The New Testament As Literature: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #168

by Kyle Keefer (Editor)

The words, phrases, and stories of the New Testament permeate the English language. Indeed, this relatively small group of twenty-seven works, written during the height of the Roman Empire, not only helped create and sustain a vast world religion, but also have been integral to the larger
cultural dynamics of the West, above and beyond particular religious expressions.
Looking at the New Testament through the lens of literary study, Kyle Keefer offers an engrossing exploration of this revered religious text as a work of literature, but also keeps in focus its theological ramifications. Unique among books that examine the Bible as literature, this
brilliantly compact introduction offers an intriguing double-edged look at this universal text--a religiously informed literary analysis. The book first explores the major sections of the New Testament--the gospels, Paul's letters, and Revelation--as individual literary documents. Keefer shows how,
in such familiar stories as the parable of the Good Samaritan, a literary analysis can uncover an unexpected complexity to what seems a simple, straightforward tale. At the conclusion of the book, Keefer steps back and asks questions about the New Testament as a whole. He reveals that whether read
as a single document or as a collection of works, the New Testament presents readers with a wide variety of forms and viewpoints, and a literary exploration helps bring this richness to light.
A fascinating investigation of the New Testament as a classic literary work, this Very Short Introduction uses a literary framework--plot, character, narrative arc, genre--to illuminate the language, structure, and the crafting of this venerable text.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, History, Literary Criticism, Literature, Theology, Christianity

144 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[امیر لطیفی · Rating 4 out of 5]

دوّمین اثری است که بی‌وقفه در مورد عیسی می‌خوانم. قبلی اندیشه‌ی عیسی بود. این یکی مشخصاً از عنوانش هم پیداست که متن‌محور است. از جمله چیزهای نویی که این کتاب نسبت به قبلی برایم داشت پرداختنِ به رساله‌های پولس و مکاشفه بود. انجیل‌ها در این اثر با دقتِ بیشتری بررسی شدند و فرصتِ مقایسه‌ بیشتر مهیا شد.

مواجهه با عهدِ جدید برای غیرباورمندان هم باید تجربه‌ی لذّت‌بخش و پرباری باشد، برای من که چنین بود. تلاش برای کشفِ انگیزه‌، باورها و نویسندگانِ کتبِ مختلفِ عهدِ جدید، مقایسه‌ی عیسای انجیل‌ها و رساله‌ها، پرواز با خیالِ یوحنا در مکاشفه‌ی آخرالزمانی و در مجموع سعی برای فهم و درکِ رشته‌های پیدا و پنهانِ بخش‌های گونه‌گون کتابِ مقدس مخاطب را به میانِ گفتگوهای بین‌متنیِ پربار و همچنان زنده‌ای می‌کشد که در هیچ مجموعه‌ی قانونی (canonical) دیگری با این کیفیتِ و چنین رسا شکل نمی‌گیرد.

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Narrated by Jonathon Walker.

4* Sexuality
4* The New Testament as Literature
3* Paul
4* Racism
3* Ancient Egypt
4* Witchcraft
3* The Book of Mormon
4* Druids
4* Forensic Psychology
3* Forensic Science


Points:
1. Paul. How can he be good to the cause.
2. Revelation as the first fantasy novel
3. "I only know two kinds of people, those who believe in good and evil, and those that don't" BWHAHAHAHAH

[Felix · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick read. Even within the 'A Very Short Introduction' series, this volume is very brief. It discusses all of the books of the New Testament, giving short overviews of their literary (and of course, to some limited degree, theological) qualities. It's well-written, with a terse and to the point style. It is, however, rather basic in its analysis. I suppose this is to be expected from the title, but I have previously read one other book from the series (Mary Beard's Classics: A Very Short Introduction) and that one took a very different approach. Beard's text was more thematic, giving a feeling of the beating heart of the subject, whereas Keefer's is more traditional. I feel like this book puts priming the reader for other introductory texts as its formermost purpose, as opposed to presenting the reader with the intellectual approaches and challenges of the discipline (as in Beard's case).

Regardless, whether you like this book or not will depend on what you want to get out of it. If it is a stepping stone into further study of the subject area, I can wholeheartedly recommend it. If your purpose is to develop a quick understanding of the subject itself (and then move on to another subject), perhaps consider picking up something else.

[Omid Milanifard · Rating 4 out of 5]

انجیلهای چهارگانه و چند رساله دیگر که در مجموع کتاب مقدس را میسازند با هم تناقضات جدی به خصوص در تصویرسازی از مسیح دارند. با اینحال در این کتاب از دید ادبی و نه تفسیری به موضوع نگاه شده و این تناقضات به شخصیت سازی چند بعدی مرتبط شده اند. در مجموع به نظر من کتاب جالبی بود که اطلاعات خوبی هم داشت.

[Noel Cisneros]

La lectura del Nuevo Testamento como una obra literaria es algo muy reciente, pero no por ello poco interesante. Keefer ofrece una aproximación a cada uno de los libros del Nuevo Testamento en tanto como obras literarias, cómo están armados, cuales son sus personajes y el impacto que han tenido, para terminar hablando del conjunto como una sola obra y sus posibilidades de lectura.

[Stefan Gugler · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was a well above average Very Short Introduction, well done Kyle Keefer! I think the scope was concisely chosen (some convenience arises, because the title is already a much more limited scope than say 'Postmodernism', but well) such that Keefer could easily introduce the concept of what the literature interpretation of the NT entails, walk through the big 3-4 swaths of the NT, and finally offer some larger context. Especially this last part felt very astute (even though it might just be a normal observation among Religion Studies researchers): how to interpret a canon of texts where it is a priori unclear how they actually belong together apart from the decision of some people 1700 years ago. Most interestingly, just by grouping these texts together (especially in the letters part, or the synoptic gospels vs. John's) a certain cohesion grew out of the myriads of exegeses over the centuries.

If you have some interest in the Bible as a primary historic or literary project (rather than a religious source), this VSI is a nice summary, full of reminders of cool stories in the Bible, setting them in context of literature from all around history.

[Edie · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, the A Very Short Introduction series has been hit or miss. I am enthusiastic about the idea of the series. I have listened to Coogan's OT intro several times. It is fantastic. This one is okay but not quite as good. It isn't that there is anything particularly wrong with Keefer's intro, but this is a topic which has been written on extensively and there are better introductions out there. So, if you are only going to read one book about the NT, this should not be that book. But if you are going to read many, this is a quick and interesting enough overview - it is always nice to read a variety perspectives.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This week ABC Online is featuring an article titled What history really tells us about Jesus’ birth, pointing out that the inn, the shepherds and animals; pretty much everything we think we know about the Christmas Story is historically wrong. So, yes, Christmas is as good a time as any to take a closer look at the New Testament, not for religious reasons, but for the importance it has in Western literature. So in between doing festive season stuff around the house, I’ve been taking short breaks to read The New Testament as Literature, a Very Short Introduction, by Kyle Keefer.

As Keefer says in this interesting VSI, scholarly interpretations of The New Testament have been around for centuries, and the book has been read by more groups and individuals than any other book ever written. It is not only read for religious reasons by Christians, but also for cross-cultural interfaith understanding, as well as by people of no religion who want to discredit it. But for many, it’s the NT’s place in literature that matters, whether that’s in books with explicitly Christian themes like Paradise Lost or The Pilgrim’s Progress, or books like Ulysses of Absalom, Absalom! that allude to biblical language and themes undogmatically.

Keefer, who is Assistant Professor of Religion in the Bible Belt of the USA, is interested in the intersection of the Bible and the arts, and so am I. Although I don’t have a religious bone in my body I love looking at early religious art, illuminated manuscripts, Russian icons, and stained glass windows. Church architecture is sublime, and the music written for religious purposes by the great composers, is, I think, among the most beautiful that there is. And although I strongly disapprove of monarchies of all kinds, I am inclined to be more tolerant of the dead ones in Europe because, even though they did it for their own aggrandisement, they commissioned such beautiful art works – which (in mature democracies that have abolished the monarchy) are now accessible to the public.

But it is the influence of the Bible in literature that interests me most...

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/12/28/t...

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This VSI addresses a topic about which many volumes and treatises have been written over the years: the Christian New Testament, taken as a literary rather than a theological document. I found it a helpful introduction, and stimulating, as it points out features of the gospels and epistles that, when I’ve read them for faith or moral guidance, I’ve tended to pass over or ignore. A literary reading lets go of the questions, ‘in what sense is this true?’ and ‘if this is true, how should I live?’ in favor of, ‘why did this author makes this stylistic or narrative choice?’ and ‘what did this author likely want us to take away from their work?’ - which centers the text, rather than moral world around us.

One gap in the book I find puzzling: in the final chapter, the author discussed what it means to read the New Testament as a set of books bound together, and as a canon. He noted that because they are bound together, the texts are juxtaposed in ways their human authors could not have predicted or imagined but that open up new interpretive possibilities. but in my experience, I’m far less likely to read a passage in a gospel and go compare it to an epistle than I am to compare it to a story in the Old Testament. Moreover, if the authors of the gospels (and many of the epistles) could not have expected their works to wind up together, they absolutely were aware of the ways their writing called back to stories, symbols, and phrases from the Old Testament. This VSI doesn’t spend much if any time on that, and it seems a weird omission.

[Jeremy Neufeld · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not at all opposed to engaging with sacred texts as literature. Robert Alter for example is incredibly insightful with an aesthetic approach. But Keefer doesn't seem up for the task. He's fine on the basic details of modern biblical scholarship but does he really know literature? His literary analysis is superficial, amounting to banal high school essay close readings to point out that different authors focus on different things.

Maybe the Hebrew Bible is simply a richer vein for aesthetic analysis, with a corpus of texts distilled from the best (presumably) of a wider-ranging set of genres (epic, historical narrative, legal, poetic, hymnal, etc.), from a wider range of distinct cultural movements (priestly literature, prophetic literature, wisdom literature, etc.), written over a greater span of time. The New Testament, by contrast, is a more pragmatic collection written and compiled relatively quickly.

But I really don't think this is the problem here....

Keefer is hopeful that literary engagement can help make the NT "relevant" to readers uninterested in its religious teachings. But he never writes in a way to appeal to readers who are actually interested in literature beyond vaguely understanding "cultural references."

[Jonathan Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't imagine fundamentalists would enjoy this book because it lays to one side or 'brackets' the truth claims of the Bible, but I found it exciting and liberating. By thinking about the various texts that make up the New Testament in terms of their rhetoric, imagery, characterisation of persons and events, implicit presuppositions (as well as explicit arguments), and intended audiences, it opens up entirely new perspectives for someone (like me) who grew up thinking of these texts in purely didactic or historical terms. In other words, this book considers the New Testament texts as created by human authors, using fictive (meaning constructed purposefully, not dishonest) techniques.

[Wing · Rating 4 out of 5]

This small booklet starts by briefly describing what literary study entails. Literature functions as "equipment for living" (Kenneth Burke). It then uses narrative criticism to dissect the Synoptic gospels; rhetorical critism to discuss the Pauline Corpus and the Gospel of John; form critism to demystify the Book of Revelation; and finally canonical critism to defend plurality within singularity. Putting theological dogmas aside and relinquishing the fantasy of recovering the "historial Jesus", one can find exploring the protean and multifaceted intepretative portrayals of Jesus both fascinating and illuminating. Four stars.

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good primer on the literary origins of the New Testament, bit dull and one-damn-fact-after-another style; for a quick overview of the structure and function this very short introduction serves its purpose; as for a modern superb translation of the New Testament straight from the original koine greek please refer to David Bentley Hart's magisterial The New Testament and the classic companion guide by asimov isaac; Asimov's Guide to the Bible: The Old and New Testaments; on the origin of the text be sure to check the extensive work done by Bart Ehrman.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keefer's look at the NT as literature, while helpful in many ways, ultimately left too much to be desired, especially given some of his more critical conclusions. Not that critical exegesis is bad per se, but such a short exploration doesn't allow for different voices beyond the author's own to be satisfactorily heard.

[Thor R · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book exposed me to a different way to view the New Testament and gave me more tools with which to interpret it. Some of the tools helped me sort or smooth out seeming contradictions and it gave me a framework by which to evaluate the NT as a whole.

[Joel Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won’t comment on the theology behind the writing of this book. That said, it was an interesting read. I wouldn’t classify it as an “introduction” though. The content of the book requires some foundational knowledge of the New Testament.

[Bailey A · Rating 3 out of 5]

I disagreed with a lot of points that Keefer made but overall there was a lot of good information that was packed into such a small book. Would recommend to people who want to learn more about the New Testament as a whole.

[Darwin8u · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really nice survey of the New Testament as literature. Nothing very new here, but spends a good amount of time discussing how the New Testament needs to be view both as a complete work and as individual pieces. He uses the idea of a pictorial collage to discuss the cannon. Anyway, it was solid.

[Zach Busick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty useful little book

[Daniel Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The New Testament and the literary canon
Chapter 3: The gospels
Chapter 4: Paul and his letters
Chapter 5: Revelation
Chapter 6: The New Testament, bound

[Greg Hovanesian · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly interesting and easy-to-understand explanation of the New Testament as Literature.

[Felipe Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok audiobook to listen to while you play videogames or something

[Timothy Klob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of New Testament writings but could have used more development - seems like an attempt here to abridge a much larger work.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bad attempt at thinking about the New Testament as literature, Keefer offered several mildly interesting interpretations of New Testament books, but the book never cohered. If there is a thesis, it is that Keefer is encouraging us to think about the Bible as literature, but it is never clear what that means because he never defines literature.

[Bojan Tunguz · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first encounter with the Bible came in my early teens. I always enjoyed reading, and more I read of the authors of broadly European provenance, more I came across allusions and references to the Bible. I became curious about this book that was overarching much of the Western art for the better part of the last two millennia. So my first encounter with the Bible, and the New Testament in particular, was driven by primarily literary and historical concerns. Since then I had become a Christian, and those concerns have somewhat faded into the background. In the light of that, coming across and reading "The New Testament as Literature: A Very Short Introduction" was a trip back in time. The book gave me an opportunity to look at the very familiar material from a newfound angle. By paying attention to the genre and the literary devices that the authors employed, I was able to read the New Testament stories with a deepened sense of their richness. What particularly appealed to me as a believer was the fact that the literary reading did not come at the expense of theological understanding of the texts, but was in fact complementing it and enriching it. This is far from being the predominant attitude by many of the today's critiques of the New Testament. In the age when "deconstructing" texts in terms of the purported ulterior motives of the authors, it is refreshing to come across a book where the author is content to let the text speak for itself.

The book is also a very useful introduction to the New Testament for anyone who wants to know more about it but is weary of having to be subjected to heavy-handed religious proselytizing. Even thought the book is not opposed to the theological points of view, and uses them for fuller understanding of New Testament, it is also not imposing theology on its readers. If you are just curious and would like to know more about what one of the most read books of all time is all about, this is as good of an introduction as it gets.

The book divides the material thematically and stylistically into Gospels, St. Paul's letters, the Revelations, other letters, and the Letter to the Hebrews. It pays attention to the peculiarities of each one of those general genres, and takes a closer look at some familiar and not too familiar passages. It also helps the reader understand how all those 27 books that comprise the New Testament canon fit together, and how to read them jointly as a part of a whole. This is important because precisely as a part of a unifying whole they have been read for the most of the history.

Overall, this is an excellent book, clearly written and accessible. It would be very useful and informative, whether you've read the New Testament a hundred times or are completely new to it. I strongly recommend it.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it a lot. For its short length there are many ideas. I have a good deal of familiarity with the Bible, being raised as a Christian, and through my own general reading of the Bible itself, and general reading. I was aware of the difference between the Gospels and Paul's letters, and how John's gospel is different from the other three. I also had a good familiarity with Revelations. However, this book gave me a good deal of additional high level insight, for example, the idea that the first three gospels are called the "Synoptic" (meaning, 'seen as one') and that they were likely all copied and adapted from Mark's gospel, which is the oldest. I also appreciated the idea of Revelations being the "first fantasy novel" and that it's purpose was literally to "scare the hell out of you." I myself have a troubled relationship with Revelations and find it, in the end, to be an offensive and immature sort of book. However you cannot deny that it is fascinating.

These are just two of the many ideas contained in the book, which is itty-bitty, at just 114 small pages, it's well worth the 2 hours it takes to read, and provides lots to think about.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first read of the Short Introduction series and I was impressed. I bought this after flicking through the first few pages in a book store and getting immediately hooked. This is a refreshing change of perspective on the New Testament and helped me appreciate The Bible in a whole different way. This has a wide audience appeal whether Christian or Atheist - a rarity in discussions of religious text. Rather than exploring the New Testament through emotive implications this book neutrally explores the story telling itself, the author's literary style and narrative.
This is a quick and easy, thought provoking read. Highly recommended to anyone interested in literature studies, ancient history or the Bible.

[jzthompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stated purpose of the book - applying methods from literary studies to the New Testament - doesn't always come through but this is a good basic primer on the books of the New Testament for an ignorant heathen like me; I'm not sure how useful someone with a better grounding in biblical studies would find it.

[Jerry Landry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting, enlightening, and insightful discussion of the New Testament as a work of literature. Keefer does a great job of examining the text and of explaining both what it seems to tell us about the intent as well as how it's been interpreted over the years. A very quick read and highly recommended for anyone interested in knowing more about the Bible in a scholarly context.

[Samrat · Rating 2 out of 5]

a LOT of overlap with the VSI for the New testament generally in approach (subject matter overlap taken as given). not sure much was really added.