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A Voyage Through the New Testament

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A Voyage Through the New Testament A VOYAGE THROUGH THE NEW TESTAMENT Catherine Cory University of St. Thomas, Minnesota PEARSON Prentice ----Hall Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cory, Catherine A. A voyage through the New Testament / Catherine Cory.-Ist ed. p.cm. Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-049495-5 ISBN-IO,0-13-049495-X 1. Bible. N.T.-Criticism, interpretation, etc. I.Title. BS236I.3.C672008 225.6'I-dc22 2007019941 Editor in Chief: Sarah Touborg Editorial Assistant: Carla Worner Assit. Marketing Manager: Sasha Anderson-Smith Senior Managing Editor: Joanne Riker Production Liaison: Fran RusselIo Manufacturing Buyer: Christina Amato Cover Design: Bruce Kenselaar Cover lllustration/Photo: The Art Archive/Bodleian Library Oxford (Bodley 352 folio 4v) Cartographer: Justin M. Trupe Director, Image Resource Center: Melinda Patelli Manager, Rights and Permissions: Zina Arabia Manager, Visual Research: Beth Brenzel Manager, Cover V1SU3.lResearch &: Permissions: Karen Sanatar Image Permission Coordinator: Richard Rodrigues Photo Researcher: Teri Stratford Composition/Full-Service Project Management: Suganya Karuppasamy, GGS Book Services Printer/Binder: RRDonnelIey & Sons Company Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on appropriate page within text or on page 525. Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 07458. Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding permission(s), write to: Rights and Permissions Department. Pearson Prentice Hall™ is a trademark of Pearson Education, Inc. Pearson® is a registered trademark of Pearson pIc Prentice HaU® is a registered trademark of Pearson Education, Inc. Pearson Education LTD. London Pearson Education North Asia Ltd Pearson Education Singapore, Pte. Ltd Pearson Education de Mexico, SA de CV. Pearson Education, Canada, Ltd Pearson Education Malaysia, Pte. Ltd Pearson Education-Japan Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, Pearson Education Australia P1Y, Limited New Jersey PEARSON Prentice 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 ---Hall ISBN-]3, 978-0-13-049495-5 ISBN-IO, 0-13-049495-X INTRODUCTION· OVERVIEW The Bible, the Scriptures of Christianity Divisions of the New Testament Divisions of the Old Testament The Question of Canon elcome to a most exciting adventure! We are about to launch into the study of W the New Testament, a body of literature that is already almost two thousand years old. It comes from a part of the world that is little known to Western cultures like OUf own, but amazingly it continues to have wide-ranging appeal to people all over the world, scholars and nonscholars alike. Some are drawn to the New Testa- ment as a historical document that provides a window into the sociopolitical world of the ancrent Middle East. Others use the New Testament as source material for understanding the role of [eli ion in cultural anthropology. Still others investigate the New Testament to see how literature rna es meaning for its readers and how various literary genres and rhetorical techniques affect the meaning of a text. Of course, many Christians look to the New Testament to inspire faith and to provide guidance for the way they live their lives. At first glance, these might sound like contradictory or competing interests and concerns, but they are not. People of faith can come to better understand the message of the New Testament by drawing on the insights of historical analysis, cultural anthropology and literary theory. In fact, teachers and scholars of the New Testament would argue that we cannot fully comprehend this literature with- out investigating itsthistorical settingl1 the sociopolitical environmenl in which it was composcdqthe cultural conventions that were in place at the time of its writ- ing, and the Jiterary forms and techniques, that first-century writers had at their disposal. Perhaps we can use the analogy of travel to a distant location, like India or China, to make our point. Using modern means of transportation, you can get to India without too much trouble. If you are visiting some of its major cities, you may encounter many things that look and sound familiar to you. You may even find a number of people who speak English and dress in clothing similar to yours. But can you say that you know India? Not at all! To really know India, you need to live there awhile. You need to learn about its history and religious and cultural practices. You need to understand the worldviews of various groups within Indian culture and how they relate to each other. You also need to know the languages its people speak. 1 2 Introduction So it is with the New Testament. We can read the text without much knowledge of how it was composed, and we might think we understand it. However, it is quite possible that we are seeing only a reflection of our own religIOUS a_lid cultural worIdVlews. 10 really understand the New Testament, we nee<ito study the histori- cal, religious ell tural, and literary contexts out oEw ·ch It came an In w ich w i~retJ.t ~oday.Tha ISwha e wi e trying to do with thl Introduction to the New"!eStaIrtent. In addition, we will explore today's ll.~wliterary theories to see how they help us unlock deep and ricl~.Jnterpretations of the New Testament for contemporary readers. Likewise, liberationist and feminist interpretations, as well as various cultural readings of scripture, can reveal truths about the biblical text that people of earlier generations might never have considered. We begin our study of the New Testament by describing the "big picture." What is contained in the New Testament? How were these books composed? How were they collected into this larger document we call the New Testament? What kind of authority does the New Testament have for Christians? Before tackling these ques- I tions, however, we have to establish the context for our investigation. The New Tes- tament belongs to a larger unit of Christian scriptures known as the Bible. Thus, I our first step will be to briefly describe the nature of the Bible so that we can situate I the New Testament within that larger document. THE BIBLE, THE SCRIPTURES OF CHRISTIANITY The title of a book often can be helpful in determ~~~} ~ents or at least in raising Our curiosity about what we will find between its covers. The Greek term ta biblia, from which the English word Bible is derived, means "the books." Thus, the literature that Christians call the Bible is actually a collection of books. Composed o_verthe Course of more than one thousand years, some of these books were written a very long time ago and some relatively recently-the latest ones being almost two thousand years old now. Some are rather long, while others are very short. One is only a single page in English translation! Some books contain legends and sto- ries about important historical figures in ancient Judaism and early Christianity. Others consist of prayers and sayings about how to live a good life. Still others pro- vide laws and prescriptions about how to honor and worship God. In sum, the Bible is a very compact library of a wide variety of literature. E)0\'l re-S The first thing a new reader of the. Bible will notice is that it is divided into two parts. Traditionally, these two major units of the Bible have been called the Old Testament and the New Testament. The word testament means "covenant" or "agreement."You've probably heard the phrase "last will and testament," referring both to the legal agreement that a person makes to ensure that his property is prop- erly disposed of after death and to the parting words of the deceased. However, when used in a r.eligiQUssense, as in the Bible, the term testament refers to God's cQ-Yenantrelationship with humanity. Thus, to describe the second part of the Bible as the New Testament is to suggest that it proclaims th~ew covenant established in Jesus the Christ . .,- - However, this terminology poses a problem because some people might be tempted to think that the books identified as the Old Testament proclaim an old Introduction 3 covenant, basically one that is no longer valid or effective. In fact, such a view would be entirely wrongheaded for at least two reasons. First, these books include the sacred scnptures of Judaism, which proclaim a living and enduring covenant between God and God's chosen people, the Jews. Second, although individual Christian churches mIght interpret these books differently, the books of the Old Testament enjoy the same status and authority within the Bible as do the New Tes- tament books. What, then, shall we caiI these two parts of the Bible? Some have suggested that the Bible be called Christian Scriptures. If we accept this term for the Bible, then the books we have traditionally called the New Testament could be identified as the Christian Testament, and the books that Christians call the Old Testament could be named the Hebrew Scriptures. This solution resolves the difficulties that arise by labeling the covenant of Judaism "old." However, the term Hebrew Scrip- tures misrepresents this collection of books because not all of these books were written in Hebrew and they do not exactly correspond with the scriptures of Judaism. Although other potential solutions have run into similar difficulties, the motive for seeking alternative descriptions of the Old and New Testaments is a positive one: respect for Judaism as the elder brother or sister of Christianity.
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