The Core New Testament Series
A recovered text of the earliest apostolic witness, and the scholarly argument behind it. One volume gives you the text. The other shows, step by step, why that text deserves to stand at the centre.
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The premise
The New Testament genuinely preserves the apostolic witness. But its writings do not all stand at the same distance from the source.
Weighing the historical, literary, and textual evidence, the series identifies Luke-Acts, the letters of Paul, and the primitive kerygma, the proclamation the apostles actually preached, as the writings nearest the apostolic foundation. It then asks what follows for how the rest of the canon should be read and weighed.
The two volumes
The Foundation of Apostolic Christianity
The earliest recoverable apostolic witness, presented as a concise scripture for reading, study, and devotion, restored from the oldest known manuscripts.
As we uncover later developments in the Christian tradition, including the traditional canon, it matters to have an alternative core canon and kerygma we can affirm. That is what this volume provides: the most defensible and reliable witness to primitive apostolic Christianity.
Uncovering the Canon
The companion volume presents the full scholarly argument. Twelve chapters and more than four hundred notes clarify the key terms, trace how the canon actually developed, and examine the literary relationships among the Gospels.
It makes the case for the priority of Luke, weighs the standard arguments for Markan priority, assesses the remaining canonical Gospels, recovers the kerygma underlying the written texts, and proposes a principled classification of the New Testament writings by their proximity to the apostolic core.
Inside Volume I
Each part is a more concentrated view of the same witness, ending with the proclamation that produced the rest.
A reconstructed text of Luke's Gospel with selected passages from Acts, restoring the most primitive attainable form of the Lukan narrative.
Excerpts from Acts alongside all of Paul's epistles, brought together in a single unified presentation of the apostle's life, mission, and teaching.
The earliest recoverable form of the apostolic proclamation itself, distilled from the narrative and the letters alike.
Where to start
The history, the evidence, and the method, before you meet the text that results from them.
Overview and chaptersEncounter the scripture itself, and return to the argument as questions arise.
Read it on CoreBible.APPHowever you begin, the two are designed as one project: the recovered text, and the case for it.
Both volumes
Available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook.
