The New Testament

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The New Testament

• Western Literature I
• Presentation by
• Ralph Monday

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Understanding the Culture

• To understand Jesus, his disciples, and their
  times,
• It is necessary to know something about
  historical developments
• Between the end of the Old and the beginning of
  the New Testament periods.

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Palestine During the Life of Christ
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Political Jurisdiction

• Jewish, Roman, Herodian elements competed in
  handling a difficult
• Religiopolitical situation.

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• The religious liberty that the Romans gave the
  Jews, was concentrated in
• The Sanhedrin, or Great Council.
• This body was composed of Sadducees and other
  leaders.
• However, it lacked the authority to execute Jesus.

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• Pilate, a representative of Rome, quizzed Jesus
  on his claim to be king of the Jews.
• This was a Treasonous act against the emperor
  Tiberius.
• Because Jesus was Galilean, he sent him to Herod
  Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, who happened to be
  in Jerusalem at the time.

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• It was Pilate who finally condemned Jesus on the
  grounds of sedition against Rome (Luke
  2266-2325).

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Leading Religious Groups

• Pharisees
• The term apparently means separatists,.
• They never had more than 6,000 members,
• But their influence was great.

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• According to Josephus (Antiquities 13.10), their
  authority was so great that they were able to
  dictate public opinion
• On kings, priests, and nearly all religious
  matters.
• They were the interpreters of Scripture,
  especially of the Torah (Law).

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• The Pharisees were progressive in embracing many
  ideas, some of Greek origin, that later became a
  part of Christian doctrine.

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• The Pharisees believed in
• A coming judgment day
• Resurrection of the dead
• A future life of the soul
• Rewards of the righteous
• Punishment of sinners
• The existence of angels, demons, and other
  spirits.

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Sadducees

• They were an extremely conservative aristocratic
  group.
• They cooperated with Rome because as wealthy land
  owners they had the most to lose from civil
  disorder.

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• They controlled both the temple priesthood and
  the Sanhedrin.
• They saw Jesus as a threat to Judeas political
  equilibrium.
• Their view that rebellion against Rome would lead
  to destruction of the Jewish nation, came true in
  70 CE when the Romans devastated Judah.

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• The Sadducees accepted only the Mosaic law as
  authoritative, rejecting the later biblical
  literature and oral traditions.
• They denied the final judgment, resurrection, a
  future life, angels and demons.
• Because of their narrow outlook, they were
  doomed.

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• After the temples destruction, the Sadducees
  were reduced to insignificance.
• The Pharisees, emphasizing education and
  progressive reinterpretation of Scripture,
• Became the founders of modern Judaism.

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Essenes

• Scholars are tempted to identify the Qumran
  community which produced the Dead Sea Scrolls
  with the Essenes.
• They rejected mainstream Judaism and its temple
  worship as hopelessly corrupt.
• Many retreated into desert communities.

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• There, they meditated, studied and copied
  Scripture and awaited the coming Messiah.
• They were dualists in that they believed that the
  world, both material and spiritual, was divided
  into light and darkness, good and evil.

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Dualism, a Universe of Competing Light and Dark
Forces
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• For the Essenes, in this world of good and evil,
  God and the Devil were in a great battle that
  would culminate in the war of Armageddon.
• There, God would vanquish the forces of evil.

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Visual Metaphor for Armageddon
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• The Essene emphasis on prayer, the imminent
  appearance of a Messiah,
• The end of the world, a new covenant, ceremonial
  meals of bread and wine,
• And ritual purification through bathing may have
  influenced John the Baptist,
• Who led a similar desert life and performed water
  baptisms.

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Zealots

• Neither the Essenes or Zealots are mentioned in
  the New Testament.
• Their ideas are felt because they wanted to
  overthrow Roman control.
• They also sought out a Messiah who would restore
  Judahs kingdom to its former power and prestige.

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• Such beliefs are indicated in Luke 615 and Acts
  113. Speculation has it that Judas betrayal may
  have been a misguided attempt to force Jews to
  lead a revolt against Rome.

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• The Zealots were not organized as a political
  party until 66 CE when they attempted to drive
  the Romans from Palestine.
• Josephus writes that the Zealots refused to
  surrender after Jerusalem had been captured, and
  it was because of their occupation of the temple
  that forced the Romans to destroy the sanctuary.

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• This catastrophe and the later rebellion of
  132-135 CE discredited the Zealot cause and their
  belief in a coming apocalypse.
• Because of the Zealots behavior, both armed
  revolution and end-of-the-world predictions were
  repudiated by orthodox Judaism.

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Rome Rebuilds the Temple
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Romans Burning the Temple
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The New Testament as Literature

• The Old Testament took approximately 1000-1200
  years to create.
• The creation of the New Testament was
  briefapproximately from 50 CE-150 CE.
• The Old Testament dramatizes the history of an
  entire nation.
• The New Testament focuses on the lives and
  thought of a few people, Jesus and his disciples
  and a handful of other early Christians.

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• The New Testament basically adds only one story
  to world literaturethe ministry and Passion of
  Jesusa narrative that has been called the
  greatest story ever told.

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The Gospels

• The first four books of the Christian Greek
  Scriptures are Gospels, a term derived from the
  Greek evangelion meaning good news.
• As a literary form they are hard to define,
  because the Gospel writers were not concerned
  about presenting a complete, literally accurate,
  unbiased account of Jesus words and actions.

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• The Evangelists believed that Jesus of Nazareth
  was the long awaited Messiah
• And that those who accepted him as the Son of God
  would be saved.
• The Gospels were written to propagate this
  belief, not to preserve an impartial record of
  biographical information.
• Indeed, a historical Jesus is a great problem
  to this day.

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Sources and Growth of the Gospels

• Matthew, Mark, Luke are called the Synoptics
  because they regard events with one eye, or
  take a common viewpoint.
• However, they do have differences.
• The question of their chronological order of
  composition, their sources, dates, and general
  relationship is known as the Synoptic Problem.

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Christian Scholars Assessment

• Mark was the first written Gospel. It is also the
  shortest and simplest and makes the fewest
  theological claims about Jesus nature.
• Matthew and Luke used Mark as a principal source
  for their individual Gospels, together
  incorporating at least 610 of Marks 661 verses.

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• 3. Both Matthew and Luke drew from a now lost
  Greek document called Q from the German Quelle,
  meaning source, which supplied many of Jesus
  teachings and parables not found in Mark.
• 4. Matthew and Luke each had individual source(s)
  of information about Jesus that were apparently
  unknown to Mark. How many of these sources were
  written and how many were oral traditions is not
  known.

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Six Hypotheses for Writing the Gospels

• For probably twenty or more years after Jesus
  death, the Christian testimony about him was
  entirely oral.
• The oral witness testimony was interrupted when
  people who had known and seen Jesus began to die.

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• 3. The Gospel of Mark was written about 65 and 70
  CE.
• 4. Probably because Mark emphasized Jesus
  actions rather than his teachings, the Church
  soon felt the need of a more complete Gospel. The
  Gospel of Matthew, written possibly in Antioch
  about 80-85 CE, incorporated 90 percent of marks
  account but greatly expanded the teaching content.

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• 5. Luke was written about 85-90 CE, and is the
  most literate, precise, and artistic of the
  Synoptics.
• 6. John is the Fourth and last Gospel to be
  written, and is so different from the Synoptics
  that scholars regard it as a special case.

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• In addition, at least 26 other gospels are known
  to have existed by the end of the fifth century,
  but it is the preceding gospels that the church
  fathers declared canonical and included in the
  New Testament.

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Source Harris, Stephen L. Understanding the
Bible. Mayfield Publishing, 1980.