This basic New Testament course has enabled me understand the message God wanted to give us in knowing that after the terrible ways of humans in the old testament he has now come to earth as human so that we can identify better with God rather than imaginary.
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Christians see in the New Testament the fulfillment of the promise of the Old Testament. It relates and interprets the new covenant, represented in the life and death of Jesus, between God and the followers of Christ, the promised Messiah.
Six benefits of studying God's Word with othersIt follows Jesus' example. As believers, we seek to follow Jesus' example in all things. ... It directs us in wisdom. ... It creates meaningful connections. ... It provides necessary encouragement. ... It keeps us accountable. ... It transforms our families, workplaces and communities.
The Gospels are your most important resource in a study of Christianity. Christians obtain most of their knowledge and understanding of Jesus from the Gospels. Christians regard the Gospels as the Word of God and often treat them with more awe and reverence than other parts of the Bible. Gospel means 'good news'.
Though there may exist some form of worship and prayer, the purpose of Bible study is to collectively grasp an understanding of God through His Word. These groups become small communities often sharing this personal journey to discovering the meaning of the passage.
First, the Bible shows us God's character and provides us God's revelation of himself to his people. In each section of the Bible, we see God's holy, unchanging, faithful, gracious and loving character.
Studying the Old Testament gives a modern believer knowledge on the relationship between God and people, explains certain universal principles, helps to understand the mission of Jesus, provides material for analyzing the Apostles' writings, and makes the New Testament more comprehensible.
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Understanding the historical and cultural influences on the New Testament helps to give us a foundation for why things functioned as they did throughout the New Testament. It gives us context for the Scriptures that informs our understanding of them.
The order in which the canon of the New Testament, the collection of these twenty-seven books, believed to be uniquely authoritative, was finalized, may have corresponded to the order in which some Christians in the early centuries of the faith believed that the Gospels were written. Today most scholars think that Mark was ...
The term euangelion, the Greek word for gospel meaning “good news, ” was often used by imperial edicts announcing the latest victory of the Roman Empire over its enemies, the establishment of peace on its borders, and other similar events.
The book is also a letter and contains seven letters to seven churches in Asia Minor or Western Turkey. It describes itself in 1:3 as prophecy referring to things that will happen in the future as well as explaining God’s intentions for the churches in the present time to whom the Apostle John writes.
The so called general epistles, or letters, because they were at one time believed to have been written to more than one single church, and some of them indeed were, include Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1 and 2 and 3 John, and Jude.
Matthew clearly formed the best bridge, or connection, or transition, with those Old Testament books. After the four Gospels, understandably was placed one book that is known as the Acts of the Apostles. It too reflects a historical genre, though, whereas the Gospels all clearly have one central character, Jesus of Nazareth, ...
The term “gospel” itself comes from a Greek word that meant “good news.”. It was a term often used in the Roman Empire of the ancient Middle East into which Jesus and Christianity were birthed. The term euangelion, the Greek word for gospel meaning “good news,” was often used by imperial edicts announcing the latest victory ...
Hebrews then, technically, is not part of the General Epistles but forms a transition or bridge between those letters that have Paul’s name attached to them on all of the manuscripts that we know of and those who have someone else’s name attached to them, namely, the writings of James, Peter, John and Jude.
Fr. Nicholas King, S.J., is currently Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Heythrop College, University of London. Previously, he was Chair of the Catholic Biblical Association and Visiting Professor at the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, where he taught New Testament and Koine Greek.
Now, The New Testament: A Bible Study Course answers your most important questions about its 27 books.
Prior to coming to Oxford, he taught in South Africa, where he served as a District Observer for its first democratic elections. He has published a new translation of the New Testament (published by Kevin Mayhew in 2008), and more recently a translation of the entire Greek Bible (available from the same publisher).
Like his own translation of the New Testament, his teaching is always lively and original, the product not only of scholarship but also of prayer and devotional reflection. As well as being a scholar, he is also valuable as a spiritual director. – Dom Henry Wansbrough, O.S.B., University of Oxford.
Father King is a great lecturer. He is very knowledgeable with a very pleasant delivery. His course has helped me more than any other source in improving my understanding of the New Testament. He is gifted at explaining concepts and does so with a sense of humor which makes it most enjoyable.
The third category, or literary form, or genre that the New Testament contains involves letters, epistles, as they have come to be called. Thirteen of these are attributed to the Apostle Paul, that towering figure of the first generation of Christian history who next only to Jesus himself was responsible for molding the initial faith of Jesus’ followers into the forms that would endure over the centuries. The thirteen letters attributed to Paul include in their canonical order: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. Again, the order is probably not chronological. We will attempt to put these letters in their chronological order as we survey them in coming lessons in order to understand some of the historical connections between them.
We need to understand that there are, to begin with, four Gospels, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The term “gospel” itself comes from a Greek word that meant “good news.” It was a term often used in the Roman Empire of the ancient Middle East into which Jesus and Christianity were birthed. The term euangelion, the Greek word for gospel meaning “good news,” was often used by imperial edicts announcing the latest victory of the Roman Empire over its enemies, the establishment of peace on its borders, and other similar events. Jesus and his followers used this same term to suggest that their message was good news of at least a comparable if not even greater scope.
After the four Gospels, understandably was placed one book that is known as the Acts of the Apostles. It too reflects a historical genre, though, whereas the Gospels all clearly have one central character, Jesus of Nazareth, and thus may be thought of even more as biographies than as simply general works of history, the Acts does not as clearly have a single leading character. We may think of it, therefore, more along the lines of the broader history writing of the ancient Mediterranean world. And because it describes selected events believed to be of particular significance in the first generation of the life of the early church, it was natural in the process of canonization to place it immediately following the four Gospels because its events chronologically come after the life of Jesus as described in the four Gospels.
Fourthly, we may speak of an academic reason for studying the New Testament. Whether one is listening at the most elementary levels of learning to read and write or whether one is studying in the highest degrees that a given university may offer , the New Testament makes claims which thoughtful, growing, educated people should know, understand, and evaluate, to examine, to see if they are true, and these claims center around the identity, the person and the work, the teachings and the deeds of Jesus of Nazareth. Whether or not one chooses to become a follower of his, his claims and those of his followers are of such central significance to the meaning of life and human identity that one surely should examine them in some detail and make an informed choice as to whether one is going to accept them or not.
Ehrman describes the New Testament as being composed of unreliable and inconsistent fables. Most people want both sides of a matter presented, and there could be more than two sides. This class offers an extremely one-sided review of the authorship and writing of the New Testament.
9 Noncanonical Gospels. More than 20 Gospels survive that did not make it into the New Testament. Most are highly legendary and use earlier written accounts as sources. They can be categorized as either narrative or "sayings" Gospels.
This lecture considers some of the Deutero-Pauline epistles, so called because scholars accord them a secondary place within the Pauline corpus. Writing in someone else's name was a well-known practice in the ancient world, and could be a good strategy for getting one's work read.
16 Pauline Ethics. Paul's writings are pervaded by a concern for upright, moral living. He believes that even the Gentiles should strive to follow the ethical laws of the Jewish Scriptures, especially the command of Leviticus 19:18 that one should love one's neighbor as oneself.
7 Luke—Jesus the Savior of the World. Luke emphasizes Jesus as a Jewish prophet. Jesus knows that it is God's plan for his salvation to go out to the whole world, and hence does not predict the imminent end of the age. The message of salvation must first go out to the Gentiles, which will take time.
One of the ways to study Matthew and Luke is to compare them to Mark, looking for evidence of modifications. Matthew in particular stresses Jesus' Jewish identity and his relationship to currents within the Judaism of his age. 7 Luke—Jesus the Savior of the World. Luke emphasizes Jesus as a Jewish prophet. Jesus knows that it is God's plan ...
6 Matthew—Jesus the Jewish Messiah. Because Matthew, Mark, and Luke share so many of the same stories, they are often called the "Synoptic" Gospels. ...