1. Interpreting the New Testament
History and Methods
Interpreting the New Testament

2. Canonization of Scripture
Canon: A measure or yardstick – a list of authoritative books to “measure” correct belief and practice.
Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
Finalized Early in 2nd Century
Contains 39 Books
Roman Catholic Old Testament Contains 49 books (which was later shortened to 46), and was based on the Septuagint (LXX) Old Testament
See Chart on Page 56 in textbook

3. Canonization of Scripture
Christian Bible (New Testament)
First mention of the 27 Books currently viewed as authoritative was in St. Athanasius’ Festal Letter (Easter Letter) in 367 CE
Protestant Christians in 16th Century adopted these 27 books in their canon as well. (Even thought Martin Luther didn’t believe the Letter of James should be included.)

4. New Testament Genres
Genre: a category for classifying types of writings
Gospels (Biographies)
Four: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
History
One: The Acts of the Apostles
Epistles (Letters)
Twenty-one: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2, & 3 John, Jude
Apocalypse
One: Revelation
See Chart on Page 57 in textbook

5. New Testament Criticism (Study)
Textual Criticism
Used to Classify Surviving Manuscripts
Type of material manuscript was written on (Papyrus)
Kind of Script Used (Uncials: Block Capital Letters)
Content
Attempts to identify/determine the Author’s original words
Strives to establish the definitive text.

6. Development of the English Translation
Vulgate (See page 63)
Translated the original Greek into Latin
Middle English (Around 14th Century)
John Wycliffe ( ce)
Coverdale Bible (1535)
Thomas Matthew Bible (1537)
Great Bible ( )
The King James Version (1611)

7. Biblical Hermeneutics
How do you decide if the Lord’s Prayer should be translated: “Forgive our debts,” or “Forgive our Trespasses” This question, and thousands like it led to the development of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics: How to interpret texts. A hermeneutical method can follow two paths: Exegesis – to bring out what a text meant in the past Eisegesis – to bring into the text what one wishes to see

8. Historical Criticism
Historical Criticism asks of the Bible stories, “What really happened?”
This method began to be used during the 18th century as an attempt to understand scripture
It asks the traditional Journalism Questions
Who (Who wrote the book? To whom was the book written?)
What (What was actually written?)
When (When were the books written?)
Where (Where were the books written?)
Why (Why did the author write about those topics?)

9. Six Methods of Historical Criticism
(Old) Literary Criticism
Examines vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and style
As early as the Third Century, Old Literary Criticism determined that the Revelation of John was not written by the disciple John
Source Criticism
Examines the text to determine its source material (the texts that the author used to write his text)
This critical method led to our understanding of the Synoptic Gospels
It also led to the theory that there was an undiscovered source for Matthew and Luke that we call “Q” from the German word Quelle meaning “source.”
Q: Any textual material found in Matthew and Luke, but not in Mark.

10. Six Methods of Historical Criticism
General Historical Criticism
Answers the Five Journalism Questions
Who Wrote the Text, and To Whom is the Text Written?
What was Written, and What Actually Happened?
When was the Text Written?
Where was the Text Written?
Why did the Writer Write this Text?
We will spend most of our time understanding and using this method.

11. Six Methods of Historical Criticism
Form Criticism
Answers the question, “What form did the author use in telling his stories?”
The Forms are short sayings, parables, miracle stories, proverbs, hymns. These are also known as Paricopes.
Examines the Socio-Religious settings the stories were written in.
Attempts to Rediscover Jesus’ Teachings

12. Six Methods of Historical Criticism
Redaction Criticism
Examines how the ancient Biblical writers expanded, shortened, reformulated, regrouped and repositioned the source material to suit their purposes
For example why does Matthew 5:3 have Jesus saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” while Luke 6:20 simply reads, “Blessed are the poor?”

13. Six Methods of Historical Criticism
Social-Historical/Social-Scientific Criticism
Social-Historical examines the social description, location and context. How did people live? What did people do in their free time?
Social-Scientific examines the social structures and relations described in the Bible

14. Six Methods of Historical Criticism
Archeology
Attempts to located the oldest manuscripts of a text possible.
Nag Hammadi Texts discovered in 1945
Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947