Book Review: A New, New Testament by Hal Taussig

Subtitle: A Bible for the 21st Century – Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts

Edited with commentary by Hal Taussig, with a Foreword by John Dominic Crossan.

Marcus Borg has described this book as “Important both historically and theologically. Readers will not be able to see the New Testament in the same way again”.

In autographing my copy, Hal said of his own work: Here’s to the powerful way the old and the new combine to help us grow.

So this combination of the traditional and newly discovered and analysed texts arriving a millennium and a half after the canon was settled for the New Testament will inevitably be threatening and intimidating to some but to many the beginning of a new and exciting journey of discovery about Jesus and his teachings.

A New New Testament contains amazing new material from the first century Christ movements and places this alongside the traditional texts. An eclectic mix of bishops, rabbis, well-known authors, leaders of national churches, and women and men from African American, Native American, and European American backgrounds have studied many of the recent discoveries from the first two centuries rigorously together, and chosen these new books.

The story of the discovery of the new books and bringing them into the light is a remarkable thing in itself and the story of the evolution of the traditional New Testament over 500 years helps the reader to understand why these new texts have not appeared sooner.

The new texts, like the traditional texts were all written between 50 and 175 CE, somewhere around the Mediterranean Sea, with similar themes and within certain realities of life. Like the traditional books, the new ones had a life of their own before they were added to the new New Testament.

The reader is helped through new texts (including The Gospels of Thomas, Mary, Truth, The Prayer of the Apostle Paul, the Odes of Solomon, and the Acts of Paul and Thecla) by a guide to reading the material and making sense of its chronological and thematic order. The reader is encouraged to read thoughtfully taking into account historical contexts. It is important to give thought also to who wrote each text and why. So it is a good book for personal reflection.

Expect to be surprised about the common material found in the old and the new, but most of all be excited about the the totally unique concepts and messages that we did not see in the traditional text. This is a book that provokes feelings and forces the reader to think about the nature of God, of Jesus’ mission and develops positive attitudes about the gift of learning we have in front of us.

Paul Inglis, 2nd November 2017.

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