Lecture One: Introduction to the New Testament

The New Testament and the Hebrew Bible

“The New Testament is a collection of twenty-seven Christian documents, written in Greek and added as a supplement to a Greek edition of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint.”

“Believers who accepted Jesus as the Jewish Messiah looked to the Jewish Scriptures – the only written religious authority for both Jews and early Christians – to find evidence supporting their convictions.”

“Believing themselves to be the people of the New Covenant, Christians eventually called their collection of Gospels, letters, and other sacred writings the New Testament.”

“Although the Hebrew Bible, which dealt with the older Mosaic Covenant, became known as the Old Testament, many scholars suggest that it would be more appropriate to call it the First Testament.”

Language and Literature of the New Testament

Koinē Greek

“The New Testament was written in the same kind of koinē (common) Greek as the Septuagint.”

“Koinē was the most widely spoken language of the early Christian era, and became the dominant tongue of the eastern Mediterranean region after the conquests of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC).”

“Although less elegant than classical Greek, koinē was then spoken by so large a percentage of the population that it communicated far more effectively than Hebrew or Latin.”

“Most of the books of the New Testament were composed between about AD 50 and 100, although a few were written as late as the mid-second century.”

“The oldest surviving Christian writings are the letters of Paul, a Greek-educated Jew from Tarsus, a prosperous city in an eastern province of the Roman Empire (now southeast Turkey).”

“Paul’s letters span between about AD 50 and 62.”

“Most of the remaining books, including the four Gospels and the Book of Acts, were written between about AD 66 and 100.”

“A few letters ascribed to some of Jesus’ most eminent disciples and known collectively as the catholic (general) epistles appeared several decades after the turn of the first century."

New Testament Literary Forms

“The New Testament contains several different genres of literature, although it has considerably less variety than the Hebrew Bible.”

“The contents are arranged not in the chronological order of their dates of composition, but according to their literary classification, beginning with the Gospels and ending with the Book of Revelation.”

Gospels

“The first four books are called Gospels, a term that translates the Greek word euangelion (good news). Designed to proclaim the “good news” about Jesus, the Gospels tell the story of Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection.”

An Account of the Early Church

“The second literary form in the New Testament is a narrative celebrating the deeds of a few early Christian leaders. Beginning with a description of Jesus’ ascension to heaven and ending with the apostle Paul’s preaching activity in Rome, Acts narrates a series of crucial episodes in Christianity’s early development, covering the years from about AD 30 to 60.”

Letters, or Epistles

“After the Gospel and narrative forms comes a collection of twenty-one letters, or epistles, all of which are ascribed to famous leaders of the early church.

The first set of letters is by Paul, the most influential of all Christian missionaries, and by Pauline disciples who later wrote in his name and spirit.

In addition, seven epistles (a more formal version of the letter) are attributed to other leaders associated with the original Jerusalem church, such as Peter, James, Jude, and John.”

An Apocalypse

“Like other apocalyptic literature, Revelation features visions of an unseen world inhabited by spirit creatures both good and evil.

It highlights the cosmic struggle between God and Satan, a conflict involving both heaven and earth that ultimately sees evil defeated, God’s kingdom triumphant, and the creation of a new earth and heaven.”

Canon of the New Testament

Gospels

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

Church History

Acts

Epistles

Pauline

Romans

1st Corinthians

2nd Corinthians

Galatians

Ephesians

Philippians

Colossians

1st Thessalonians

2nd Thessalonians

Pastorals

1st Timothy

2nd Timothy

Titus

Philemon

General

Hebrews

James

1st Peter

2nd Peter

1st John

2nd John

3rd John

Jude

Apocalypse

Revelation

The Canon of the New Testament

The Story of Christ and His Church…

Major events of the New Testament…

Caesar Augustus establishes civil order throughout the Roman Empire (“Pax Romana”)

Birth of Jesus

Death of King Herod the Great

Tiberius, stepson of Augustus, becomes ruler of Rome

Pontius Pilate appointed Roman prefect (governor) over Judea

Jesus’ public ministry

Execution of Jesus

Resurrection of Jesus

Giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost

Jerusalem Church established

Conversion of Saul of Tarsus

Paul’s missionary journeys to the Gentiles

Apostle James executed

The Great Fire of Rome and Nero’s persecution of the Christians

Gospel of Mark is written

Jewish zealots rebel against Roman occupation, Jerusalem and its Temple destroyed by Rome

Pauline letters and Synoptic Gospels are published

Gospel of John written

John of Patmos writes Book of Revelation

General epistles written

Bar Kochba rebellion against Rome is crushed by Emperor Hadrian

2nd Peter is written

Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria publishes the set standard of 27 New Testament books

Other Early Christian Literature

Works formerly appearing in some New Testament lists:

The Epistle of Barnabas (attributed to Paul’s Jewish-Christian mentor)

The Didache (supposedly a summary of the Twelve Apostles’ teachings on the opposing ways leading to life or death)

1st Clement (a letter by the third bishop of Rome to the Corinthians)

Apocalypse of Peter (visions of heaven and hell ascribed to Peter)

The Shepherd of Hermas (a mystical apocalyptic work)

Scholarly Approaches to the New Testament

“It is essential to read carefully in order to perceive what a text actually says (as opposed to what one may have been told about it elsewhere) and to compare it to similar works written at approximately the same time and under the same cultural influences.

Comparative study of the Gospels reveals much about their individual authors’ distinctive theological concerns, helping to explain reasons for both similarities and differences in their accounts.”

“During the past two centuries, an international community of scholars – Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and others – has developed innovative methods to illuminate the nature and growth of biblical documents.

This cosmopolitan body of scholars, historians, textual experts, literary critics, linguists, anthropologists, sociologists, and theologians includes thousands of university faculty, clergy, seminary instructors, and academic researchers.

Collectively, their efforts have provided us with an increasingly precise and well-documented study of the New Testament literature and the environment out of which it grew.”

“Many scholars believe that the scriptures…were composed to express authentic human experiences of divine power – represented by such classic moments as Moses encountering God at a burning bush on the slopes of Mount Sinai, Jesus hearing a heavenly voice after his baptism at the Jordan River, and Paul beholding the glorified Christ on the road to Damascus.

These unique religious experiences, which seem to transcend the ordinary limits of human life, if they are to be preserved for others, must be articulated in human language that is ill equipped to express unearthly realities.

Writing of Jesus’ apparently supernatural abilities and personal vision of God’s kingdom, the New Testament authors inevitably depicted them in terms of the prevailing culture, using then-current images and metaphors to approximate the inexpressible.

Although scholarship cannot investigate the world of the spirit or the elusive dimension of religious transcendence the biblical authors explore, it offers enormous help in examining the means – cultural, social, historical, and literary – by which ancient writers conveyed these phenomena to us.”

The New Testament read from different social perspectives

“In recent years, scholars have become increasingly aware that the meaning of any book – including biblical texts – is to a large extent dependent on the reader’s individual experience and viewpoint.”

“In the United States, this is particularly true when readers belong to social groups such as ethnic or other minorities that the dominant culture may commonly undervalue or otherwise marginalize.”

“Viewing New Testament passages from a specific social location – such as the African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Native American, or feminist community – is likely to give these stories a meaning that is distinctly different from interpretations traditionally promoted by society’s male Caucasian leadership.” 

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Sources

Stephen L. Harris. The New Testament: A Student's Introduction (6th ed.). McGraw-Hill: New York, NY, 2009.