My First Shot

Lesson One Overview

The New Testament

LESSON 1

OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and comprehend the background of events of

the New Testament

Goals of the course:

     Describe how we got the New Testament

     Describe how to interpret the New Testament

     Review the history of the New Testament

A Case for New Testament

Is the Bible a faithful representation of the text as it was originally written by the authors?

Is the New Testament a document to be trusted?

I. A Foundational Terms:

a.    Inspiration - Who or What is the source?

b.    Canon - How do we know what the inspired books are and how did the early church know?

c.    Textual Transmission - How was it preserved for a long period of time?

Textual Criticism - was the original way to investigate a text?

d.    Translations - How can we be sure of the reliability of the original text?

II. The Bible in General

         Bible means Book - Scripture, Word of God

         Old and New Testaments - should refer to the Two Covenants.

The Bible is a biblos, or one book

·                Divided into two parts, called Testaments

·                Hebrew word is berith, meaning covenant – Exodus 24:8

·                Greek word is diatheke, translated testament – Matthew 26:28,

Luke 1:71, Acts 3:25

Luke 1:71 KJV 1900

That we should be saved from our enemies, And from the hand of all that hate us;

Acts 3:25 ““It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”

Acts 3:25 NASB95

“It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

Scriptural Proof:

a.              Moses called the Old Testament a covenant in Ex. 24:8

b.              Jeremiah announced God would make a new covenant 31:31-34.

c.              Jesus made this claim in Matt. 26:28, Hebrews 8:6-8.

What binds the Old and New Testament together? - Jesus, The Christ          

         In the Old Testament, Jesus is predicted and announced.

Number of Books in OT - 39

Number of Books in NT - 27

New Testament - means New Covenant - covenant goes into effect at the death

of the one making the covenant. The death of Jesus put into effect the New Covenant - Hebrews 9:15-17

The New Testament writings were written between 45 AD - 95 AD

         4 - Gospels - Manifestation of Christ

         1 - Book of History - Acts - Propagation of Christ

         21 - Epistles - Interpretation and Application of Christ

         1 - Book of Prophecy also called the apocalypse - Consummation of Christ

         21 Epistles

-       13 written by Paul

-       3 Pastoral Epistles

-       8 General Epistles

13 Epistles                                 3 Pastoral Epistles            8 General Epistles

Romans      1 2 Timothy

I Corinthians        Titus

2 Corinthians   Philemon

Galatians

Ephesians

Philippians

Colossians

I Thessalonians

2 Thessalonians

1 Timothy

2 Timothy

Titus

Hebrews

 James

 1Peter

 II Peter

 I John

 II John

 III John

   Jude

Interpretation of the Gospel of Christ - applies to Believer’s life

III. Inspiration

Means to “breathe upon or into something.” A theological understanding of the term under divine influence, equivalent to the word theopneustos in 2 Tim 3:16.

A.   Two Aspects of Inspiration

                   Product - II Tim 3:16

                   Process - II Peter 1:21

B.   Inspired - Theo - Pneustos (Spirit) - God inspired

                   Theopneustia – means “God breathed” in 2 Timothy 3:16

C.   God is source

                   Holy Spirit is responsible for inspiration. Man receives. Text is the product

D.   II Timothy 3:16 emphasis is the scripture.

                   This verse can be applied to the Old Testament. Because when it was

 written that is all we had.

E.   Source of scripture is God:

-       Holy Spirit is inspiration

-       Inspiration of scripture, refers to original manuscripts

                                                                  i.         There are over 5,700 manuscripts of the New Testament

                                                                 ii.         The New Testament has manuscripts that date within twenty-five years from the time the book was written.

Inerrancy - inspiration includes inerrancy because scripture is inspired without error.

Inerrant – The Bible is wholly true and without error. “Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17; Psalm 19:7; 119:160)

          Types of Inspiration

1.              Verbal Plenary Theory- States the influence of the Holy Spirit extends

beyond the direction of thoughts to the selection of words used to convey

the message. The exact words used are the words God wanted.

 2.            Dynamic Theory- The combination of divine and human elements in the

 process of inspiration and of the writing of the Bible. The work of the Holy Spirit in this case directs the writer to the thoughts or concepts he should have and allows the writer’s own distinctive personality to come into play in the choice of words and expressions. Luke 1: 1-4

IV. The Canon

Which books did God inspire?

How is the authority of Biblical books recognized?

What makes the book canonical?

The Word Canon comes from Greek canon, which means measuring stick, from Hebrew reed; Latin standard or norm, - Gal 6:16

The first three centuries after Christ, the Patristic period, the word cannon meant rule of faith, which deals with apostolic teachings.

-       The Early Church Fathers cited the New Testament more than thirty-six thousand times

         Canon - list of authorative books recognized as Scripture.

The Historical Question:

How did the 27 books that make up the NT come to be recognized as authoritative and distinctive?

The Theological Question:

Deals with the relationship between authority of scripture and the church that determine what is scripture.

●     The Catholics would say the church

●     The Protestants would say scripture

Jesus is the key to how the canon developed:

Jesus subjected human tradition to the authority of the Old Testament

Jesus fulfilled messianic promises. There is an organic link between Jesus and the Old Testament - Psalm 110:1

Jesus claimed authority for Himself and authority that was not below that of the Old Testament - Matthew 12:6, 42; John 8:56-58

He inaugurated or initiated the new covenant. It was promised in Jeremiah 31:31-33 and Hebrews 8 and 10.

Jesus said five times He was the theme of the entire Bible: Matthew 5:17, Luke 24:27, Luke 24:44, John 5:39, Hebrews 10:7

Jesus is the theme of the New Testament

In the gospels – Jesus is the prophet to His people

Acts and the Epistles – Jesus is the priest for His people

In the book of Revelation – Jesus is the King over His people

The source of Scripture is God - II Timothy 3:16

New Testament is written in Koine Greek, which is the language of the people. God chose to speak the language of the people versus classical Greek used by the philosophers.

Canonical Consciousness - awareness of New Testament books among the early Christians:

The titles of the gospels - The authorship of the gospels are unknown, however, they circulated through the ancient world without anyone knowing who wrote them. Which means someone or some group had to decide to choose these four gospels. The acceptance of the gospels was validated by the early Christian community.

2 Peter 3:16 - must been a collection of Paul’s letters and a connection between Paul’s writing and the authoritative documents of the Old Testament. It shows that Peter understood Paul’s writing on the same level as authoritative scripture.

The Main Criteria for Canonicity

The test of apostolicity means that a book was written by an apostle or some connected to the apostle.

Antiquity - refers to the age of the writing. Some books were written by someone close to the apostle.

Catholicity - support of a particular book among the early Christian communities.

Inspiration - The biblical author was inspired by God to write the message.

The History Between the Testaments

The period between the Testaments is known as the silent years. It was the period were God was silent, preparing the world for the coming of Jesus Christ. It is the history of the powers that presided over Palestine during the intertestamental period

The Jews Political Oppression from the biblical period through the silent years is divided between four eras:

The Babylonian (605-535 BC)

Many of the Jews were exiled to Babylon. In 597 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, ended Jewish independence by conquering Judea and capturing Jerusalem. This was the first deportation of exiles, including Daniel (2 Kings 24 and Daniel 1:1-6). Temple wealth was consfiscated and removed to Babylon.

The second deportation (2 Kings 24:6-16, II Chron.36:8-10).

The third deportation (2 Kings 15:1-21) -  

-       The temple was destroyed,

-       However while in exile the Jews learned how to preserve their identity.

-       During the Babylonian captivity the practice of synagogue worship developed among the Jews. Jews banded together to learn and apply the law, these groups were called synagogues, gathering together.

Jeremiah had predicted a seventy-year captivity for the Jews (Jer. 25:11-14)

The seventy year exile gave birth to orthodox Judaism

-       The exile produced Diaspora of Jews. Jews now living outside of Palestine.

-       The Diaspora Jews were the nucleus of the New Testament churches that were scattered throughout the Roman Empire.

The Medo-Persian (537-331 BC)

         Babylon fell to the Persian King Cyrus in 539 B.C. (Daniel 5)

In his first year he issued a decree allowing the Jews to return back to their homeland. Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest lead the first group of captives/Jews (43,360) back to Jerusalem (Ezra 2:2). They also brought back the temple furniture (Ezra 5:14-15; 520 B.C.)

Cyrus offered to pay for the rebuilding of the temple with money from the royal treasury (Ezra 6:1-5).

The Jews were back in the land with a rebuilt temple and reconstructed walls around Jerusalem.

The Grecian (331- 164 BC)

                   The Grecian period of conquest, victories and domination began with

Alexander the Great. Greek Culture or Hellenism spread over much of the Middle East. After his death four generals divided up his empire. Ptolemy gained control of Egypt and extended his influence into Palestine/Israel. The Ptolemy’s were respectful of the Jewish faith. Their grammatical technicalities created the perfect medium for the New Testament to be written. They sponsored the translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek. This translation is known as the Septuagint.

The early churches used the Septuagint as the authoritative text of the Old Testament, which was in a language they could read. Before the gospels and the Epistles it was the Bible of the early church.

4.    The Maccabean Revolt (164-63 BC)

-       Mattathias a priest from the Hasmonean family refused to participate in pagan sacrifices. He revolted and after his death, his son Mattathias, Judas obtained leadership of the revolt. The family of the Mattathias become known as the “Maccabees, the nickname of Judas. They were a family of priests and warriors.

-       The history of the Maccabean rule is known as the Hasmonean dynasty, named after a earlier relative, Hasmon.

-       There was religious opposition to the family because they alienated many of the religious Jews.

-       The descendants of the Hasmoneans were the Sadducees.

-       The successors of the devout Jews, who opposed the Hasmoneans became the Pharisees

The Roman Period (63 BC - 134 AD)

After Pompey conquered Palestine in 63 B.C., the Romans allowed a native vassal ruler, Herod the Great, to control Palestine. Herod was able to come to power within Roman authority. He did building projects, land scaping, and architectural projects, most notable project was the beautification of the temple.

V. The Jewish Literature

The Old Testament was available in 3 forms:

The original Hebrew Bible

Greek Translation of the Hebrew Bible, called the Septuagint

Targums, Aramaic translations of the Old Testament, added some material not found in the biblical text.

The Jews were aware of other books not found in the canonical Old Testament.

The Apocrypha - hidden or secret. They were accepted by the Roman Catholics but rejected by the Protestants. The writings included history, fiction and Jewish wisdom.

Pseudepigrapha - A second set of books, falsely attributed writings and refers to books falsely claiming to be written by famous persons.

Dead Sea Scrolls - found in caves near the Dea Sea.

The Sects of Judaism

The Pharisees - The largest and most influential sect in the New Testament times. They originated shortly after the Maccabean time. They were very rigid when it came to the law. They believed in the existence of angels, spirits, and expected a resurrection of the body.

The Sadducees - They were fewer in number than the Pharisees in the New Testament time. However, they had greater political power. The priestly families during the New Testament times were Sadducees. The Sadducees followed a literal interpretation of the Law or Torah, meaning they only accepted the first five books of the Bible. They rejected the oral tradition that the Pharisees accepted. And denied the existence of angels and spirits and did not believe in personal immortality.

The Essenes - They were more aligned with the Pharisees theologically, however they followed the Old Testament laws more strictly.

The Zealots - They were a group of fanatical nationalists who supported violence as a means of liberation from Rome. One of Jesus’ disciples, Simon, had been a part of the group (Luke 6:15). They were not a religious sect like the Pharisees or the Essenes.

Herodians - They were a small group of important Jews who supported the Herodian dynasty and Roman rule (Mark 3:6) They came from a Sadducean priestly aristocracy.

Lesson One Overview

The New Testament

LESSON 1

OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and comprehend the background of events of

the New Testament

Goals of the course:

●     Describe how we got the New Testament

●     Describe how to interpret the New Testament

●     Review the history of the New Testament

A Case for New Testament

Is the Bible a faithful representation of the text as it was originally written by the authors? Is the New Testament a document to be trusted?