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9. genres in the new testament

10.1 Gospels.

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9. genres in the new testament

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    1. 9. Genres in the New Testament APTS BIB528

    2. 10.1 Gospels “The Greek word euangelion (gospel) means “good news.” Before the NT was written, the word often referred to news such as the announcement of a military victory. In the NT the term refers to the good news of the message proclaimed by Jesus. . . . After Matthew, Mark, Luke and John had all written their accounts of the life of Jesus, Christians came to refer also to those narratives as Gospels.”

    3. 10.1 Gospels 10.1.1 The Genre of the Gospels: No biographies of Jesus “The four evangelists in essence created a new genre when they composed their Gospels.” – Theological Biographies 10.1.2 Implications for interpretation: 1. Historical Trustworthiness: Development of Tradition Criticism with its criteria for authenticity.

    4. 10.1 Gospels 1. Historical Trustworthiness: “Readers today encounter much interpretation, abbreviation and digests of long speeches and narratives, topical as well as chronological arrangement of accounts, and careful selection of material to fit a writer’s particular theological emphasis. But once all this is recognized, the Gospel materials actually measure up quite well by the most valid criteria of authenticity.”

    5. 10.1 Gospels 2. Reading Horizontally & Vertically: Reading Horizontally & Vertically to deal with the Gospels’ unique blend of history and theology. Thinking vertically should take priority over thinking horizontally. . . . Any passage in the Gospels should be interpreted in light of the overall structure and themes of that Gospel irrespective of the nature of any parallel accounts that appear elsewhere.”

    6. 10.1 Gospels 2. Reading Horizontally & Vertically: “Thinking horizontally and thinking vertically amounts to studying the Gospels along the lines of modern redaction criticism. Redaction criticism is best defined as the attempt “to lay bare the theological perspectives of a biblical writer by analyzing the editorial (redactional) and compositional techniques and interpretations employed by him in shaping and framing the written and / or traditions at hand. When we compare parallel accounts and find a particular evangelist’s distinctives and then see those same themes emphasized through that

    7. 10.1 Gospels 2. Reading Horizontally & Vertically: Gospel, we may feel rather confident that we have discovered a key point the gospel writer wished to make.” 3. The Gospels’ First Audiences: “Thinking about the theological emphases and distinctives of each Gospel leads naturally to a consideration of the people to whom they were originally addressed. Presumably, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each highlighted different aspects of the life of Christ mainly because those aspects were particularly relevant to the individuals and congregations to whom they were writing.”

    8. 10.1 Gospels “Recognizing that the disciples in the Gospels represent believers in any age . . . Helps us avoid certain hermeneutical errors of the past.” 10.1.3 Forms within the Gospels 1. Parables Until this century, most interpreters treated the parables as detailed allegories, assuming that most or all of the individual characters or objects in a parable stood for something other than themselves, namely, spiritual counterparts that enabled the story to be read at two levels.”

    9. 10.1 Gospels 1. Parables Seldom, however, did two allegorical interpretations of the same parable agree, and what a particular detail was said to represent often seemed arbitrary and even anachronistic. Adolf Jülicher – Parables make only one point apiece, as they teach rather general truths about spiritual realities. A growing minority of interpreters once again regards as appropriate a limited amount of allegorical interpretation.

    10. 10.1 Gospels 1. Parables Narrative fiction – (longer examples would be novels or short stories). Importance in the characters. 2. Miracle Stories Problem of rationalization or demythologizing. The miracle-stories in the Gospels function first of all christologically to demonstrate who Jesus was, and then salvation-historically to corroborate his claims that

    11. 10.1 Gospels 2. Miracle Stories the kingship of God was breaking into human history. 3. Pronouncement Stories Apophthegm, paradigm, pronouncement story, conflict story and chreia. All these terms have their own history have been used to refer to slightly differing groups of text. But “pronouncement story” is the most common and self-explanatory term. . . . It designates a short, self-contained narrative that functions

    12. 10.1 Gospels 3. Pronouncement Stories primarily to introduce a key climactic saying (or pronouncement) of Jesus. These pronouncements are usually proverbial in nature.” 4. Other Forms: “Numerous other forms have been identified in the Gospels. Many of these have OT parallels – legal maxims, beatitudes and woes, announcement and nativity stories, calling and recognition scenes, farewell discourse. . . .”

    13. 10.2 Genre of Acts 10.2.1 “If “theological biographies” best describe the Gospels, then “theological history” – a narrative of interrelated events form a given place and time, chosen to communicate the theological truths-best characterizes Acts.” Problem of the false dichotomy between theology & history. 10.2.2 Implication for Interpretation: Thinking Vertically – Combined with Luke. To correctly interpret a particular episode in Acts, we should first of all correlate that

    14. 10.2 Genre of Acts 10.2.2 Implication for Interpretation: episode to its place in Luke’s unfolding outline and developing themes. Thinking vertically also involves treating Luke-Acts as one unit. Acts as Narrative – as narrative, Acts teaches more indirectly than didactic literature without becoming any less normative.

    15. 10.3 Genre of the Epistles 10.3.1 Implications for Interpretation: 1. General Considerations: “An epistle is a letter. The NT letters are less literary, formal, and artistic than many classical Greek treatises but still generally longer, more carefully structured, and more didactic than typical personal correspondence.” Epistles primarily teach theology and offer ethical instruction.

    16. 10.3 Genre of the Epistles 10.3.1 Implications for Interpretation: 1. General Considerations: Although epistles are directly didactic they are also “occasional,” therefore the separation for the timeless and situation-specific is necessary. Pseudonymity problem – Liberal scholarship. 2. Specific Considerations: “To interpret the NT epistles correctly we need to compare them with other

    17. 10.3 Genre of the Epistles Greco-Roman letters of antiquity. A fairly typical structure, . . . Began with a salutation (identification of author, recipients, and some kind of greeting) and a prayer or expression of thanks for the well-being of the recipients. Then one proceeded to the body of the epistle, which set forth the major reason/s for writing. If the writer had advice or exhortation to give, this came after the body. A closing farewell rounded out the document.”

    18. 10.3 Genre of the Epistles “The opening prayer and thanksgivings . . . Preformed what all writers considered a common courtesy.” – Galatians has none; 1 Thessalonians has 2! Subgenres: Parenetic / exhortational letter (1 Thess) – praise Diatribe – a conversational method of instruction in which hypothetical objects from opponents were considered and answered. (Rom 1-11)

    19. 10.3 Genre of the Epistles Subgenres: Introduction / Recommendation – designed to introduce the bearer of the letter to its recipients and then requesting a certain favor. Apologetic letter of self-commendation (2 Cor) – a well-known Greco-Roman form of rhetorical self-defense. Family Letter – (Phil) – combining in sequence: an address and greeting (1.1-2), a prayer for the recipients (1.3-11), reassurances about the sender (1.12-26), a request for reassurance about the recipients (1.27-2.18), information about the movement of intermediaries (2.19-30), an exchange of greetings with third parties (4.21-22), and a closing wish for health (4.23). Paul then departs from convention and adds a polemic against false teachers (3.1-4.1) and various other exhortations and thank-you (4.2-20).

    20. 10.3 Genre of the Epistles Subgenres: Use of Rhetoric to subdivide epistles: Judicial (seeking to convince an audience of the rightness or wrongness of a past action); deliberative (trying to persuade or dissuade certain individuals concerning the expediency of a future action); epideictic (using praise or blame to urge people to affirm a point of view or set of values in the present).

    21. 10.4 Hebrews & General Epistles “Hebrews and three of the general epistles-James, 1 John and Jude – vary from traditional letter genres: Hebrews does not begin like a letter, James does not end like one, and 1 John has neither a salutation nor a closing. Hebrews describes itself as “a word of encouragement (or exhortation)” (Heb 13:22). Since this phrase occurs elsewhere in the NT only in Acts 13:15 where it designates a sermon, Hebrews may well have been designed as a written sermon or homily.”

    22. 10.4 Hebrews & General Epistles Peter David analyzes James as a complex chiasmus First John neither begins nor ends like a letter. . . . perhaps it is best designated a deliberative homily. Jude may well illustrate the more distinctively Jewish genre of interpretive techniques of midrash.

    23. 10.5 Individual Forms in the Epistles 10.5.1 Creeds or Hymns: “In several places in the epistles, short, paragraph-length sections of a letter present key summaries of doctrine, usually of Christology, in a fashion that resembles ancient poetry, hymnody, and confessions of faith. Scholars generally agree, therefore, that the epistle-writers borrowed and/or modified units of material that were already well-known and valued in the worship of the early church. Commonly cited examples in Paul include Phil 26-11; Co1 1:15-20; and 1 Tim 3:16. Peter perhaps used confessional forms in at least three instances: 1 Pet 1:18-21; 2:21-25; and 3:18-22. Criteria for recognizing these creeds include the presence of a carefully structured poetic style (rhythm and parallelism) that suddenly intrudes into ordinary prose; a self-contained unit of thought introduced with a relative pronoun as a rationale for various instructions; unusual language and vocabulary; and concise statements of doctrine listed sequentially.”

    24. 10.5 Individual Forms in the Epistles 10.5.2 Domestic Code: “Numerous ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman sources contain sections of instruction for individuals in a relationship of authority or submission. Often these instructions focused on relationships within the extended household: husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves. Scholars thus refer to these materials as “domestic” or “household” codes, following Luther’s use of the German term Haustafeln. Colossians 3:18-41, Eph 5:22-6:9, and 1 Pet 2:13-3:7 form three clear examples of this form. Probably the most significant discovery that emerges from a comparison of canonical and extra-canonical Haustafeln concerns the radical nature of the NT’s views about the subordinant partner in each relationship.”

    25. 10.5 Individual Forms in the Epistles 10.5.3 Slogans: First Corinthians offers interpreters a relatively unique challenge. In this NT epistle the writer states that he is responding to a specific set of questions and controversies (posed both orally and in writing) from the church ( 1:l 1; 7:10). Hence, the outline of 1 Corinthians reads like a checklist of Paul’s answers to these various problems: for example, on incest (5:1-12), lawsuits (6:1-l l), sexual immorality more generally (6:12-20), marriage and divorce (7:1-40), and so on. In the process, Paul will quote a view, held by some at Corinth, that he wishes to dispute. He can endorse these “slogans” up to a point but must

    26. 10.5 Individual Forms in the Epistles 10.5.3 Slogans: substantially qualify them. This approach has been referred to as Paul’s “yes-but” logic. In at least three instances these slogans are so clear that translators of the NIV felt confident enough to introduce quotation marks (6:12; 6:13; and 10:23). Obviously, Paul himself could not have taught that “everything is permissible for me” (6: 12) without substantial qualification!”

    27. 10.5 Individual Forms in the Epistles 10.5.4 Vice & Virtue Lists: A final example of common forms within the NT epistles consists of lists of qualities or actions that typify morality or immorality from a Christian perspective. Jews and pagans often compiled similar lists. Examples from the NT include Rom 1:29-31; 1 Cor 6:9-10; Gal 5:19-23; Jas 3:17-18; and 2 Pet 1:5-7.

    28. 10.6 Genre of Revelation Revelation combines parts of three distinct genres: epistle, prophecy, and apocalyptic. 10.6.1 Revelation as an Epistle Revelation 1:4 states clearly that this book was written to seven churches in Asia Minor. Chapters 2-3 contain seven mini-letters with commendation and/or condemnation for each church. Thus, Revelation includes various characteristics of epistles. For example, interpreters will need to try to reconstruct as accurately as possible the historical circumstances of each church. Most of the details of the letters to the seven churches make better sense when read against this background.

    29. 10.6 Genre of Revelation 10.6.2 Revelation as Prophecy Frederick Mazzaferri’s recent study has shown how the closest generic parallels to Revelation appear in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and particularly Ezekiel. John stands in the tradition of the major prophets of the OT-foretelling as well as forthtelling. Scholars have long debated four major interpretations of the time-orientation of Revelation. The preterist approach sees all events as past; the futurist, as all still future; the historicist, as tracing the development of the entire Church Age; and the idealist, as a symbolic presentation of the timeless struggle between good and evil. When Revelation, with its liberal dose of

    30. 10.6 Genre of Revelation 10.6.2 Revelation as Prophecy symbolism appearing throughout, is viewed as similar to OT prophecy, a combination of preterist and futurist interpretations emerges as best. The climactic manifestation of the events that usher in Christ’s return (chaps. 6-19) remains yet future, but the events will nevertheless resemble (even if on a larger scale) the victories and judgments that God’s people and the world have experienced many times since creation. “The prophecies predict literal events, though the descriptions do not portray the events literally.”

    31. 10.6 Genre of Revelation 10.6.3 Revelation as Apocalyptic Probably the most significant of the three genres in Revelation is the last one. The title of the book, derived from its first line, designates the document as the apokalysis: “the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place” (1:l). Apocalyptic literature was prevalent in the world of the NT (cf. the earlier discussion of OT apocalyptic). Contemporary Jewish writings like 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, and to a lesser extent 1 Enoch, exemplified this genre. Daniel 7-12 and Zech 9-14 provide the closest OT parallels.

    32. 10.6 Genre of Revelation Characteristics of apocalyptic literature include a description of the events surrounding the end of world history, often said to have come from God by means of angelic or otherworldly intermediaries. Visions and dreams appear regularly. God’s supernatural intervention into this age at the end of time rescues a sinful world in a way that no human ideology or schemes can accomplish. Elaborate and sometimes bizarre symbolism depicts past, present, and future events in a way that requires a careful decoding of the elements of the text. Battles between the forces of good and evil often appear with the good eventually triumphing. One of the primary purposes of apocalypses, therefore, is to encourage a beleaguered religious community in times of oppression or persecution.

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