An Introduction to the New Testament

by D.A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo

Grasp the message of the New Testament by focusing on the essentials.

An Introduction to the New Testament focuses on historical questions dealing with authorship, date, sources, purpose, destination, and so forth, ensuring that the New Testament books will be accurately understood within historical settings. For each New Testament document, the authors also provide a substantial summary of the book's content, discuss the book's theological contribution to the overall canon, and give an account of current studies on the book, including recent literary and social-science approaches to interpretation.

This second edition reflects significant revision and expansion from the original, making this highly acclaimed text even more valuable.

A new chapter provides a historical survey examining Bible study method through the ages.The chapter on Paul has been expanded to include an analysis of debates on the "new perspective."The discussion of New Testament epistles has been expanded to form a new chapter.This new edition is an ideal textbook for seminary students and will help a new generation better grasp the message of the New Testament.

Genres: Theology, New Testament, Reference, Christian, Christianity, Religion, Nonfiction

776 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Donald A. Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has been at Trinity since 1978. Carson came to Trinity from the faculty of Northwest Baptist Theological Seminary in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he also served for two years as academic dean. He has served as assistant pastor and pastor and has done itinerant ministry in Canada and the United Kingdom. Carson received the Bachelor of Science in chemistry from McGill University, the Master of Divinity from Central Baptist Seminary in Toronto, and the Doctor of Philosophy in New Testament from the University of Cambridge. Carson is an active guest lecturer in academic and church settings around the world. He has written or edited about sixty books. He is a founding member and currently president of The Gospel Coalition. Carson and his wife, Joy, reside in Libertyville, Illinois. They have two adult children.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant]

This is a non-review but I felt i had to share with you all, forgive me - I just noticed this on IMDB. They have entries for characters in movies. So for Jesus they have this brilliant entry. As we know, in the New Testament Jesus is given different titles - Son of Man, Son of God, King of the Jews (the last one ironically). But IMDB have a whole lot more. Under "Jesus" they have

Alternate Names:

Baby Jesus
Baby Jesus #1
Black Jesus
Cartoon Jesus
Christ
Cowboy Jesus
Our Lord
Super Mecha Death Christ
The Man from Nazareth
The Redeemer
Young Jesus

and of course

Zombie Jesus

Also, in the description of character they have a Spoiler Alert! Which I shall replicate :

He was raised from the dead.

Modern theological commentary at its finest, I'm sure you'll agree.

[mark monday]

[Craig Prather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource material for both theology students, and New Testament scholars. Carson and Moo do a great job of presenting various arguments as to the authorship, provenance, and dating of these Biblical books.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in eight weeks (no small task!) for a class I've been taking online this semester. As a result, I did a more "seek and find" type of reading than an absolutely thorough, every word reading of the book. That would (and should) take much more time, and I will in the future return to this book with a thorough, slower-paced reading in mind. However, I did read through the entire book. And I very much appreciated Carson and Moo's approach to New Testament Introduction, a complex and difficult subject. They presented both the liberal and conservative sides fairly and objectively, but also presented clear arguments for the conservative side. This book is worth the time it takes to read (and re-read). The chapters are long and dense, so one attempting to take on this book with a thorough reading in mind should know that most chapters are difficult to tackle all in one sitting. Overall, a great textbook with excellent insight that I enjoyed reading, even at the break-neck speed I had to take with it.

#vtReadingChallenge: a book used as a seminary textbook

[Ethan McCarter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-researched and, fairly, well written volume introducing the reader to the individual books of the New Testament, text criticism behind the text of the NT, and various other aspects including a study on the Apostle Paul. Since it's a broad introduction to the NT there are some books that are better introduced than others. The section on the four Gospels were well done, so were the Pauline Epistles, some of the General Epistles I thought were a bit lacking in depth. Carson and Moo interact well with critical scholarship and pick out some helpful information from them while disputing their claims that are contrary to traditional understanding. I would also quibble with their obvious new covenant theology; it features quite strongly in the Pauline section including Galatians and Romans. For a reference work for pastors and seminarians, it's a great place to start and better than many introductions to the NT. I'd recommend it for pastors preaching from the NT, seminarians, and interested laity who are looking for a more in-depth intro to the NT. It is a bit more technical than an average book introduction from a lay-level commentary or from something like the NIV application series. A standard work that I'm certain that I will look back into when preaching through books of the NT.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read about 2/3 of it in New Testament classes at RTS. Great on critical issues.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love science fiction

[Missie Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are really into literary-historical-criticism, you'll love this book. So much information about every single theory (even those that are now discredited) about authorship, date, and provenance of every New Testament book. Frankly, every page was a struggle for me. I would much rather have an in-depth book on theology, because at least that's about what we have, not about how it got that way. And I'd love a lot more historical background, as in what was happening at the time the books were written. I'm going to sell this one ASAP.

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent handbook on the introduction to the New Testament, D.A. Carson and Moo offer a systematic and overwhelmingly scholarly work that does a fantastic job at looking at the scholarly opinions, both past and present, on the New Testament books of the Bible. If anyone is looking for a way to increase their knowledge of the background and study of the New Testament, get this text and dive headfirst into the scholarly work. I have benefited so much from this source and will continually use it as a reference tool as well.

Brent McCulley

[Brian Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carson and Moo spend a lot of time with authorship and dating issues, defending traditional/conservative views of those issues against liberal/critical views. It's a useful book for that reason. It would have been nice if they had dealt more with the NT text as it stands, introducing major themes of each book, but that does not seem to have been their intent.

[Josue Guzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro me enseñó que entre más sabemos menos dogmáticos somos. Hay tanto que no conocemos del Nuevo Testamento que bien hariamos en reconocer la providencia de Dios en la formación del Canon y Su maravillosa preservación en nuestras traducciones.

[John Yelverton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a phenomenal read as the authors examine the New Testament from all sides and make clear and concise arguments on its authenticity and theology. There are a couple of points in which the reader may differ, but you cannot argue with the authors' intent to answer correctly in these matters.

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 2 out of 5]

made the bible boring

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good book on the authors, intents, etc material of the books of the New Testament. Carson and Moo is a little newer, therefore, some newer information and insights.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Read" is a strong word, throughly skimmed would be better. A good reference.

[Sam Luce · Rating 2 out of 5]

The parts of the book that dealt with Theology were brilliant the parts that focused on textual criticism were for me eye gougingly tedious.

[Alex Kearney · Rating 3 out of 5]

They spent so much effort on critical issues of authorship, canonicity, etc. I wish they used more of that space for what’s actually true about each book.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

D. A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament 2nd. ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995. 743 pp. $38.77

Books covering New Testament introductory material are abundant. All one needs to do is type in “New Testament introduction” in their search engine and numerous resources will appear. In An Introduction to the New Testament, D. A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo have added an excellent edition to this category of biblical scholarship. Carson serves as a research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. Moo is serving as a professor of New Testament at Wheaton College Graduate School. Both men have authored numerous book and articles dealing with the New Testament. According to the preface their goal is to present the readers with “special introduction” material (authorship, date, sources, purpose, destination, etc.) instead of literary form, rhetorical criticism, and historical parallels (pg. 7). The authors have given a lengthy, yet readable work that deals with this special introductory material in this volume.
The book is composed of twenty-six chapters. Chapter one deals with why one should consider studying this special introductory material of the New Testament. Chapter two then deals with the Synoptic problem, while chapters three through seven deal with the Gospels and the book of Acts. Chapter eight then deals with New Testament letters while chapter nine deals with Paul as an apostle and a theologian. Chapters ten through twenty-five then deal with each book of the New Testament, grouping multiple books (1 and 2 Corinthians, etc.) in a single chapter and the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) together in one chapter. The final chapter deals with the New Testament as Canon.
Chapter one explains how the text of Scripture came together, the interpretive traditions throughout church history, the rise of biblical theology, historical criticism, literary tools, and the impact of postmodernism on New Testament studies. Carson and Moo make an excellent point that some of the historical developments discussed in the chapter are helpful but should be used in a way to guard against “irresponsible use (page 73). The chapter closes with the authors’ reflection on New Testament Study with a quote from Craig Blomberg that encourages confessional Christians to engage with Scripture by “the way it is discussed in their own generation, bearing in mind some of the long heritage that has gone before.” (page 74).
Chapter two deals with the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Carson and Moo clearly articulate the issues raised against the Gospels while giving an excellent refutation of those objections. The authors included many helpful charts in this chapter, especially the one on page 81 dealing with the terminology of form criticism. This chart effectively presented the three main proponents of form criticism (Dibelius, Bultmann, and Taylor) and what they taught.
The chapters dealing with the books of Scripture themselves followed a similar format: contents, author, provenance, date, destination, purpose, text, adoption into the Canon, the book in recent studies, and its contribution to Scripture and theology. Chapter twenty-six: “The New Testament Canon”, opened with an introduction on the use of the word “canon” and how it has developed into the field of study we have today. The chapter then discusses the “Relevance of the Old Testament Canon”, “The Formation of the New Testament Canon”, and closes with “The Significance of the New Testament Canon”. Carson and Moo close the chapter with the idea that the church does not establish the Canon but recognizes or affirms the Canon as “God’s gracious self-revelation” (page 741), reminding us that the Bible is self-authenticating.
Carson and Moo do a good job of dealing with the issues and dangers of different criticisms and arguments, but do so in a clear and concise manner, while encouraging the reader to hold fast to a conservative understanding of the issues. Their ability to work through both the pros and cons of any argument is commendable and should be a model for conservatives to follow in dealing with those whom they disagree with. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to gain a better understanding of these special introductory matters.
Daniel D. Baltich

4/22/2021

[Darren Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to read almost half the book, from first chapter to Acts for my NT 1 survey course.

I gave this book 2 stars for being mostly biblical, deduct the other 3 stars from this review because this book isn't so much an introduction to the New Testament. As one of the reviewers who said, this book is more like an introduction to various theories about the New Testament. It seems to be that these chapters that I have read, the primary agenda of these chapters was written to deal with the higher critical theories more than to understand the New Testament itself. As a result most of the things I read just fly through my head and to make matters worse, the writing style was terribly tedious, dry, and technical. The first half of the book is clearly beyond the level of most seminary students, and most of the critical theories will be irrelevant to us. Maybe someone who wants to be a NT scholar will find them relevant.

In addition, I didn't like the authors' theological biases very much. Such as the affirmation of Eternal Functional Subordination, and how they disagree monogenes to be translated as Only-Begotten.

Moreover, I also didn't like how they engage with the longer ending of Mark and especially the periscope of the adulteress woman in John 7:53-8:11. It's not fair to make a blanket statement that all the early church fathers omit John 7:53-8:11 in their narrative. We have good historical evidence that some of the early church fathers found this passage to be canonical. There is clearly a lack of engagement with the scholarship that prefers Byzantine text over Alexandrian text in this book.

A better alternative of this book for seminary students would be the one published by RTS under Crossway, A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament: The Gospel Realized. That book spent more time in giving an actual overview what the NT is about rather than giving us an overview of various irrelevant critical theories.

[Caleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this is an extremely dense book, it has to be for what it was trying to do. Carson and Moo basically summarized all the best arguments and scholarship in defense of the 27 books of the NT over and against the past few centuries of liberal theology and deconstructionism. Not every argument is equally convincing, but the main points in every chapter are highly persuasive. If anyone doubts the authenticity of various books of the NT, or wants a better understanding of the general situation in which a given book was written, this is probably the best place to go. It's not for the faint of heart, and it's definitely not worth skimming. If I had to guess, I would say this book took me 60 to 70 hours to read, and I took detailed enough notes to go back and memorize all his major arguments for every position he holds for each book (I'm studying for a PhD entrance exam). Not many people need to read this book with such granularity, but to get everything out of the book that's worth getting, it still needs to be read slowly. Also, if you pair this book with Guthrie's NT introduction, you get a nice balance of different emphases. I would recommend reading that book slow too (though I didn't take my own advice--only so much time in the day!).

[Joel Opificius · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5. Fantastic introduction by two fantastic scholars. The purpose of this volume is to provide discussion on necessary historical details of NT books (author, provenance, occasion, historical criticism, etc.). They thoroughly deal with the most important historical issues of each book. They do provide some short discussions on literary or theological details of the books, but they are generally inconsistent in which of these details they include and how they include them (but that is also not their stated purpose of this volume). Nevertheless, I think this volume could be strengthened if they included more discussion on the message/theology of NT books—particularly how our understanding of authorship, provenance, or occasion influences our view of the message/theology of the book. Yet, this resource will continue to be a valuable reference in my library.

[Sagely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carson, Moo, & Morris's INT has been my go-to resources in teaching NT Introductions. When I discovered I'd be teaching the course, I took home a pile of other introductory studies from my office, examining in a way I'd never done before. (Honestly, to this point, they'd just provided some bulk for the lower shelves of my bookcase, counterbalancing the book-specific commentaries I usually rely on.) I found none of the others capture the breadth of coverage that INT does.

That said, INT opts for conservative answers to most historical-critical questions. NT books were all written by the men traditionally associated with them. Dates are monolithically early. And so on. However, INT does lay out other options, which I appreciate.

If I were to buy one NT introduction, this might be it.

[Adam Chandler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great resource for biblical scholars which delves into the New Testament, groups of books in the NT, and individual books. Each treatment gives overviews for the modern scholarship on the various books and responses to the various arguments which wish to deny any book's validity in the cannon. Many of these arguments ignore or deny evidence for the various books. It does come from an Evangelical background and it shows in some places but not enough to justify denying this as a good reference book. It could, however, benefit from more exploration of how the Church Fathers read and understood the NT books instead of focusing almost exclusively on modern discussions in most parts.

[Thomas Glen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really glad I read this! Reading it was a fair amount of work. Discussions of authorship, text and all the rest of the matters covered for each book are relentlessly thick with discussion of the academic literature on each topic for each book - but my object in reading this was to know that I have a basic understanding of the matters covered for each book of the Bible (I read Tremper Longman's An Introduction to the Old Testament just before this) that's not missing chunks, and I feel confident that this book, and its OT counterpart, helped me achieve that.

[John Sheehan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors are fair, biblical, and logical, making this a worthwhile book for a serious student and far superior to other, more liberal introductions. Biblical and broad, but could be briefer in many areas. Every chapter examines a particular book based on content, author, audience, the date is written, the reason for the book, adoption into canon, recent studies, contribution and more. The book is theological in nature and a worthwhile read for any student of the bible.

[Kyle Grindberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the textbook for my New Testament class. Although I had to roll my eyes as they spent page upon page talking about all of the inane ideas from textual criticism, I appreciated their gentle yet somewhat snarky (with lots of plausible deniability) dismissal of it all. It was a breath of fresh air, and very different from the tone of our textbook for Old Testament which showed those ideas far more respect.

[Janae Epp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I skimmed most of this book for a class. It’s a helpful resource containing NT contextual information (e.g., date and authorship discussions), theological themes, and an overview of critical issues. I can see this being a good book for the preachers or teachers wanting to familiarize themselves with background and reliability discussions during lesson prep. It would also function well as an introductory book for the person wanting to study the NT in more detail on their own time.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For each NT book, Carson and Moo provide a summary of the content, the historical and literary context, textual/canon issues, and topics debated in modern scholarship. Although, there is an excessive interaction with critical scholarship for an intro to NT book. Instead, I wish the section on theological contribution of each book was more thorough.

[Steve Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent resource. It gives a comprehensive overview of each book of the New Testament, including a brief summary of the contents of each book, authorship, provenance, date, intended original audience, genre, adoption into the canon, treatment in recent study, and contributions of the book.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're interested in how we know who wrote the books of the New Testament, and when, and why, give this one a look. It reviews all of this and more, presenting various scholars opinions from the early church fathers through today, and introduces the manuscripts we have for each, textual differences, and how we can know what the originals said.