Davey, The Riddle of the New Testament (Faber), may be mentioned, and for advanced study those of A. In the third century Origen expressed doubts about the Pauline authorship of the Epistle to.
An Introduction to the New Testament by Richard Heard
The New Testament as a Whole
How the Books of the New Testament were Selected
Of the remaining books of our New Testament, some were not yet in general circulation, e.g. How far can the books of the New Testament still claim such special authority.
The Text of The New Testament
Since the time of Westcott and Hort, textual criticism of the New Testament has made great progress. An Introduction to the Revised Standard Version of the New Testament (International Council of Religious Education) briefly explains the principles on which this recent new version is based.
The Gospels and the Life of Jesus
The Study of the Gospels
This is a very valuable book, if only because of the arrangement of the Gospel material, with running commentary, according to sources. The English translation of one of the original German expositions on the methods of form criticism.
The Oral Tradition
For the student of Jesus' life, Peter's confession itself represents a decisive point in Jesus' ministry. Some of the interpretations given to parables in the Gospels also raise doubts about their authenticity, e.g.
An Introduction to the New Testament by Richard Heard Part 2: The Gospels and the Life of Jesus
Written Gospel Sources
Moreover, Q seems to have been primarily a collection of sayings, and the possibility cannot be overlooked that the linguistic similarity between Matthew and Luke is sometimes due to the overlapping of saying-sources or to the fidelity of oral tradition. 50 and 60 would command most general agreement for the writing of Q, and the possibility of authorship by one of the original apostles cannot be ruled out.
The Gospel of Mark
But the most serious objection against the Marcan authorship of the gospel as it stands lies in the "developed." However, the main plan of the gospel is simple and straightforward and contains a number of.
The Gospel of Matthew
This question is discussed further in relation to the question of post-gospel sources. This preoccupation with the Messiahship of Jesus has led to the obscuring in Matthew's gospel of delineating the Markan framework.
The Gospel of Luke
The tradition finds confirmation in the Introduction to the gospel and the general character of the gospel itself. 6: 20-8:3 The Great Sermon, the Healing of the Centurion's Servant, the Raising of the Young Man at Nain, the Baptist. He prefers different versions of the Calling and Anointing of Peter to those given by Mark and makes many changes to Mark's account of the Passion.
Most of the original apostles seem to be already dead, and with them leaders like Paul and Barnabas.
The Gospel of John
The story of the nobleman's son (John, for example, seems to be an elevated version. In three verses of the Gospel, he refers to a personal witness of the events described. In two places, the parallelism of the Fourth Gospel with Mark is of particular interest and.
It is on the value of these interpretations of the gospel that much of the value of the gospel depends.
The Life of Jesus
John 7:39) and the last verses of the lecture are clearly the evangelist's own interpretation of Jesus' mission on earth. However, two incidents stand out as particularly significant, the mission of Jesus' disciples and the feeding of the five thousand. Perhaps the strongest proof of the reality of the resurrection lies in the implications of
The stories of the Last Supper also imply the continued existence of a community of Jesus' followers in the world.
The Acts of the Apostles and the Growth of the Church
Chapter12: The Study of the Acts of the Apostles
The Acts Of The Apostles
Nothing is said of the expansion of Christianity in other directions, and the early history of the Jerusalem, Palestinian, and. This difference in the value of the two halves of Acts as history is related to the nature of the sources available to Luke. There are good grounds for thinking that such a pattern is the main lines of the.
The problem of the original text of the Acts of the Apostles is very interesting and important.
The Growth of the Church
He tells of the withdrawal of the Christians of Jerusalem from the city before the siege of AD. In the first instance, he effected a practically complete separation of the Christian church from the Jewish synagogue. The second mark of a Christian assembly was the open manifestation of the Spirit in the utterances of those who spoke.
In the absence of any recognized central authority, the leaders of the local churches were faced with greater responsibilities.
The Epistles and the Teaching of the Church
The Study of the Epistles
A comparative study of the other epistles, including the 'apostolic' ones, shows that developments of various kinds continued throughout the first century, and that within a broad unity there was great diversity in expression and interpretation. First, in the light of the evidence, he should decide the problems of authorship, taking into account the value of the speeches in the Acts of the Apostles. Second, he should study Paul's letters in their chronological order to understand both how Paul was a great pioneer in his preaching and how his thought developed as he grew older.
A translation into modern English is of great value in understanding the sometimes complex and intricate train of thought of the letters.
The Epistle of James
The very simplicity of the letter and lack of historical data helped diminish its importance. The message of the letter is a practical message of encouragement in the face of temptations, and of moral exhortation. The date of the letter and the readers to whom it was addressed are much disputed.
The letter's authorship and early dating are a matter of probability, not certainty.
The First Epistle of Peter
This explanation of the composition of the letter fully meets the difficulties of both language and "Paulinism." The part played by Silvanus in the writing of the letter also helps us to understand. Thus, there is relatively little emphasis in the letter on the work of the Holy Spirit.
Rather, the main body of the letter consists of teaching about the nature of the Christian life and the duties of the Christian life.
Paul and His Epistles
The third major factor in the development of Paul's thought was the influence exerted upon him by the general Christian teachings of his time. The most notable feature of the letter is the section (2:1-12) on the delay in the last coming. On this view II Corinthians was written within a year of I Corinthians (cf.
This impression is confirmed by the nature of the letter itself, which does not address.
The Epistle To The Hebrews
On the other hand, a strict interpretation of 8:4 may imply that the temple in Jerusalem had not yet been destroyed, if it refers to the temple and not, as some critics suggest, to the "tabernacle of the written law." '. His elaborate allegorical exegesis of the Old Testament (whose authority he unquestioningly accepts) to draw even from its silence, e.g. This contrast between the perfect and permanent sacrifice of Christ and the old system of Jewish sacrifices, which "can never make perfect those who approach" (10:1), fills a large part of the epistle and has a double purpose.
First, it offers an explanation of the paradox that the Christians accepted the divine authority of the Old Testament, but not its sacrificial requirements; here the writer of Hebrews reminds us of Paul in his rejection of the present validity of the Law.
The Epistle of Jude
Besides the improbability of an author making up such a short epistle from only part of II Peter, there is an additional reason to assume Jude's priority in the fact that the meaning of the author of II Peter is occasionally only good. can be understood from a reading of the parallel passage in Jude (compare II Pet.2:10-11 with Jude 9). The Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles', which dates perhaps as early as the late first century AD, and was included in the list of accepted books in Rome by the early third century, given by the Muratorian Canon, quoted by Tertullian in Africa, and commented on by Clemens of Alexandria. The clear evidence provided by the letter of Jude's knowledge of Enoch (apart from the occasional quote in 14 from Enoch 1:9, Chase has collected an instructive series of parallels in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible.) and his use of the Bible. The story of Michael's dispute with the devil over the body of Moses (9), probably related in another apocryphal book, sheds interesting light on the influences at work on early Palestinian Christianity.
Judas writes as someone whose authority is undisputed, and as someone who himself can remember and vouch for the original content of the gospel, the deviation from which is fatal.
The Second Epistle of Peter
In his main message he indicates that the day of the Lord will surely come, even if it is postponed. Thus he places particular emphasis on acquiring knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ as a means of living a godly life and entering the Kingdom, and introduces the idea of a final dissolution of the elements in fire (3: 7, 10) which does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. Much of the epistle is taken up with denouncing false teachers, and it is perhaps significant for the date of the epistle that the author in the role of Peter first proclaims that they shall arise ( 2:10 ff.).
A date somewhere in the first half of the second century is perhaps as close as we can safely guess.
The Johannine Epistles
They spoke in the spirit, but the spirit of the antichrist, and did not acknowledge that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh (4:1-3). These differences between the teaching of the epistle and the gospel have been interpreted by some critics as a sign of difference. There are many striking parallels between the language of 2 John and that of the Fourth Gospel, e.g.
If the Elder was indeed the author of the Fourth Gospel (cf. chapter 10 above), the importance of this is obvious.
The Teaching of The Church
Assessing the relative value of such interpretations, in turn, requires knowledge of the major steps in the development of New Testament doctrine. Church leaders fell to the task of initiating believers into the consequences of these principles for everyday life. The appearance of Jesus after his resurrection and the revelation of the Spirit at Pentecost gave the apostles a new understanding of the meaning of Jesus' life and death.
There is not much evidence available to determine the nature of the earliest apostolic preaching.
The Revelation of John and Christian Apocalyptic
The Study of The Revelation
For the study of the apocalyptic element in the New Testament as a whole, Burkitt, Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (Oxford) and the larger work of Charles, Eschatology: Hebrew, Jewish and Christian (Black) are useful, as well as two recent books, H.
The Revelation of John
Aside from his name, the fact that he was a prophet (22:6-7), the place of his vision (1:9), and his acquaintance with some of the Asiatic churches, Revelation tells us little about its author . Even in the letters to the churches there are no teachings, but commandments of the Spirit, and the main object of the book as a whole is the revelation of the future. Attempts have been made to explain this thought disorder by assuming that the sheets of the original MS.
The interpretation of the great harlot as Rome (17:3,18) and the seven heads of the scarlet beast on which she sits as Roman emperors (17:3,10) is certain.
The Place of Apocalyptic in The Teaching of Jesus and of The Early Church
There are strong reasons to reject the former alternative and accept the challenge of the latter. This is brought out very well in the consistent picture of the teachings of Jesus given by source Q. The apocalyptic element in the teaching of Jesus, if such a view of the Gospel evidence is accepted, is reduced to small proportions.
He gave a new spiritual meaning to the existing ideas about the Messiah and the Son of Man, about the end of the world and about God.
