The New Testament Writings

Introduction

• Justin Martyr produced a number of theological writings and is best known for a paragraph describing early Christian worship services.

  • Many the same as today:
  • Preaching
  • Prayers
  • Eucharistic Meal (Communion)
  • Offering

• The New Testament is arranged into seven categories:

  1. The Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John (memoirs of authors about the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus)
  2. The Book of Acts - “part two” of the Gospel of Luke. In its own spot because it is the only book that relates to the history of the early church (after the Gospels)
  3. Letters from Paul to churches - Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1&2 Thessalonians (Letters are presented in order of length)
  4. Letters from Paul to individuals - 1&2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon (Order of length)
  5. The letter to the Hebrews - anonymous work, appears to be for Jewish Christians (Hebrew Christians)
  6. Letters by other people - James, 1&2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (named for those traditionally identified as the authors, often called “The General/Catholic Letters” (Epistles) — Catholic in reference to “universal” and “general” NOT church)
  7. The book of Revelation - sometimes called “The Apocalypse of John” (Apocalypse means revelation)

Development of the Canon

• The New Testament is not just a collection of early Christian writings; rather, it is a selection of those writings
• Marcion (false teacher — gnosticism) anti-Jewish and omitted and changed parts of the New Testament
  • Followers did the same
  • All of their writings were rejected
• By the end of the second century, most of our New Testament was universally accepted as reliable
  • (7 books struggled to get acceptance: Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2&3 John, Jude, and Revelation)
• All the books in our New Testament are compatible with “apostolic Christianity”
• The selection of writings is not narrow without diversity of opinion
  • Wide variety of viewpoints and positions difficult to reconcile

How Scholars Study the New Testament

• Text Criticism

  • Variant Readings - Changes based on translations and time
  • Many are listed in footnotes of English Bibles

• Archaeology

  • Physical evidence is found that supplies background information for interpreting texts
  • Dead Sea Scrolls: tell us about the diversity of first century Jewish religion
  • Nag Hammed gnostic library: tells us about the diversity of early Christianity

• Sociological Criticism

  • How historical (sometimes traumatic) events effect the social phenomena

• Cultural Anthropology

  • What happens in a culture by comparing with what is known about other cultures
  • Cultural anthropologists study kinship relations, power structures, economic systems, gender roles, strategies for education, etc.
  • PURITY CODES in the NT
  • SOCIAL VALUE SYSTEM that led people to prize acquisition of honor above all else in the NT

• Historical Criticism

  • How historians view the Bible and events/people in it

• Source Criticism

  • Find out (and sometimes reconstruct) materials used when writing the New Testament
  • Ex. Quoting hymns and psalms/early Christian liturgy

• Form Criticism

  • The discipline of form criticism seeks to classify different materials found in the New Testament according to literary genre or type (“form”) and to draw conclusions relevant to interpretation based on these classifications. Different types of material can be discerned: genealogies, parables, miracle stories, speeches, hymns, creeds, proverbs, and many more.

• Redaction Criticism

  • Determine why they arranged/edited sources
  • Treats each book on its own
  • Two methods:
  1. Composition analysis - how various units are arranged within a book — order/placement, the sequence of material, and overall organization
  2. Emendation analysis - study alterations that the Gospel author made in the source material — additions, omissions, and other changes that reveal the author’s priorities and preferences

• Narrative Criticism (used mostly with Gospels and Acts)

  • Insights of modern literary analysis to determine the effects biblical stories are expected to have on readers (focuses on reception of material)
  • Treats each book on its own

• Rhetorical Criticism

  • Focus on strategies authors used
  • Appeals, sources, evidence, etc.

• Reader-Response Criticism

  • How texts have been/will be understood by people with different backgrounds with various contexts
  • One type of reader-response criticism known as Wirkungsgeschichte (“history of influence”) seeks to document and explain how given texts have been read throughout history—how they have been used in theological discussions, liturgy, preaching, art, and other modes of both scholarly and popular reception.

• Ideological Criticism

  • Looking through how the Bible may be interpreted through different criticisms (lenses)
  • Ex. Feminist, Marxist, Jungian, “Womanist” (African American women), “Mujerista” (Latin American women), Postcolonial (marginalized and oppressed people — esp. Asian, African, or Latin American), etc.

• Deconstruction

  • Arose in the late 20th century (popular among scholars inspired by postmodern philosophy)
  • Demonstrate all proposed interpretations are ideological constructs that have no objective claim to legitimacy (Interpretation reveals more about interpreter than text)
  • Can bring forth neglected possibilities for biblical meaning and raises questions on why they weren’t thoroughly explored

Exegesis and Hermeneutics

• Exegesis: scholarly study of the Bible with an emphasis on the actual explication of texts (what it really says)
• Hermeneutics: philosophical reflection on the process of interpretation
  • Consideration of questions regarding what the goal of interpretation should be
  • Which biblical passages might be regarded as meaningful or authoritative