Transcript Revising the Testament HUM 2051: Civilization I Fall 2014 Dr. Perdigao October 29-November 3, 2014

Revising the Testament
HUM 2051: Civilization I
Fall 2014
Dr. Perdigao
October 29-November 3, 2014
Threading Connections
• Questions of translation, authorship between the New Testament and
Beowulf, shared grounds
• Ideas about storytelling, constructing narratives
• Function and purpose of the parable, allegory (c0nnection to Dante as well)
• Virgil’s attempts at creating foundations, transition from oral to written
composition
• Mythology: religion, shift from polytheistic beliefs to centralized authority
within the Roman empire
• Fall of empires, reflecting back for meaning
Placing Faith
• Old Testament=Christian Bible (covenant)
• New Testament=Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, The Epistles, and
Revelation
• “Bipartite structure”—Christian understanding of fulfillment of history
and completion
• Birth and crucifixion of Jesus—transcending events of Old Testament
• Moses—as prefiguring Jesus, typology
• Jewish belief—history as open-ended
• Christian—looking backward, earlier events giving meaning
Followings
• Jesus (4 BCE-29 CE) executed during reign of Tiberius (who succeeded
Augustus) (Perry 171)
• Like Socrates, wrote nothing and nothing was written about him during
his lifetime (Perry 174)
• As “threat to ancient traditions” (Perry 175)
• After death, emergence of Christianity, name given: Christ (Lord’s
Anointed, the Messiah) (Perry 175); Apostles who preach the gospel about
Christ
Followings
• Saint Paul (5-67 CE)—disseminating teachings, emergence of Christianity
• “moral transformation and eternal life” offered by Paul’s teachings (178)
• Originates in 1st century CE, grows in third, becomes official religion of
Roman Empire at the end of the fourth century (under Theodosius I in 392
CE)
• Appeal of Christianity due to “corresponding decline in the vitality of
Hellenism and a shift in cultural emphasis—a movement from reason to
emotion and revelation” (178)
• During the Hellenistic Age, individual struggled with the “problems of
alienation and lack of community, “ and sought a “new form of
attachment” (179)
• The Roman Empire offered one solution, but “the individual found it
difficult to be devoted to a political organization so vast, remote, and
impersonal” (179)
Followings
• Christianity succeed through “appeal of its message” as well as “The power
of its organization,” through its followers (Perry 179)
• Initially Roman government was tolerant and did not interfere (180)
• Romans later began to fear Christians as subversives by teaching allegiance
to God and not to Rome (180)
• Did not threaten religion, might have strengthened it
Dissemnination
• 313 CE—Constantine issues Edict of Milan, toleration to Christians, led to
growth of Christianity and the Christianization of the Empire (Perry 181)
• 392 CE—Theodosius I made Christianity the state religion of the Empire
and declared the worship of pagan gods illegal (181)
• Success due to its combination of “a historic Judaic monotheism” with
“Greek rational philosophy” (Perry 181)
• Christian writings—Mark (66-70 CE) from oral tradition to writing;
Matthew and Luke writing after Mark; final Gospel written by John (110
CE)
Transitions
• Christianity in Late Roman Empire as official religion
• Christianity vs. Classical Humanism: classical humanists with belief in
individual’s ability to reason and shape character; Christianity with stress
on the individual but larger context, transcendent (Perry 191)
• With emergence of Christianity, “Life’s purpose was no longer to achieve
excellence in this world through the full and creative development of
human capacities, but to attain salvation in a heavenly city” (Perry 191).
• “In the classical view, history had no ultimate end, no ultimate meaning;
periods of happiness and misery repeated themselves endlessly. In the
Christian view, history is filled with spiritual meaning” (Perry 191).
History spans time from fall of Adam and Eve—leads to return of Christ
and eradication of evil
Language and Audience
• Classical Hebrew, Aramaic, Semitic, Greek—four languages spoken at
time
• Latin—language of government (for Judea, Roman province, first century
BCE)
• Four Gospels—Greek
• Matthew—to Jewish public, convince Jesus is Messiah announced by
Hebrew prophets
• Mark—to Gentile audience, needs of Roman reader (translation)
• Luke—cultured Greek readers
Evolutions
• Luke 2: Nazareth, Galilee, Jerusalem: “Did you not know that I must be in
my father’s house?” (1085)
• Matthew 5-7: “Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect” (1087); “the
multitudes were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who
has authority, and not like their own scribes” (1089)
• Matthew 13: “Because it is given to you to understand the secrets of the
Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given . . . Therefore I talk in
parables, because they have sight but do not see, and hearing but do not
hear or understand” (1091); “I will open my mouth in parables, and pour
out what has been hidden since the creation” (1091)
Tripartite Structure
• Matthew 26: Judas Iscariot (foundation for Dante’s Satan); “Truly I tell
you that on this night before the cock crows you will disown me three
times” (1092); Peter’s vow; Gethsemane
• Matthew 27: “Over his head they put the label giving the charge against
him, where it was written: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” (1095);
alongside two robbers; sixth hour—darkness, “My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?” (1095); “the veil of the temple was split in two from top
to bottom, and the earth was shaken, and the rocks were split, and the
tombs opened and many bodies of the holy sleepers rose up; and after his
resurrection they came out of their tombs and went into the holy city, and
were seen by many . . . After three days I shall rise up” (1096)
Revelation
• Matthew 28: “All authority has been given to me, in heaven and on earth.
Go out, therefore, and instruct all the nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
that I have taught you. And behold, I am with you, all the days until the
end of the world” (1097)