English 116B: New Testament Literature

1. English 116B: New Testament Literature Texts: New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings, 2nd edition, ed. Bart D. Ehrman; The New Testament: a Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, by Bart D. Ehrman,3rd edition, 2004. Reader available today from Grafikart in IV.

2. Requirements • Two essays (due dates on syllabus) on topics to be assigned. • Participation in discussion section. • Midterm exam. • Final exam. • Lecture attendance is important; please be on time and as a courtesy to fellow students and the lecturer, please do not leave before the lecture is over. • You’ll find the percentages of each assignment on class webpage

3. What is The New Testament? • Part 2 of “The Bible”. Bible = “ta biblia,” the books. • 27 books in NT, some long, some very short. • All written in Koiné Greek (as opposed to the Hebrew of “Old Testament” or Hebrew Scriptures.) • Four gospels, written by anonymous authors traditionally designated Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. • Acts of the Apostles, originally Part II of a large work that began with Gospel of Luke. • Then the “Epistles,” 21 books ranging from the lengthy theological treatise of Romans to short, one-page letters like Philemon, some by St. Paul, some by others, including the anonymous Letter to the Hebrews. • Finally, Revelation to John, or The Apocalypse, a radically symbolic, visionary book.

4. “The Law and the Prophets” • Two-part division of Hebrew Scriptures as understood in time of Jesus. • Refers to the Law, or Torah, the first five books of Hebrew Bible, and the second part, the prophetic and wisdom writings. • In ordering of NT, are four gospels and Acts intended as analogous to Law/Torah? • And “Epistles” plus Revelation equivalent to “Prophets”?

5. The Canon and the non-canonical texts • “Canon” = measuring rod. • “Canon” of NT scriptures only emerged three centuries after time of Jesus and apostles, in fourth century C.E. • But previous lists indicate that not all 27 books were always accepted everywhere. • E.g., lots of doubt about Revelation. • And some early Christian communities accepted other books. • After discoveries of Nag Hamadi documents, we know there was a huge variety in what early Christians believed, what books they read, valued. • Lots more books than the canonical 27! • We’ll read Gospel of Thomas and some fragments of other non-canonical gospels.

6. Central idea of each part of Bible • In Hebrew Scriptures: that God is one and that he revealed himself over time to Israel. • That the Law (639 precepts) contain his will for Israel, that Israel’s history similarly manifests his design for Israel. • In (canonical) New Testament: that God revealed himself definitively in one man, Jesus, an itinerant rabbi from Nazareth. • This one man and the question of his identity is at the center of all NT books.

7. Jesus/Yeshua • Actual name in Aramaic = Yeshua, a variation of Joshua. • “Christ” a title, nothis last name! • From Greek “christos,” “anointed one”. • Which translates “messiah,” a title of kings in Hebrew Scriptures. • In later biblical times, “messiah” referred to a king or warrior who would liberate Israel from first Greek, then Roman dominance. • So “Christos” makes a particular claim about Yeshua . . . • . . . one that doesn’t necessarily include a claim about divinity, divine sonship, etc.

8. Relationship of “Old” and “New” Testaments • On one hand, Jesus was a devout Jew, whose identity was founded on the Hebrew Scriptures. • All of his immediate followers similarly were Jews, who revered the Hebrew Scriptures. • But many gentile (= non Jewish) followers in second generation would not have understood or valued Hebrew Scriptures. • In second century, nascent Christianity was tempted to sever the link to Judaism, Hebrew Scriptures.

9. Marcion • In middle of second century, c. 144, Marcion, an early Christian bishop, taught that God of Hebrew Scriptures and God of Jesus were different, opposed gods. • God of “Old Testament” was a harsh, judgmental god, entirely separate from merciful god of “New Testament.” • Entirely rejected “Old Testament” and all NT writings except 10 Pauline epistles and an edited version of Gospel of Luke. • But this was rejected as heretical by the church in Rome, to which Marcion presented his ideas. • Marcion then formed his own sect, “Marcionites,” who were judged heretical. • But survived as a separate Christian movement for a couple of centuries.

10. Essential relation to “Old Testament” • Henceforth, Hebrew Scriptures, the “Old Testament” was considered essential to Christian understanding. • Understanding prevailed that Jesus was the messiah who emerged from Israel. • NT writers quote Hebrew Scriptures some 1600 times. • In spite of tragic conflict of Judaism and Christianity that occurred at end of 1st century, the relation of Christianity to Judaism was preserved.

11. Do all canonical books agree? • The Canon imposes a kind of artificial sense of agreement on 27 books of NT. • NT written within a 75 year time period, from early 50’s (early letters of Paul) to first decades of second century (letters of “Paul” to Titus, Timothy, letters of “Peter”). • But when seen individually and in historical development, canonical books don’t always agree. • In fact, elements of some books oppose things in other books. • Some books perhaps written in opposition to one another! • For example, why four gospels? • No single, monolithic understanding of Jesus of Nazareth among gospels and other NT texts. • Elements of agreement – yes – but also significant disagreement at times.

12. Need to “defamiliarize” NT texts • Traditional view of Bethlehem scene: three magi, shepherds. • But this comes of two different, partially opposing texts, Matthew and Luke. • Defamiliarizing means seeing each text afresh, seeing each as having separate identity and purpose, coming from different communities.

13. Before there was Mark, Matthew, Luke, John . . . • . . . there was “Q”! • “Q” = “quelle,” “source” in German. • Scholars hypothesize that this was originally a separate document that preceded the canonical gospel texts. • Q, as now constituted, is extracted from Matthew and Luke, sayings they have in common that are not found in Mark. • (Mark and Q are the sources common to both Matthew and Luke.) • A non-narrative text – a collection of sayings. • We can thus call Q a “sayings gospel,” collection of sayings of Jesus. • Q becomes for us a “virtual gospel,” i.e., real, but something that must be reconstructed hypothetically.

14. The “synoptic question” • The relationship of Matthew, Mark, Luke, the “synoptic gospels.” • John is a separate tradition, mostly unrelated to M, M, L. • Best understanding: Mark came first. • And was the narrative source, independently, for Matthew and for Luke. • And Matthew and Luke shared another source, now lost . . . • . . . which is Q. • (Each also had independent source material.) • Modern scholarship sees Q existing independently in various versions.

15. What do we make of Q and a “Q community”? • Don’t take too seriously the various “strata” of Q that Burton Mack posits. Mack’s agenda. • But how would we characterize the teaching of Jesus from Q, if all we had was Q? • What’s missing in Q from sense of Jesus drawn from later, narrative gospels? • What sort of community would value this Q version of Jesus. • How do we interpret, lacking any narrative context?