New Testament Study 1

LESSON 1
EDWIN DON PASKIN CIRIACO OCTOBER 2020
1. Interpreting the Gospels
2. Matthew
3. John
4. Luke-Acts
5. Romans
6. Galatians
7. 1 Corinthians
8. Ephesians
9. Philippians and Colossians
10.Sociological Analysis of the New Testament
Why Study the New
Testament?
Why Study the New Testament?
The study of the New Testament is centered on the life of Jesus.
The NT is primarily a story.
It is about the fulfillment of promise.
Why Study the New Testament?
Upon their return from exile, Jews hoped that the Davidic monarchy
would soon be restored. But their homeland remained under the control
of foreign powers until the Maccabean revolt. The Hasmoneans
managed to free Judea from Greek rule and rededicate the temple, but
did not return the high priesthood to the descendants of Onias III, the
last legitimate Zadokite high priest. Nor did they reestablish the Davidic
monarchy… Greek and Roman oppression contributed further to
messianic hopes for a time when God would set things right by sending
a righteous Davidic king and/or a priest anointed to redeem Israel from
foreign oppression and internal corruption.
Why Study the New Testament?
Three OT texts were widely interpreted in a messianic sense and played a particularly
important role in the rise of messianic ideas.

1. Gen 49:10–11 says that the royal scepter and ruler’s staff will not depart from the tribe
of Judah;

2. Num 24:17 says ‘A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.’

3. Isa 11:1–9 foretells of a day in which a ‘shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse,’
Why Study the New Testament?
The study of the New Testament is centered on the life of Jesus.
The NT is primarily a story.
It is about the fulfillment of promise.
It is about the kingdom of God.
It is about the person of Jesus.
It is about the work of Jesus.
It is about the particular and the cosmic.
Interpreting the Gospels
The role of the interpreter
“We must realize that just as the biblical text arose within
historical, personal processes and circumstances, so
interpreters are people in the midst of their personal
circumstances and situations… Thus, while hermeneutics
must give attention to the ancient text and the conditions
that produced it, responsible interpretation cannot ignore
the modern context and the circumstances of those who
attempt to explain the Scriptures today.” (Klein, 2004, pg. 7)
The role of the interpreter
“Yet on the other hand, no one can interpret without
some pre-understanding of the subject Yet no one
should approach biblical interpretation with only pre-
understanding… They understand the message
strictly in terms of the events going on in their own
lives and ignore the perspective of the text and its
original recipients.” (Ibid)
The role of the interpreter
“This results in serious misunderstanding like
that reported by a Christian counsellor. A
woman explained to her therapist that God had
told her to divorce her husband and marry
another man. She cited Paul’s command in Eph
4.24 (KJV), ‘Put on the new man,’ as the key to
her ‘divine’ guidance.” (Ibid)
The role of the interpreter
Distance of time: terms such as calf-idol of Beth Aven (Hos
10:5), ashamed of its wooden idols (v. 6), the high places (v.
8)
Distance of culture: e.g. What is the sandal custom for the
redemption and transfer of property in Ruth 4:6–8?
Geographical distance: going up to Jerusalem from Caesarea
(Acts 21:12) or going down from Jerusalem to Jericho (Lk
10:30)
Interpretation during the
Patristic Era
Interpretation During the Patristic Era
Literal reading. Jesus’ literal fulfilment of OT prophecy was
their [early Jewish Christians] fundamental hermeneutical
principle.
Typological. They often mined OT historical poetic sections
to find predictions of the work of Christ and the Church; to
find events, objects, ideas and divinely inspired types
represented in the OT that anticipate God’s activity later in
history. (e.g. Matthew, Hebrews)
Interpretation During the Patristic Era
Principle/Application. In this method they did not
interpret an OT passage literally; rather they
interpreted it by applying its underlying principle to a
situation different from, but comparable to, the one
in the original context. E.g. Paul’s use of Hos 2:23 &
1:10 in Rom 9:25–26 to prove that God wants to save
both Jews and Gentiles (Ibid, pp 32–33).
Interpretation During the Patristic Era
Allegorical. The most popular interpretive approach
of the fathers, especially when handling the OT, was
that of allegory… They wanted to support their
teachings from the OT Scriptures, presumably to give
their doctrine more credibility, and at the time, the
allegorical method was the most popular way to
interpret literature in general (Ibid, 36).
Interpretation During the Patristic Era
Allegorical. The one used in the Epistle of Barnabas
7–8, a commentary to Numbers 19, gives the ritual of
the red heifer to represent Jesus, and the children
who sprinkle its ashes: “are those who preached to
us the good news about the forgiveness of sins…,
those to whom he [Jesus] gave the authority to
proclaim the gospel (Ibid, 36).
Interpretation During the Patristic Era
Interpreting Scripture through the creeds. The era of the
church councils marked the third and final phase of the
Patristic era. When Constantine became emperor, he
pressured the church to settle their doctrinal disputes
and to standardize its doctrines. (Ibid, 40).
Augustine: Interpretation specifies that it aims to lead
readers to love God and other people. It seeks to
cultivate a proper, ethical and devout Christian life.
Interpretation from the
Middle to the Twentieth
Interpretation from the Middle to the Twentieth
Dependence on tradition. Interpreters continued to
depend heavily upon traditional interpretation—the
views of the fathers passed down over the centuries.
Yet practitioners of the allegory still abounded in the
Roman Catholic Church.
Interpretation from the Middle to the Twentieth
Erasmus: Philology. A renewed interest in the study
of Hebrew and Greek after his publication of the first
modern edition of the Greek New Testament in 1516.
Luther: Historical sense. He rejected the allegorical
methods because for him, it amounted to empty
speculation. Instead he affirmed the historical sense.
Modern Era
Radical advances in human science created popular
confidence in the scientific method.
Historical-Critical Analysis. Scholars sought to approach
the Bible similarly through the so-called objective,
scientific means… It inherited the rationalistic
assumption that the use of human reason, free of
theological limitations, is the best tool with which to
study the Bible.
Modern Era
Problems of the Historical-Critical Analysis. This
method presupposed a naturalistic worldview that
explained everything in terms of natural laws and
excluded the possibility of supernatural intervention.
Thus, scholars accounted for biblical miracles by means
of laws of physics, biology and chemistry.
This method further regard the Bible’s ideas as time-
bound truths, not timeless ones.
Form Criticism of the
Gospels
Form Criticism of the Gospels
Definition. Form criticism sought to recover the
shorter oral compositions from which the Bible’s
written sources supposedly derived. It also aimed to
determine the specific cultural life-setting in which
each originated.
Form Criticism of the Gospels
Parable. A parable refers to a short narrative with two
levels of meaning. The parable can be used as a
proverb (Lk 4:23), a riddle (Mk 3:23), a comparison
(Mt 13:33), a contrast (Lk 18:1–8) or both simple
stories (Lk 13:6–9) or complex stories (Mt 22:1–14). A
similitude is an extended simile relating a typical or
recurring event in real life, such as the Parable of the
Leaven in Mt 13:31–32. (Snodgrass, 1992, 591).
Form Criticism of the Gospels
Miracle Stories. A biblical miracle is a strikingly
surprising event, beyond what is regarded as
humanly possible, in which God is believed to act,
either directly or through an intermediary (Klein,
415)
Form Criticism of the Gospels
Miracle Stories. Common motifs include:
1. the description of someone’s distress,
2. a cry for help,
3. the response of the miracle worker
4. the miracle itself
5. the reaction of the crowd
6. the response of the miracle worker
Form Criticism of the Gospels
Miracle Stories.
E.g. The feeding of the 5,000 involved the large
crowd sharing small crumbs of bread in anticipation
of Jesus’ institution of the Eucharist.
E.g. Jesus appeared to walk on the water because he
was wading out on a sandbar just beneath the
water’s surface.
Form Criticism of the Gospels
Miracle Stories.
Since the Enlightenment, all but the most conservative
interpreters have tried to either to rationalize or to
demythologize these stories—view them as myths,
fictitious accounts designed to glorify Jesus and promote
his divinity.
Demythologizing—seeking the theological message of a
miracle-story that people could still believe & apply
Form Criticism of the Gospels
Pronouncement Stories. It designates a short, self-
contained narrative that functions primarily to
introduce a key climactic saying of Jesus. These
pronouncements are usually proverbial in nature.
Most of them highlight the radical newness of Jesus’
message and ministry that quickly aroused the
opposition of Jewish readers (a.k.a. “conflict stories”)
Chronology of the NT