Studying the New Testament

I ended up becoming a teacher of the New Testament because long ago I found the study of these ancient texts to be an incredibly exciting, challenging and life-changing experience. In my teaching, preaching, research and writing, I try to communicate something of that excitement.

Historically, the New Testament writings are our earliest and most reliable witnesses to the life of Jesus and the emergence of what we now call the Church. The New Testament gives us a window into the life, loves and hates of the early Christian movement – we encounter real people, struggling with real problems in the real-life context of the Roman empire.

Theologically, the documents of the New Testament function as the foundational texts for all subsequent Christian reflection and thought. The history of Christianity is, in large part, a history of engagement with these texts, and they continue to function as the touchstone for us as we think about what Christian faith and practice means in our own world.

Spiritually, the New Testament along with the Old continues to be the means by which God speaks God’s word of love, invitation, grace, challenge and judgement. These texts change lives, not because of some magical properties (they share all the characteristics of other human writings and study of them requires the full application of our intellectual skills as well as spiritual insight) but because God continues to speak through them.

So, whether you are a Christian disciple, a Christian leader or minister, or indeed for anyone who wants to understand Christian faith, there is nothing more crucial than to gain an understanding of these texts and how they are to be interpreted. And there is nothing more vital to the life and mission of the Church in our day, than to have members and leaders who are biblically literate, and who can help others discover the word of God in the strange new world of the Bible.