9. Genres in the New Testament

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9. Genres in the New Testament

• APTS BIB528

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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.

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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.

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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 writers particular theological
  emphasis. But once all this is recognized, the
  Gospel materials actually measure up quite well
  by the most valid criteria of authenticity.

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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.

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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
  evangelists distinctives and then see those same
  themes emphasized through that

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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. . . .

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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

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10.2 Genre of Acts

• 10.2.2 Implication for Interpretation
• episode to its place in Lukes 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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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)

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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).

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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).

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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 1322). Since this phrase
  occurs elsewhere in the NT only in Acts 1315
  where it designates a sermon, Hebrews may well
  have been designed as a written sermon or homily.

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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.

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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 115-20 and 1 Tim
  316. Peter perhaps used confessional forms in at
  least three instances 1 Pet 118-21 221-25
  and 318-22. 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.

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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
  Luthers use of the German term Haustafeln.
  Colossians 318-41, Eph 522-69, and 1 Pet
  213-37 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 NTs views about the subordinant
  partner in each relationship.

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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 ( 1l 1 710). Hence, the outline of 1
  Corinthians reads like a checklist of Pauls
  answers to these various problems for example,
  on incest (51-12), lawsuits (61-l l), sexual
  immorality more generally (612-20), marriage and
  divorce (71-40), 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

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10.5 Individual Forms in the Epistles

• 10.5.3 Slogans
• substantially qualify them. This approach has
  been referred to as Pauls 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 (612 613 and
  1023). Obviously, Paul himself could not have
  taught that everything is permissible for me
  (6 12) without substantial qualification!

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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 129-31 1 Cor 69-10 Gal 519-23
  Jas 317-18 and 2 Pet 15-7.

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10.6 Genre of Revelation

• Revelation combines parts of three distinct
  genres epistle, prophecy, and apocalyptic.
• 10.6.1 Revelation as an Epistle
• Revelation 14 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.

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10.6 Genre of Revelation

• 10.6.2 Revelation as Prophecy
• Frederick Mazzaferris 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

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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 Christs return (chaps. 6-19)
  remains yet future, but the events will
  nevertheless resemble (even if on a larger scale)
  the victories and judgments that Gods people and
  the world have experienced many times since
  creation.
• The prophecies predict literal events, though
  the descriptions do not portray the events
  literally.

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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 (1l).
  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.

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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. Gods 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.