The New Testament is made up of words–about 138,000 words. Put together, these words express the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. They also told early believers what living for Jesus Christ looked like and called them to faithful living.

In 15 New Testament Words of Life, New Testament expert Nijay Gupta explores the most important words found in the New Testament. He makes their meaning clear so that these words can become–once again–life giving words for modern Christians as they were for early Jesus-followers. For those first readers of the New Testament who chose to follow Jesus, these words were words of life and they can be again for Jesus-followers in the modern world.

For many Christians, these “weighty words” of the New Testament have become stale from over exposure (e.g., “love”) or their life-giving meaning is fuzzy and unclear because they are not words that frequent our everyday conversation (e.g., “holiness”). In 15 New Testament Words of Life, readers will learn what these important words meant to the earliest Christian readers and how we can capture the transformative power of these 15 words today and live faithfully for Christ in God’s world.

Bible references, suggested reading, and a bibliography are included in the audiobook companion PDF download.

The Zondervan Biblical and Theological Lectures series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook’s direct narration of a book’s text, An Introduction to 1 and 2 Thessalonians: Audio Lectures include high quality live-recordings of college-level lectures that cover the important points from each subject as well as relevant material from other sources.

The study of Paul’s Thessalonian letters is enjoying fresh interest today. These texts are considered by many to be amongst the earliest extant Christian documents. They are included in conversations about early Jewish and Christian apocalypticism. New insights are coming from examination of the religious, socio-cultural, and political contexts of Roman Thessalonica. And, looking back, these letters have played an important role in the development of Christian eschatology. An Introduction to 1 and 2 Thessalonians: Audio Lectures, taught by Nijay Gupta, serves as an up-to-date guide to these discussions and much more.

An Introduction to 1 and 2 Thessalonians: Audio Lectures parallels 1 and 2 Thessalonians in the Zondervan Critical Introductions to the New Testament series, addresses:

• Authorship
• Date
• Audience
• Socio-Historical Context
• Genre
• Purpose
• Integrity
• Textual History
• Greek Style
• Structure
• Argument
• Main Interpretive Issues
• Reception into the Canon
• Selected History of Interpretation

Women were there. For centuries, discussions of early Christianity have focused on male leaders in the church. But there is ample evidence right in the New Testament that women were actively involved in ministry, at the frontier of the gospel mission, and as respected leaders.
Nijay Gupta calls us to bring these women out of the shadows by shining light on their many inspiring contributions to the planting, growth, and health of the first Christian churches. He sets the context by exploring the lives of first-century women and addressing common misconceptions, then focuses on the women leaders of the early churches as revealed in Paul’s writings. We discover the major roles of people such as: Phoebe, Paul’s trusted coworker; Prisca, strategic leader and expert teacher; Junia, courageous apostle; and Nympha, representative of countless lesser-known figures.
When we understand the world in which Jesus and his followers lived and what the New Testament actually attests about women in the churches, it becomes clear that women were active participants and trusted leaders all along. They were welcomed by Paul and other apostles, were equipped and trained for ministry leadership, instructed others, traveled long distances, were imprisoned-and once in a while became heroes and giants.