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 PrintableVersion Making sense of the New TestamentNo matter how long you've been a Christian, read this MAKING SENSE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT The author, who teaches at Denver Seminary in the US and is highly respected as a sound and meticulous scholar, examines three highly charged issues. Is the New Testament historically reliable? Was Paul - rather than Jesus - the true founder of Christianity? How should Christians apply the New Testament to life today, in cultures far removed in space and time from the first-century Mediterranean world? Carefully argued and persuasive entry level answers are offered for intelligent readers. The first essay sees Blomberg on ground familiar from his earlier more technical work. His expertise is deployed most effectively in answering liberal and sceptical arguments against the reliability of the New Testament. He works carefully through a myriad of matters - from textual criticism, authorship and date, the accuracy of the gospels, hard sayings and missing topics, to miracles and resurrection. Familiar arguments are given fresh faces and there are some helpful additions to the standard apologetic. The second chapter looks at the charge that Paul took the pristine message of Jesus and built something quite different upon it. This is perhaps a more specialised and sophisticated problem. Anyone troubled by it would find these pages helpful. Blomberg explores the proposal thoroughly and quietly demolishes it. The third chapter is in some ways the odd man out of the three because it seems more salient for Christians than those looking in from the outside. It is nonetheless useful. The author adopts the interesting approach of working through all the different genres of the NT in turn. He outlines the particular challenges of each and suggests how the interpretative gap between the first and 21st centuries should be crossed. Somehow he manages to accomplish this in a satisfying way in only 48 pages. Who is this book for? The first two chapters make it well worth putting into the hands of unbelievers or wobbly Christians. It is just what one needs to help students or others affected directly or indirectly by sceptical biblical scholarship. The third provides a brilliant introduction to the issues of trans-cultural biblical application: I can imagine passing it to someone leading a group Bible study for the first time - on a New Testament passage at least. But it would be a pity if it was only seekers or new Christians who read this book. Blomberg writes so well and deploys such expertise so meticulously that long-standing Christians and Christian workers would benefit enormously from it too. More like this, please, Professor!Julian Hardyman © Evangelicals Now - December 2004 |
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