compilation of the canon- new testament

NT

• The New testament sets out the basic events and beliefs of the Christian Gospel

• It contains 27 books and is written entirely in greek in the first century

• Books include the four gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, 13 letters by St Paul, 8 letters by other early Christian leaders, and the Revelation of St John (an apocalyptic vision)

gospels

• The four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) chronicle Jesus’ life and teachings

• The four gospels have distinctive characteristics. For example, Matthew is concerned with jesus’ teaching, whereas Mark is more interested in focusing on the last week of his earthly life

• Taken together, all four build up a comprehensive account of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus The evangelists wrote the Gospels to:

• Spread the good news of Jesus and his teachings

• Preserve the truth about Jesus

• Reassure persecuted Christians

• Encourage persecuted Christians

• Apostles were dying of so the story had to be written down to be preserved

• To show that Christianity was not dangerous

similarity of gospels

• The four Gospels are all similar in that they all see Jesus as the pivotal person, the one on whom everything depends, the Messiah, the Saviour, the Lord.

• The other Gospels (that were rejected) see Jesus as a teacher, as a kind of figure of enlightenment, one whom you could emulate, whom you could perhaps become.

• Other gospels include the Gospel of Peter and the Gospel of Thomas

• The Gospels in the New Testament were chosen because they do share the conviction of the importance and uniqueness of Jesus, which also becomes the important and uniqueness of the church as the only means of salvation.

mmlj

• Matthew - written for a Jewish audience in the first century. Major theme is the connection between Jesus and the Old Testament prophecies and predictions regarding the Messiah
  Mark - written with the purpose of communicating Jesus’ story to a generation of Gentile Christians who had not been eyewitnesses to the events of Jesus. Jesus as the ‘Son of God’ is a major theme. Was the first gospel and the foundation of the others.

• Luke - intended for a gentile audience. His purpose was to provide a historically accurate and reliable account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Wanted to prove that Jesus’ story was true
  John - written three generations after Jesus’ death, after the fall of Jerusalem. He wrote in a culture of severe persecution of Christians. John saw an evangelistic opportunity to help many see that Jesus was the Messiah. Focused on Jesus as divine and the incarnation of God

john + jc’s birth

• ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ - John 1:1

• John wants the reader to have a clear understanding that Jesus is the same as God

• Jesus is eternal and, therefore, present at creation

• God makes the world through the creative power of his word. Jesus is that creative power of God

• Jesus comes from God the Father before the beginning of time and space in creation (so Jesus pre-existed before his birth). Therefore, Jesus is ‘begotten not made/created’

• v meta

diff between john + synoptic gospels

• timing→ written a full generation after synoptic gospels. john free to construct his own gospels in a way that reflected culture

• purpose→ John wrote his Gospel after the fall of Jerusalem, meaning he wrote to a culture in which Christians experienced persecution. The fall of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Church meant John saw and evangelistic opportunity to help many see that Jesus was the Messiah

• focus on person/ work of JC → more concerned w theology than demographics, since he lived in a time where theological debates were rampant

synoptic gospels

• Synoptic gospels is often used to refer to the first three gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) - This refers to their similar literary structure

• Matthew, Mark, and Luke were all written about 20-30 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. This means that they felt pressure to record the major events of Jesus’ life because a full generation had passed since those events had occurred, meaning eyewitness accounts and sources would soon be scarce

• John, on the other hand, is different in style and wording. This may be because John was written far later than the other gospels, and with a different purpos

act of the apostles

Gives an account of the expansion of christianity

Luke pursues as a central theme the spread of Christianity to the Gentile world under the guiding inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He also described the Church’s gradual drawing away from Jewish traditions

significance of st paul- the epistles

• After the Acts, the next major section is the letters, or epistles
  These letters provide teachings concerning both Christian beliefs and behaviour

• - Most were written by St Paul, whose conversion to the Christian faith led him to undertake a major programme of evangelism and church planting

• The letters of the apostle Paul contain important teachings. The Letter to the Romans contains his teachings on justification by faith alone, which greatly influenced the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians includes his theology of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus

book of revelation

e Book of Revelation

The New Testament ends with the book of revelation, which represents a vision of the end of history, in which the writer is allowed to see into heaven, and gain a glimpse of the new Jerusalem which is prepared for believers
The book spans three literary genres: the epistolary, the apocalyptic, and the prophetic