Kenneth Berding - What the New Testament Authors Really Cared About: A Survey of their Writings

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THIS BOOK

I have been using What the New Testament Authors Really Cared About and have had better response from my university students to this text than any I have used in the past two decades. This text covers well and compellingly what can be covered in a freshman-level class full of students who need to be drawn into a deeper interaction with Gods Word. My survey students find the format of this text readable and the content helpful. I highly recommend it.

George H. Guthrie, Union University

What the New Testament Authors Really Cared About is unique in that it is written by college professors for college students. Customarily college texts are written by seminary professors. While I have nothing against seminary professors, there is a world of difference between the two settings. This text gets right to the point and highlights the most important content for the target audience. The presentation is clear and attractive and the result is that students have a resource that meets them at their level and leads them to a much deeper understanding of Gods Word.

Scott Duvall, Ouachita Baptist University

While teaching freshman New Testament Survey courses for more than thirty years, I have been constantly looking for a suitable textbook. The book What the New Testament Authors Really Cared About has been the best textbook I have seen to meet that need.

Julio C. Vena, Toccoa Falls College

One of the challenges of teaching New Testament survey courses for general university students is striking the balance between giving them too much information, so that they are overwhelmed, and leaving them with too little, so that they are not stretched. The great value of What the New Testament Authors Really Cared About is that the authors have thought deeply about this issue, resulting in a volume that succeeds in finding that balance. Based on the confirmation that I have already received from students, I anticipate using this text to great benefit in my survey classes for years to come.

Jonathan Lunde, Biola University

What the New Testament Authors Really Cared About: A Survey of Their Writings

2008, 2015 (second edition) by Kenneth Berding and Matt Williams

Published by Kregel Publications, a division of Kregel, Inc., 2450 Oak Industrial Dr. NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49505-6020.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations in printed reviews.

This book is available in digital format at www.kregel.com.

Maps Ministry of Jesus (), courtesy of Tyndale House Publishers. Used by permission. The remaining maps courtesy of Threes Company and Lion Hudson pic. Used by permission.

Photographs are courtesy of the following licensors and sources:

Adobe Stock: Temple of Artemis, Sardis, derege-Fotolia / Creative Commons: Herods Tomb, Deror avi; Qumran, Cave 4, Effi Schweizer / Todd Bolen and BiblePlaces.com: A scribes tools; Herods palace in Jerusalemmodel.

Adobe Stock: Mount of Beatitudes, traditional location of the Sermon on the Mount, lvoha13-Fotolia; Jerusalem and the Dome of the Rock, rrodrickbeller-Fotolia; Olive Trees, Gethsemane, Kushnirov Avraham-Fotolia / Creative Commons: Judean Wilderness, David Shankbone / Todd Bolen and BiblePlaces.com: Fallen stones from the temples Western Wall; Garden tomb rolling stone.

: Typical Tomb.

:Beth Shean, capital of Decapolis; Tabgha Harbor, the traditional site of Jesus calling his disciples.

: Ephesus Commerical Market where Paul would have worked; Location of Herods Promontory Palace, where Paul may have been imprisoned.

: Capernaum; Feast of Tabernacles booth; Menorah; Tabgha, location from which Jesus met with his disciples after the resurrection (John 21).

: Ephesus street near Temple of Domitian.

: Amphitheater where Christians were persecuted, Beth Shean; Inscription on white stone, Pergamum (see Rev. 2:12, 17); Emperor Nero.

: Greek philospher on sarcophagus; Roman road to Damascus near Gamla.

: Mosaic inscription of Romans 13, Caesarea; Dome of St. Peters Basilica.

: Temple of Apollo, Joshua Clutterham.

: Corinth Isthmus; Sophia Wisdom statue in Celsus Library, Ephesus.

: Cave dwellings, Cappadocia; Mosaic of Paul teaching the Bereans.

Chapter 14Todd Bolen and BiblePlaces.com: Theater, Ephesus, Barry Beitzel; Advertisement for brothel on sidewalk, Ephesus.

: Traditional place of Pauls imprisonment, Philippi.

Adobe Stock: Infants Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, Leonid Andronov-Fotolia.

: Thessalonica Forum.

Creative Commons: Pantheon at night, Rome, Dnator 01.

: Theater, Hierapolis., T. J. Rathbun.

: Man praying at the Western Wall.

: Ossuaries (bone boxes), near Mount of Olives; Gold bracelets from antiquity.

: Tomb of St. Peter below St. Peters Basilica.

: Peters crucifixion, Three Fountains Church, Rome.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, updated edition. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

What the New Testament authors really cared about : a survey of their writings / edited by Kenneth Berding and Matt Williams.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references () and index.

1. Bible. N.T.Introductions. I. Berding, Kenneth. II. Williams, Matthew C.

BS2330.3.W53 2008

225.61dc22

2008010166

ISBN 978-0-8254-4384-8

Printed in the United States of America

15 16 17 18 19 / 5 4 3 2 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

What the New Testament Authors Really Cared About is a fresh approach to helping us understand what is really important in the New Testament. The most important question we can ask in order to grasp the message of the New Testament is, What did