the Page review programme.