About the Series

"Tom Wright has undertaken a tremendous task: to provide guides to all the books of the New Testament, and to include in them his own translation of the entire text. Each short passage is followed by a highly readable discussion, with background information, useful explanations and suggestions, and thoughts as to how the text can be relevant to our lives today. A glossary is included at the back of the book. The series is suitable for group study, personal study, or daily devotions."

 

"In this series [Wright] excels as a communicator, making this the most exciting study guide since Barclay's Daily Study Bible." Expository Times

 

"If you wish to meet the Jesus who broke into people's lives while on earth, I heartily recommend these guides." The Christian Herald

 

From Tom's Introduction to the For Everyone Series

On the very first occasion when someone stood up in public to tell people about Jesus, he made it very clear:  this message is for everyone.

 

It was a great day – sometimes called the birthday of the church.  The great wind of God’s spirit had swept through Jesus’ followers and filled them with a new joy and a sense of God’s presence and power.  The spokesman that day, Peter, had only a few weeks before been crying like a baby because he’d lied and cursed and denied even knowing Jesus.  Now he finds himself on his feet explaining to a huge crowd that something had happened which had changed the world forever.  What God had done for him, Peter, he was also willing to do for the whole world:  give new life, forgiveness, new hope and power.  Indeed a new age had begun in which God was going to do new things in the world – beginning then and there.  “This promise is for you and for your children, and for everyone who is far away.” (Acts 2:39)   It wasn’t just for the person standing next to you. It was for everyone.

 

Within a remarkably short time this came true to such an extent that the young movement spread throughout much of the known world. And one way in which the everyone promise worked out was through the writings of the early Christian writers. These short works—most letters and stories about Jesus—were widely circulated and eagerly read. They were never intended for either a religious or intellectual elite. From the very beginning they were meant for everyone.

 

That is as true today as it was then. Of course it matters that some people give time and care to the historical evidence, the meaning of the original words (the early Christians wrote in Greek), and the exact and particular force of whaat different writers were saying about God, Jesus, the world and themselves. This series is based quite closely on that sort of work. But the point of it all is that the message can get out to everyone, especially to people who wouldn't normally read a book with footnotes and Greek words in it. That's the sort of person for whom these books are written.

About the Author

N. T. Wright is Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and one of the world's leading Bible scholars. He has been featured on ABC News, Dateline NBC, The Colbert Report, and Fresh Air, and he has taught New Testament studies at Cambridge, McGill, and Oxford universities. Wright is the award-winning author of Surprised by Hope, Simply Christian, The Last Word, The Challenge of Jesus, The Meaning of Jesus (coauthored with Marcus Borg), as well as the much heralded series Christian Origins and the Question of God. 

• Approaching the Bible
• As engagement with God: The dynamics of Scripture
• In a humble posture: Distinguishing between God and our Attempts to Understand God
• Setting Jesus within the Bible's Larger Story
• Appreciating the Grand Narrative of Scripture
• Here's an overview of the major plotline of the OT narrative
• OT Overview: Part 1
• OT Overview: Part 2 
• Jesus through OT Eyes 

Resources 

• Books for Further Study: New Testament Resources 
• Our Book Basket Library of assorted items is available at the weekly meetings