The New Testament (original) (raw)

Introduction to the Special Issue “Current Trends in New Testament Study”

Religions, 2019

This special issue of Religions focuses on seven of the most important formal methods used to interpret the New Testament today. Several of the articles also touch on Old Testament/Hebrew Bible interpretation. In line with the multiplicity of methods for interpretation of texts in the humanities in general, biblical study has never before seen so many different methods. This situation poses both opportunities and challenges for scholars and students alike. This issue contains contributions by a mix of established scholars and younger scholars who have recently demonstrated their expertise in a certain method. Some articles will be easily accessible only to biblical scholars, but most will be accessible and instructive for beginning-and intermediate-level students of the Bible. I hope that the free-access essays offered here will become required reading in many universities and seminaries. The readership statistics displayed with each article, with information about how they have been read since their online publication here, show that they already have a wide appeal. I want to thank these authors for their contribution to this issue and for working so well with me and indirectly with the anonymous peer reviewers. Here, adapted from their abstracts, are brief introductions to their articles. Michele A. Connolly's article, "Antipodean and Biblical Encounter: Postcolonial Vernacular Hermeneutics in Novel Form," gives a post-secular exploration of what the Bible offers to modern-day Australia. She maintains that Australian culture, despite its secularity, has a capacity for spiritual awareness in ways that resonate with the Bible. Connolly employs R. S. Sugirtharajah's concept of "vernacular hermeneutics" to show that a contemporary Australian novel, The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton, expresses an Australian spirituality saturated with the images and values of the New Testament, but in a non-religious literary form that needs interpretation for a secular audience. Connolly's creative and fascinating article speaks not only to the Australian context but can serve as a model for the intersection of postcolonial biblical criticism and contemporary literature from many parts of the post-Christian world. "A Deep-Language Mathematical Analysis of Gospels, Acts and Revelation," by Emilio Matricciani and Liberato De Caro, offers a different kind of statistical analysis of the New Testament than scholars may be familiar with. It uses mathematical methods developed for studying what the authors call deep-language parameters of literary texts, for example, the number of words per sentence, the number of characters per word, the number of words between interpunctions (punctuation within sentences), and the number of interpunctions per sentence. Matricciani and De Caro consider, in concert with generally-accepted conclusions of New Testament scholarship, the full texts of the canonical Gospels, Acts and Revelation, then the Gospel passages attributable to the triple tradition (Matthew, Mark and Luke), to the double tradition (Matthew and Luke), to the single tradition in Matthew and Luke, and to the Q source. The results confirm and reinforce some common conclusions about the Gospels, Acts, Revelation, and Q source, but the authors show that they cast some new light on the capacity of the short-term memory of the readers/listeners of these texts. The authors posit that these New Testament writings fit very well in the larger Greek literature of the time. For readers unaccustomed to using

Essays in Biblical Interpretation

2005

1 FORWARD This book, as may be gathered from its title, is a group of essays loosely structured around the central theme of biblical interpretation. These essays are the fruit of several years of study and writing while a graduate student at Global University. Each essay is a self-contained unit of thought, but the work as a whole retains a unit of purpose-to uncover what it is that God is saying in the Bible, how He is saying it, and how it can be understood and applied today. The foundational presupposition of the entire work is the centrality of Jesus in all of God's revelation. From this presupposition several key secondary presuppositions are derived and elucidated throughout the work (it will be left to the reader to discover what these secondary presuppositions are). The essays have been grouped into four parts with five chapters each: the history of biblical interpretation, the message of the Bible, the form of the Bible, and the Bible in theology and apologetics.

New Testament Theology Re-Loaded

New Testament Theology Re-Loaded: Integrating Biblical Theology and Christian Origins

This study examines the problem of balancing the historical and theological components of New Testament Theology. It presents a critique of both Biblical Theology and Christian Origins and finally argues for a ‘Theology of the New Covenant’ where theology emerges out of the interface of canon and community.

Second Criticality— An Interdisciplinary Approach to the New Testament and its Contexts

2015

In my just-released introduction to the New Testament published by Abingdon I find myself trying to make several contributions that make this something of a new and serviceable approach. First, I proceed in canonical order, dividing the book into three parts (the Gospels and Jesus, Acts and the writings of Paul, General Letters and Revelation) beginning each chapter with laying out from three to six crises or background issues that help the reader appreciate the contexts in which the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were written. Nearly sixty crises and contextual issues are outlined overall, and I feel this grounded approach to the New Testament writings helps today’s readers better understand and interpret the writings regarding crises and contexts—both ancient and contemporary. Each chapter then proceeds to an overview of the literary features of each text, its message, and a brief section helping today’s readers engage the text meaningfully. And, the fourteen chapters wor...

(Term Paper) - Developments in Biblical Interpretation since the Enligtenment

2020

When two of Jesus’ disciples were on their way to Emmaus, sadly discussing the events of the last three days, they were clearly dealing with a hermeneutical problem. They were not able to interpret Scriptures correctly concerning the death and resurrection of their Lord. As Jesus joined them on their way, he helped them as a true hermeneut, “[interpreting] to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:13-28). This small incident demonstrates several crucial aspects concerning biblical hermeneutics: (a) the Bible needs to be interpreted; (b) Christ is to be found in all of Scripture; (c) although we can be familiar with Scripture, we can fail to understand or apply it correctly; (d) personal and cultural biases can distort Scripture (Luke 24:21a); (e) man on his own is unable to interpret Scripture correctly without divine help; and (f) Scripture is God’s infallible word. Biblical hermeneutics, therefore, are serious business, possibly resulting in either confusion and misunderstanding, or in healthy faith and guidance (Luke 24:32). Herein lies the problem. Although Scripture testifies of its own infallibility and divine inspiration (2 Tim. 3:16), there is no “cookbook-recipe-like” specification of how correct hermeneutics should be conducted. Therefore, because culture affects all attempts at interpretation, many methods have been developed and applied since the beginning of Biblical hermeneutics; some better, and some worse. Ramm (1970) emphasized: "There is no profit to us if God has spoken and we do not know what He has said“ and concludes “that we need to know the correct method of Biblical interpretation so that we do not confuse the voice of God with the voice of man". This essay is concerned with the development of how evangelicalism interprets the Bible from the Enlightenment to the present. It is quite useful to also investigate this from the Reformation onwards to the emergence of Evangelicalism, since these developments in Biblical hermeneutics are the beginning of Evangelicalism's attempt to interpret Scriptures. The essay will then continue with a short introduction on the Enlightenment, followed by a presentation of four scholars who were important for Biblical criticism. After that, the developments in the 19th and 20th Centuries will be investigated. The study of hermeneutics is not an exact science and its developments are diverse and manifold. Therefore, it is only possible to present a limited survey. However, the main key data will be presented.

In the School of the Word. Biblical Interpretation from the New to the Old Testament

Translated by Kristin Towle. With an introduction by Kevin Zilverberg, 2021

Carlos Granados and Luis Sánchez-Navarro propose reading the Bible with Christian faith, not as one approach among many, but as a disposition demanded by the New Testament for proper interpretation of both the Old and the New. Even so, the authors’ faith never leads them to dismiss history or to discard the tools of the historical-critical method. On the contrary, these sciences allow the faithful reader to take a holistic approach to biblical truth. When the reader also takes full account of the ecclesial reality in which the Bible was formed and transmitted, and in which it must be read still today, he or she encounters the word proclaimed by the text. Indeed, the words of Holy Writ ultimately proclaim the Word (Logos), Jesus Christ, in whose Spirit they were written. The authors’ years of shared prayer, study, conversation, and ministry have led to this coauthored book, comprised of thirteen individually authored essays, which bears witness to that ongoing unity that they live as confreres. Not surprisingly, Granados and Sánchez-Navarro frequently reference the same theologians, especially Brevard Childs, Paul Beauchamp, SJ, and Pope Benedict XVI.

Biblical Interpretation: Paradigm Shifts and Historical and Sociological Perspectives

This essay falls into three parts, the first of which deals with the major shifts or switches that have occurred in the history of biblical hermeneutics. While the most recent shift is away from the diachronic historical method as the touchstone of criticism, its usefulness in partnership with synchronic methods like sociological exegesis is widely recognised. It is this method which we will discuss in the second part. In the third part, our attention will be focused on the sociological approach, which is a more than useful complement to historical criticism.