NTI Reading and Resources

Here are some New Testament Introduction (NTI) resources that we use at DTS. NTI is more than just a survey of the books of the New Testament. Here we will introduce the historical background of the New Testament and begin to discuss some of the critical issues surrounding the New Testament. 

Due to the nature of the topic, there is a lot of reading. The topics range from historical background to critical method. Consider these reading tips as you wade into this material.


1. Darrell Bock, Studying the Historical Jesus: A Guide to Sources and Methods (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002).

This is a great reference book. The first half addresses background issues such as a historical outline, a religious overview, and a look at the various social groups within the first century. The second half of the book briefly addresses the various types of Gospel criticism. Here Bock gives a concise definition and evaluates both the benefits and drawbacks for each criticism.

I have referred to this book regularly throughout my masters program, doctoral program, and now regularly as I write. I would highly recommend it to your bookcase.


2. D. A. Carson and Douglass Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005).

I would recommend that students have a NT Introduction in their library. And this is a good one to consider. Carson and Moo address the general and specific problems of each New Testament book. They discuss general issues such as who wrote each book and when it was written, but also particular problems such as the relationship of the Synoptic Gospels or Paul’s relationship to the law. You’ll refer to this book regularly throughout your studies.

Donald Guthrie’s Introduction, a suggested text, is probably more thorough, but significantly longer. Both Carson/Moo and Guthrie are conservative in their perspective. Bart Ehrman’s Introduction, another suggested text, gives a liberal perspective. Kümmel’s Introduction, not on the syllabus, is another good introduction from a liberal perspective.


3. Paul Barnett, Jesus and the Rise of Early Christianity: A History of New Testament Times (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1999).

Barnett provides more of a historical overview of the period of the New Testament. He focuses on the history of the church within the apostolic period, particularly the missionary movement of Paul and other members of the apostolic church. This is an excellent book focusing on a short period of time.

F. F. Bruce wrote a good historical overview as well. Unlike Barnett, Bruce covers the Jewish history from the Babylonian exile, which plays a significant role in the lives of the Jews during the time of Jesus.

4. Bruce W. Longenecker, The Lost Letters of Pergamum: A Story from the New Testament World (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003).

The Lost Letters of Pergamum is a fictional depiction of letters between Luke, the Evangelist, and man named Antipas. Through these letters you can catch a glimpse at some of the social make-up of the first century culture. Longenecker describes issues such as honor and shame, table fellowship, wealth, slavery, and martyrdom through these letters.

As a result of the dialogue with Luke, Antipas becomes a part of a Christian community, which gives a picture of how these early Christian communities most likely addressed the surrounding culture. It’s a fun read.

5. Michael B. Thompson, The New Perspective on Paul (Cambridge: Grove Books, 2010).

This small volume is about 30 pages in length. Thompson does a great job discussing the various proponents of the New Perspective and how they differ in degree. He discusses the historical implications as well as the theological implications. This is a handy volume to help guide a new student into this issue. Due to its length, you might be able to read it in a single setting in the library.

There are several other resources that could be added to the list, but this is where we draw the line.

Four Common Mistakes in Writing a Term Paper

In a time crunch students can fall victim to some of the more classic blunders in writing a paper. Below are some of the mistakes that I've made.

1. Mismanage your time. Many students procrastinate in writing. They’re unsure about the project, or what’s entailed. When I was a student, I found that I could quickly push writing off to another day. Even though I enjoyed the process, any other project could easily take its place.

You want to start the writing process as early as you can. The truth of the matter is that once you begin a writing project, your mind won’t stop working on it. Even when you step away, you will think about it passively. Carry a journal and jot down notes when you think about a particular resource or idea. The best ideas hit me at the most inconvenient times; you need to have some type of device to capture these thoughts. The more soak time that you put into a paper, the better product you’ll have. Of course, don't underestimate the power of a deadline.

Some students find themselves writing at the last moment. If this is the case, take inventory of the time you have and allocate the project on a timeline. Stick to the time allocation. And remember, sleep is overrated.

2. Reinvent the wheel. As a student I fell victim to the first mistake and guilt from procrastination kept me from going to the professor to ask for help. When I finally did approach the professor it was often too late.

Most papers in higher education or seminary are template style papers. Your professor has read the same paper over and over again. They have seen successful papers and they’re aware of common mistakes that take students in the wrong direction. 

I’m also willing to bet that they want to help you write a good paper--they have to read it. Chances are the paper deals with a topic that they themselves are interested, and they wouldn't mind a coffee break. Don't be afraid to talk with your professor about your paper topic. The dialogue that you have with your professor will give you a better sense of direction for your paper.  

3. Start writing without a thesis. I have read papers that sound like conscious streams of thought. Good students can generally bluff their way through a few pages. Though without a good thesis it will fall flat.

A thesis will help guide your paper. Everything in your paper should support your thesis. If you can’t make a clear connection between your thesis and what you’re writing, then your grader won’t be able to make it either. Seriously consider deleting it.

Here are some tips on developing a strong thesis. The thesis is only about thirty words, but its probably the most important part of your paper. You should carefully craft it. Having a strong thesis will help you write much faster and more efficiently.

4. Consider your first draft as your final draft. After you have spent several days, several weeks, an all nighter on particular issue, you may not feel like reviewing what you just wrote. Its only going to a grader, right?

Its best to put the paper down for a day or two and review it later. Your mind is more objective. The connections that were clear as you formed the argument may need to be tightened up a bit. You may consider a writing group where you can exchange papers with a friend to read.

Typos, grammatical errors, logical errors will get in the way of your argument. It will cause most graders to miss the forest because they have to focus on the errors of the individual trees. You’ll always have mistakes, but make the paper as clean as you can.

When I was in school and I anticipated an all-nighter, I would adjust my schedule so that I pulled the all-nighter a few days prior to the due date. This at least created some time that I could review the paper after getting some sleep.
What are some steps that you might have taken to make the writing process more successful? What mistakes are you finding that you are making this semester, that you’ll vow to correct in the spring?

Surviving a Paper: Crafting a Strong Thesis

Writing is hard. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. People will try to encourage you. You might see others with an ability to miraculously multiply words on paper. But don’t let them fool you--writing is hard. No matter how you frame it, you have to sit down and write. Oftentimes, writing actually means re-writing, and revising, and re-writing again.  

With a few tools you can make it manageable. The outline is important, but probably more crucial and more basic is the thesis statement. If the outline is the map of your paper, the thesis is the compass. The needle is always pointing north. Getting a bead on this bearing is the most critical part of writing a solid paper. Giving due diligence to the sentence early in the project can make the entire project unfold faster and hold together tighter. This in turn will make the reader (most likely your professor or grader) happy. When people are generally happy, they will assess work in a more positive light. In sum, writing a strong thesis first and tweaking it along the way will help you score a better grade. It takes a little more mental work up front, but its cheaper than a bribe, or hoping that your prof’s favorite sports team is winning when he happens to be reading your paper.

A good thesis will have a subject and a predicate. The subject generally identifies the topic of your paper. The predicate will generally identify what you think about the subject, or what you plan to argue throughout your paper. For example: “First century Jewish tax collectors were considered sinners.” “Tax collectors” is the subject; they fact that they “were considered sinners” is the predicate. The rest of the work is just displaying the evidence that supports your thesis, or showing why evidence that doesn’t support is weak, misinterpreted, or on closer inspection really does help your case.

Here are some things to consider:

1. Ask the research questions. When you don’t have a thesis, raise the question about the subject. Generally, in seminary, your professor will give you a list of topics. Choose one and begin asking questions about that area: Why is it important? Is it important? What’s related to it? Sifting through these answers can help you come up with a good thesis statement.

2. Use a good action verb. The most vital member of the thesis statement is the verb. It controls the action. The verb of my thesis statement is “consider.” This is fine. It gets into first century thinking, but a better verb might be: “criticized,” “avoided,” “ridiculed.” Try this: “First century Jewish tax collectors were ridiculed as sinners,” or “...avoided as sinners.” This tells me more about the life of a tax collector than “consider,” and definitely how they were treated in light of what others thought about them.

3. Use the active voice. The active voice forces the writer to show who is doing the acting. Our example thesis statement is passive; we don’t know who considered first century Jewish tax collectors as sinners. Do the Romans? Jesus? A better thesis would be: “Pharisees avoided Jewish tax collectors as sinners.” If Jesus is the subject, then the phrase changes to “Jesus reached out to tax collectors as sinners.” Including the actor will help your thesis sentence out a lot. I find that students use the passive voice more. Left to my own devices, I would use the passive voice. Pinpointing the actor is difficult, and I’m lazy.

When you have a good thesis print it out and tape it on your computer monitor. Think about it when you write your outline. Work it over when you are waiting in line at Starbucks. When you have a strong thesis statement it will help you land your paper.

Surviving Seminary: How to Read

Seminary Spoiler Alert: You will read a lot when you come to seminary. Like any graduate program reading plays a critical part of seminary. Students underestimate this necessity--everyone can read, right? But the ability to read well, and efficiently, can save you time in your coursework and many sleepless nights. Solomon says that the making of books there is no end; most seminary professors really try to put that statement to the test.

Historically, Christianity has always been a bookish religion centered around the Old and New Testament and the writings of the church fathers. Proclamation has always been a critical piece. Even Genesis indicates that God spoke the world into existence. Whether it is the Bible, an ancient sermon, a technical commentary being able to consume and comprehend large amounts of material will always be important for Christian workers. Our main job is understanding the Bible and communicating it to the world around us.

If you peruse the Dallas Theological Seminary schedule you'll see that most classes require students to read about three books roughly 200+ pages. An average course will have about 1,000 pages, which will be about 70 pages a week. This will vary upward or downward depending on the class or the week. This doesn't include reading you'll need to do for papers or projects. 

Here are some tips:

First, Tim Ferriss gives some good advice on how to increase the speed of your reading through the PX Project. Essentially speed readers have three goals: 1. decrease the number of fixations (or times that your eyes fix on a word) that you have on a line; 2. minimize back skipping or re-reading; and 3. increasing your peripheral vision so that you can read multiple words at a time. Essentially the best way to increase the speed of reading is to minimize the times that you have to reread a passage. When you begin this, you will want to monitor your speed to insure that it is increasing. I still monitor how fast I’m reading by checking how many pages per hour that I read. Standard speed reading classes will help students with reading strategies to increase the speed. 

Second, refuse to approach books in a standard manner, by beginning with page 1. The goal is to understand what the author is trying to say. A good author will summarize his argument at strategic parts of the book. Reading these points first can help you understand the entire book. Look for the thesis that the author is trying to make and note how he or she argues the case. Generally this will be in the introduction or conclusion of a chapter. This top-down approach is much more efficient than a chronological approach that most readers take. Even though professors may expect you to read the book in its entirety, to better comprehend a book you focusing on the thesis will help you read the rest of the author’s argument with more efficiency.

Third, find the best time of the day to read. Take time when you are the most alert to read. Keep a list of what you need (or would like to read) and keep at it. Don’t wait until a due date. This will keep your reading list manageable. If you find something that will be helpful for a paper then make a note and come back to it during that reserved reading time. Be consistent and make it a habit.

Fourth, take good notes that you can retrieve later. A good summary of a book will keep me from having to re-read a book. It also helps me retrieve old information when I need it for a different paper or class. Good notes will help you not only in later classes, but later in ministry when you need to put together a lesson or sermon.

Reading is a cognitive activity. Like anything else, to increase your effectiveness, you have to practice. The best way to do this is to take a reading class or to find some exercises that will help increase your speed. Periodically check the speed at which you are reading. I will generally monitor how much time I spend reading a book by reading or monitor how many pages that I'm reading per hour.