Reading the New Testament Commentary Series is perfect for upper-level undergraduate students, seminarians, seminary educated pastors, and others seeking more formal training. In contrast to other commentaries, Reading the New Testament presents information for larger passages of Scripture, instead of verse-by-verse. This will help the reader focus on understanding the text as a whole, capturing the big idea. Pastors who enjoy preaching through books of the Bible will find this resource incredibly helpful.

This series also includes in-depth introductions about each book and its author. All of the original language is transliterated. And lastly, it will help you to understand the religious context of each passage.

The Reading the Old Testament series shares many of the aims and objectives of its New Testament counterpart. Contributors to the current series write with the intention of presenting "cutting-edge research in [a form] accessible" to a wide audience ranging from specialists in the field to educated laypeople.

The approach taken focuses not on the minutiae of word-by-word, verse-by-verse exegesis but on larger literary and thought units, specially as they function in the overall conception of the book under analysis. From the standpoint of method, volumes in this series will employ an eclectic variety of reading strategies and critical approaches as contributors deem appropriate for explicating the force of the text before them.

Nonetheless, "the focus [will be] on a close reading of the final form of the text." The overarching goal is to provide readers of the commentary series with an aid to help them become more competent, more engaged, and more enthusiastic readers of the bible as authoritative Scripture.

New Testament editor is Charles H. Talbert, Distinguished Professor of Religion at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. The Old Testament editor is Mark E. Biddle, Russell T. Cherry Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.