Book excerpt: Featuring vibrant full color throughout, this new edition of A Brief Introduction to the New Testament is a concise version of Bart D. Ehrman's best-selling The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, Fourth Edition. Retaining the approach of the longer book while condensing and simplifying much of its material, this volume looks at the New Testament from a consistently historical and comparative perspective and emphasizes the rich diversity of the earliest Christian literature. This edition features several new text boxes on fascinating topics; a new photo essay on important Greek manuscripts of the New Testament; updated content reflecting recent scholarship and discoveries, including the Gospel of Judas Iscariot; and much more