New Testament (REL 102)

Part One: Bible 101

This course uses Blackboard for announcements, assignments, grades, etc.

Abbreviations:

HB/OT: Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
SBLSB: The Society of Biblical Literature Study Bible
NOAB: New Oxford Annotated Bible (4th ed.)
NT: New Testament

Supplemental Resource: Dale Martin, "Why Study the New Testament" (Open Yale Courses)

Reading: Sumney, 3-14 (From the beginning of chapter 1 through "The church's first canon")

Supplemental Resources: SBLSB, 1-9; Church Fathers; Early Christian Writings; Bible Odyssey; Sefaria

Supplemental readings are not required.  They are resources to go further into subjects that interest you.

Reading: Sumney, 14-16 (From "The Criterion of apostolicity" to the end of the chapter 1)

Supplemental Resources: Luther's Treatment of the 'Disputed Books' of the New Testament; The Reformation; The Non-canonical Homepage

Reading: Sumney, 19-31 (Chapter 2)

Assignment 1 (20 pts.): "The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture" (See Assignments in Blackboard)

Featured Supplemental Resource: Can We Trust the Text of the NT? A Debate between Bart D. Ehrman and Daniel B. Wallace

More Supplemental Resources: "Textual Criticism" (NOAB, 2192-97); "Translation of the Bible into English" (NOAB, 2197-2201); Farley, "Hart's 'The New Testament'"; Ian Paul, "Can we fix Bible translation?"; Experience Codex Sinaiticus; Gupta and Sandford, "Introduction to Textual Criticism"; for more, click here.

Reading: Sumney, 33-46 (Chapter 3)

The Sumney chapter provides a concise overview of the history of the concept of biblical inspiration.

Supplemental Resources

Graves, "Augustine and the Inspiration of Scripture"

Chesterton, "C. S. Lewis on the Bible"

Kamionkowski, "Violence Against Women in the Hebrew Bible"

Gnuse, "Inspiration," 2258-59 (See Course Content)

Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism (a new book on a recurring problem)

Evangelical Christianity has had a long debate about historical criticism of the Bible.  At the fundamentalist end of the interpretive spectrum, the method is usually rejected and even vilified.  More moderate evangelicals--often referred to as "conservatives" as opposed to fundamentalists--have long used historical criticism with caution.  Indeed, some of the finest historical-critical commentaries available are written by theologically moderate to conservative biblical scholars.  This online article is an interview with the authors of a recent book about the use of historical criticism by Evangelical biblical scholars.  The authors are themselves Evangelicals writing to convince fellow Evangelicals that historical criticism of the Bible is necessary and beneficial.

The Interpretation of the Bible in the [Catholic] Church (Pontifical Biblical Commission, Presented on March 18, 1994)

This long but quite readable official document explains why the Catholic Church considers historical criticism to be indispensable for understanding the Bible.

"Applied Peshat: Historical-Critical Method and Religious Meaning"

Some of the finest historical-critical biblical scholars in the world today are Jewish but, as in Christianity, there are Jews who object to it.  This is an article by Stephen Garfinkel, a professor at Jewish Theological Seminary of America, defending the importance of historical criticism.

More Historical Criticism Links

Reading: SBLSB, 9-12; Given, "The Interpretive Spectrum" (See Course Documents)

Supplemental Resources: The Society of Biblical Literature; Bible Odyssey; Fiddler on the Roof - Tradition

Assignment 2 (20 pts.): "Personal Introduction and Reflection on Biblical Interpretation" (See Assignments in Blackboard)

Supplemental Resources: The Society of Biblical Literature

Part Two: The Backstory

Reading: Sumney 197-206 (From the beginning of chapter 10 through "Hasmoneans and Sadducees")

Supplemental Resources: SBLSB, 1327-34 ("The Hellenistic World"); Sumney, 148-52; click here for more.

Reading: Sumney, 207-212 (From "Roman Domination of Palestine" in chap. 10 through "Summary")

Supplemental Resources: Sumney, 142-70; 158 (Map 7:2); 175-80 (From the beginning of chap. 8 through the Job portion); Siege of Jerusalem

Reading: Sumney, 212-22 (From "Parties within First-Century Judaism" in chapter 10 to the end of the chapter)

Assignment 3 (20 pts.): "Understanding the Parties within First-Century Judaism" (See Assignments in Blackboard)

Supplemental Resources: Sumney, 173-94; 180-83 ("Esther"); "The Roman Period" (NOAB, 2247-53); Hillel and Shammai; Hillel; Shammai; 151 (Box 7.5, "The Servant Songs"); "Servant of the Lord" in The New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible (Course Documents); "Servant of the Lord" in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Course Documents); Burns, "Pharisees and Rabbinic Judaism" (Bible Odyssey); Lim, "Essenes in Judaean Society: the sectarians of the Dead Sea Scrolls" (OUPBlog)

Part Three: The Apocalyptic Jesus and Churches (ca. 30-70 C.E.)

Reading: Sumney, 245-48 (From the beginning of chapter 12 through ""Theological Accounts"); Three Gospel Synopsis

The link takes you to an online synopsis of the gospels.  Don't read the whole thing, just test drive it. For example, find "The Temptation" in chapter 1 of Mark and click on the little color-coded Bibles at the beginning of the account.

Supplemental Resources: Sumney, 53-54 ("Varieties of Genres"); "A Table of Parallel Passages in the Gospels" (HSB, 1653-63); "Introduction to the Gospels" (NOAB, 1743-45); The Two Source Hypothesis; The Synoptic Problem; More Supplemental Synoptic Problem Reading; Supplemental Synoptic Problem Exercises; Harris, "The Continuing Quest for the Historical Jesus" (See Course Content, Supplemental Reading); Licona, "Why are there differences in the Gospels? Ancient biography, Plutarch & the Gospels"; McKnight, The Jesus We'll Never Know; Search for the Historical Jesus

The first two links take you to lots of info supplementing the basics you get in the textbook and presenting alternative theories.

Reading: Sumney, 248-58 (From "The Search for a Historical Jesus" to the end of chapter 12); Three Gospel Synopsis

Supplemental Reading: SBLSS, 1725-31; E. P. Sanders, "Jesus" (Britannica); The Jefferson Bible;

Assignment 4 (20 pts.): "Summary and Response to the Ehrman and Licona Debate, Part 1" (See Assignments in Blackboard)

Supplemental Resources: Ehrman & Licona: Are the Gospels Historically Reliable? Part 1; Ehrman & Licona: Are the Gospels Historically Reliable? Part 2; Ehrman-Bass Debate Did the Historical Jesus Claim to be Divine; The Historical Jesus: Four Views;

Reading: QLuke and QMatt (In Course Documents)

Most NT scholars believe that the authors of the Gospels attributed to Matthew and Luke used a lost written source made up mostly of sayings of Jesus.  This source is referred to as "Q," an abbreviation for the German word "Quelle" which means source.  Plausible dates for composition of this source range from the 40s to the 60s C.E., making these materials common to Matthew and Luke among the earliest surviving traditions about Jesus.  Though written in Greek when incorporated into Matthew and Luke, it may have been composed originally in Aramaic, the language of Jesus and his disciples.  Even if the Q source theory were ever proven wrong, the inclusion of these similar materials in two Gospels would seem to confirm their importance for understanding the message of Jesus.

Assignment 5 (20 pts.): "The Kingdom of God in Q" (See Assignments in Blackboard)

Supplemental Resources: Papias; Q Source (Wikipedia)

The Papias link takes you to the earliest surviving traditions concerning Papias (ca. 135 C.E.), including his comments about the writing activities of Mark and Matthew.  Since what he ascribes to Matthew here does not sound like the book of Matthew we know, but rather a collection of Aramaic "sayings" later "translated" (or "interpreted"), some scholars think that the disciple Matthew could have been the author of the earliest edition of Q.

Reading: Sumney, 305-314; Acts 8-15; Galatians 2:1-14

Supplemental Resources: Cf. Gal 2:15-3:18 with James 2:14-26; Was James Being Legalistic in Acts 15? or “Can I Eat a Rare Steak?”

See Assignments on Blackboard.  This 90 minute timed exam can be taken online anytime between 8 am and 11 pm on March 7th.

Reading: Sumney, 315-21 (From the beginning of chapter 15 through "1 Thessalonians: Context")

Supplemental Resources: Dr. Mark's Annotated Chronology of Paul; E. P. Sanders, "Paul" (Britannica)

Reading: Sumney, 342-45 ("Romans: The Context" through ""The Edict of Claudius" in chapter 15); Romans 1:1-3:20

Supplemental Resources: Acts 19:21-20:3; Sumney, 60-62 ("The Fall" in chapter 4), 311-15; Luther, "Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans"; Galatians; Galatians Supplemental Links;

Reading: Sumney, 345-47 ("Three Images of Salvation" through "Israel's election remains, but salvation is through Christ" in chapter 15); Romans 3:20-11:36

Supplemental Resources: Mattison, "A Summary of the New Perspective on Paul"

Reading: Sumney, 347-48 ("The Life of Faith" section through the "Conclusion" of chapter 15); Romans 12-16

Assignment 7 (20 pts.): "Paul and 'Homosexuality'" (See Assignments in Blackboard)

Supplemental Resources: Sumney, 69-71 ("Sodom and Gomorrah" and "Abraham Bargains with God" in chapter 4); Given, Homosexuality and the Bible;

Part Four: The Less Apocalyptic Jesus and Churches (ca. 70-100 C.E.)

Reading: Sumney, 276–82 (Chapter 13, the Luke section); HSB, 1759-61; Luke 1:1-3:38; 4:14-30

Supplemental Resources: Sumney, 146-48 ("Micah"); Goldberg, "The Josephus-Luke Connection"

Reading: Luke 5:1–11; 6:24–26, 43; 7:1–5, 11–17, 36–50; 8:1–3; 9:44–45, 51–56; 10:1, 17–20, 25–42; 11:5–8, 27–28; 12:13–21, 33–53; 13:1–17, 31–33; 14:1–14, 25–33; 15:1–17:21; 18:1–14, 31–34; 19:1–11, 41–44; 21:20–24, 37–38; 22:15–16, 31, 35–38; 23:2–49; 24:1–53

Since a large percentage of Mark is repeated in Luke, and you have already read the materials found in both Matthew and Luke designated Q, the reading assignments only include material unique to Luke.  Of course Luke's form of the material in Mark is often significantly different.  I will include a few examples in class.

Assignment 9 (20 pts.): "Luke’s Deviations from Mark’s Passion" (See Assignments in Blackboard)

Reading: Sumney, 389-96 (From the beginning of chapter 18 through "Summary")

Supplemental Resources: Click here.

The following links offer explanations from conservative biblical scholars of the problems with the doctrine of "the Rapture"

Ben Witherington III: Where Did Rapture Theology Come From?; Is the Rapture Doctrine Biblical?; Revelation and Apocalypticism

N. T. Wright on the Rapture; Middleton, "Does Tom Wright Believe in the Second Coming?" (The answer is yes; he just doesn't believe in "the rapture" version of it.)

Extra Credit Assignment (20 pts.): "The Resurrection Bodies of Paul and the Gospels" (See Assignments in Blackboard)

Part Five: The Mostly Non-Apocalyptic Jesus and Churches (ca. 100-140 C.E.)

Reading: Sumney, 287-91 (From "John: Incarnational Christology" through "The Woman at the Well" in chapter 13); John 1-11

Supplemental Resources: Origen on the Differences Between the Gospels; The Gospel of John Film; The Five Gospels Parallels; The Johannine Literature Web; The Gospel of John: Conflicts and Controversies; Allegory of the Cave Links; The Gnostic Archive; Heracleon: Fragments from his commentary on the Gospel of John; The Gospel of Thomas; Click here;

Supplemental Video: Johannine Christianity: The Gospel (Dale Martin, Yale University)

More information on Dale Martin and his Yale NT course, click here.

Reading: Sumney, 291-95 (From "'The Jews' in John" to the end of chapter 15); John 12-21

Supplemental Resources: Origen on the Differences Between the Gospels; The Gospel of John Film; The Five Gospels Parallels; The Johannine Literature Web; The Gospel of John: Conflicts and Controversies; Allegory of the Cave Links; The Gnostic Archive; Heracleon: Fragments from his commentary on the Gospel of John; The Gospel of Thomas; Click here for more;

Reading: Sumney, 362-66 ("1 and 2 Timothy, Titus (the Pastoral Epistles)" to the end of chapter 16); 1 Timothy

Assignment 10 (20 pts.): "Paul and Women" (See Assignments in Blackboard)

Supplemental Resources: 2 Timothy; Titus; Sumney, 60-62 ("The Fall"); Ian Paul, "Can we fix Bible translation?"

Reading: Sumney, 377-79 ("2 Peter" through "A motivation for moral behavior" in chapter 17); 2 Peter

Supplemental Resources: Sumney, 379-81; Jude

REL 102-1 Final Exam

Wednesday, May 8, 8:45 am to 10:45 am

For final exam description and preparation instructions, see Assignments.