There would be tens of thousands of books on the New Testament. There is far too much to choose from, so here I offer just 66 titles (40 general titles and 26 on Jesus and the Gospels). They are admittedly somewhat selective: they almost all reflect a conservative, evangelical approach, and most of them have been written in the past half century or so.
Are there very helpful and informative volumes on the NT written prior to this period? Are there many good and useful works on the NT penned by non-evangelicals? Yes, to both questions. But to keep this listing from blowing out, one has to draw the line somewhere. And many more books could be offered just from the parameters I have established for myself here.
I believe most of these important books are still available today. Undoubtedly some of your favourite volumes may not be found here, but hopefully these are nonetheless some of the better and more recent ones to be aware of. Please note that volumes on Acts, the Pauline epistles, and the rest of the New Testament are/will be covered in separate bibliographies.
General New Testament (surveys, introductions, theologies, etc)
Achtemeier, Paul, Joel Green and Marianne Meye Thompson, Introducing the New Testament. Eerdmans, 2001.
Beale, G. K., Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation. Baker, 2012.
Beale, G. K., A New Testament Biblical Theology. Baker, 2011.
Bell, Albert, Exploring the New Testament. Thomas Nelson, 1998.
Blomberg, Craig, From Pentecost to Patmos: An Introduction to Acts through Revelation. B&H, 2006.
Blomberg, Craig, The Historical Reliability of the New Testament. IVP, 2016.
Brown, Colin, ed., The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, 4 vols. Zondervan, 1975-1985.
Brown, Raymond, An Introduction to the New Testament. Doubleday, 1997.
Bruce, F.F., New Testament History. Doubleday, 1969.
Bruce, F.F., The Spreading Flame. Eerdmans, 1958, 1979.
Burge, Gary, Lynn Cohick and Gene Green, The New Testament in Antiquity: A Survey of the New Testament within Its Cultural Context. Zondervan, 2009.
Caird, G.B., and L.D. Hurst, New Testament Theology. Oxford University Press, 1994.
Carson, D.A,, Douglas Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament. Zondervan, 1992.
Childs, Brevard, The New Testament as Canon. Trinity Press International, 1984.
deSilva, David, An Introduction to the New Testament. Apollos, 2004.
Dever, Mark, The Message of the New Testament. Crossway, 2005.
Drane, John, Introducing the New Testament. Lynx, 1986.
Elwell, Walter and Robert Yarbrough, Encountering the New Testament: A Historical and Theological Survey, 3rd ed. Baker, 1998, 2013.
Green, Joel and Max Turner, eds., Between Two Horizons: Spanning New Testament Studies and Systematic Theology. Eerdmans, 2000.
Gundry, Robert, A Survey of the New Testament, 5th ed. Zondervan, 1970, 2012.
Guthrie, Donald, New Testament Introduction. IVP, 1970.
Guthrie, Donald, New Testament Theology. IVP, 1981.
Hagner, Donald, The New Testament: A Historical and Theological Introduction. Baker, 2012.
Hasel, Gerhard, New Testament Theology. Eerdmans, 1978.
Johnson, Luke Timothy, The Writings of the New Testament. Fortress Press, 1986.
Keener, Craig, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, 2nd ed. IVP, 1993, 2014.
Kostenberger, Andreas, I. Scott Kellum and Charles Quarles, The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament. B&H, 2009.
Kruger, Michael. ed., A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament. Crossway, 2016.
Ladd, George, A Theology of the New Testament. Eerdmans, 1974.
Marshall, I. Howard, New Testament Theology. IVP, 2004.
Martin, Ralph, New Testament Foundations, 2 vols. Eerdmans, 1975, 1978.
Metzger, Bruce, The New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content. Abingdon, 1965.
Morris, Leon, New Testament Theology. Zondervan, 1986.
Neill, Stephen and N.T. Wright, The Interpretation of the New Testament, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 1988.
Powell, Mark Allen, Introducing the New Testament: A Historical, Literary, and Theological Survey. Baker, 2009.
Schreiner, Thomas, New Testament Theology. Baker, 2008.
Tenney, Merrill, New Testament Survey. Eerdmans, 1961.
Thielman, Frank, Theology of the New Testament. Zondervan, 2005.
Witherington, Ben, The Indelible Image: The Theological and Ethical World of the New Testament. 2 vols. IVP, 2009, 2010.
Witherington, Ben, New Testament History. Baker, 2001.
Jesus and the gospels
Understanding the Gospels: A Guide for Preaching and Teachingby Bateman IV, Herbert W. (Editor), Simpson, Benjamin I. (Editor)
Alexander, T. D., Discovering Jesus: Why Four Gospels to Portray One Person? Crossway, 2010.
Bailey, Kenneth, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels. IVP, 2008.
Barnett, Paul, Jesus & the Rise of Early Christianity: A History of New Testament Times. IVP 1999.
Bateman, Herbert and Benjamin Simpson, Understanding the Gospels: A Guide For Preaching and Teaching. Kregel, 2017.
Baukham, Richard, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. Eerdmans, 2006.
Bird, Michael, The Gospel of the Lord: How the Early Church Wrote the Story of Jesus. Eerdmans, 2014.
Blomberg, Craig, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels. IVP, 1987.
Blomberg, Craig, The Historical Reliability of John’s Gospel. Apollos, 2001.
Blomberg, Craig, Jesus and the Gospels. Broadman and Holman, 1997.
Bock, Darrell, Jesus According to the Gospels. Baker, 2002.
Bock, Darrell, The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities. Thomas Nelson, 2007.
Bock, Darrell, Studying the Historical Jesus: A Guide to Sources and Methods. Baker, 2002.
Burridge, Richard, Four Gospels, One Jesus? 3rd ed. Eerdmans, 1994, 2014.
Green, Joel, Scot McKnight and I. Howard Marshall, eds., Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. IVP, 1992.
Green, Joel, Jeannine Brown and Nicholas Perrin, eds., Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, 2nd ed. IVP, 2013.
Hays, Richard, Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness. SPCK, 2014, 2015.
Keener, Craig, The Historical Jesus of the Gospels. Eerdmans, 2009.
Keith, Chris and Larry Hurtado, Jesus Among Friends and Enemies: A Historical and Literary Introduction to Jesus in the Gospels. Baker, 2011.
Licona, Michael, Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? What We Can Learn from Ancient Biography.
OUP, 2016.
Pate, C. Marvin, 40 Questions About the Historical Jesus. Kregel, 2015.
Pennington, Jonathan, Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction. Baker, 2012.
Schlatter, Adolf, The History of the Christ. Baker, 1997.
Strauss, Mark, Four Portraits, One Jesus: A Survey of Jesus and the Gospels. Zondervan, 2007.
Warrington, Keith, The Miracles in the Gospels. SPCK, 2015.
Watson, Francis, The Fourfold Gospel: A Theological Reading of the New Testament Portraits of Jesus. Baker, 2016.
With plenty of titles to choose from here, perhaps I can help narrow things down a bit by recommending some authors who are almost always reliable guides when it comes to helping us understand and appreciate the New Testament. They include: Beale, Blomberg, Bock, Bruce, Carson, Keener and Witherington.
Happy studying and reading.
(Australians can get many of these tiles at Koorong: https://www.koorong.com/ )
