Beginner's Guide to the New Testament

I am in a weekly Bible study and many have quoted Barclay. This New Testament guide was very easy to read and understand. It was very helpful to me to see people and events through the eyes of Barclay. I was able to read and retain so much better with this guide than most reference books I have used prior. A must book for Bible studies.

Again, Barclay strikes a balance between scholaship and accessibility in his Guide to the New Testament. The reader learns why certain stories appear in one book but not in another, what languages the originals were written in (and why), plus interesting personal information about the writers of the New Testament. Informative and necessary information for anyone who aspires to understand the Bible.

Granted, this book will not tell you everything you want to know about the NT. It is a book of 351 pages including the subject index. However, it will definitely entice you to buy his other writings on individual NT books. A guide such as this could be a very dry subject, emphasizing facts. But Barclay's style is very beautiful and flows as does a story, still including all of the intriguing bits of information (placed in the historical contexts) to get you started and then wanting to go further. Just as an example, he calls Matthew's gospel The Royal Gospel; Mark's, The Essential Gospel; Luke's, The Universal Gospel; and John's, The Precious Gospel. The titles themselves make you want to read what comes next. Of course all of the other NT books are discussed as well. There are invaluable discussions of the "authors" of the various books and why the names of the authors were attributed to them. Barclay is a master writer and has the ability to give life to the accounts of Jesus' time. This is an invaluable beginning to an in-depth study of the NT.