Reviewlet of Smith, Into the World of the New Testament

EUANGELION: Book Notice: Into the World of the New Testament.

Daniel Lynwood Smith
Into the World of the New Testament: Greco-Roman and Jewish Texts and Contexts
London: Bloomsbury, 2015.
Available at Amazon.com

By Ben Sutton, Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia.

Dan Smith has provided a companion to reading the New Testament. As such he has intentionally diverged from traditional textbooks that provide extensive discussions of authorship, date, genre, and literary conventions. Instead, his aim is to provide examples of Ancient texts that parallel the books of the New Testament. In this way the student will learn by comparison instead of by synthesizing scholarly discussions. Smith is quick to point out that this volume does not replace the more extensive discussions of authorship, etc. Rather, as an introductory level book it invites the student into the world in which the New Testament was written, not contemporary discussions.

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