Scriptures Final

Psalm 77

-Salvation History psalm

-Genre: Communal Lament (of national tragedy)

-Time of Composition: Babylonian Exile

-themes: doubting God during suffering, water, God’s power over those suffering

-purpose: recalling what God’s done in the past during hard times

Psalm 78

-Salvation History psalm

-Genre: Didactic Parable (i.e., teaching a lesson)

-Time of Composition: Shortly after 722 BCE (fall of Northern Kingdom)

-themes: God’s covenant faithfulness, Israel’s rebellion

-purpose: encourage future generations to remember God’s goodness and therefore stay faithful to the covenant

Psalm 105

-Salvation History psalm

-Genre: Communal Hymn of Praise

-Time of Composition: After the Babylonian Exile (the Persian Period)

-themes: praise, worship, God’s covenant faithfulness

-purpose: encourage continued faithfulness and worship, remember God’s faithfulness & mercy

Psalm 106

-Salvation History psalm

-Genre: Communal Penitential Prayer

-Time of Composition: Babylonian Exile

-themes: giving thanks, God’s mercy & faithfulness

-purpose: remembering & praising God’s faithfulness

Psalm 136

-Salvation History psalm

-Genre: Congregation Call and Response

-Time of Composition: After the Babylonian Exile (the Persian Period)

-themes: God’s goodness, His love endures forever

-purpose: dependence on God despite circumstance, repentance shows He is steadfast & consistent

Salvation History

-seen in Psalms

-shapes the life of faith

-recounts historical events of Israel in order to (re)narrate God's work of salvation in the history of God's people

-formative narrative for Israel

earliest complex manuscripts of NT

3-4th century CE (no og manuscripts)

NT organization

-4 gospels (technically anonymous)

-Acts of the Apostles

-13 Pauline Epistles (written by Paul/attributed to his authorship)

-Catholic Epistles (James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude, Apocalyptic Epistle - Revelation)

figural interpretation - Jesus in the Jewish scriptures?

-making a connection btwn 2 events or persons by which the 2nd receives deeper significance from the first

-Does not assume that Old Testament authors consciously predicted or anticipated Jesus

-Retrospective: faith seeking understanding

1st century CE considerations

-The “New Testament” as a collection of 27 books did not exist

-There was no official Christian canon

-Connection between Christian Writings (New Testament) and Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) was not a given

-The New Testament authors firmly believed that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was the culmination of Israel’s Scriptures

type - Jesus in the Jewish scriptures?

a figure, representation, event, or symbol of something

antitype - Jesus in the Jewish scriptures?

the fullest expression of the “type”

main point of Jesus in the Jewish scriptures

One can only grasp the full significance of the person and work of Jesus in the New Testament when they have a firm understanding of the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism

gospel of Mark

Date: mid-60s CE

Audience: Gentile Christians in Rome

Purpose: communicate power & authority of Jesus as the Son of God

gospel of Luke

Date: around 85 CE

Audience: Theophilus (“lover of God”)

Purpose: give certainty by providing an orderly account of Jesus’ life & ministry

gospel of Matthew

Date: around 85 CE

Audience: largely a Jewish, Christian audience

Purpose: demonstrate that the life of Jesus should be understood as the fulfillment of the OT

gospel of John

Date: around 90 CE

Audience: Jewish & Gentile converts

Purpose: John 20:31 - “so that we continue to believe Jesus is Messiah”

2 “Gospel” considerations

-”Gospel” is not an exclusively Christian term (evangelion/good news)

-”Gospel” is not an exclusively biblical term

NT Gospels

biographical narratives recounting the history and theological significance of Jesus as Messiah

genre scholars often compare the gospels to

Greco-Roman Bios (biography)

-Plutarch, Suetonius

-topics from groups of standard motifs

unique genre features of NT gospels (set apart from Bios)

-Jesus is not just one great figure alongside others of interest

-Jesus’ life & death is presented as something that changes the course of history

-Jesus is portrayed as our contemporary (with us), not just a figure of the past

discrepancies btwn the Gospels

-Order of events

cleansing of the temple

geneaology

-Wording of teachings - Sermon on the Mount

-Unique content

John: wedding at Cana

Mark: no birth narrative, no genealogy

-Within genealogies (Matthew & Luke)

Plutarch’s preface to the “Life of Lycurgus”

there are contradictions/discrepancies on his life, but he still wanted to write the biography despite this

Biographical disparities…

do not undermine historical realities