Download Interpreting the New Testament

History and Methods
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Canon: A measure or yardstick – a list of
authoritative books to “measure” correct belief
and practice.
Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
 Finalized Early in 2nd Century
 Contains 39 Books
 Roman Catholic Old Testament Contains 49 books
(which was later shortened to 46), and was based on
the Septuagint (LXX) Old Testament
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See Chart on Page 56 in textbook
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Christian Bible (New Testament)
 First mention of the 27 Books currently viewed as
authoritative was in St. Athanasius’ Festal Letter
(Easter Letter) in 367 CE
 Protestant Christians in 16th Century adopted
these 27 books in their canon as well. (Even
thought Martin Luther didn’t believe the Letter of
James should be included.)
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Genre: a category for classifying types of writings
Gospels (Biographies)
 Four: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
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History
 One: The Acts of the Apostles
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Epistles (Letters)
 Twenty-one: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians,
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1
& 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 & 2
Peter, 1, 2, & 3 John, Jude
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Apocalypse
 One: Revelation
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See Chart on Page 57 in textbook
1.
Textual Criticism
1. Used to Classify Surviving Manuscripts
1.
2.
3.
Type of material manuscript was written on (Papyrus)
Kind of Script Used (Uncials: Block Capital Letters)
Content
2. Attempts to identify/determine the Author’s original
words
1.
Strives to establish the definitive text.
1. Vulgate (See page 63)
1. Translated the original Greek into Latin
2. Middle English (Around 14th Century)
1. John Wycliffe (1330-1384ce)
3. Coverdale Bible (1535)
4. Thomas Matthew Bible (1537)
5. Great Bible (1539-1568)
6. The King James Version (1611)
How do you decide if the Lord’s Prayer should be translated:
“Forgive our debts,” or “Forgive our Trespasses”
This question, and thousands like it led to the development of
hermeneutics.
Hermeneutics: How to interpret texts.
A hermeneutical method can follow two paths:
Exegesis – to bring out what a text meant in the past
Eisegesis – to bring into the text what one wishes to see
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Historical Criticism asks of the Bible stories,
“What really happened?”
This method began to be used during the 18th
century as an attempt to understand scripture
It asks the traditional Journalism Questions
 Who (Who wrote the book? To whom was the book
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written?)
What (What was actually written?)
When (When were the books written?)
Where (Where were the books written?)
Why (Why did the author write about those topics?)
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(Old) Literary Criticism
 Examines vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and style
 As early as the Third Century, Old Literary Criticism determined
that the Revelation of John was not written by the disciple John
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Source Criticism
 Examines the text to determine its source material (the texts
that the author used to write his text)
 This critical method led to our understanding of the Synoptic
Gospels
 It also led to the theory that there was an undiscovered source
for Matthew and Luke that we call “Q” from the German word
Quelle meaning “source.”
 Q: Any textual material found in Matthew and Luke, but not in
Mark.
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General Historical Criticism
 Answers the Five Journalism Questions
▪ Who Wrote the Text, and To Whom is the Text Written?
▪ What was Written, and What Actually Happened?
▪ When was the Text Written?
▪ Where was the Text Written?
▪ Why did the Writer Write this Text?
 We will spend most of our time understanding and
using this method.
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Form Criticism
 Answers the question, “What form did the author
use in telling his stories?”
 The Forms are short sayings, parables, miracle
stories, proverbs, hymns. These are also known as
Paricopes.
 Examines the Socio-Religious settings the stories
were written in.
 Attempts to Rediscover Jesus’ Teachings
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Redaction Criticism
 Examines how the ancient Biblical writers
expanded, shortened, reformulated, regrouped
and repositioned the source material to suit their
purposes
 For example why does Matthew 5:3 have Jesus
saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” while Luke
6:20 simply reads, “Blessed are the poor?”
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Social-Historical/Social-Scientific Criticism
 Social-Historical examines the social description,
location and context. How did people live? What
did people do in their free time?
 Social-Scientific examines the social structures
and relations described in the Bible
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Archeology
 Attempts to located the
oldest manuscripts of a text
possible.
▪ Nag Hammadi Texts discovered
in 1945
▪ http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/n
hl.html
▪ Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in
1947
▪ http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/deads
ea.scrolls.exhibit/intro.html