The New Testament Church did not begin nor grow in a cultural vacuum. There are many
factors as to why the Christian church grew rapidly during the First Century AD. Consider the
following cultural and historical realities existing in the world at that time and discuss how
each might have fostered the growth of the church and the writing of the New Testament:
1. The Jewish Persecution (such as that by Saul of Tarsus) of the Church in Jerusalem (Acts 7 9)
2. The use of Koine Greek as the "lingua franca" (universal language) of 1st Century world
trade, commerce, and communication
3. The political and military dominance of the Roman Empire - the Pax Romana (Roman
Peace) of the 1st Century AD
4. Well Constructed and developed trade and travel routes throughout the known world
Eighth Edition
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The New Testament
A Student’s Introduction
Stephen L. Harris
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part one
An Invitation to
the New W
Testament
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chap te r 1
An Overview of theWNew Testament
I
L Christ. Mark 1:1*
Here begins the Gospel of Jesus
L
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(revelation). The early Christian
Key Topics/Themes A collection of twenty-seven
,apocalypse
community produced a host of other writings as
Greek documents that early Christians appended
to a Greek edition of the Hebrew Bible (the Old
Testament), the New Testament includes four
Gospels, a church history, letters, and an
People read the New Testament for an almost infinite variety of reasons. Some read to satisfy their
curiosity about the origins of one of the great
world religions. They seek to learn more about the
social and historical roots of Christianity, a faith
that began in the early days of the Roman Empire
and that today commands the allegiance of more
than 2 billion people, approximately a third of the
global population. Because Christianity bases its
most characteristic beliefs on the New Testament
writings, it is to this source that the historian and
social scientist must turn for information about
the religion’s birth and early development.
Most people, however, probably read the
New Testament for more personal reasons.
Many readers search its pages for answers to
life’s important ethical and religious questions.
For hundreds of millions of Christians, the New
Testament sets the only acceptable standards of
*Unless otherwise noted, all New Testament quotations are
from the New English Bible (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1976); (see Chapter 2, p. 36).
2
well, which scholars also study to understand
the diverse nature of the Jesus movement as it
Kspread throughout the Greco-Roman world.
A
Spersonal belief and behavior (see Box 1.1).
SReaders attempt to discover authoritative counon issues that modern science or speculative
Asel
philosophy cannot resolve, such as the nature
Nof God, the fate of the soul after death, and the
Dultimate destiny of humankind.
Jesus of Nazareth, the central character of
Rthe New Testament, provides many people with
Athe most compelling reason to read the book. As
presented by the Gospel writers, he is like no
other figure in history. His teachings and pro2nouncements have an unequaled power and authority. As an itinerant Jewish prophet, healer,
1and teacher in early-first-century Palestine, the
6historical Jesus—in terms of the larger GrecoRoman world around him—lived a relatively ob1scure life and died a criminal’s death at the hands
Tof Roman executioners. His followers’ conviction
he subsequently rose from the grave and apSthat
peared to them launched a vital new faith that
eventually swept the Roman Empire. In little
more than three centuries after Jesus’ death,
Christianity became Rome’s official state religion.
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b o x 1 .1 The New Testament: A Relatively Modern Artifact
A printed, bound copy of the New
Testament that readers can hold in their hands is a
relatively modern development. Until the fourth
century ce, the New Testament did not even exist as
a coherent entity—a single volume containing the
twenty-seven books in its now-familiar table of contents. Before then, believers, and even church leaders, had access to individual Gospels or subcollections,
such as compilations of Paul’s letters, but not to a
comprehensive edition of the entire text.
Even after Rome made Christianity the state religion and imperial patronage encouraged the production of an official Christian Scripture, New
Testaments were extremely rare. Not only were
manuscript copies prohibitively expensive, but the
vast majority of people in the Roman Empire could
W neither read nor write. It was not until the printing
press was invented in the fifteenth century ce, perI mitting the eventual mass production of Bibles, that
L the New Testament as we know it came into being.
L
Clearly, the New Testament authors present I
Jesus as much more than an ordinary man. The S
Gospel of John portrays him as the human expression of divine Wisdom, the Word of God ,
made flesh. Jesus’ teaching about the eternal
world of spirit is thus definitive, for he is depicted
as having descended from heaven to earth to reveal ultimate truth. About 300 years after Jesus’
crucifixion, Christian leaders assembled at the
town of Nicaea in Asia Minor to decree that Jesus
is not only the Son of God but God himself.
Given the uniquely high status that orthodox
Christianity accords the person of Jesus, the New
Testament accounts of his life have extraordinary
value. Jesus’ words recorded in the Gospels are
seen not merely as the utterances of a preeminently wise teacher but also as the declarations of
the Being who created and sustains the universe.
The hope of encountering “God’s thoughts,” of
discovering otherwise unattainable knowledge of
unseen realities, gives many believers a powerful
incentive for studying the New Testament.
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What Is the New
1
Testament?
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When asked to define the New Testament, many
students respond with such traditional phrases
as “the Word of God” or “Holy Scripture.” These
responses are really confessions of faith that the
Christian writings are qualitatively different
from ordinary books. Some students express
surprise that non-Christian religions also have
scriptures—documents that these groups consider sacred and authoritative (having the power
to command belief and prescribe behavior). In
fact, many other world religions possess holy
books that their adherents believe to represent
a divine revelation to humankind. Hindus
cherish the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the
Bhagavadgita; Buddhists venerate the recorded
teachings of Buddha, the “enlightened one”;
and followers of Islam (meaning “submission”
[to the will of Allah]) revere the Quran (Koran)
as transmitting the one true faith. Ideally, we
approach all sacred writings with a willingness to
appreciate the religious insights they offer and
to recognize their connection with the cultural
and historical context out of which they grew.
Given the historical fact that the New
Testament was written by and for believers in
Jesus’ divinity, many readers tend to approach it
as they do no other work of ancient literature.
Whether or not they are practicing Christians,
students commonly bring to the New Testament
attitudes and assumptions very different from
those they employ when reading other works of
antiquity. The student usually has little trouble
bringing an open or neutral mind to exploring
stories about the Greek and Roman gods. One
can read Homer’s Iliad, an epic poem celebrating the Greek heroes of the Trojan War, without
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any particular emotional involvement with the
Homeric gods. However, this objective attitude
toward supernatural beings is rare among persons studying the New Testament.
To be fair to the New Testament, we will want
to study it with the same open-mindedness we
grant to the writings of any world religion. This
call for objectivity is a challenge to all of us, for we
live in a culture that defines its highest values
largely in terms of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
We can most fully appreciate the New Testament
if we begin by recognizing that it developed in,
and partly in reaction to, a society profoundly different from our own. To a great extent, the New
Testament is the literary product of a dynamic
encounter between two strikingly different cultures of antiquity—the Jewish and the Greek. A
creative synthesis of these two traditions, early
Christianity originated in a thoroughly Jewish environment. But in the decades following Jesus’
death, Christianity spread to the larger Greekspeaking world, where it eventually assumed the
dominant form that has been transmitted to us.
The Jewish world of Jesus and his first disciples was centered in Palestine, an area at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea now partly
occupied by the modern state of Israel (see
Figure 1.1). According to the biblical Book of
Genesis, God had awarded this territory—the
Promised Land—to his chosen people, the Jews.*
In Jesus’ day (the first third of the first century
ce†), however, the land was ruled by Rome, the
capital of a vast empire that surrounded the entire Mediterranean basin, from France and Spain
in western Europe to Egypt in northeast Africa
and Syria-Palestine in western Asia (see Figure
1.2). As a Palestinian Jew, Jesus experienced
the tension that then existed between his fellow
Jews and their often-resented Roman overlords
* Jew, a term originally designating the inhabitants of Judea,
the area surrounding Jerusalem, also includes all members
of the covenant community living outside Palestine.
†
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ce (the Common Era), a religiously neutral term used by
Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others, is synonymous with
the traditional ad, initials representing anno domini, Latin
for “in the year of the Lord.” bce (before the Common
Era) corresponds to bc (before Christ).
(see Chapters 5–10 for discussions of Gospel references to Jewish-Roman relations).
Although many students automatically ascribe their own (twenty-first-century North
American) values and attitudes to Jesus’ world,
it is important to recognize that, even today,
inhabitants of the eastern Mediterranean region do not view life as Americans typically do.
In the Mediterranean’s agrarian, conservative
W
peasant society, old ideas, values, and praccontrast sharply with those in the West’s
Itices
technologically sophisticated democracies.
LTwo thousand years ago, the degree of
Ldifference—social, religious, and political—
was even greater, a fact that must be considIered when studying the Gospel accounts of
SJesus’ interaction with Palestinian villagers
and Roman officials. The more we learn about
,first-century Palestinian-Jewish and GrecoRoman customs, social institutions, and religious beliefs, the better we will understand both
KJesus and the writers who interpreted him to
AGreek-speaking audiences (see Chapters 3–5).
S
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The New Testament and
A the Hebrew Bible
N
DBefore considering the second great historical influence on the creation of the New
RTestament—Greek thought and culture—it is
Ahelpful to describe what the New Testament is
and how it relates to the older Jewish Scriptures,
the Hebrew Bible (so called because it was origi2nally composed in the Hebrew language, with a
few later books in a related tongue, Aramaic; see
1Boxes 1.2 and 1.3). Basically, the New Testament
6is a collection of twenty-seven Christian documents, written in Greek and added as a supple1ment to a Greek edition of the Hebrew Bible
Tknown as the Septuagint (see below). The
Bible, therefore, consists of two unSChristian
equal parts: the longer, more literarily diverse
Hebrew Bible (which Christians call the Old
Testament), and a shorter anthology of Christian
writings (the New Testament). Bound together,
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Caesarea Philippi
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ASychar
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NBethphage Bethany Beyond Jordan
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DBethany Qumran
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Samaria Sebaste
MT. GERIZIM
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figure 1.1 Palestine at the time of Jesus (early first century ce). Located at the eastern margin of
T
the Mediterranean Sea, this region promised to Abraham’s
descendants was then controlled by Rome
(see Figure 1.2).
S
Raphia
M
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Masada
0
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10
10
20
20
30 Kilometers
30 Miles
5
ATLANTIC
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SYRIA
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Petra
Sea of
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Eu
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Dead
Sea
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Map inset
Jerusalem
JUDEA
Map of the Roman Empire (c. 30 bce). By the reign of Augustus (30 bce–14 ce), the Roman Empire controlled
most of the known world.
500 Kilometers
SAHARA
AEGYPTUS
Caesarea
Joppa
CYPRUS
N ile
figu re 1.2
250
500 Miles
LIBYA
Alexandria
CRETE
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Capernaum
ILE
Jerusalem
Jericho
Bethlehem Bethany
Pergamum
CAPPADOCIA
PHRYGIA
Ephesus
Iconium
Lystra
Athens
Derbe
Colossae
ICI A
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bo x 1 .2 Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha
torah
writings
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Psalms
Job
Proverbs
Ruth
Song of Solomon
Ecclesiastes
Lamentations
Esther
Daniel
Ezra-Nehemiah
Chronicles (1 and 2)
prophets
Former Prophets
Joshua
Judges
Samuel (1 and 2)
Kings (1 and 2)
Latter Prophets
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
The Twelve (Minor Prophets)
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
the two testaments form the Christian Bible.
Bible, a term derived from the word biblia (meaning “little books”), is an appropriate title because
this two-part volume is really a compilation of
many different books composed over a time span
exceeding 1,100 years.
In considering early Christians’ use of the
Hebrew Bible, however, we must remember that
the Jewish Scriptures did not then exist as an
easily accessible bound volume. At the time of
Jesus and the early church, the Hebrew Bible
existed only as a collection of separate scrolls
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deuterocanonical books (apocrypha)
1 Esdras
2 Esdras
Tobit
Judith
The rest of the chapters of the Book of Esther
The Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus Son of
Sirah
Baruch
A Letter of Jeremiah
The Song of the Three
Daniel and Susanna
Daniel, Bel, and the Snake
The Prayer of Manasseh
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
(see Chapter 2). Few Jews or early Christians
owned copies of biblical books or read them privately. Instead, most Jews and Jewish Christians
only heard passages from the Mosaic Torah or
prophetic books read aloud at religious services
in the local synagogue or at a Christian house
church. If at the latter, they likely heard the
Scriptures read not in the original Hebrew but
in Greek translation.
That the early Christian movement appropriated the Hebrew Bible, which had been
created by and for the Jewish community, is
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bo x 1 .3 Organization of the Hebrew and Christian Greek Scriptures
The contents of the New Testament
are arranged in a way that approximates the
order of the Hebrew Bible, which is also called
the Tanakh, a term whose consonants represent
the three principal divisions of the Hebrew
Scriptures: the Torah (Mosaic Law or instruction), the Nevi’im (Prophets), and the Kethuvim
(Writings).
old covenant (testament)
new covenant (testament)
T Torah (five books of Moses)
A
N Nevi’im (Prophets)
Histories of Joshua-Kings
Books of the Prophets
A
K Kethuvim (Writings)
H Books of poetry, wisdom, and an
apocalypse (Daniel)
extremely significant. Believers who accepted
Jesus as the Jewish Messiah (Anointed One, a
term applied to all of Israel’s kings; see Chapter 3)
looked to the Jewish Scriptures—the only written religious authority for both Jews and early
Christians—to find evidence supporting their
convictions. When New Testament authors refer to “Scripture” or “the Law and the Prophets”
(cf. Luke 24:27, 32), they mean the Hebrew
Bible, albeit in a Greek (Septuagint) edition. In
composing their diverse portraits of Jesus, the
Gospel writers consistently clothed the historical figure in images and ideas taken from the
Hebrew Bible. In Matthew’s Gospel, for example, virtually every word or action of Jesus is interpreted in terms of ancient biblical prophecy
(see Chapter 8).
Testament and Covenant
The very term New Testament is intimately connected with the Hebrew Bible. In biblical usage,
testament is a near synonym for covenant, which
refers to an agreement, contract, vow, or bond.
To appreciate the New Testament concept of the
W
IFour Gospels (story of Jesus)
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of Acts (church history)
LBook
Letters of Paul and other church leaders
I
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Book of Hebrews, catholic epistles, and an
,apocalypse (Revelation)
K
Abond between God and humanity, we must exthe Hebrew Bible’s story of God’s relationSamine
ship with Israel, the ancient Near Eastern people
Swith whom the Deity forged a binding covenant,
them his exclusive partner. Exodus, the
Amaking
second book of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), reNcounts the solemn ceremony in which the
DIsraelites conclude their central covenant with
Yahweh (the sacred name of Israel’s God) (Exod.
R19–20; 24). Under the terms of the Mosaic
ACovenant (so called because the Israelite leader
Moses acts as mediator between Yahweh and his
chosen people), the Israelites swear to uphold all
2the laws and commandments that Yahweh enjoins upon them. These legal injunctions are
1contained in the books of Exodus, Leviticus,
6Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Together with the
Book of Genesis, which serves as an introduc1tion to the framing of the Mosaic Covenant, this
Tsection of the Hebrew Bible is known as the
(see Figures 1.3 and 1.4). Meaning “law,”
STorah
“teaching,” or “instruction,” the Torah is also
referred to as the Pentateuch (a Greek term for
the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through
Deuteronomy). According to Mark’s Gospel,
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when Jesus is asked to state Israel’s most essential
teaching, he cites Torah commands to love God 1
and neighbor (see Mark 12; cf. Deut. 6:4–5 and T
Lev. 19:18).
S
According to stipulations of the Mosaic
figure 1.3
A page from John’s Gospel in the Codex Sinaiticus. The oldest complete copy of the
New Testament, the Codex Sinaiticus was produced about 330–350 ce.
Covenant, Yahweh’s vow to protect Israel is contingent upon the people’s faithfulness in keeping Yahweh’s instructions; failure to obey the
more than 600 covenant laws will result in
Israel’s destruction (Deut. 28–29; see Box 3.1).
Some of Israel’s later prophets concluded
that the people had been so disobedient that
Yahweh eventually rescinded his covenant vow,
abandoning Israel to its enemies. Writing about
600 years before the time of Jesus, the prophet
Jeremiah promised that Yahweh would replace
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figure 1.4
A Torah scroll.
Copies of the Mosaic Torah are kept
in every Jewish temple or synagogue.
This elegant manuscript is approximately one-third the size of the
standard Torah scroll.
W
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,
the old Mosaic agreement with a “new covenant
[testament]” (Jer. 31:31).
The Gospel writers believed that Jesus had
instituted the promised New Covenant at the
Last Supper he held with his disciples. “And he
took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to
them, saying Drink ye all of it: For this is my
blood of the new testament . . .” (Matt. 26:27–28,
King James Version). The adjective new, not
present in the earliest manuscripts, was added
to emphasize the change in God’s relationship
with humankind. (Most modern English translations, including the New Revised Standard
Version, the New Jerusalem Bible, and the
Revised English Bible, omit the interpolated
K
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A“new” and use “covenant” instead of “testament”
in this passage.) Believing themselves to be the
people of the New Covenant that Jesus inaugu2rated the night before his death, Christians
eventually called their collection of Gospels,
1letters, and other sacred writings the New
6Testament. Although the Hebrew Bible, which
dealt with the older Mosaic Covenant, became
1known as the Old Testament, many scholars
Tsuggest that it would be more appropriate to call
the First Testament. Because Christians beSitlieved
that the covenants and promises made to
Israel were fulfilled in Jesus, they retained their
Greek version of the Hebrew Bible as authoritative and suitable for religious instruction.
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The Septuagint
Although New Testament writers regarded the
Hebrew Bible as their principal source for documenting their claim that Jesus was Israel’s
prophesied Messiah, they did not quote from
the original Hebrew text. Instead, they used a
popular Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible
that had been produced for Greek-speaking
Jews who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, then one
of the world’s largest centers of literary and
scientific research. Beginning about 250 bce
with a rendition of the Pentateuch into Greek,
the Septuagint grew in discrete stages as historical, prophetic, and other books were added
over time. According to a tradition preserved
in the Letter of Aristeas, however, the
Septuagint was almost miraculously produced.
In the Aristeas account, which most scholars
believe to be legend, the Septuagint was the
work of seventy-two Hebrew scholars (divided
into twelve groups of six) who labored seventytwo days to create a set of identical translations,
their remarkable agreement signifying divine
guidance in the project. Abbreviated in informal usage to “the work of the seventy,” the
Septuagint (represented by the roman numeral LXX) became the standard biblical text
for Jews throughout the Greco-Roman world
and is the version quoted most frequently in
the New Testament.
Language and Literature
of the New Testament
Koine- Greek
The New Testament was written in the same
kind of koine- (common) Greek as the Septuagint.
The most widely spoken language of the early
Christian era, koine- became the dominant
tongue of the eastern Mediterranean region after the conquests of Alexander the Great
(356–323 bce; see Chapter 4). Although less
polished and elegant than the classical Greek of
the great Athenian poets and philosophers,
11
koine- was then spoken by so large a percentage
of the population that it communicated far
more effectively than Hebrew or Latin.
Major Contributors to the
New Testament
Most of the New Testament’s twenty-seven
books were composed during the half-century
W between about 50 and 100 ce, although a few
not appear until the early decades of the
I did
second century ce (see Box 1.4). The oldest
L surviving Christian documents are the letters of
L Paul, a Greek-educated Jew who wrote the
first—and by far the most influential—
I interpretations of Jesus’ death on the cross. For
S Paul, Jesus’ humiliating execution by Roman
soldiers was not a historical accident, but an
, essential event in God’s plan for reconciling
humanity to its Creator. Written between about
50 and 62 ce, Paul’s letters to newly- founded
K congregations in Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor
A (modern Turkey) were highly controversial
the time of their composition. Paul, who
S at
claimed that he received his unique “gospel”
S directly from the risen Jesus (Gal. 1:11–12),
that God had graciously extended his
A argued
covenant to people of all nationalities. In Paul’s
N view, moreover, Gentiles (non-Jews) did not
D have to obey Torah requirements, such as circumcision and dietary laws—a claim that
R seemed too radical for many believers. As
A Gentiles flocked in ever-increasing numbers to
the church, however, Paul’s innovative doctrines not only prevailed but eventually became
2 central to mainstream Christianity.
Paul’s legacy greatly influenced Christian
1 editors who assembled the New Testament
6 books. His genuine letters, as well as several
that were ascribed to him by later Pauline disci1 ples (see Chapter 17), constitute about a third
T of the New Testament. In addition, an idealized
of Paul dominates the second half of
S portrayal
the Book of Acts, a selective account of the
early church. Composed by the same author,
the Gospel of Luke and Acts together make up
another third of the New Testament collection.
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b o x 1.4 New Testament Books: Approximate Order of Composition
approx. date (ce)
title of book
author
c. 50
1 Thessalonians
2 Thess. (if by Paul)
1 and 2 Corinthians
Galatians
Romans
W
Colossians (if by Paul)
I
Philippians
L
Philemon
Gospel of Mark
Paul
c. 54–55
c. 56
c. 56–57
c. 61
c. 61
c. 62
c. 66–70
L
Paul
Paul
Paul
Paul
Paul
Paul
Anonymous
66–73
Jewish War Against
I Rome: Destruction of Jerusalem and Temple
c. 80–85
c. 85–90
c. 85–95
c. 95
c. 95–100
c. 100–110
c. 110–130
c. 130–150
Gospel of Matthew
S
Gospel of Luke, Book of Acts
Hebrews, 1 Peter,,Ephesians, James
Revelation (the Apocalypse)
Gospel of John
1, 2, and 3 John K
1 and 2 Timothy, A
Titus
Jude, 2 Peter
Anonymous
Anonymous
Anonymous/Pseudonymous*
John of Patmos
Anonymous
Anonymous
Pseudonymous
Pseudonymous
S
*Pseudonymity—the literary practice, common among
S ancient Greco-Roman, Jewish, and early Christian
writers, of composing books in the name of a famous religious figure of the past.
A
N
D
If we also add the Gospel of John and the three
The Supreme Importance of Jesus
letters (1, 2, and 3 John) that originated in R
To an incalculable extent, every book in the colthe same distinctive community, it’s apparent A
lection is a celebration of Jesus’ significance: He
that a relatively small group of writers collectively produced about three-fourths of the
New Testament’s total length. Although these
few authors—Paul, Paul’s disciples, the compiler of Luke-Acts, and the author of the literature ascribed to John—effectively define the
Christian revelation, other writers also made
important contributions. Certainly the author of the Gospel ascribed to Matthew, which
contains the fullest collection of Jesus’ teachings, had a major impact on Christian
thought. Revelation, brimming with mystical
imagery of angels and dragons, has never
ceased to capture the Christian imagination.
is not only the chief agent of human salvation
also a figure of cosmic dimensions. Regarding
2but
Jesus’ life and teachings as the culmination of
1God’s revelation to humankind, the author of
Hebrews asserts that Jesus is absolutely unique:
6
1
T
S
When in former times God spoke to our forefathers [in the Hebrew Bible], he spoke in
fragmentary and varied fashion through the
prophets. But in this the final age, he has
spoken to us in the Son whom he has made
heir to the whole universe, and through
whom he created all orders of existence.
(Heb. 1:1–2)
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From the Christian perspective, Jesus is the heir
to all God’s promises to Israel, intrinsically superior to any previous biblical figure or angelic
member of the heavenly court. Only he is essential to God’s creative process and only he
perfectly expresses the divine nature: “The
Son,” Hebrews declares, “is the effulgence of
God’s splendor and the stamp of God’s very being, and sustains the universe by his word of
power” (1:3). Despite his present exalted status, however, the human Jesus validated his position as divine son through painful testing.
Submitting fully to God’s will, “son though he
was, he learned obedience in the school of suffering, and, once perfected, became the source
of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Heb.
5:7–10). Obedient unto death, Jesus posthumously ascended to heaven, where he is now
seated “at the right hand of Majesty on high,
raised as far above the angels, as the title he has
inherited is superior to theirs [other members
of the celestial assembly]” (Heb. 1:3–4).
According to Hebrews’ author, to Jesus alone
has God declared: “Thou art my Son; today I
have begotten thee” (Heb. 1:5), a statement
that was traditionally spoken at the coronation
of Israel’s kings when they were ceremonially
adopted as God’s sons (Ps. 2:7; see the discussion of Israel’s Messiah in Chapter 3).
Jesus’ central position in the New Testament
is affirmed from the first book in the collection,
the Gospel of Matthew, to the last, John’s visions
of the cosmic Christ in Revelation. Matthew
opens his Gospel with a genealogy showing
Jesus’ descent from great figures of the Hebrew
Bible, including Abraham, traditional progenitor of the Jewish people, and David, the ruler of
Israel to whom God promised an eternal line of
kings. In recounting the story of Jesus’
birth, Matthew introduces an astronomical image that reappears—with major changes—in
Revelation and that imparts a cosmic frame
to the entire New Testament collection. In
Matthew, a mysterious star leads foreign astrologers to visit Jesus’ birthplace, inadvertently inciting King Herod’s attempt to kill the child
(Matt. 2:1–12). In Revelation’s description of
13
the risen Jesus, the once vulnerable infant has
become a gigantic figure dominating the sky
and holding a vast constellation of stars in one
hand (Rev. 1:8–2:1). Editors thus gave the New
Testament a linear narrative structure that begins with Matthew’s endangered child and
closes with visions of a future new creation
ruled by that same Jesus, now transformed into
ruler of the universe.
W
I New Testament Literary Forms
L The New Testament contains several different
genres (categories) of literature, although it
L has considerably less variety than the Hebrew
I Bible. Early Christian editors arranged the contents not in chronological order according to
S dates of composition, but according to the doc, uments’ literary classification, beginning with
the Gospels and ending with the Book of
Revelation.
K
A
S
S
A
N
D
R
A
2
1
6
1
T
S
The Gospels The only literary category that
early Christians invented, the English word
“Gospel” translates the Greek evangelion, meaning “good news.” Designed to proclaim the
“good news” about Jesus, the Gospels tell the
story of Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection. The term Evangelist refers to the writer of
an evangelion (Gospel).
In the Greek-speaking world of New Testament times, evangelion commonly was used to
denote public proclamations about the Roman
emperor. The emperor’s military victories, welfare policies, and elevation to the status of a god
were typical examples of Roman “good news” to
be “evangelized” (see the discussion of the imperial ruler cult in Chapter 5). Paul uses evangelion to describe his message about salvation
through faith in Jesus. Matthew also employs it
to denote Jesus’ oral teachings (Matt. 4:23; 9:35;
24:14; 26:13). To distinguish gospel, an oral message, from Gospel, a literary work about Jesus,
we will capitalize the term when it refers to the
written Gospel form.
By definition, a Gospel must involve the
deeds and/or words of Jesus. Although all four
New Testament Gospels are narratives—they
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tell a story—about Jesus’ actions and teachings,
early Christians also produced Gospels, such as
the Gospel of Thomas, that include only Jesus’
sayings. Recovered in 1945 from the desert
sands of Egypt, the Gospel of Thomas, among
many other early Christian writings, is not accepted among the New Testament’s officially
recognized books (see the discussion of canon
in Chapter 2).
Although they present Jesus’ activities in ostensibly chronological order, the Gospels are
not real biographies in the modern sense. They
do not attempt to present a complete life of
Jesus or to explain what forces—social, psychological, cultural, historical, or political—caused
him to become the kind of man he was. Only two
of the Gospels—Matthew and Luke—include
traditions about Jesus’ birth and infancy. None
gives even a scrap of information about his formative years, education, friendships, or other
experiences that modern historians would regard as essential. Luke recounts a single incident
of Jesus’ youth, a pilgrimage from his hometown
of Nazareth to Jerusalem, Judaism’s holy city
(Luke 2:22–40). But the Gospels tell us nothing
about what happened to Jesus between the ages
of twelve and “about thirty” (Luke 3:23), when
he suddenly appears at the River Jordan for baptism. All four concentrate exclusively on the last
phase of Jesus’ life, the period of his public ministry when his teachings both attracted devoted
followers and created bitter enemies.
In all four Gospel accounts, only the final
week of Jesus’ human existence is related in
detail—the events leading up to and including
his arrest, trial, and execution by the Romans.
The significance of Jesus’ suffering and death
(known as the Passion) is the central concern of
each Evangelist. Even the Fourth Gospel (John),
which includes a longer version of Jesus’ public
career than any other, devotes nearly half of its
narrative to retelling the story of Jesus’ last few
days on earth. Observing this emphasis of the
Evangelists, New Testament scholars have described the Gospel form as a Passion narrative
with a long introduction. All incidents in Jesus’
life leading up to his crucifixion are rigorously
subordinated to the climactic circumstances of
his death. The Gospels’ form and content are
shaped not by purely historical or biographical
considerations, but by their respective authors’
theological viewpoints. Combining the Greek
theos (God) with logos (word or logical analysis),
theology means “a study of God.” It is a religious
discipline involving the study of God’s nature,
will, and activity among humankind. The theoW
logian typically defines and interprets systems of
that express a religion’s essential worldIbelief
view. The Gospel writers are theologians, and
Llike all New Testament authors, the Evangelists
Lwrite primarily to voice their individual understanding of Jesus’ religious or theological
Isignificance.
S By placing four different versions of Jesus’
story at the head of the New Testament collec,tion, Christian editors not only highlighted the
diverse ways in which Jesus could be interpreted
acceptably by four different Christian writers
Kbut also affirmed the supreme importance of
AJesus’ achievement. The order of contents thus
the primacy of Jesus’ story, the four
Semphasizes
Gospels together forming a composite foundaStion document for the Christian religion. No
how influential the writings that appear
Amatter
later, such as Paul’s letters with their innovative
Ndeclaration that salvations comes to Jew and
DGentile alike through faith in Christ, they must
always be weighed against the initial presentaRtions of what Jesus said and did.
A
An Account of the Early Church To a large extent, the books that follow the Gospels either
2explore the consequences of Jesus’ life and
death or offer interpretative meditations on
1their meaning. A continuation of Luke’s Gospel,
6the Book of Acts portrays Jesus’ followers carrying on his work, directed by the same divine
1Spirit that had animated Jesus. Opening with a
Tbrief description of the resurrected Jesus’ asto heaven and ending with Paul’s
Scension
preaching activity in Rome, Acts narrates a
series of crucial episodes in Christianity’s early
development, covering the years from about
30 to 60 ce.
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Letters Whereas Acts gives a theological overview of Christianity’s rapid expansion in the
Roman Empire, the New Testament’s twenty-one
letters (some of which are actually sermons or
tracts) offer close-up views of individual Christian
communities and their difficulties in trying to
follow Jesus in a sometimes hostile world. Letters
by (or attributed to) Paul form a major unit of
the collection. Written before the Gospels appeared, the authentic Pauline letters vividly reflect the struggle for unity of thought and
purpose taking place in the Greek-speaking
congregations that Paul served.
The miscellaneous documents comprising
the final part of the New Testament echo the
hopes and troubles of widely scattered churches
in the late first and early second centuries ce, a
period well after that of Paul’s missionary tours.
Whereas the Book of Hebrews is anonymous,
the seven short works known as the catholic
epistles are ascribed to early leaders in the original Jerusalem church, the apostles Peter and
John and two of Jesus’ kinsmen, James and
Jude. Although several of the epistles were not
accorded undisputed scriptural status until the
late fourth century, they express the postapostolic church’s ongoing anxieties, particularly
the problems raised by false teachers and the
inexplicable delay in Jesus’ promised return
(see Chapter 18).
An Apocalypse The Book of Revelation represents the fourth and final literary category in
the Christian Scriptures. The title Revelation
translates the Greek noun apokalypsis, which
means an “uncovering” or “unveiling.” Like
other apocalyptic literature, Revelation features visions of an unseen world inhabited by
spirit creatures both good and evil. It highlights the cosmic struggle between God and
Satan, a conflict involving both heaven and
earth that ultimately sees evil defeated, God’s
kingdom triumphant, and the creation of a
new earth and heaven (Rev. 12; 16; 20–21).
Revelation’s message is urgent, demanding
that believers hold firm in the faith because,
like Paul, the author of Mark’s Gospel, and
15
other apocalyptic writers, the author believes
that the universal war he envisions is about to
begin. This climactic event “must shortly happen” because Jesus is “coming soon” (Rev. 1:1,
3; 12:12; 22:7, 11, 12).
Apocalyptic ideas played an extremely important role in early Christian thought and
dominate many passages in the New Testament.
As we study the Gospel accounts of Jesus’
W preaching, we will find numerous apocalyptic
commonly involving eschatology.
I concepts,
Derived from two Greek phrases—to eschaton
L (referring to the world’s end) and ho logos
L (meaning “study of”)—eschatology refers to
beliefs about events occurring at the End of
I time. On a personal level, eschatology involves
S momentous events at the end of an individual’s life: death, posthumous judgment, heaven,
, hell, and resurrection. On a more general
level, it relates to developments that culminate
in the End of human society and history as we
K know them.
Although the twenty-seven documents comA
posing the New Testament generally fit into
S one of four broad literary genres, most also conS tain a number of subgenres. The Gospels, for
include not only biographical narraA example,
tives about Jesus but also such disparate forms
N as genealogies, parables, aphorisms, confrontaD tion stories, miracle stories, prayers, reconstructions of conversations, and, in the case of John’s
R Gospel, long metaphysical discourses. The Book
A of Acts similarly incorporates public speeches,
private dialogues, anecdotes about individual
figures, and perhaps even excerpts from a diary
2 or travel journal.
Some documents grouped in the third
1 section—the Pauline letters and catholic
6 epistles—are technically not forms of correspondence. Except for its opening phrases,
1 the Book of James is more like a collection of
T traditional wisdom sayings than a letter. The
of Hebrews is actually an elaborate serS Book
mon, whereas 1 John and Jude resemble tracts
directed against opponents who were (or
had been) part of their respective authors’
religious communities.
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Diversity and Unity in the New
Testament Documents
The New Testament’s variety of literary genres is
paralleled by the diversity of its authors’ thoughts.
Whereas all canonical writers are unified in their
conviction of Jesus’ supreme value, they respond
to his life and teachings in significantly different
ways. Modern scholarship has increasingly come
to realize that early Christians not only were an
ethnically and theologically diverse group but
also produced a literature—including the New
Testament books—reflecting that diversity.
Scholars such as Raymond E. Brown and James
D. G. Dunn (see “Recommended Reading”)
have explored the intellectual, social, and theological forces operating in—and in some cases
dividing—different early Christian communities.
Paul’s genuine letters, written to largely
Gentile (non-Jewish) congregations between
about 50 and 62 ce, advocate a Christian’s total
freedom from the “bondage” of Mosaic Law. In
contrast, the Gospel of Matthew, probably composed in Antioch for Jews converted to
Christianity, promotes continuing obedience to
the Mosaic heritage. A third group, which emphasized the unique divinity of Jesus, issued the
Gospel of John as its foundation document. That
community, based on the teachings of “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” later split into factions debating the question of Jesus’ physical humanity, a
division reflected in the letters of 1 and 2 John.
After Paul’s death, a variety of writers
claimed his authority for their particular group.
While one Pauline school created the Book of
Ephesians, updating Paul’s thought to deal with
new issues and situations, another composed
the Letters to Timothy and Titus, promulgating
church structure, administrative authority, and
the power of received tradition (see Chapter
17). Whereas these pseudo-Pauline works were
eventually accepted into the New Testament,
others also attributed to the apostle, such as the
apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla, were not.
After Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem in
70 ce—and along with it Christianity’s parent
church (see Chapters 2 and 5)—New Testament
writers differed in their attitude toward the secular government. Although he generally adopts
a policy of cooperation with Roman authorities,
the author of Luke-Acts also reveals that missionaries’ preaching often provoked riots and
other disturbances in many Greco-Roman cities,
causing serious problems for public officials
(see chapter l2). The fiery visionary who wrote
Revelation rejects the imperial system altoW
gether and predicts its imminent destruction
(see Chapter l9).
I
L
Other Early Christian
L
Literature
I
S
In addition to the twenty-seven documents
,comprised in the New Testament, the early
Christian community produced a large number
of other writings, most of which are in the same
Kliterary genres as the New Testament books—
AGospels, letters, and acts of the apostles (see
1.5). Some of these works, once included
SBox
in church lists of “recognized books” along with
Sfamiliar New Testament titles, are as old as or
than many documents that Christians
Aolder
eventually included in their bibles. No one
Nknows why some documents were accepted by
Dthe early churches and others were not. Paul
wrote letters other than those now in the New
RTestament (1 Cor. 5:9–11); we cannot be sure
Athat their exclusion was the result of their being
destroyed or otherwise lost. Specific works may
have been accepted or rejected primarily be2cause of their relative usefulness in supporting
what was later regarded as orthodoxy—“correct
1teaching” promoted by church leaders.
6 Although many early Christian writings have
disappeared and are known only by title, enough
1remain to indicate that the early Christian comTmunity was extremely diverse and created a literthat expressed that diversity. Rather than a
Sature
monolithic organization in which all members
embraced a single “true faith,” Christianity, for
the first three centuries of its existence, interpreted Jesus in a variety of ways. Whereas some
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b o x 1 .5 Selected List of Early Christian Gospels, Apocalypses,
and Other Writings Not Included in the New Testament
The Gospel of Judas
The Gospel of the Egyptians
The Gospel of the Hebrews
The Gospel of the Nazoreans
The Gospel of the Ebionites
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (complete)
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 840
works formerly appearing in some new
testament lists
The Epistle of Barnabas (attributed to Paul’s
Jewish-Christian mentor)
The Didache (supposedly a summary of the
Twelve Apostles’ teachings on the opposing
ways leading to life or death)
1 Clement (a letter by the third bishop of
Rome to the Corinthians)
The Apocalypse of Peter (visions of heaven
and hell ascribed to Peter)
The Shepherd of Hermas (a mystical
apocalyptic work)
gospels possibly preserving some of
jesus’ teachings or other historical
information about him
The Gospel of Thomas (a compilation of 114
sayings of Jesus found in the Nag Hammadi
Library)
The Gospel of Peter (a primitive account of
Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and resurrection
ascribed to Peter)
The Egerton Papyrus 2 (a fragment of an
unknown Gospel that may have provided a
source for some of the Johannine
discourses)
The Apocryphon of James (a private dialogue
between Jesus and two disciples, Peter and
James)
W
I
L miscellaneous other works
The Acts of Pilate
L The Acts of John
The Epistula Apostolorum
I
Clement
S 2The
Epistle to Diognetus
, other important early christian
writings
K
A
S
S
A
N
D
R
A
The Epistles of Ignatius:
To the Ephesians
To the Magnesians
To the Trallians
To the Romans
To the Philadelphians
To the Smyrnaeans
To Polycarp
The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians
The Martyrdom of Polycarp
other gospels, most surviving only in
fragmentary form
2
The Protoevangelium of James (complete)
1
The Dialogue of the Savior
6
1
Jewish-Christian groups in Palestine and Syria re- T
garded Jesus as fully human, a man whom God
S
adopted as his “son” to represent him on earth,
some Christians in Rome claimed that Jesus was
entirely divine, a spirit being who only appeared
to be human. If we were to travel back in time to
the second century ce, visiting individual congregations of believers in different geographical
regions—from Galilee (where the Jesus movement began), to Antioch in Syria (where Peter
had taught), to Ephesus (from which Paul
conducted missionary journeys to non-Jewish
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peoples), to Rome (where different interpreters
of Jesus’ nature passionately clashed)—we would
find a diversity not unlike that which prevails in
different denominations today. All of these
groups, ancient and modern, emphasized the importance of Jesus in God’s plan for humanity, but
as their literary remains testify, they understood
his role in very different ways.
Because it is the only early Gospel not in the
New Testament to survive complete, the Gospel
of Thomas has great significance in illustrating
some of the variations in early Christian beliefs.
This “Fifth Gospel,” discovered in 1945 near the
Egyptian village of Nag Hammadi, consists almost
exclusively of sayings of the risen Jesus. Unlike
the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ life, the
Gospel of Thomas contains neither reports of his
miraculous deeds nor narratives about his death
and resurrection. Instead of presenting Jesus as a
sacrifice for human sin or an eschatological king
who will someday return to judge all humanity,
Thomas has little to say about Jesus’ eschatological role. Although scholars disagree on its interpretation, Thomas seems to show Jesus as guiding
his disciples toward an awareness that God’s kingdom already rules, although the unenlightened
majority of people fail to perceive it. Many scholars believe that Thomas, which contains numerous statements paralleling those in Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, nonetheless represents a tradition independent of the New Testament Gospels
and may preserve some of the earliest forms of
Jesus’ sayings. Interestingly, Thomas also includes
themes and concepts that are otherwise found
only in the Gospel of John. (For a discussion of
Thomas and other early works excluded from the
New Testament, see Chapter 20.)
Scholarly Approaches
to the New Testament
The presence of numerous similarities, as well
as some striking differences, in both the New
Testament books and other early Christian writings suggests the need for a careful comparison
of these documents if we are to understand the
complex forces that helped shape Christianity.
To help untangle the complexities, and even
contradictions, apparent in formative Christian
literature, modern scholarship has devised several methodologies for analyzing the texts. In
approaching the New Testament analytically, it
is important to remember that studying the
Bible in a college or university classroom necessarily differs from reading it in church as part of
W
an act of worship. At a religious service, whether
Orthodox, or Protestant, short exICatholic,
cerpts to be read aloud usually are chosen to
Lencourage listeners to behave ethically: Stories
Lof biblical heroes or villains offer models for
worshipers to emulate or avoid. In a devotional
Isetting, the Bible speaks with largely undisSputed authority.
In a university environment, however, the
,Bible is studied in the same way as any other literary document from the ancient world. Using
techniques similar to those applied in the disciKplines of history, anthropology, sociology, linguisAtics, and literary studies, students investigate such
as the question of a document’s date and
Stopics
authorship, the implied audience and social setSting, the historical context, and the writer’s apassumptions and goals. It is essential to
Aparent
read carefully to perceive what a text actually says
N(as opposed to what one may have been told
Dabout it elsewhere) and to compare it to similar
works written at approximately the same time and
Runder the same cultural influences. Comparative
Astudy of the Gospels, which were composed between about 70 and 100 ce, reveals much about
their individual authors’ distinctive theological
2concerns, helping to explain reasons for both
similarities and differences in their accounts.
1 Since the eighteenth-century Age of
6Enlightenment, when scientists and other
scholars developed analytical tools to clear away
1long-held misconceptions about both the natuTral and the social worlds, virtually all forms of
authority have been challenged. In
Straditional
physics, the work of Newton—Einstein in the twentieth century—and other scientists revolutionized
our understanding of the universe. In the political arena, rebels challenged the claim that
kings ruled by divine right, triggering the
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b o x 1 .6 Helpful Tools for Studying the New Testament
Multivolume bible aids include the following:
Several one-volume Bible dictionaries offer concise alphabetized mini-essays on important topics:
Brown, R. E.; Fitzmeyer, J. A.; and Murphy, R. E.,
eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1990.
Although slightly dated, provides excellent
discussions of all canonical books by leading
Catholic scholars.
Evans, Craig A., and Porter, Stanley E., eds.
Dictionary of New Testament Background. Downers
Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2000. Contains
essays by generally conservative scholars.
Freedman, David Noel; Myers, Allen C.; and
Beck, Astrid B., eds. Eerdmans Dictionary of the
Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2000.
Current and scholarly, an excellent resource.
Powell, Mark A., ed. The HarperCollins Bible
Dictionary (Revised and Updated), New York:
HarperOne, 2011. Concise, comprehensive,
and generally reliable.
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American and French revolutions. In the social
world, long-accepted institutions, such as slav- N
ery, exploitative child labor, and the subjuga- D
tion of women, were questioned or replaced by
more just practices. Religious claims, including R
authoritarian uses of the Bible, were similarly A
scrutinized. During the past two centuries, an
international community of scholars—Jewish,
Catholic, Protestant, and others—has developed innovative methods to illuminate the nature and growth of biblical documents. This
cosmopolitan body of scholars, historians, textual experts, literary critics, linguists, anthropologists, sociologists, and theologians includes
thousands of university faculty, clergy, seminary
instructors, and academic researchers.
Collectively, their efforts have provided us with
an increasingly precise and well-documented
study of the New Testament literature and the
environment out of which it grew. Virtually every textbook used in college and seminary
2
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Coogan, Michael D., ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia
of the Books of the Bible, 2 vols. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2011. Up-to-date scholarly
essays on each book of both the Old and the
New Testament.
Keck, Leander, ed. The New Interpreter’s Bible, 12
vols. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press,
1994–. A series featuring the complete text of
the Bible, in both the NRSV and NIV translations, with detailed scholarly commentary.
Sakenfeld, Katherine D., ed. The New Interpreter’s
Dictionary of the Bible, 5 vols. Nashville, Tenn.:
Abingdon Press, 2006–2010. Up-to-date
scholarly discussions of each biblical book as
well as many crucial topics, from the afterlife
to Yahweh.
courses today, including this one, draws heavily
on these scholarly resources. (At the end of
each chapter in this text, readers will find a list
of publications by major New Testament scholars, offering valuable references for further
study; see also Box 1.6.)
Some of the principal methods that scholars use to study the New Testament are summarized in Chapter 6; here, we will briefly clarify
the term biblical criticism. For some people, the
term criticism may awaken negative feelings,
perhaps implying faultfinding or a derogatory
judgment. But in biblical studies, it is a positive
means of understanding scriptural texts more
accurately and objectively. Criticism derives
from the Greek word krino, which means “to
judge” or “to discern,” to exercise rational analysis in evaluating something. In the fields of art
and literature, it involves the ability to recognize artistic worth and to distinguish the relative merits or defects of a given work. In New
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Testament studies, various critical methods are
used, ranging from techniques for investigating the oral traditions that preceded the written Gospels to literary analysis of their final
form, structure, and content.
Because, for hundreds of millions of believers, the New Testament embodies their
deeply held convictions and spiritual aspirations, approaching it objectively is difficult. For
some readers, the rigorous application of dispassionate logic to documents thought to reveal the divine will seems inappropriate. For
many people, however, spirituality, reverence
for concepts of divinity, love of the biblical tradition, and critical study are not incompatible;
from this perspective, thinking analytically
about religious texts and the cultural environment that helped shape them is both a tribute
to the texts’ intrinsic value and a means of better understanding them. Many scholars believe
that the scriptures of most world religions,
including the Vedas, Hebrew Bible, New
Testament, and Quran, were composed to express authentic human experiences of divine
power—represented by such classic moments
as Moses encountering God at a burning bush
on the slopes of Mount Sinai, Jesus hearing a
heavenly voice after his baptism at the Jordan
River, and Paul beholding the glorified Christ
on the road to Damascus. These unique religious experiences, which seem to transcend
the ordinary limits of human life, if they are to
be preserved for others, must be articulated in
human language that is ill equipped to express
unearthly realities. Writing of Jesus’ apparently
supernatural abilities and personal vision of
God’s kingdom, the New Testament authors
inevitably depicted them in terms of the prevailing culture, using then-current images and
metaphors to approximate the inexpressible.
Although scholarship cannot investigate the
world of the spirit or the elusive dimension of
religious transcendence the biblical authors
explore, it offers enormous help in examining
the means—cultural, social, historical, and
literary—by which ancient writers conveyed
these phenomena to us.
The New Testament Read
from Different Social
Perspectives
In recent years, scholars have become increasingly aware that the meaning of any book—
including biblical texts—is to a large extent
dependent on the reader’s individual experience
W
and viewpoint. In the United States, this is particuIlarly true when readers belong to social groups
such as ethnic or other minorities that the domiLnant culture may commonly undervalue or otherLwise marginalize. Viewing New Testament passages
from a specific social location—such as the African
IAmerican, Hispanic American, Asian American,
SNative American, or feminist community—
is likely to give these stories a meaning that is dis,tinctly different from interpretations traditionally
promoted by society’s male Caucasian leadership.
When an African American whose forebears were
Kplantation slaves reads the New Testament admoAnition for servants to submit cheerfully to their
no matter how abusive (1 Pet. 2:18–20;
Smasters,
Col. 3:22; Eph. 6:5), the command is likely to
Sresonate differently for her than it will for the
of white slave owners.
Adescendants
As feminist scholars have pointed out,
Nwomen of all nationalities may read the
DChristian Scriptures from a perspective fundamentally different from that of most men. Paul’s
Rflat refusal to permit a woman to teach in his
Achurches (1 Cor. 14:34–35) or the pastor’s insistence that the first woman must be blamed for
humanity’s downward spiral into sin and death
2(1 Tim. 2:13–14) may spark feelings of incredulity or resentment unknown to men reading the
1same texts. But, as feminist commentators have
6also observed, the same apostle who allegedly
women to address the congregation
1forbade
also recognized the role of women prophets
T(1 Cor. 11:5) and women as church officeholdas well as “fellow workers” in the Christian
Sers,
fold (Rom. 16:1–5). Some scholars believe that
the restrictions imposed on women in 1
Corinthians 14 are a later copyist’s interpolation, to make Paul’s instructions conform to the
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ch apter 1 an overview of th e new tes tam ent
anti-feminist passages in a later (non-Pauline)
letter (1 Tim. 3:11; see Chapter 14). (For discussions of the importance of women in Jesus’ ministry and in the Pauline congregations, see
Chapters 9, 13, and Box 10.6; a discussion of the
noncanonical Acts of Paul and Thecla, a legendary female disciple, appears in Chapter 20.)
At his most insightful, Paul endorses a vision
of radical equality—legal, ethnic, social, and sexual: “There is no such thing as Jew and Greek,
slave and freeman, male and female; for you are
all one person in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). For
most societies, Paul’s goal of an equal and united
Christian fellowship is yet to be realized; most religious groups seem content to accept his more
conventional statements regulating the social/
sexual hierarchy. Both male and female scholars
have come increasingly to see, however, that not
only Paul but much of our biblical heritage contains disparate elements that are almost inextricably blended: material that is at once marked as
severely limited by its origin in intensely traditional ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean
societies and at the same time material that seems
to transcend its culture-bound limitations to express universal principles of divine love and the
humane treatment of all peoples. Consistent in
all the traditions about Jesus’ teaching is his emphasis on the supremacy of love, the transforming
practice of selfless devotion that redeems interpersonal relationships and makes possible divine
rule on earth (cf. Mark 12:28–31; Matt. 5:44–48;
John 14:34–35; 15:9–10; 1 Cor. 13, etc.). The challenge to discern such abiding values in the
biblical message will shape the contours of our
journey through the diverse literature of the New
Testament.
produced. Besides the twenty-seven books included in the New Testament, early Christian authors also created many other religious works,
only a few of which, such as the Gospel of Thomas,
have survived. Because it combines aspects of both
Jewish and Greek thought, scholars study the New
Testament in the context of the culturally diverse
environment in which it originated. Analyzing
such elements as authorship, date of composition,
literary form, thematic concerns, and theological
W content of New Testament texts, modern scholars
to increase our understanding of these
I endeavor
enormously influential documents.
L
Questions for Review
L
ne the term testament, and explain the relaI 1. Defi
tionship of the Old Testament (the Hebrew
S Bible) to the New Testament.
2. What version of the Hebrew Bible did early
,
Christians use? In what common language were
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Summary
1
One among many of the world’s sacred books, the
New Testament is a collection of Greek docu- T
ments that early Christian writers composed be- S
tween about 50 and 140 ce. It forms the second
part of the Christian Bible, the larger first section
of which is the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), an older
anthology of writings than the Jewish community
21
the Septuagint and New Testament written?
3. Define and describe the major literary forms
(genres) contained in the New Testament.
4. Which part of the New Testament was written
first? Who was the author, and when did he write?
5. Describe the overall structure of the New
Testament. In what specific ways does the figure
of Jesus dominate the entire collection of books?
6. What is an apocalypse? Define the terms apocalyptic (adjective) and eschatology (noun), and
explain their application to the early Christian
worldview.
7. What evidence do we have of diversity in the early
Christian community? What portrait of Jesus was
painted in the “Fifth Gospel” of Thomas?
Questions for Discussion and Reflection
1. Try to define and describe the New Testament
to someone who has never before heard of it.
In what ways does this collection of early
Christian documents resemble the scriptures of
other world religions? In what ways does the
New Testament differ from other sacred books?
2. The literary form or category in which writers
choose to convey their ideas always influences
the way in which those ideas are expressed. Why
do you suppose early Christian writers invented
the Gospel form to express their views about
Jesus? Why do you think all four Gospel authors
focused on the last week of Jesus’ life?
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3. Only one Gospel writer also wrote a history of
the early church, continuing his story of the
Jesus movement with additional stories about a
few of Jesus’ followers. Given that the New
Testament contains four different accounts of
Jesus’ ministry, why do you think there is only
one narrative about the church?
4. Of the twenty-seven New Testament books,
twenty-one are nominally letters. Why do you
suppose the letter form was so popular among
early Christians? In a church scattered throughout the Roman Empire, what advantage did
letter writing have over other literary forms?
5. How can modern scholarship help us better
understand the origin and growth of the New
Testament? Discuss ways to distinguish essential religious experiences and spiritual insights
from “culture-bound” interpretations of them.
Terms and Concepts to Remember*
Abraham
Alexandria
apocalyptic literature
Aramaic
Bible
covenant (testament)
eschatology
Evangelist
Fourth Gospel
Gospel
Hebrew Bible (Old
Testament)
Israel
James
Jesus
John
Jude
koinē
Last Supper
Messiah
Mosaic Covenant
Moses
orthodoxy
Palestine
Passion
Paul
Pentateuch
Peter
Promised Land
scriptures
Septuagint
theology
Torah
Yahweh
Recommended Reading
Bailey, James L., and Vander Broek, Lyle. Literary
Forms in the New Testament: A Handbook. Louisville,
Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992. An excellent discussion of literary categories found in
the New Testament.
Brown, Raymond E. The Churches the Apostles Left
Behind. New York: Paulist Press, 1984. A brief
but authoritative survey of seven different
Christian communities—and their distinctive
*Key terms appear at the end of each chapter and are
defined in the Glossary at the back of the book.
theologies—that produced major parts of the
New Testament literature.
Dunn, James D. G. Unity and Diversity in the New
Testament: An Inquiry into the Character of Earliest
Christianity, 2nd ed. London/Philadelphia: SCM
Press/Trinity Press International, 1990. Contains
a detailed examination of theological differences
manifested in different New Testament books, as
well as a summary of nine themes contributing to
theological unity of canonical authors.
Ehrman, Bart D. The New Testament and Other Early
W Christian Writings: A Reader. New York: Oxford
Press, 1998. Includes Gospels, letters,
I University
and apocalypses not in the New Testament.
LEvans, Craig A., and Porter, Stanley E., eds. Dictionary
of the New Testament Background. Downers Grove,
L Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2000. Contains extended
entries on both Greco-Roman and Jewish topics
I relating to early Christianity, from a generally traditional perspective.
SGamble,
Harry Y. Books and Readers in the Early Church: A
, History of Early Christian Texts. New Haven, Conn.:
Yale University Press, 1995. Explores such topics as
the extent of literacy in the Greco-Roman world,
the interaction of oral and written materials in the
K early Christian community, and the community’s
production and circulation of books.
AGneuse,
Robert. The Authority of the Bible: Theories of
S Inspiration, Revelation and the Canon of Scripture.
New York: Paulist Press, 1985. A brief but thoughtS ful review of biblical authority and the nature of
divine inspiration.
AMassey,
James E. “Reading the Bible as African
Americans.” In The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 1,
N pp.
154–160. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press,
D 1994. Briefly surveys issues involving slavery and
African American churches’ use of Scripture.
RNewsom, Carol A., Ringe, Sharon H., and Lapsley,
E., eds. Women’s Bible Commentary, 3rd ed.
A Jacqueline
Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press,
2012. Scholarly essays interpreting each book of
both the Old and the New Testament from a
2 feminist perspective.
Osiek, Carolyn. “Reading the Bible as Women.” In
1 The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 1, pp. 181–187.
Raises pertinent feminist issues.
6Reid,
Barbara. Taking Up the Cross: New Testament
Through Latina and Feminist Eyes.
1 Interpretation
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007. Explores the
T Passion story, relating Jesus’ suffering to situations of women in Latin America.
SWicker, Kathleen; Dube, Musa; and Spencer, Althea,
eds. Feminist New Testament Studies: Global and Future
Perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Feminist readings of the Christian Scriptures emphasizing a multiethnic and international context.
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chap te r 2
W
How the New Testament
Was Formed and
I
Handed Down
to Us
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The use of books is endless.
I
S
,
Key Topics/Themes Although the early Christian
community produced many writings during the
period when the New Testament books were
composed (c. 50–140 CE), most were not accepted
into the canon, the official list of church-approved
documents. The process of canonization continued
for several centuries; it was not until 367 CE that
a canonical list corresponding exactly to the
present New Testament first appeared, and
even afterward church lists of approved books
Formation of the New
Testament Canon
For Jesus and his earliest followers, the only authoritative Scripture was the three-part Hebrew
Bible. According to the Gospel of Luke, written
perhaps fifty-five or sixty years after Jesus’ death,
the risen Jesus instructed his disciples in the
proper application of the Jewish Bible, which
was to interpret it as a series of prophecies
about his role as Messiah. “‘Everything written
about me,’” Jesus states, “‘in the Law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms was bound to
be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to
understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:44–45).
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Ecclesiastes 12:12
differed. Because no original copies of any
canonical work survive and there are hundreds
of variations in extant manuscripts, scholars must
compare many different versions in creating a
plausible Greek text from which modern
translations are made. Although the first
translators of the Bible into English, Wycliffe
and Tyndale, were condemned by the church of
their day, the Christian Scriptures are now
available in many excellent English editions.
When New Testament writers, who were active
between about 50 and 140 ce, quote Scripture,
they quote exclusively from the Hebrew Bible,
albeit in an expanded Greek edition.
The earliest contributor to the New
Testament, Paul repeatedly emphasized that
the Jewish holy writings not only anticipated
Jesus’ ministry and death but were directly relevant to the Christian movement. The Genesis
story of Abraham, for example, was written “for
our sake,” for the benefit of Paul’s contemporaries (Rom. 4:22–24). In fact, “all the ancient
scriptures were written for our own instruction”
and for Christian “encouragement” (Rom. 15:4).
In urging the church at Corinth to refrain from
complaints, Paul explains that stories of Israelite
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“grumblings” were composed to preclude similar Christian errors: “All these things that happened to them [the Israelites] were symbolic
and were recorded for our benefit as a warning.
For upon us the fulfillment of the ages has
come” (1 Cor. 10:11). For Paul, believers in
Jesus are living at the brief overlap of two contrasting eras, the “present age of wickedness”
(Gal. 1:4; cf. 1 Cor. 2:6), and the new age to
come when God and Christ will reign completely
(see Chapter 14).
Paul’s genuine letters (others are attributed to his later disciples) were sent individually to disparate small congregations
scattered throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and
Italy. Perhaps the first step in creating the New
Testament occurred toward the end of the first
century ce when one or more of Paul’s admirers searched the archives of the various Pauline
churches for surviving copies of his correspondence, gathering them together in a single
unit. This anonymous Pauline disciple began
an anthology of early Christian literature to
which the Gospels, Acts, and other documents
gradually were added, forming a New
Testament canon.
A word derived from the Greek kanon,
canon refers to a standard or measurement, the
norm by which something is evaluated or
judged acceptable. In religious usage, a canon
is the official inventory of books, like those various churchmen assembled from the late second
century on. Individual lists varied significantly
and it took many centuries before the church
as a whole recognized the twenty-seven books
in the now familiar New Testament table of
contents. The earliest canonical reference to
any Christian writing as “scripture” appears
in 2 Peter, which so designates Paul’s letters
(2 Peter 3:16). Most scholars date 2 Peter to
about 130–140 ce and regard it as the lastwritten document in the New Testament canon
(see Chapter 18).
At no time did a single church authority or
council of church leaders formally decide on the
contents of the Christian Scriptures. The long
process by which the present New Testament
gradually assumed its final form involved a
variety of complex developments, including controversies over doctrine, particularly the nature
and degree of Jesus’ divinity (see the discussion
of Marcion below). A document’s usefulness in
regulating belief—an “apostolic” understanding
of essential principles—undoubtedly influenced
a specific book’s status. Shortly after the close of
the second century ce, four Gospels, Acts, Paul’s
W
letters, and several other books were generally
although at this point individual
Iacknowledged,
lists of acceptable documents showed marked
Lcontrasts. Different canons abounded, some inLcluding titles that would be totally unfamiliar to
most of today’s churchgoers, such as the Epistle
Iof Barnabas or the Shepherd of Hermas. During
Sthe first several centuries of its development,
Christianity was enormously diverse and produced
,an equally diverse body of literature, including numerous Gospels and other documents that
claimed to be written by apostles. In the end, it
Kwas not so much a matter of what to include in
Athe canon, but what to leave out. In the meanpolitical events, as well as debates over doctriStime,
nal issues, directly or indirectly influenced the
Scanonical process.
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The Jewish Revolt
Against Rome and
Its Consequences
About thirty-five years after Jesus’ death, the
2Jews of Palestine rose in open revolt against
their Roman overlords (see Chapter 5). When
1Roman armies breached Jerusalem’s walls, they
6slaughtered tens of thousands of Jews, burned
the holy city, and demolished the Jerusalem
1Temple, the center of Jewish worship (70 ce).
TThe “great tribulation” that marked Rome’s deof the Jewish state—along with the
Sstruction
parent church of apostolic Christianity—offers
a chaotic background to the gradual formation
of the New Testament, as well as to the closing
stages of the Hebrew Bible canon.
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c ha p t e r 2 ho w t h e n e w t es tam ent was f orm ed and h anded down to us
At the time of the Jewish Revolt against Rome
(66–73 ce), only a few books of what became the
New Testament collection then existed: Paul’s
authentic letters; a compilation of Jesus’ sayings
known as the source (Q) document; and the
Gospel of Mark (see Box 1.4). Most of the
Christian Greek Scriptures were yet to be written,
and it would be centuries before the church
agreed on their exact contents. Echoes of the
Jewish Revolt figure prominently in the first three
Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—which
devote considerable space to Jesus’ prediction of
the Temple’s fall and to the sufferings of Jews and
Christians that Jerusalem’s destruction entailed.
Significantly, the first three Evangelists also associate events of the Jewish Revolt, particularly the
Temple’s demolition, with Jesus’ promised return
as the glorious Son of Man (Matt. 24–25; Mark 13;
Luke 21; see Chapters 7–9).
Although all parts of the Hebrew Bible
were completed well before the Jewish wars
against Rome, the precise number of books to
be included had not yet been determined.
Following their suppression of the Jewish rebellion, the Romans apparently encouraged Jewish
scholars who had not participated in the uprising to assemble at Jamnia (Yavneh) on the
Mediterranean coast to help reorganize postwar Judaism. Led by Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai,
a small group of rabbis (“masters” or “teachers”) discussed ways to cope with the crisis—
loss of Temple, priesthood, and homeland—and
to provide religious leadership for the Jewish
community. As noted in Chapter 3, the rabbis
did not formally close the biblical canon, but
they seem to have applied several criteria that
excluded numerous books that many Greekspeaking Jews used outside Palestine. Accepting
the thesis that inspired prophecy had ceased
shortly after the time of Ezra (c. 400 bce), the
Jamnia scholars evidently rejected documents
clearly composed after that period, such as the
Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)
and the books of Maccabees. Of all the extant
apocalypses, only Daniel was accepted, perhaps
because the author plausibly claimed to write
during the sixth century bce. Books that
25
contradicted the Torah or that were not originally written in Hebrew, such as the Wisdom of
Solomon, were also excluded. The Christian
community, however, which adopted the Greek
Septuagint as its preferred edition of the Bible,
generally recognized the deuterocanonical status of these books the rabbis rejected. Known as
the Apocrypha, these later books were eventually included in an official Latin Bible, the
W Vulgate (see the discussion of Jerome and the
below).
I Vulgate
As a result of the rabbis rejecting later docL uments not composed in Hebrew or Aramaic,
L the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh has fewer books
than Catholic or Orthodox Old Testaments,
I which include the later documents, such as
S Tobit, Judith, and the Wisdom of Solomon,
contained in the Septuagint. By contrast,
, Protestant editions of the Old Testament typically follow the rabbinical model and exclude
the apocryphal material (see Chapter 1).
K
In appropriating a Greek version of the
A Jewish Scriptures—and rechristening this collecas the Old Testament—the Christian moveS tion
ment also transformed the older Jewish writings
S into a Christological statement. In Christian
the Old Testament served primarily to
A eyes,
reveal Christ, not only through prophecy but
N also by analogy to specific biblical characters.
D Christian reinterpretations thus give startlingly
innovative meanings to familiar Old Testament
R passages. Jesus of Nazareth becomes Eve’s “seed”
A (Gen. 3:15), his death and resurrection are foreshadowed in Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac
(Gen. 22), and his universal rulership is antici2 pated by the reigns of Davidic Kings (2 Sam. 7;
Pss. 2, 110; Isa. 7, 11, etc.).
1
The order in which Christian editors finally
6 arranged the New Testament books emphasizes
both Jesus’ connection to characters in the Old
1 Testament and his fulfillment of God’s promises
T to Israel. First in the New Testament canon is
Gospel, which proclaims “Jesus Christ,
S Matthew’s
son of David, son of Abraham,” the culmination
of the covenant people’s prophetic hopes. The
other Gospels, Acts, Pauline letters, and catholic
epistles similarly explicate biblical foreshadowings
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of Jesus’ role and work. Although it took several
centuries to assume this format, the Christian
canon ultimately closed with the Book of Revelation
and its image of Christ triumphant, subduing all
nations and peoples in his universal kingdom.
Because Christianity emerged historically as a
messianic and apocalyptic moment within firstcentury ce Judaism, it is appropriate that the canonical climax occurs with Revelation’s assurance
that Christ is “coming soon,” asserting that Jesus’
return to earth—the Parousia or Second Coming—
is imminent (Rev. 22:17–21) (see Chapter 19).
Before the end of the first century ce, some
Christians were keenly aware that expectations
of the Second Coming had failed to materialize. Neither Jesus nor the kingdom had rescued
believers from life’s sorrows or from Rome’s intermittent persecutions. The author of 1 Clement
(c. 96 ce) addresses Christians’ disappointment
in the delayed Parousia:
Let that Scripture be far from us which says:
“Wretched are the double-minded, Those who
doubt in their soul and say, ‘We have heard
these things [predictions of Jesus’ return]
even in our fathers’ times, and see, we have
grown old and none of this has happened.’”
(1 Clem. 23:3–5)
A generation or two after 1 Clement was
composed, in a work attributed to the apostle
Peter, the problem of frustrated apocalyptic
hopes was again raised. Skeptics complained that
Jesus’ promised coming had proved to be a nonevent; everything “continues exactly as it has always been since the world began” (2 Pet. 3:1–10).
The writer responds to this criticism by asserting
that a delayed world judgment allows time and
opportunity for sinners to repent and thus is an
act of divine mercy.
Nevertheless, Jesus’ failure to return visibly
may have provoked a crisis of belief among
second-century Christians, as the author of
2 Peter testifies. As Christians struggled to understand God’s intentions in human history and
his plan for the church, they simultaneously began to assemble an anthology of writings that
most effectively expressed their core beliefs and
hopes. Foremost was the meaning of Jesus’ life
and death, as interpreted by the preeminent
Christian theologian and missionary, the apostle Paul. By the first half of the second century
ce, at least some Christian groups already regarded Paul’s letters as “scripture” (2 Pet. 3:16).
Although all four of the accepted Gospels had
been composed by the close of the first century
ce, historians doubt that most believers were faW
miliar with all four. It appears that each Gospel
probably created for a distinct Christian
Iwas
group in a particular city or region. Matthew,
Lfor example, seems to have been directed to a
Lcongregation at Antioch in Syria, where it probably served as a foundation document for Jewish
IChristians living there (see Chapter 8). Many
Sscholars believe that the last Gospel written, the
account ascribed to John, served to define the
,distinctive ideas of a religious community based
on the teachings of a “disciple whom Jesus
loved.” Neither the name of the Beloved Disciple
Knor the original location of his group is known
A(see Chapter 10). Justin Martyr, a church leader
in Rome about 165 ce, cites the “memSexecuted
oirs of the Apostles” or “Gospels” as though they
Shad by then attained an authority equal to that
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.
Aof the
The titles by which we now know the canoniNcal accounts of Jesus’ life—“The Gospel According
Dto Matthew,” or “According to” Mark, or Luke or
John—did not become part of the New Testament
Rtradition until more than a century after they
Awere composed. Until the late second century ce,
Christian writers generally cite the Gospels anonymously. A notable exception is Papias (c. 140 ce),
2who refers specifically to the Gospels of Mark and
Matthew (see Chapters 7 and 8).
1 Only gradually did the Gospels come to be
6regarded as the work of Jesus’ initial apostles—
persons whom Jesus himself had called to be his
1close followers—or of later companions of the
Tapostles, such as Mark and Luke, who were not
to Jesus’ ministry. When Justin Martyr
Seyewitnesses
insists that the church should acknowledge only
four Gospels—presenting suspiciously labored
arguments—he indicates that other Gospels were
then in circulation and competed with the four
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c ha p t e r 2 ho w t h e n e w t es tam ent was f orm ed and h anded down to us
that eventually became canonical. Indeed, the author of Luke’s Gospel states that “many [early
Christian] writers have undertaken to draw up an
account” of Jesus’ life (Luke 1:1). Although scholars agree that Luke used Mark’s older Gospel as
one of his chief sources, we do not know what
other very early Jesus biographies the author had
in mind (see Chapter 9). We do know that a host
of other Gospels were circulating by the second
century ce—accounts ascribed to prominent New
Testament figures such as Peter, Thomas, James,
or Mary Magdalene. Most of the noncanonical
Gospels survive only as titles in later church writings denouncing them and/or in badly preserved
manuscript fragments. Only one survives complete, the Gospel ascribed to Thomas. Discovered
in 1945 near the village of Nag Hammadi in Egypt,
the Gospel of Thomas contains 114 sayings of the
risen Jesus. Even more recently discovered is an
extremely tattered manuscript of the Gospel ascribed to Judas, the first English version of which
was published in 2006 (see Chapter 20).
The notion that a single, consistent Gospel—
rather than the four sometimes contradictory
accounts—should be the church norm was expressed in the Diatessaron by a scholar named
Tatian, compiled in about 170 ce and now lost.
This composite version, which for centuries prevailed in the East, particularly in Syria, ingeniously wove together the contents of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, as well as elements from
oral tradition, into a unified narrative.
Different Church Canons
Not until late in the fourth century ce did a
church leader produce a list of books that corresponds precisely to the twenty-seven books in
our New Testament, although in a different order. In 367 ce, Athanasius, then bishop of
Alexandria, made an inventory of accepted
Christian documents part of his Easter Letter.
Even after Athanasius issued his seemingly definitive tally, however, for centuries various churches
continued to use New Testament collections that
differed significantly from one another.
27
The Muratorian Canon Scholars formerly dated
the list known as the Muratorian Canon to the
late second or early third century ce but now
think that it was probably assembled in the
fourth century (c. 350–375 ce). The Muratorian
inventory is probably typical of the mixed bag
of both (ultimately) canonical and spurious
books found in different church catalogues.
Listing twenty-four documents, the Muratorian
W Canon includes the four Gospels, Acts, thirteen
I letters ascribed to Paul (but not Hebrews),
Jude, 1 and 2 (but not 3) John, the Wisdom of
L Solomon, Revelation, and the Apocalypse of
L Peter. The Muratorian list excludes five books
that eventually achieved canonical status, but it
I includes a Greek Wisdom book that was later
S assigned to the Old Testament Apocrypha and
an “apostolic” vision of hell that was ultimately
, not included in any canon.
The Codex Claromontanus is a sixthcentury Greek-Latin manuscript that contains a
K list also thought to derive from the fourth cenA tury ce. Besides enumerating most of the prescanonical works, this codex includes the
S ent
Epistle of Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hermas,
S the Acts of Paul, and the Apocalypse of Peter—
four of which eventually were omitted from
A all
the canon. Even the Codex Sinaiticus, one of
N the oldest (fourth century) and most important
D manuscripts containing all twenty-seven New
Testament books, also includes the Epistle of
R Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas. As late
A as the fifth century, a Greek manuscript known
as the Codex Alexandrinus included both 1 and
2 Clement as part of the Christian Scriptures.
1 Clement, attributed to an early bishop of
2
Rome, is a letter sent to the church at Corinth,
1 perhaps in the mid-90s ce. Concerned that the
6 Corinthians have rejected their duly appointed
leaders, the author primarily cites texts from the
1 Hebrew Bible/Old Testament to correct their
T perceived misbehavior, a practice typical of
writers of the period. The writer, howS Christian
ever, also quotes passages from Hebrews and
from the sayings of Jesus, though it is not certain
whether he quotes from written Gospels or from
oral tradition.
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p a r t o n e a n in v it a t io n t o th e new tes tam ent
Like the Apocalypse of Peter, 2 Clement is
pseudonymous—composed by an unknown
writer in the name of a famous person. The practice of pseudonymity was common among both
Jewish and Christian authors in the Greco-Roman
era. Whereas the church repudiated many pseudonymous documents that claimed authorship by
Peter, Paul, James, or other well-known figures in
early Christianity, apparently some pseudonymous
writings were included in the New Testament
canon (see Chapters 17 and 18).
Writing in the early fourth century ce, the
church historian Eusebius (c. 260–340 ce) observed that, even after Christianity had been
legally validated by the Roman government, the
New Testament canon was not yet fixed. In describing the church’s current opinion of a given
book’s authenticity, Eusebius divided contenders
for official canonization into three categories.
The universally “acknowledged” works number
twenty-one, including the Gospels, Acts, Paul’s
letters, and some of the catholic epistles. The
“disputed” books, accepted by some churches but
not others, include six that eventually entered the
canon: Revelation, James, Jude, 2 Peter, and 2
and 3 John. Five other candidates for official
inclusion ultimately failed to make the cut: the
Acts of Paul, the Shepherd of Hermas, the
Apocalypse of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas, and
the Didache, a fascinating compendium of late
first-century Christian rituals and moral teachings
(see Chapter 20). Eusebius’s “rejected” books are
the Gospels ascribed to Peter, Thomas, and
Matthias and the Acts attributed to Andrew, John,
and other apostles, all pseudonymous works.
Whereas some Christian groups endorsed
books later barred from the canon, others repudiated works that were finally canonized. Such
celebrated writings as Revelation and the Gospel
of John fail to appear in many New Testament
lists. Several important churches, including those
at Alexandria and Antioch, resisted accepting
Revelation, partly because it was not believed to
be the work of John the Apostle. Although eventually canonized, among Eastern churches
Revelation did not attain the same authority as
most other New Testament books. The Syrian
churches consistently denied it canonical honors.
(Box 1.4 lists the canonical books and their
approximate order of composition.)
Marcion’s Disputed Role Many scholars formerly
thought that the notion of fashioning a Christian
Scripture distinct from the Old Testament received its initial stimulus from the proposals of
Marcion. A wealthy Greek shipbuilder who settled in Rome, Marcion (c. 140 ce) enthusiastiW
cally supported Paul’s doctrine of salvation by
He also found the Old Testament ethically
Ifaith.
objectionable, especially its portrayal of Israel’s
LGod, which he denounced as violent and savage.
LInsisting that Christianity begin afresh, Marcion
advocated wholesale rejection of the Jewish
IScriptures and their replacement with an excluSsively Christian text. Only Paul’s letters and an
edited version of Luke’s Gospel, purged of its
,Old Testament references, should be the Christian
Bible. According to an older scholarly view,
church leaders began to see the importance of
Kdefining a New Testament canon only after
AMarcion had proposed his severely abbreviated
acceptable documents.
Slist ofAlthough
Marcion’s challenge to define a
Suniquely Christian Scripture undoubtedly had its
most scholars now believe that the evoluAeffect,
tion of the New Testament canon resulted from a
Nbroader set of social and historical circumstances.
DNoting that Paul’s letters had already been collected before Marcion, recent scholars also point
Rout that by 140 ce individual Gospels were already
Abeing employed in different churches, although
few, if any, churches had accepted all four accounts. Locally approved Gospels and selected
2documents supposedly of apostolic origin were
already regularly and extensively used in worship
1services and in teaching converts. Read aloud in
6churches from Syria to Gaul (France), some
Gospels, Pauline letters, and other works were in
1the process of demonstrating their long-term
Tvalue in maintaining a literary connection with
his early disciples.
SJesusInand
general, it seems that the New Testament
canon evolved to serve two related purposes.
First, canonization of certain texts clarified
within the Christian community what beliefs
church leaders considered true and acceptable.
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29
Questioners like Marcion and his numerous followers could thus be confronted with an officially
sanctioned list of books that largely defined the
faith. Second, the canon provided a unifying
force for churches dispersed throughout the
Roman Empire, imparting a firm written authority for universal belief and practice. Citing
approved books (but not others), church leaders
could distinguish orthodoxy (correct teaching)
from heresy (ideas that church authorities
judged deviations from the truth).
W
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The Role of Constantine
I
The emperor Constantine (reigned 306–337 ce) S
introduced a momentous change in the Roman
government’s attitude toward Christianity, a ,
change that also may have influenced the finalization of the New Testament canon. Following his
victory at the Milvian Bridge over Maxentius, his
rival for the imperial throne (312 ce), Constantine
effected one of the most unexpected reversals in
human history. According to tradition, the emperor experienced a vision in which Jesus was revealed as the divine power that enabled him to
defeat his enemies. Undergoing a slow process of
conversion to the Christian faith, Constantine ultimately championed Christ as his chief god. This
imperial conversion had immense repercussions
throughout the empire, altering forever the relationship of church and state (see Figure 2.1).
Shortly before Constantine began his long
reign, his predecessor, Diocletian (284–305 ce),
had initiated the most thorough and devastating
persecution that Christians had yet endured,
an ordeal that ended only with Diocletian’s abdication and death. When Constantine issued
his celebrated decree of religious toleration,
the Edict of Milan (313 ce), and subsequently
began restoring confiscated church property,
consulting Christian leaders about official
affairs, and appointing bishops to high public
office, it was as if a miraculous deliverance of
God’s people had occurred. To many who benefited from Constantine’s policy, it seemed that
Revelation’s seventh angel had sounded his
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figure 2.1
Head of Constantine. Only the head and
other fragments of this colossal statue remain, but they
reflect the enormous power wielded by this remarkable
general and administrator. Seeking the support of a unified church, Constantine summoned and presided over
the Council of Nicaea (325 ce), which, amid intense theological controversy, formulated the Trinitarian creed
affirming that the Son is co-equal, consubstantial, and
co-eternal with the Father.
trumpet: “the sovereignty of the world has passed
to our Lord and his Christ” (Rev. 11:15).
In a more modest metaphor, the church historian Eusebius, who later became Constantine’s
biographer, compared the emperor�...
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