The Birth of the New Testament is an enlightening, thoughtful, and inspiring resource for every student of the New Testament; since it was first published it has established itself as an indis-pensable work of biblical scholarship. Beyond his discussion of basic questions of date, authorship, and so forth, Moule provides an insightful look at the process by which the New Testament came to be. He carefully documents why the New Testament offers a reliable reconstruction of the teaching and work of Jesus and demonstrates that the gospels were written not as preaching but to explain the historical content and conflict surrounding the preaching of Christ and his followers.

The Birth of the New Testament continues that study as Moule evaluates the effect of worship on the early Church and the Church's growing self-awareness, the effect of the Jewish Scrip-tures, the theological attacks on the Church and their impact on the process of building a book of Scriptures, and other central issues. Moule also deals with the demand for "authority" that underlies the impulse to form a canon of Scripture.