Wonderful balance of scholarship and readability
This book provides a very solid introduction to both the world in which the NT writings originated and the particularities of the writings themselves. Johnson dispenses a plethora of information and does so with an immensely readable style. He sets the table for the exploration of virtually every question you can bring to a text--authorship, date, recipients, occasion, purpose, etc. Even when I found myself holding a different opinion than Johnson, his research and presentation are first-rate. This is a great place to start for those who want a broad sweep of NT studies. Highly recommended.
writings in new testament
Probably the poorest written book on the Bible I have ever read/Johnson tries to rewrite the Bible and creates multiple distortions on the truth
Pleasant surprise
What a delightful surprise to find this book with CD, both in perfect condition, delivered on my door-step a week before anticipated.
Through and Informative
A very in-depth study of the New Testament. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to study the larger themes of the New Testament. Gives a good argument in favor of Pauline authorship (something that is often questioned when referring to Ephesians, Colossians, II Thessalonians, and especially the Pastoral Letters). This is a book that would be a good addition to anyone's Biblical library.
A Theological Introduction.
The thing I liked about Johnson's approach in his intro to the world of the New Testament is that it is more of a theological introduction. It provides a nice variation from the standard NT Intro (such as Carson and Moo) which deals more with the text critical issues such as authorship, date, provenances, etc. Instead, Johnson deals more with the larger issues of the NT and the larger issues of each book. Not that the typical issues aren't important but Johnson's work provides a nice complement to the standard NT Intro.
Johnson is Catholic, I am Protestant, however, I did not encoutner anything that I thought was unnecessarily pro-catholic or over the top. In fact, I found I agreed with most of what Johnson wrote and learned a few things in the process that greatly helped my understanding of the NT. I suppose this goes to show Catholics and Protestants have more they agree with about the Bible than things to disagree about.
