The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians, by N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2019. 980 pp. $59.99.
Several years ago, Michael Bird (Academic Dean and Lecturer, Ridley College, Melbourne) had the bright idea that N. T. Wright’s multi-volume series, Christian Origins and the Question of God, be condensed into a Wright primer that could also serve as an introduction to the New Testament. Wright, the retired bishop of Durham and then recently appointed research professor at the University of St. Andrews, agreed to the project. With Wright’s full guidance along the way, Bird began the herculean task of working through Wright’s published works, selecting, arranging, condensing, and supplementing material. Nearly two decades later, this unique and colorful volume appeared. Indeed, so much of this volume is “vintage Wright,” both in the witty, personable style of the author as well as in his shrewd and sometimes controversial approach to the theology of the NT. It is difficult, in fact, to determine where Bird’s voice can be heard in the volume apart from that of his co-author.
In Part I, Wright and Bird immediately draw the reader into the “story” of the NT and then set forth the importance of studying the NT in terms of history (“the past”), literature (“the text”), and theology (“understanding God and the world”) (47). Part II follows with a 70-page presentation of the history of the second temple period, and the Jewish and Hellenistic cultural and political backgrounds for the story of Jesus and the early church. Thus the effort toward the beginning of the work to truly place the NT “in its world.”
One would expect a NT introduction to move now to the study of the Gospels and Acts. Instead, Parts III through V follow the trajectory and even the titles of Wright’s Christian Origins series: “Jesus and the Victory of God” (III), “The Resurrection of the Son of God” (IV), and “Paul and the Faithfulness of God” (V). Those who have read much of Wright’s Origins will find themselves in very familiar territory. In fact, for anyone wishing to understand the theological musings of N. T. Wright without wading through the roughly 3,400 pages of his Origins series, these three sections aptly subsume the majority of his theology. In the spirit of the third “quest” for the historical Jesus (cf. 176–86), Wright presents a decidedly Jewish Jesus, true to history, who came to announce God’s victory as King over the world through his own work as the “renewed Israel,” and was vindicated through his resurrection. With that vindication, Israel’s enslavement to the pagan world who still held them in exile was over, and the assertion of God’s rule had begun. The “kingdom of God” in this introduction is “a slogan whose basic meaning was the claim that Israel’s God was the world’s true Lord, and that Caesar, or indeed Herod, was not” (198). The pages covering the resurrection, true to Wright’s far lengthier volume on the subject, is one of the best modern apologetical defenses of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Then, in Part V, we finally find what one might expect in an introduction of the NT, namely the cultural and theological background of Paul, followed by a treatment of each of his letters. Following the contours of Paul’s story, Bird and Wright decide to treat Paul’s letters in chronological rather than canonical order. However, due to their defense of an Ephesian imprisonment rather than a Roman, Paul’s “prison” letters are situated between 1, 2 Thessalonians and 1, 2 Corinthians.
In one of the more curious decisions of the authors, only now does Part VI treat the Gospels and Acts, beginning with Mark, then Matthew, Luke-Acts, and finally John. However, this decision may be explained again in terms of chronology. The authors date the first five books of the NT later than other standard conservative introductions, with the exception of John’s Gospel. As the first gospel to be written, Mark is dated no earlier than 65 to 75 because of Jesus’s reference to the destruction of the temple in Mark 13 (558). On the other hand, treating Luke and Acts together offers a helpful way to trace salvation from Israel to the ends of the earth right at the heart of this introduction (605). This part ends with a chapter exploring the Synoptic Problem and source criticism, arbitrating a middle-of-the road position on the question of Q: not a single document for which there is no textual evidence, but perhaps a combination of various oral and written sources, a “Q-lite” (693).
Part VII treats the “catholic” letters, including the letter to the Hebrews, continuing to bring the implications of Wright’s theology to bear upon them. Revelation brings the introduction to a climax with the new heaven and earth and God’s “truly, fully, and finally dwelling with his people,” the new and final exodus (840). Whether a literal earthly kingdom in Revelation 20 is in view is a question left hanging.
Part VIII covers the disciplines of textual criticism and NT canon. The authors are optimistically skeptical about actually reconstructing the very original text and seem to favor David Trobisch’s “canonical edition” approach (852–55). Nevertheless, they insist that we have a very sure text. They also debunk the Bauer-Ehrman thesis that the NT canon was formed through political or ecclesiastical power; for the church did not create the word of God, but the word of God created the church (867). Finally, in a mere 10 pages, Part IX summarizes the whole NT story and its significance for the church.
It is impossible in a brief review to identify all of the theological peculiarities that have come to define Wright’s approach to NT theology. But they are all on display in this volume, including his New Perspectives approach to justification. God’s “righteousness” revealed through the gospel is not personal righteousness, but God’s own “faithfulness” to the Abrahamic covenant, and the fact that people all over the empire are believing in the true God is evidence of humankind being restored (304). The rapture of the church is not how conservative evangelicals have interpreted it, but merely “a vivid and biblically allusive description of the great transformation of the present world” (426). Neither is the lake of fire literal, but a metaphor trying to convey in the most heinous of terms what separation from God would feel like (840). But beyond its theology, some of the conclusions about genuine authorship land this introduction somewhere to the left of mainstream evangelical interpretation. The Gospel of John and his letters are most likely the product of “John the elder,” not the son of Zebedee. There is a thorough discussion of the evidence for the genuine Pauline authorship of the pastoral letters, but whether Paul was the actual author is left open for discussion. And 2 Peter, easily considered the least authentic of the NT letters by critical scholars is not a “forgery” but, in Richard Bauckham’s terminology, “transparent fiction” (764). To be sure, Bird and Wright carefully take these positions with the best possible explanations, insisting that the Bible is still inspired Scripture. But if the author of these letters is someone other than the person whose name they bear, then they are at some level a lie, and this fact strains the definitions of inspiration and inerrancy.
As a primer on the theology of N. T. Wright, the volume succeeds largely, for it helpfully condenses in digestible length his longer works. It is full of colorful pictures, charts and diagrams, interesting sidebars, and engaging and creative asides. There is also a workbook available and there are accompanying video lectures which place Bird and Wright onsite in the Holy Land. But I do not believe many seminaries would choose this volume for their standard NTI text due to its unconventional approach to introduction. It may be too much N. T. Wright, and not enough standard NT.
