Celebrating Christian Centenaries
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 68, No. 1 - Fall 2025
Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
By Miguel G. Echevarría. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2024, 240 pp., $17.49.
Miguel Echevarría’s Engaging the New Testament offers a fresh approach to New Testament introductions. Rather than emphasizing traditional critical issues, Echevarría prioritizes the message and content of the biblical texts. He does not ignore critical concerns but relegates them to sidebars, focusing instead on what the final form of the text communicates. His canonical approach—highlighting the significance of the New Testament’s final order—serves this purpose well, guiding readers toward understanding each book’s theological message.
The book follows the canonical sequence of the New Testament but begins with two key foundations: the importance of the canon and the hermeneutics of the New Testament authors. Per Echevarría, reading the sixty-six books of the Bible in order surmounts to a riveting and coherent narrative (7). Thus, knowing the thematic elements of the Old Testament helps in understanding how the New Testament fits in the larger context of Scripture (8), and Echevarría briefly sketches themes such as Abrahamic promises, the Exodus story, Davidic promises, exile, and the expectation of the Messiah that find fulfillment in the New Testament. However, this overview spans only six pages and lacks deeper engagement or guidance for further exploration, and one wonders whether this is adequate enough to bring about his intended goal of situating the New Testament in the overall context of Scripture. More important for Echevarría is the formation of the New Testament canon and its function. He makes a bold statement when he claims that the function of a book within the biblical canon is more important than the author’s historical intention (20) and that the placement of a book within the canon has more hermeneutical significance than the book’s historical context (21). While the canonical shape certainly matters, it is debatable whether it should override the significance of historical context—especially for the intended audience of students and ministers new to biblical studies. The risk here is diminishing the value of the original setting and authorial purpose, which are essential tools for sound interpretation.
Similar caution can be given for Echevarría’s discussion of the hermeneutics of the New Testament authors (chapter three). This chapter is essentially an introduction to how the New Testament uses the Old Testament, with a focus on typology. This is important for Echevarría since focusing on how the Old Testament passages function within the New Testament will broaden an interpreter’s understanding beyond the immediate historical context of a given passage (39–40). The nature of typology, which “necessitates that readers interpret Scripture ‘backwards’ to grasp connections between Old Testament types and New Testament antitypes” (33), actually broadens one’s comprehension of the biblical text by placing it within the divine, timeless framework of the canon—reflecting what God intended to reveal across all sixty-six books of Scripture. All of this is certainly good and necessary for proper exegesis, but Echevarría approaches a problematic area when he encourages readers to follow Jesus’s and Paul’s interpretive methods and to make typological connections not explicitly stated in Scripture (36–40). This is not something one would typically encourage a novice Bible reader to do as it risks leading them into speculative or unwarranted interpretations.
In chapters four through seven, Echevarría delves into the core of his argument, examining New Testament books from Matthew to Revelation in their canonical order. The analysis follows a largely consistent format across all twenty-seven New Testament books. Echevarría begins by summarizing the book’s content, followed by its canonical role, and then addresses traditional topics like authorship and date. His focus on the canonical order becomes especially evident in his treatment of Hebrews, where he attributes authorship to Paul (152–53). According to Echevarría, significant manuscripts include Hebrews within the Pauline letter collection, and “In its current location, Hebrews functions as an appropriate conclusion to the Pauline corpus before one encounters the Catholic epistles” (149). However, his application of the canonical method is not always consistent. For instance, he affirms the shorter ending of Mark (59), which seems to contradict his commitment to the final form of the canon. Furthermore, while he highlights the importance of each book’s canonical function, these sections are often too brief to fully realize that aim.
Nevertheless, Echevarría’s book offers a fresh perspective on New Testament introductions and succeeds in its goal of providing a concise overview for students and Bible ministers, including those with no formal theological training. Echevarría’s emphasis on the canonical approach and his effort to place each New Testament book within the broader context of Scripture is a commendable contribution. Taking the noted cautions into consideration, this book proves to be a helpful resource for those embarking on the study and interpretation of the New Testament.
