Exploring the New Testament: A Guide to the Gospels and Acts

Written by scholars with extensive experience teaching in colleges and universities, the Exploring the Bible series has for decades equipped students to study Scripture for themselves.Exploring the New Testament, Volume One provides an accessible introduction to the Gospels and Acts. It's filled with classroom-friendly features such as discussion questions, charts, theological summary sidebars, essay questions, and further reading lists. This volume introduces students toJewish and Greco-Roman backgroundliterary genres and formsissues of authorship, date, and settingthe content and major themes of each bookvarious approaches to the study of the Gospels and Actsthe intersection of New Testament criticism with contemporary faith and cultureNow in its third edition, this popular textbook has been updated and revised to take account of the latest advances in scholarly findings and research methods, including new sections onthe impact of social memory theory on Gospel studiesthe relationship of John's Gospel to the Synopticsrecent work on characterization in narrative studies of the Gospelsthe way the Hebrew Scriptures are read by the New Testament authorsthe contribution of archaeology to New Testament studiesupdated bibliographies highlighting the most important and influential works published in the last decadeEspecially suited as a textbook for courses on Jesus, the Gospels, or Acts, this book is a valuable guide for anyone seeking a solid foundation for studying the New Testament.