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The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians
Finally: an introduction that captures the excitement of the early Christians, helping today's readers to think like a first-century believer while reading the text responsibly for today.
The New Testament in Its World is your passageway from the twenty-first century to the era of Jesus and the first Christians. A highly-readable, one-volume introduction placing the entire New Testament and early Christianity in its original context, it is the only such work by distinguished scholar and author N. T. (Tom) Wright.
An ideal guide for students, The New Testament in Its World addresses the many difficult questions faced by those studying early Christianity. Both large and small, these questions include:
What is the purpose of the New Testament?
What was the first-century understanding of the kingdom?
What is the real meaning of the resurrection in its original context?
What really were the Gospels?
Who was Paul and why are his letters so controversial?
As twenty-first-century people, how do we recover the excitement of what it was like to live as Christians in the first or second centuries?
In short, The New Testament in Its World brings together decades of ground-breaking research, writing, and teaching into one volume that will open readers' eyes to the larger world of the New Testament. It presents the New Testament books as historical, literary, and social phenomena located in the world of Second Temple Judaism, amidst Greco-Roman politics and culture, and within early Christianity.
Written for both classroom and personal use, the benefits of The New Testament in Its World include:
A distillation of the life work of N. T. Wright on the New Testament with input from Michael Bird
Historical context that situates Jesus and the early church within the history, culture, and religion of Second Temple Judaism and the Greco-Roman world
Major sections on the historical Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, and Paul's chronology and theology
Surveys of each New Testament book that discuss their significance, critical topics like authorship and date, and that provide commentary on contents along with implications for the Christian life
Up-to-date discussions of textual criticism and the canonization of the New Testament
A concluding chapter dedicated to living the story of the New Testament
Available Video and Workbook companion resources to enhance learning and experience the world of the New Testament
Illustrated with visually rich pictures, maps, charts, diagrams, and artwork; plentiful sidebars provide additional explanations and insights
The New Testament in Its World is your passageway from the twenty-first century to the era of Jesus and the first Christians. A highly-readable, one-volume introduction placing the entire New Testament and early Christianity in its original context, it is the only such work by distinguished scholar and author N. T. (Tom) Wright.
An ideal guide for students, The New Testament in Its World addresses the many difficult questions faced by those studying early Christianity. Both large and small, these questions include:
What is the purpose of the New Testament?
What was the first-century understanding of the kingdom?
What is the real meaning of the resurrection in its original context?
What really were the Gospels?
Who was Paul and why are his letters so controversial?
As twenty-first-century people, how do we recover the excitement of what it was like to live as Christians in the first or second centuries?
In short, The New Testament in Its World brings together decades of ground-breaking research, writing, and teaching into one volume that will open readers' eyes to the larger world of the New Testament. It presents the New Testament books as historical, literary, and social phenomena located in the world of Second Temple Judaism, amidst Greco-Roman politics and culture, and within early Christianity.
Written for both classroom and personal use, the benefits of The New Testament in Its World include:
A distillation of the life work of N. T. Wright on the New Testament with input from Michael Bird
Historical context that situates Jesus and the early church within the history, culture, and religion of Second Temple Judaism and the Greco-Roman world
Major sections on the historical Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, and Paul's chronology and theology
Surveys of each New Testament book that discuss their significance, critical topics like authorship and date, and that provide commentary on contents along with implications for the Christian life
Up-to-date discussions of textual criticism and the canonization of the New Testament
A concluding chapter dedicated to living the story of the New Testament
Available Video and Workbook companion resources to enhance learning and experience the world of the New Testament
Illustrated with visually rich pictures, maps, charts, diagrams, and artwork; plentiful sidebars provide additional explanations and insights
Audible Audio
Published November 19, 2019
6 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
About the author
N.T. Wright
460 books2,864 followersN. T. Wright is the former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England (2003-2010) and one of the world's leading Bible scholars. He is now serving as the chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. He has been featured on ABC News, Dateline NBC, The Colbert Report, and Fresh Air, and he has taught New Testament studies at Cambridge, McGill, and Oxford universities. Wright is the award-winning author of Surprised by Hope, Simply Christian, The Last Word, The Challenge of Jesus, The Meaning of Jesus (coauthored with Marcus Borg), as well as the much heralded series Christian Origins and the Question of God.
He also publishes under Tom Wright.
He also publishes under Tom Wright.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 11, 2019
This was fascinating to listen to. I learned a lot and had much to think about each topic. I initially bought the audiobook due to some research I was doing. But I got much more than expected. Highly recommended.
November 16, 2024
3.5
I was hoping for a more academically rigorous, historical presentation of the New Testament within the wider context of the Greco-Roman world. Instead, the book reads more like a series of apologetic sermons. Not to say that the sermons are of poor quality - on the contrary, some are quite moving. But I've heard about a billion sermons and apologetics lectures in my life. I was hoping for more from this book.
I was hoping for a more academically rigorous, historical presentation of the New Testament within the wider context of the Greco-Roman world. Instead, the book reads more like a series of apologetic sermons. Not to say that the sermons are of poor quality - on the contrary, some are quite moving. But I've heard about a billion sermons and apologetics lectures in my life. I was hoping for more from this book.
October 11, 2020
Great book for a basic understanding of early Christianity, why they believed it, and why you can trust it as well.
August 5, 2024
The New Testament In Its World: Audio Lectures is a series of lectures in which Tom Wright and Michael Bird lead the listener through the background and cultural ideas that surround the birth of the New Testament era. This is the first section which focuses on the culture of the time, the literature of the time, and how the early apostles and Jesus, Himself, viewed Christ's role.
I think the lectures are interesting, but there is nothing profound here that isn't present elsewhere. More often than not, Wright and Bird take a relatively conservative view of who Jesus was and what His work was and I appreciate that. There is a second section which deals with each one of the books of the New Testament in its turn.
The format of these lectures is a bit problematic. Wright and Bird share their thoughts on each section separately and often repeat the main points that the other makes. As such, it feels as though the series of lectures could have been tightened up a fair amount.
I think one point that they make, that is helpful, is that the Jews were viewed by the Romans as atheists (they had no idols in their temple), but that Rome had decided to tolerate the Jews and their aberrant religious practices. As long as Christians were seen as a Jewish sect, they too were tolerated, but once they were separate, the leeway that was granted to Jews to worship in their own way was no longer given to Christians. This put pressure on those in the early church to abandon Christianity -- either to return to Judaism or simply to give up "The Way."
Wright mentions the fact that he believes that some of the interpretation of the Reformation leaders of justification by faith is misguided. He thinks that the justification is as the result of God's faithfulness and not our faith in God. He doesn't come across strongly on this point, but it certainly is a major shift in thinking from that of Martin Luther and those who followed.
Overall, I found it interesting, if a bit repetitive. I would recommend it for someone looking for an introduction to the history, culture, and philosophical underpinnings of the world into which Jesus was born.
I think the lectures are interesting, but there is nothing profound here that isn't present elsewhere. More often than not, Wright and Bird take a relatively conservative view of who Jesus was and what His work was and I appreciate that. There is a second section which deals with each one of the books of the New Testament in its turn.
The format of these lectures is a bit problematic. Wright and Bird share their thoughts on each section separately and often repeat the main points that the other makes. As such, it feels as though the series of lectures could have been tightened up a fair amount.
I think one point that they make, that is helpful, is that the Jews were viewed by the Romans as atheists (they had no idols in their temple), but that Rome had decided to tolerate the Jews and their aberrant religious practices. As long as Christians were seen as a Jewish sect, they too were tolerated, but once they were separate, the leeway that was granted to Jews to worship in their own way was no longer given to Christians. This put pressure on those in the early church to abandon Christianity -- either to return to Judaism or simply to give up "The Way."
Wright mentions the fact that he believes that some of the interpretation of the Reformation leaders of justification by faith is misguided. He thinks that the justification is as the result of God's faithfulness and not our faith in God. He doesn't come across strongly on this point, but it certainly is a major shift in thinking from that of Martin Luther and those who followed.
Overall, I found it interesting, if a bit repetitive. I would recommend it for someone looking for an introduction to the history, culture, and philosophical underpinnings of the world into which Jesus was born.
November 29, 2022
The contents of this audio series of lectures is great, but the format is jarring.
The New Testament In Its World is part historical contextualization to understand the state of the Greco-Roman world and the Jewish traditions as they had developed up to the time of Jesus and the NT authors. It is also part NT survey course, with detailed investigations into the sources, circumstances, and intentions of each book in the New Testament. Personally, I found that the cultural contextualization was fascinating and a lot of the deep book-by-book postulating a bit dull.
While Michael Bird and NT Wright are occasionally talking to one another in this course, much of the material is recorded separately and they each address the same materials and reiterate one another’s thoughts. Typically, Bird speaks much longer and then Wright repeats what he said in more succinct terms. It seems that they both were tasked with covering all the material separately and everything from both was kept. This doubling of all the materials makes for a lethargic experience for the listener.
Overall, this really sparked by desire to have a clearer understanding of what being a Christian meant to the early Christians. If Judaism was legal under Roman law and many Jewish converts wished to returning to their easier belief system, what about Christianity made it so back threatening and disenchanting? The answer is that Jesus and his followers intentionally rejected social class systems, rejected the god status of the emperor, rejected the gods and their immoral practices, and expected the resurrection of physical bodies. All of these qualities and more automatically made them a destabilizing force in the culture, even though the prepared to serve the poor and lose their lives for their beliefs. Such a bizarre belief system, if we can take the time and make the space to step back and look at it with new eyes.
The New Testament In Its World is part historical contextualization to understand the state of the Greco-Roman world and the Jewish traditions as they had developed up to the time of Jesus and the NT authors. It is also part NT survey course, with detailed investigations into the sources, circumstances, and intentions of each book in the New Testament. Personally, I found that the cultural contextualization was fascinating and a lot of the deep book-by-book postulating a bit dull.
While Michael Bird and NT Wright are occasionally talking to one another in this course, much of the material is recorded separately and they each address the same materials and reiterate one another’s thoughts. Typically, Bird speaks much longer and then Wright repeats what he said in more succinct terms. It seems that they both were tasked with covering all the material separately and everything from both was kept. This doubling of all the materials makes for a lethargic experience for the listener.
Overall, this really sparked by desire to have a clearer understanding of what being a Christian meant to the early Christians. If Judaism was legal under Roman law and many Jewish converts wished to returning to their easier belief system, what about Christianity made it so back threatening and disenchanting? The answer is that Jesus and his followers intentionally rejected social class systems, rejected the god status of the emperor, rejected the gods and their immoral practices, and expected the resurrection of physical bodies. All of these qualities and more automatically made them a destabilizing force in the culture, even though the prepared to serve the poor and lose their lives for their beliefs. Such a bizarre belief system, if we can take the time and make the space to step back and look at it with new eyes.
June 4, 2023
I really enjoyed these audio lectures from Tom Wright and Michael Bird. It was a clear introduction to the New Testament, and a good succinct summary of the overall themes. I'm sure the actual book is more dense and academic, but this was very easy to follow, and the fact that the authors gave the lectures themselves, made it very easy to listen to. Especially NT Wright his voice and Northern English accent is soothing and engaging.
February 19, 2023
Super helpful lectures about the New Testament.
December 10, 2023
Interesting, but I was hoping for historical information.
May 13, 2024
Very informative and interesting but at times felt repetitive. NT Wright is definitely the person I want educating me on this topic.
December 16, 2025
This is an excellent book for seekers of biblical background.
April 9, 2020
I love Tom Wright's work, so I was excited to listen to Parts 1 and 2 of this audiobook. I ended up being really disappointed, not in the content, but in the presentation. I have found out that the audio from this audiobook is not a reading of Wright's book entitled, "The New Testament in Its World," but rather it is the audio from a video series that accompanies a Bible study based on that book. Because of that, the audio quality fluctuates, and there are even times where his words are hard to hear. I really want to read the actual book, which is said to be a compilation of Wright's "greatest hits" from his previous books, but this audiobook does not give me that exact content.
Because of that, my 2-star rating reflects my disappointment with what this audiobook ended up being, again, not that Wright's content is poor.
Online, I found a list of each of the sections included on the video series, so here is that list:
Session Titles and Runtimes:
0 - Welcome to the Study (13 min)
1 - Beginning Study of the New Testament (19 min)
2 - The New Testament as History (5 min)
3 - The New Testament as Literature (18 min)
4 - The New Testament as Theology (19 min)
5 - The History of the Jews between the Persian and Roman Empires (10 min)
6 - The Jewish Context of Jesus and the Early Church (9 min)
7 - The Greco-Roman Context of the Early Church (14 min)
8 - The Study of the Historical Jesus (24 min)
9 - The Profile and Praxis of a Prophet (15 min)
10 - Who Did Jesus Think He Was? (45 min)
11 - The Death of the Messiah (9 min)
12 - The Afterlife in Greek, Roman, and Jewish Thought (11 min)
13 - The Story of Easter according to the Apostle Paul (35 min)
14 - The Story of Easter according to the Evangelists (41 min)
15 - The Story of Paul's Life and Ministry (9 min)
16 - A Primer on Pauline Theology (24 min)
17 - Galatians (23 min)
18 - 1 and 2 Thessalonians (25 min)
19 - Philippians (25 min)
20 - Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians (28 min)
21 - 1 and 2 Corinthians (29 min)
22 - Romans (23 min)
23 - The Pastoral Epistles (31 min)
24 - The Gospel according to Mark (21 min)
25 - The Gospel according to Matthew (19 min)
26 - The Gospel according to Luke and Acts of the Apostles (31 min)
27 - The Gospel according to John (23 min)
28 - The Making of the Gospels (11 min)
29 - Introduction to the Early Christian Letters (6 min)
30 - The Letter to the Hebrews (16 min)
31 - Letters by Jesus' Brothers: James and Jude (17 min)
32 - Petrine Letters: 1 and 2 Peter (17 min)
33 - Johannine Letters: 1, 2, and 3 John (16 min)
34 - Revelation (20 min)
35 - Introduction to Textual Criticism of the New Testament (18 min)
36 - The Canonization of the New Testament (6 min)
37 - Bringing It All Together (32 min)
I'm not sure exactly which session Part 1 got to, but it was somewhere in the middle, near the Paul content.
I won't be listening to Part 2.
Because of that, my 2-star rating reflects my disappointment with what this audiobook ended up being, again, not that Wright's content is poor.
Online, I found a list of each of the sections included on the video series, so here is that list:
Session Titles and Runtimes:
0 - Welcome to the Study (13 min)
1 - Beginning Study of the New Testament (19 min)
2 - The New Testament as History (5 min)
3 - The New Testament as Literature (18 min)
4 - The New Testament as Theology (19 min)
5 - The History of the Jews between the Persian and Roman Empires (10 min)
6 - The Jewish Context of Jesus and the Early Church (9 min)
7 - The Greco-Roman Context of the Early Church (14 min)
8 - The Study of the Historical Jesus (24 min)
9 - The Profile and Praxis of a Prophet (15 min)
10 - Who Did Jesus Think He Was? (45 min)
11 - The Death of the Messiah (9 min)
12 - The Afterlife in Greek, Roman, and Jewish Thought (11 min)
13 - The Story of Easter according to the Apostle Paul (35 min)
14 - The Story of Easter according to the Evangelists (41 min)
15 - The Story of Paul's Life and Ministry (9 min)
16 - A Primer on Pauline Theology (24 min)
17 - Galatians (23 min)
18 - 1 and 2 Thessalonians (25 min)
19 - Philippians (25 min)
20 - Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians (28 min)
21 - 1 and 2 Corinthians (29 min)
22 - Romans (23 min)
23 - The Pastoral Epistles (31 min)
24 - The Gospel according to Mark (21 min)
25 - The Gospel according to Matthew (19 min)
26 - The Gospel according to Luke and Acts of the Apostles (31 min)
27 - The Gospel according to John (23 min)
28 - The Making of the Gospels (11 min)
29 - Introduction to the Early Christian Letters (6 min)
30 - The Letter to the Hebrews (16 min)
31 - Letters by Jesus' Brothers: James and Jude (17 min)
32 - Petrine Letters: 1 and 2 Peter (17 min)
33 - Johannine Letters: 1, 2, and 3 John (16 min)
34 - Revelation (20 min)
35 - Introduction to Textual Criticism of the New Testament (18 min)
36 - The Canonization of the New Testament (6 min)
37 - Bringing It All Together (32 min)
I'm not sure exactly which session Part 1 got to, but it was somewhere in the middle, near the Paul content.
I won't be listening to Part 2.
January 8, 2021
This is a great overview of much of Wright's work helping to open up readers more to the world out of which the New Testament emerged. If you've read a lot of Wright's work, nothing here is going to shock you; however, it's a great resource for someone either new to Wright's work or even the scholarship around the New Testament world in general.
July 27, 2021
In Audible this is a series of lectures. They have so much good info packed into them I started them over immediately.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews