The first edition of this Companion was commissioned forty years ago by the Oxford and Cambridge University Presses as an aid to the general reader of the recently published New English Bible (New Testament, 1961). This was the first ecumenically authorized translation into modern English; but it remained in currency for barely thirty years. In 1989 it was replaced by the Revised English Bible, which effectively made its predecessor obsolete.

As a result, the Companion, though still in circulation, ceased to be an appropriate tool for the study of the New Testament. If reprinting were to be considered, it would clearly have to be adjusted to the text of a version in more general use. Since the New English Bible's natural successor, the Revised English Bible, failed to capture the market in the way that had been hoped, the publishers were obliged to recommend that any revision of the Companion should adopt the text of a more widely established version. For a number of reasons the New Revised Standard Version was the obvious candidate.

But it soon became clear that a revision would involve more than simply adapting the commentary to the phraseology of a new text. Substantial changes – some would say advances – have taken place in New Testament studies during the last thirty years. New methods of interpretation, and sustained research into the environment of Jesus and of the early church, have combined to correct former misunderstandings and to set old problems in a new light.