The features of this edition are: - complete new translation - continuous commentary - all transmitted writings of the New Testament - all canonical and all apocryphal writings - expansion of the basic collection of early Christian writings - consistent historical order of the texts - the history of early Christianity as derived from the texts. This edition is designed not only for theologians and biblical scholars but especially for interested laypeople. Author portrait: Klaus Berger was born in 1940 and received his habilitation in 1971. From 1974 to 2006, he was a professor of the New Testament at the Theological Faculty in Heidelberg and has published 70 books. Since 1994, he has been a member of the Cistercian Order. Christiane Nord, born in 1943, is a professor of translation studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Magdeburg.