New Testament Interpretation & Literature

Inspiration & Reading

• What is the Bible?

  • historic sacred text?

  • collection of rules & good morals?

  • story about what God?

  • source for theological reflection?

  • God’s speech to his people?

    • Dr. Wunrow would argue this one

• Subjective matter

  • historical events, letters, & prophecies

  • right theology

  • right morals

  • Jesus

  • trinitarian God

  • what God wants to say to his people

• Inspiration

  • 2 Timothy 3:16

    • “God-breathed”

  • dual-authorship

    • non-competetivie divine & human agency

• Inerrancy / Infallibility

  • Inerrancy = without error

  • Infallibility = unable to fail

  • Chicago statement on Biblical inerrancy:

    • God is truth & speaks truth

    • The bible is trustworthy

    • Holy Spirit is the divine author

    • Scripture is wholly God-given

    • “The authorship of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disreguarded.”

  • think of the gospels as paintings

    • St. Luke painting of the virgin

• Compostition

  • originally in Greek

  • dictation & amenvensis

  • materials

    • papyrus (paper)

    • parchment (treated animal)

    • the codex (a book)

  • writing

    • all capital

    • no spaces

    • no punctuation

• Reception

  • reading texts out loud

  • perservation of valuable texts

  • sharing valuable texts

  • Mark & Revelation

    • written to be preformed

• Collection

  • “canon”

  • recognition of status, no created status

  • true, genuine, & commonly used

  • Council of Carthage

    • 397

      • officially recognized

    • Muratorian Canon (late 2nd century)

    • canon adjacent

      • 1st Clement

      • Epistle of Barnabas

      • Shepard Hermas

      • Apocalypse of Peter

      • Didache

      • Apocrapha // wisdom of solomon

• Marcion heresy

  • the OT & NT has 2 gods

    • OT being “bad”

    • NT being “good”

• Athanasius “Easter Letter” (AD 367)

  • the 27 we currently use

• Perservation

  • copy by trained scribes

  • mistakes

    • writing

    • reading

    • hearing

    • intentional

  • 3 families of manuscripts

    • Byzantine

    • Western

    • Alexandrain

  • Types of evidence

    • papyri

    • parchment & codices

      • majuscules (capitals)

      • minuscule (lowercase)

    • citations

      • in lectionaries & from the Fathers

    • translations

• Doing textual criticism

  • external evidence

    • date

    • location

    • family

    • value

  • internal evidence

    • harder reading = better ?

    • shorter reading = better ?

    • reading that explains the others is best

• How do we use the NT

  • to know God

    • relationship

  • to know more about God

    • theology

  • to know more about what God has done

    • history

  • to know what to believe

    • faith

  • to know what to do

    • ethics

• “Fourfold Task of New Testament Ethics”

• The need for imagination

• How do we have the right imagination

  • creeds

  • living faithfully in community

  • reading, studying, & meditation on Scripture

  • praying

  • participating in worship, including sacraments

Historica Background

• Jewish history

  • Ptolemies rules

    • 320-198 AD

  • Selecucids

    • 198-167 AD

  • Revolt of Maccabees

    • 167-141 BC

  • Hasmonean dynasty

    • 141-63 BC

  • Roman rule

    • Herod the Great

      • 37-4 BC

  • Divided rule

    • local

      • 4 BC - 44 AD

    • Roman

      • AD 44-66

  • the war

    • AD 66-70

• Geography

  • Palestine

  • Judea

  • Asia Minor

  • Greece

• Local politics

  • Roman governors & prefects

  • Roman-sponsored kings & goveners

  • trade guilds

  • religious leaders

    • local priests

    • cult leaders

    • prohpets

  • wealthy merchants & land-owners

  • grassroots leaders

• Culture & society

  • Hellenism

    • after Alexander the Great, everyone is Hellenistic to a level

      • Greek language

      • Greek education

      • Greek games/athletics

      • Greek philosophy

      • Greek art & architecture

• Language

  • Greek

  • Latin

  • Aramaic

  • Hebrew

• Values

  • honor & shame

    • success & failure for the western culture

  • collective thinking & identity

  • reciprocity

  • dominance of free, wealthy males

• Religion

  • Greco-Roman

    • poly-theism

    • greek & roman deities

    • mystery cults

      • Mithrasl

    • emperior worship

    • local deitites

  • Judaism

    • 1 God

    • circumcision

    • food laws

    • Sabbath

    • Pharisees

      • common people

    • Sadducees

      • Roman sell-outs

      • elites

    • Essenes

      • reformed movement

      • wilderness living

    • Others

      • Zealots & Sicarii

      • Qumranites

      • Scribes

      • Herodians

      • Samaritans

    • temples

    • sacrifices & festivals

    • Sanhedrin

    • Synagogues

• Texts

  • Josephus

  • Philo

  • Apocrypha

  • Pseudepigrapha

  • New Testament

  • Rabbinic literature

Introduction to the gospels

• Other gospels

  • gospel of the Hebrews

  • gospel of the Egyptians

  • egerton gospel

  • gospel of Thomas

    • probably not written by Thomas

    • sayings of Jesus

    • evil theology

  • gospel of Peter

    • probably not written by Peter

    • gospel fanfiction

• Why not included

  • heresy

  • written too late

  • unused by the church

• Mark was written 1st

  • Matthew & Luke probably knew Mark/used Mark as a source

  • from Peter

• Q

  • Abbreviation for a long German word

    • translates to “The Source”

  • not really necessary

  • more sayings than stories

• The Tetramorph

  • 4 form being

  • traditionally

    • Matthew

      • angel/human

    • Mark

      • lion

    • Luke

      • ox

    • John

      • eagle

  • Ezekiel 1

• 1 gospel according to 4 authros/testamonies

• Genre

  • we don’t naturally know the conventions being written

  • greco-roman bios

    • no sequential/chronological

  • old-testament narrative

  • historiography

  • “gospel”

• Origins

  • collective memory?

    • no.

  • eyewitnesses

    • minor named characters

  • early written records

    • stories

    • sayings collected

    • passion narratives

  • oral tradition

• Synoptic problem

  • differences in testimony

  • Matthew 8/Mark1/Luke 4

  • Matthre 20/Mark10/Luke 18

Matthew

• Tetramorph

  • angel/human

• Historical details

  • Author

    • Matthew

  • Date

    • Before AD 70?

  • Recipiants

    • Jewish Christians?

      • “parting of the ways”

        • separation between Jewish & Christian tradition/identity

  • place of writing

    • Syria?

• Structure

  • Prologue (1:1-2:23)

  • the good news about the kingdom (3:1-7:29)

  • Jesus’ ministry (8:1-11:1)

  • Opposition (11:2-13:53)

  • Polarization (13:54-19:2)

  • opposition & eschatology (19:3-26:5)

  • passion & resurrection (26:6-28:20)

• Discourse

  • Ch. 5-7

  • Ch 10

  • Ch 13

  • Ch 18

  • Ch 23-25

  • 5 discourses = 5 torah books

  • Jesus gones on a mountain in discourse 1