Religion 212

1. Religion212 New Testament Survey Dr. Donald N. Penny http://www.campbell.edu/faculty/Penny/index.html

2. Topic 1 Introduction to NT • What is the NT? • A collection of early Christian writings. • 27 “books.” • Diversity of expression. • A portion of Christian scripture. • Authority derives from witness to Jesus Christ. • Underlying unity – God was in Christ reconciling the world. • Classification of NT books • Gospels – 4 • History – 1 • Letters – 21 • Pauline letters – 13 • General epistles – 8 • Apocalypse – 1

3. C. Original language • Greek • Koinē (common) Greek • Chronology of writing 6 BC–30 AD Life of Jesus 30 – 50 AD Rise and spread of Christian church 50 – 64 Paul’s letters (earliest, 1 Thess. c. 50) 65 – 100 Gospels (and Acts) 80 – 150 General epistles & Revelation (latest, 2 Peter by 150)

4. Canonization of NT (Gathering a recognized collection of authoritative books) • 100 AD – Paul’s letters being collected • 140 – Marcion’s canon (Luke + 10 letters of Paul) 3. 150 – 200 – Four gospels gathered 4. 200 – Basic canon emerging: 4 Gospels + Acts + 13 Paul + most of the rest (Muratorian Canon: omits several General Epistles; includes Wisd. of Sol. & Apoc. of Peter.) • 367 – Athanasius: earliest list of final 27.

5. Interpreting the NT • What does the passage say? • Determine original Greek wording. • Translate accurately (compare several versions). • What did the passage mean? (exegesis) • Read in literary context. • Read in historical context. • What does the passage mean (hermeneutics) • Apply to comparable situations. • Pay attention to cultural differences.

6. G. Critical approaches to the NT • Textual criticism • Determines original Greek wording of a text. • Problem: generations of recopying have resulted in many “variant readings” in the surviving manuscripts (cf. Jn. 20:31). • Text critics compare manuscripts, evaluate variants, and decide which reading is more likely original. • Literary-historical criticism – examines authorship, date, place, purpose, sources, cultural influences, etc. – to shed light on original meaning of a NT text. • Source criticism – looks for evidence of underlying written sources used by author of a NT book. • Form criticism – looks for evidence of underlying oral traditions used by author of a NT book. • Redaction criticism – examines the way a final author has “edited” the earlier sources and traditions to shape his own theological message.

7. H. Tools for interpretation • Translations • Use several. • Use modern English versions (NRSV; RSV; NIV; NEB; NAB; NAS; etc.). • Observe marginal readings. • Bible dictionary – encyclopedia of Bible knowledge • One-volume: Mercer; Harper’s; etc. • Multivolume: Anchor Bible Dictionary (6 vols.); (New) Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols.) • Commentary – running explanation of biblical text • Concordance – find all occurrences of a given word • Atlas – maps of biblical lands