The New Testament

Featuring vibrant full color throughout, the new edition of Bart Ehrman's fascinating introduction approaches the New Testament from a consistently historical and comparative perspective. Emphasizing the rich diversity of the earliest Christian literature, Ehrman addresses the difficult issues raised by the texts, showing why scholars continue to argue over such significant questions as how the books of the New Testament came into being, when they were written (and by whom), what they mean, how they relate to contemporary Christian and non-Christian literature, and how they came to be collected into the canon of scripture that we now call the New Testament. In the process, Ehrman covers not only the books included in the New Testament, but some of those that were excluded. The fourth edition features more background information on ancient Judaism and discusses non-canonical and Gnostic texts in greater depth.