Transcript English 116B: New Testament Literature

English 116B: New Testament
Literature
•Texts:
•New Testament and Other Early Christian
Writings, 2nd edition, ed. Bart D. Ehrman;
•The New Testament: a Historical
Introduction to the Early Christian Writings,
by Bart D. Ehrman, 3rd edition, 2004.
•Reader available today from Grafikart in IV.
Requirements
• Two essays (due dates on syllabus) on topics to
be assigned.
• Participation in discussion section.
• Midterm exam.
• Final exam.
• Lecture attendance is important; please be on
time and as a courtesy to fellow students and
the lecturer, please do not leave before the
lecture is over.
• You’ll find the percentages of each assignment
on class webpage
What is The New Testament?
• Part 2 of “The Bible”. Bible = “ta biblia,” the books.
• 27 books in NT, some long, some very short.
• All written in Koiné Greek (as opposed to the Hebrew of
“Old Testament” or Hebrew Scriptures.)
• Four gospels, written by anonymous authors traditionally
designated Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
• Acts of the Apostles, originally Part II of a large work that
began with Gospel of Luke.
• Then the “Epistles,” 21 books ranging from the lengthy
theological treatise of Romans to short, one-page letters
like Philemon, some by St. Paul, some by others,
including the anonymous Letter to the Hebrews.
• Finally, Revelation to John, or The Apocalypse, a
radically symbolic, visionary book.
“The Law and the Prophets”
• Two-part division of Hebrew Scriptures as
understood in time of Jesus.
• Refers to the Law, or Torah, the first five
books of Hebrew Bible, and the second
part, the prophetic and wisdom writings.
• In ordering of NT, are four gospels and
Acts intended as analogous to Law/Torah?
• And “Epistles” plus Revelation equivalent
to “Prophets”?
The Canon and the non-canonical
texts
• “Canon” = measuring rod.
• “Canon” of NT scriptures only emerged three centuries
after time of Jesus and apostles, in fourth century C.E.
• But previous lists indicate that not all 27 books were
always accepted everywhere.
• E.g., lots of doubt about Revelation.
• And some early Christian communities accepted other
books.
• After discoveries of Nag Hamadi documents, we know
there was a huge variety in what early Christians
believed, what books they read, valued.
• Lots more books than the canonical 27!
• We’ll read Gospel of Thomas and some fragments of
other non-canonical gospels.
Central idea of each part of Bible
• In Hebrew Scriptures: that God is one and
that he revealed himself over time to
Israel.
• That the Law (639 precepts) contain his
will for Israel, that Israel’s history similarly
manifests his design for Israel.
• In (canonical) New Testament: that God
revealed himself definitively in one man,
Jesus, an itinerant rabbi from Nazareth.
• This one man and the question of his
identity is at the center of all NT books.
Jesus/Yeshua
• Actual name in Aramaic = Yeshua, a variation of
Joshua.
• “Christ” a title, not his last name!
• From Greek “christos,” “anointed one”.
• Which translates “messiah,” a title of kings in
Hebrew Scriptures.
• In later biblical times, “messiah” referred to a
king or warrior who would liberate Israel from
first Greek, then Roman dominance.
• So “Christos” makes a particular claim about
Yeshua . . .
• . . . one that doesn’t necessarily include a claim
about divinity, divine sonship, etc.
Relationship of “Old” and “New”
Testaments
• On one hand, Jesus was a devout Jew, whose
identity was founded on the Hebrew Scriptures.
• All of his immediate followers similarly were
Jews, who revered the Hebrew Scriptures.
• But many gentile (= non Jewish) followers in
second generation would not have understood
or valued Hebrew Scriptures.
• In second century, nascent Christianity was
tempted to sever the link to Judaism, Hebrew
Scriptures.
Marcion
• In middle of second century, c. 144, Marcion, an early
Christian bishop, taught that God of Hebrew Scriptures
and God of Jesus were different, opposed gods.
• God of “Old Testament” was a harsh, judgmental god,
entirely separate from merciful god of “New Testament.”
• Entirely rejected “Old Testament” and all NT writings
except 10 Pauline epistles and an edited version of
Gospel of Luke.
• But this was rejected as heretical by the church in Rome,
to which Marcion presented his ideas.
• Marcion then formed his own sect, “Marcionites,” who
were judged heretical.
• But survived as a separate Christian movement for a
couple of centuries.
Essential relation to “Old
Testament”
• Henceforth, Hebrew Scriptures, the “Old
Testament” was considered essential to
Christian understanding.
• Understanding prevailed that Jesus was the
messiah who emerged from Israel.
• NT writers quote Hebrew Scriptures some 1600
times.
• In spite of tragic conflict of Judaism and
Christianity that occurred at end of 1st century,
the relation of Christianity to Judaism was
preserved.
Do all canonical books agree?
• The Canon imposes a kind of artificial sense of
agreement on 27 books of NT.
• NT written within a 75 year time period, from early 50’s
(early letters of Paul) to first decades of second century
(letters of “Paul” to Titus, Timothy, letters of “Peter”).
• But when seen individually and in historical
development, canonical books don’t always agree.
• In fact, elements of some books oppose things in other
books.
• Some books perhaps written in opposition to one
another!
• For example, why four gospels?
• No single, monolithic understanding of Jesus of
Nazareth among gospels and other NT texts.
• Elements of agreement – yes – but also significant
disagreement at times.
Need to “defamiliarize” NT texts
• Traditional view of Bethlehem scene: three
magi, shepherds.
• But this comes of two different, partially
opposing texts, Matthew and Luke.
• Defamiliarizing means seeing each text
afresh, seeing each as having separate
identity and purpose, coming from different
communities.
Before there was Mark, Matthew,
Luke, John . . .
• . . . there was “Q”!
• “Q” = “quelle,” “source” in German.
• Scholars hypothesize that this was originally a separate
document that preceded the canonical gospel texts.
• Q, as now constituted, is extracted from Matthew and
Luke, sayings they have in common that are not found in
Mark.
• (Mark and Q are the sources common to both Matthew
and Luke.)
• A non-narrative text – a collection of sayings.
• We can thus call Q a “sayings gospel,” collection of
sayings of Jesus.
• Q becomes for us a “virtual gospel,” i.e., real, but
something that must be reconstructed hypothetically.
The “synoptic question”
• The relationship of Matthew, Mark, Luke, the
“synoptic gospels.”
• John is a separate tradition, mostly unrelated to
M, M, L.
• Best understanding: Mark came first.
• And was the narrative source, independently, for
Matthew and for Luke.
• And Matthew and Luke shared another source,
now lost . . .
• . . . which is Q.
• (Each also had independent source material.)
• Modern scholarship sees Q existing
independently in various versions.
What do we make of Q and a “Q
community”?
• Don’t take too seriously the various “strata” of Q
that Burton Mack posits. Mack’s agenda.
• But how would we characterize the teaching of
Jesus from Q, if all we had was Q?
• What’s missing in Q from sense of Jesus drawn
from later, narrative gospels?
• What sort of community would value this Q
version of Jesus.
• How do we interpret, lacking any narrative
context?