New Testament Midterm

Divisions of the Hebrew Bible

The Law/Torah: 5 books of Moses (instructions)

The Prophets: former, latter, and minor prophets

The Writings: psalms, proverbs, job, etc

The Law of Moses and what it entails

10 commandments

Moral laws

Social laws

Food laws

Purity laws

Feasts

Sacrifices and offerings

Tabernacle instructions

How Israelites understood their history (main points of chronology)

• Genesis:

  • Creation

  • Covenant: who gets it

• Exodus:

  • Formation of a people

  • Exodus: new covenant

• Judges

• Kings

  • Monarchy

• Prophets

  • Exile

  • Return

• Post Old Testament

  • Overlord

Main characters: Adam, Patriarchs, Moses, Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great

• Genesis: Adam, Abraham, Israel, Jacob, 12 tribes

  • Creation

  • Covenant: who gets it

• Exodus: Moses

  • Formation of a people

  • Exodus: new covenant

• Judges

• Kings: David

  • Monarchy

• Prophets: Cyrus and Alexander the Great

  • Exile

  • Return

• Post Old Testament: Herods

  • Overlord

Palestine under Greek rule: basic overview

Modern day eastern Turkey going eastward toward Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan → Seleucid Empire

Jewish leaders ally with Seleucids and then start to tax them even when they said they wouldn't

Two big powers: Seleucid and Ptolemaine empire

Maccabees

We don’t want to live under Greek rule, we are going to have our own Jewish nation

Hanukkah and celebration of light

Roman political period: Herod the Great, how the Romans gained control of Palestine

Put Roman leader over Palestine because the Jews couldn’t get along with each other

Herod the greats sons took control of different areas

What is “Israel”

A person

A group of people: group of tribes, jews

Political entity

People in a covenant relationship with Yahweh/Christ

When Biblical canon was finalized

Several hundred years after Christ

Basic overview of the production of the King James Version of the Bible

Each was a revision of past Bible, done by committee, leaned on prior translations

Types of translation: word-for-word, thought-for-thought, sense-for-sense

Word-for-word: direct word for word translation, same order, may not make sense

Thought-for-thought: take a phrase and hear is the thought so word order may be close but keep it as original as possible

Sense-for-sense: paraphrase, formal equivalence, dynamic equivalence, idiomatic translation, take the idea so that the reader of the new text will understand it

Translation=interpretation

Every author can choose the words which changes meaning

Meanings of “testament”

covenant

Synoptic Gospels

Mark, Matthew, and Luke have overlap in their translations

Similar in narrative, chronology, and how they depict Jesus

Mark as source gospel

Matthew and Luke probably used Mark to write

Experience with gentiles

Did not know story well enough to put in order

Raw, quick storytelling

Depiction of disciples

Matthew and Luke lineages

Matthew: Abraham to Jesus (forward progression) (3 sets of 14 names)

Luke: Jesus to Adam (backward progression)

Symbolic usage of Biblical names

Symbolic of a person’s purpose or eventual fate

Name tied to the point of the narrative

Examples: story of ruth, Cain and Abel, children of Rachel and Leah

Different perspectives available in the Parable of the Sower

There is more than one way to look at a parable

The seed could represent the people or the word

The sower could also be the word or people

If people are the seeds → then the soil is the circumstances → we still need help from the sower

The seeds are the word → the soil is then the people → we still need help from the sower, try to be as fertile as possible

Circumcision

Male children in Jewish law at 8 days old, represents entering Abrahamic covenant, also receive their official name

The Sermon on the Mount: invitation to change multiple levels of society

An invitation to change who you are and your relationship with everything

Sight/perception in Sermon on the Mount, connections to charity

Charity is finally seeing and being able to judge correctly

Pharisees

oral law, Messiah

Sadducees

no oral law, temple, elitists, maintaining good relationships with Roman leaders, no afterlife/resurrection

Essenes

desert, purification, strict laws

Zealots

political radicals, no Romans/theocracy only

Scribes

lawyers

Publicans

tax collectors

Herodians

agree with Herod, agree with the Romans

Meaning of “gospel”

good announcement/news

Meaning of “Jesus”

He will save

Meaning of “Christ”

anointed one