Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written: Reading the New Testament in the Order It Was Written - Hardcover

Marcus J. Borg

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062082108 ISBN 13: 9780062082107

Publisher: HarperOne, 2012

Synopsis

Everyone knows the New Testament begins with the Gospel of Matthew, but how many people know it was actually one of the later books to be written it was not even the first Gospel! By re-ordering the New Testament books in the sequence of when they were written, Borg provides a wonderful tutorial on how the core ideas of Christianity took shape and developed over time. With introductions and sidebars to each of the books of the Bible, as well the oral history of what Jesus said before it was written down, Borg reveals how what began as a radical Jewish faith transformed itself into Christianity. From Paul s authentic letters and the first dramatic telling of Jesus story in Mark, we see how an antiimperial movement started a religious revolution. But we also witness how the next generation of writers slowly began to erode the movement s radicalism. Readers will rediscover documents they thought they knew well by seeing them in an all-new setting. Borg s Evolution of the Word promises to change how we think about this historic work.

About this title

Review:

Marcus Borg has always been a great teacher. In his newest book The Evolution of the Word his teaching skills are obvious as he opens the New Testament, not only to its original, historical order, but also to insightful, refreshing and dramatic insights. - --John Shelby Spong, author of Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World

Every church should have a copy of this book to which their people s attention is periodically drawn. --The Good Book Stall

From the Back Cover:

Everyone knows the New Testament begins with the Gospel of Matthew, but how many know Matthew was actually one of the later books to be written? (It wasn't even the first Gospel!) But Evolution of the Word is not your typical New Testament.

Marcus J. Borg, esteemed Bible scholar and bestselling author, shakes up the order of the New Testament as we know it by putting the books in a completely new order--the order in which they were written. By doing so, Evolution of the Word allows us to read these documents in their historical context. For the first time, see how the core ideas of Christianity took shape and developed over time.

Borg surveys what we know of the Jewish community of Jesus followers who passed on their stories orally. Into this context emerges the apostle Paul, whose seven authentic letters become the first collected writings that would later become the New Testament. Borg offers helpful introductions for each book so that as we read through these biblical documents, spanning over a century in time, we see afresh what concerns and pressures shaped this movement as it evolved into a new religion.

In this groundbreaking format, Borg reveals how a radical and primitive apocalyptic Jewish faith slowly became more comfortable with the world, less Jewish, and more pre- occupied with maintaining power and control. Evolution of the Word promises to change forever how we think about this historic work.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0062082108
• ISBN 13: 9780062082107
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 608