Written by scholars with extensive experience teaching in colleges and universities, the Exploring the Bible series has for decades equipped students to study Scripture for themselves. Exploring the New Testament, Volume One provides an accessible introduction to the Gospels and Acts. It's filled with classroom-friendly features such as discussion questions, charts, theological summary sidebars, essay questions, and further reading lists. This volume introduces students to Jewish and Greco-Roman background literary genres and forms issues of authorship, date, and setting the content and major themes of each book various approaches to the study of the Gospels and Acts the intersection of New Testament criticism with contemporary faith and culture Now in its third edition, this popular textbook has been updated and revised to take account of the latest advances in scholarly findings and research methods, including new sections on the impact of social memory theory on Gospel studies the relationship of John's Gospel to the Synoptics recent work on characterization in narrative studies of the Gospels the way the Hebrew Scriptures are read by the New Testament authors the contribution of archaeology to New Testament studies updated bibliographies highlighting the most important and influential works published in the last decade Especially suited as a textbook for courses on Jesus, the Gospels, or Acts, this book is a valuable guide for anyone seeking a solid foundation for studying the New Testament.