11 Oct 2012

Summary of the New Testament

Posted by joncooper

About six months ago I started a project to write a brief summary of every chapter in the New Testament. I wanted something that was the opposite of a Bible commentary. Commentaries do an excellent job of delving into each verse in the Bible; they may spend pages discussing a single line of text. While that is quite valuable, it is easy to get lost in the detail and lose sight of the bigger picture. It also takes a great deal of time to read. By the time you’ve finished reading an in-depth commentary on Romans one barely remembers what Chapter 1 was about.

I thought it would be a good idea to summarize each chapter of the New Testament into a series of brief points. It may take weeks to read a commentary on Romans, but one could read a summary of Romans in a matter of minutes and get a decent idea of what the book had to say. Yes, many details would be left out, but that is the whole point – to step back and take a look at the broader picture.

It takes months to read through the entire New Testament. It takes even longer to read through commentaries on the New Testament. But my summary of the New Testament only has 25,000 words. The average adult could read it in less than two hours.

It is my hope that this summary will make the New Testament a little more accessible. Reading the actual text of the Bible is definitely better than reading a summary, just as reading a book is better than reading the Cliffs Notes – but the Cliffs Notes still have their place.

The summary can be downloaded right here, free of charge:

Summary of the New Testament

Thanks, and enjoy!

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