Over-View
of the New Testament
Date Topic
September 9 Introduction
The World in
Jesus Time
The Culture
of the First Century
What is the
“New Testament”?
September 16 Matthew
Jesus: Messiah and King
Jesus as the
revelation of God’s love
September 23 Mark
Jesus: Servant of God
Jesus shows
us God’s presence in suffering
September 30 Luke-Acts1
Jesus: Son of Man
Jesus and
the parables: turns the world upside
down
The power of
the Holy Spirit in the Church
How the
church grew and spread
October 14 Romans
The
gospel: the power of salvation by faith
Faith is
counted as righteousness
October 21 Corinthians
Unity in
diversity
Living as
“spiritual people”: flesh vs. spirit
October 28 Galatians
Christ has
set us free
The Law
brought us to Christ
November 4 Ephesians
/ Colossians
Jesus: Our All-in-all
Living a
life worthy of the gospel
November 11 Philippians / Philemon
Philippians: Joy in the midst of suffering
Philemon: Forgiveness
November 18 Thessalonians
Christ’s
return
Who should
we then live
November 25 Pastoral
Epistles: Timothy and Titus
Serving and
Ministry
Over View of the New Testament – I
Lesson 1
Introduction
I.
The
World at the Time of Christ
A. The
History Leading Up to the Time of Christ
1.
A broad review of Biblical history: Creation, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua,
Judges, David, Divided Kingdom, Captivity, Return
2.
A history of “between the testaments”
Alexander the Great: the rise of Hellenism (323 BCE)
the Maccabees (168 BCE)
The rise of Rome (63 BCE)
Jewish rebellion against Rome and the
destruction of the temple (70 CE)
B. The
Political Structure in Place At the Time of Christ
1.
The rise of the Caesars of Rome
2.
The local governments of Palestine: the Herods
II.
The Culture of the First Century
A. Key
point: We need to understand Jesus in
his culture, but culture is not sufficient to explain him. We need to understand the church and the
scriptures in their cultures, but culture does not explain them.
B.
Greco-Roman Society
1.
Family / Social Systems
a.
Patriarchal system
b.
Client / Patron – concept of “households” – importance
of heirarchy
2.
The influence of Greek philosophers—the “wisdom
teachers”
3.
The ‘lordship’ of the Caesars
4.
Jesus: Calls to a new allegiance, and a new
Lordship, a new family
C. Language
1.
Hebrew: the
language of the Jewish people
2.
Aramaic: the
commonly spoken language of the region where Jesus lived
3.
Greek: the
literary, business, and common language of the region (Koine Greek: the common form, Classical Greek: the more literary form)
4.
Key point:
The struggle of NT writers to describe “new experiences”, and to use the
Greek language to explain concepts rooted in Judaism, and the Hebrew language..
D. Religious
Climate
1.
Emperor worship
2.
Mystical cults (syncretism: mixing of different religions)
3.
Judaism
a.
Protology:
where the world came from
b.
Eschatology:
where the world is going (promise---fulfillment model)
Jesus
shows us how God’s promises are fulfilled
How
we view the world influences how we live now
Over View of the New Testament – I
Lesson 1
Introduction
III.
The
Authoritative Writings of the Early Church
A.
The Meaning of “Canon”
1.
The meaning of “canon”: a “measuring rod: - therefore that by which thoughts, ideas,
practice, and teaching is measured
2.
The meaning of inspiration: The Spirit moved individuals to write
a.
Authors of the NT
b.
Situations arising in local congregations giving rise
for for writing letters and the gospels
B.
The Authoritative Jewish Writings
1.
The “Law” and the “writings”, and the “prophets”
2.
What was known in Jesus day
C.
Oral Traditions
1.
Letters to be read aloud rather than documents to be
“studied”
2.
Persuasive language and “rhetorical” devices
D.
Development of the “Canon of Scripture” for the
Christian Church
3.
The “Septuagint”:
The Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures: the Law, the writings, the prophets, and the
apocryphal writings
4.
The development of the early canon: First Century
5.
The development of the “scriptures” as we know it.
E.
Issues of the Integrity and Inspiration of the Text
1.
Evidence for the NT
a.
5000 manuscripts (copies, or originals)
b.
10,000 quotes from the Church Fathers (100-325 CE)
c.
Continual discovery of manuscripts (Dead Sea Scrolls,
etc.)
2.
Types of manuscripts underlying the New Testament
a.
papyri (the oldest) on scrolls
b.
uncials (books)
c.
miniscules (scripts but hard to read)
d.
lectionaries
3.
Sorting through textual variations
a.
trivial (spelling, bad grammar)
b.
inconsequential word variations from scribal errors
c.
theologically valuable variations in key manuscript
copies (such as Mark 16:9-20, John 7:53-8:11, Ephesians 1:1)
d.
Less than 0.5% have major exegetical impact
IV. Approaching the Scriptures
A.
Historical Perspective: What happened
B.
First Context:
What was its intended meaning to its original audience
C.
Application:
What does it mean for us today