The New Testament

Translation: the New Jerusalem Bible

The order of the writings in "The Spoken Word"

The approach of The Spoken Word to the ordering of the books of the New Testament differs from the standard canonical order. The writings are ordered in a general order of composition in so far as there is general agreement among scholars as to that order. This approach brings a new perception to us regarding the New Testament that throws new light on the writings. A departure from this arrangement does occur with the letters usually regarded as belnging to late in the second century - the so-called "Pastoral Epistles" to Timothy and Titus, Jude, and 2 Peter. the reason for this departure is the desire to bring the writings to their natural climax  in the writings of John - the gospel and first letter, both written around the turn of the century and embodying a profound reflection on the whole tradition.

With this approach, all of Paul's letters come before (because they were written before) the first of the gospels to appear - the gospel according to Mark. To read Mark, who was probably a disciple of Paul (perhaps the "John Mark" Paul speaks of), is to discover Mark afresh as the proclamation of the Jesus who justifies by faith - the gospel according to Paul. Then, as the writings unfold through Matthew, Luke/Acts (which is one "gospel"), the various other letters, Hebrews, Revelation, we capture the story of a church unfolding the treasure store of its understanding and experience of God in Christ against a background of conflicitng understandings of the gospel and of Jesus, of conflicting attitudes to the Roman authorities – indeed, of so many of the conflicts we are familiar with in our contemporary church life and apprach to the world around us.

It is this that makes the New Testament so dynamically relevant to our current world. In 'shaking up' the conventional order of the New testament writings, The Spoken Word enables us to grasp uniquely that relevance and experience anew the power of these scriptures to generate faith and commitment.

The texts of each of the writings will be posted as the Cds are released.

The First and Second Letters of Paul to the Thessalonians

The Letter of Paul to the Galatians

The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians

The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians

The Letter of Paul to the Romans

The Letter of Paul to the Philippians

The Letter of Paul to the Colossians

The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians

The Letter of Paul to Philemon

The text of Mark's gospel

The text of Matthew's gospel

The text of Luke's gospel

The text of the Acts of the Apostles

The texts of the letters of Peter, James, Jude, Iand 2 John; Hebrews and Pastorals

The text of the Revelation to John

The text of John's gospel

The text of the First Letter of John

Page Load: 13874 msec