Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] What is the New Testament? Can you actually say Written by Bart Ehrman, read by Ken Teutsch?
[00:00:11] What exactly is the New Testament? If someone standing behind you in a long line in the grocery store should lean over and out of the blue ask, hey, can you tell me what the New Testament is? What would you say? This happens to you every day, right? This person wants it in one sentence. Well, come up with something. What would you say? Try to formulate something before listening any further.
[00:00:37] I'm not sure what I would say, but I would have a ton of options in my head depending on what I thought she really wanted to know and on what kind of mood I was in. Probably a foul one if I'm in a long line, but among the options here would be a relatively decent one The New Testament is The collection of 27 books thought to be written by the apostles of Jesus that came to be considered Christian Scripture. If she wants either clarification or more information, I or you could go from there.
[00:01:10] In this long thread that I am hereby starting, I will be trying to convey concise and hopefully accurate information about the New Testament, devoting a number of posts to each of the 27 books, all of them beginning with a one sentence summary and going from there. The point of the one sentence opening is that everyone who claims a familiarity with the books of the Bible should be able to give a succinct summary statement of what it is that is both reasonably accurate but also distinctive. That is, the summary should indicate what makes this particular book stand out from all the other books of the New Testament, so that your one sentence about Matthew is not almost identical to your one sentence about Luke or your one sentence about 1 Thessalonians isn't just like the one about Philippians.
[00:02:01] But to be able to summarize a book or a sub collection of the books, for example The Gospels or the Pauline epistles in a sentence presupposes far more substantial knowledge about it. It is the tip of a large iceberg.
[00:02:17] It would take a long series of books to unpack the entire New Testament. The world itself would not be able to contain the books.
[00:02:27] But in this post I will try to do it in a few hundred words, just to give the very basics.
[00:02:33] First, the term New Testament. What does it mean? The Greek word testament can also mean covenant, even though the two English words have different nuances. A covenant is usually a kind of legal agreement between two parties with obligations on both sides. A testament is usually a legal expression of the will of one party in connection with others in the Old Testament, as the Christians started calling the Hebrew Bible once they had a New Testament. There are a number of covenants that God makes with his people Israel, including the one given through Moses in the Torah, the Jewish Law. The people were to keep the law God gave and in return he would protect them and promote their welfare. In the prophet Jeremiah, there is a prophecy of a future new covenant between God and His people written on their hearts instead of on tablets of stone. Jeremiah 31:31 When Christians arrived on the scene, they declared that this new covenant had now been made through the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is the new agreement or will of God for his people.
[00:03:46] The record of this New Covenant Testament is found in the earliest Christian writings that deal with a variety of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Gospels, the history of God's involvement with the followers of Jesus, the Book of Acts, the implications of the New Covenant for the beliefs and behaviors of Jesus followers, the Epistles and the final outcome of all God's dealings with humans at the end of the age. The Book of Revelation, the collection of books that were thought to present these matters authoritatively by the apostles of Jesus were collected into a single book and eventually called the New Covenant or the New Testament. Most of these 27 books were written in the first Christian century, though a couple, for example second Peter, may be a bit later. For the most part, these are the earliest Christian writings we have, though a couple of books not in the canon are probably earlier than some that made it in First Clement and the Didache, both in the collection known as the Apostolic Fathers, are probably from 95 to 100 CE. Paul's authentic letters were the first New Testament books to be written 50 to 62 CE or so. The Gospels are later usually dated 70 to 95 CE. Most of the others are very difficult to date accurately or convincingly. The books are all ascribed to apostles, either the actual disciples of Jesus, Peter, Matthew, John, his brothers James, Jude, other apostles Paul, or those who were closely connected with apostles Mark, Luke. Most of these ascriptions are debated among scholars, except for seven letters of Paul that are almost certainly ones he wrote. A number of the books are written by authors falsely claiming to be one or another of these people. For example Ephesians 1, Peter, James, others of them were written anonymously and were only later ascribed by readers to an apostolic author. For example all four Gospels and Acts. The 27 books were not considered Scripture when they were first written or even in the first decades of their circulation, and only later were formed into a definite canon of Scripture. While some sub collections were widely accepted by the end of the 2nd century, the four Gospels the entire collection of these 27 and only these 27 did not emerge until the end of the 4th century and become more or less definitive only later. 5th century or so. The collection was never ratified by vote, but simply emerged as a wide consensus. The New Testament can be grouped into four subgroupings, two of which consist well of only one book. Okay, it's odd to call these groups. Still, this is a helpful way to think of the canon in terms of genre and theme. Gospels the beginnings of Christianity in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus 4 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John the spread of Christianity through the work of Jesus Apostles 1 book the Acts of the Apostles the beliefs, practices, and ethics of Christianity in writings by apostles 21 books the Pauline epistles, both authentic and disputed 13 books Romans 1 and 2 Corinthians Galatians Ephesians, Philippians Colossians 1st and 2nd Thessalonians 1st and 2nd Timothy Titus, Philemon General epistles 8 books Hebrews sometimes classified as a Pauline epistle James 1st and 2nd Peter 1st, 2nd and 3rd John and Jude Apocalypse the culmination of Christianity in a description of the end of this age one book the Revelation of John this schematic arrangement is somewhat simplified. All of the New Testament books, for example, not just the epistles, are concerned with Christian beliefs, practices, and ethics. And Paul's epistles are in some ways more reflective of Christian beginnings than are the Gospels. Nonetheless, this basic orientation to the New Testament writings can at least get us started in our understanding of the early Christian literature.
