A book recommendation
Helen Willis hhiwater@BRIGHT.NET
Tue, 20 Oct 1998 10:52:08 -0700 (00908923928, 362CCDC8.455F@bright.net)
I recommend as an excellent resource:
The New Testament: An Introduction for the General Reader by Oscar Cullmann
My copy is from Westminster Press isbn # 0-664-24817-8
This book is out of print. It is a translation of a book originally in French
for you French speakers on the list, Le Nouveau Testament (Collection Que
sais-je? Le Point des connaissances actuelles,, No. 1231; Presses
Universitaires de France, Paris France, 1966). Amazon will do an out of print
search for the English Version. It possible that you might stumble across it
in a used book store.
It is very small and blessedly brief (138 pages). It has three parts. Part
one is three chapters (20 pages) on the history of the New Testament and does
nice things like in two pages explain what are and the relationships of the
various families of texts, Syrian, Western, and neutral. Part Two is an
actual analysis of the books of the NT with a lot of just good factual
material, what words mean, what is the history of the know manuscripts of a
given book, what is the current ideas about the work based on textual
analysis, where the quotes come from, and such (5 chapters, 100 pages). Part
Three is the history of the formation of the NT Canon (6 pages). There is
then a Conclusion and a bibliography, but unfortunately no index.
Even those on the list that already know this material would find this book
useful because Cullmann manages to explain some of the most complicated ideas
briefly and correctly, which is not an easy trick. He would be useful for
quotes for this reason.
Helen
hhiwater@bright.net