Introduction to the Gospels and Acts - Notes

**[Introduction to the Gospels and Acts]** **January 8, 2025** 1. **Backgrounds to the New Testament** - Cultural scripts: shared information between the reader and the writer. - Backgrounds are underappreciated - Talk about how backgrounds work - Another term is "cultural scripts...

**[Introduction to the Gospels and Acts]** **January 8, 2025** 1. **Backgrounds to the New Testament** - Cultural scripts: shared information between the reader and the writer. - Backgrounds are underappreciated - Talk about how backgrounds work - Another term is "cultural scripts" - It means the reader and writer share because they share the culture. There is not much explanation needed. - Bible is loaded with cultural scripts that informed with background works - The religious world of the first century was different from our time. - The bible is a Jewish document from beginning to end. 2. **Second Temple Judaism** - When talking about second temple Judaism, we are talking of a specific time. - Second temple Judaism was a particular religion to the World. - 5 major features in Second temple Judaism: 1. Monotheism: means one God. Monotheistic faith drove them to Gentiles around them and they believed in other gods. 2. A single Temple: one single Temple. reflects monotheistic belief. One God inhabits this one temple. Single temple made Judaism unique. Single temple located in Jerusalem, the Holy place. 3. Special calendar and special days: sabbath was the most unique day. consecrated to not working and spending time with God. 4. Practice of circumcision: a sign of their covenant with God. 5. Special diet: kept showing their faithfulness to clean food when it comes to their diet. 3. **Alexander the Great** - The first key event that impacts the NT that happens before the existence of NT is Alexander the Great. He was a dominant figure. - He was the son of Philip of Macedon. - After his father's death, he took over. - Born in 356 BC and became king in 336 BC (20 years old). - In his conquest, he introduced Hellenism - Wherever he took over, he forced the people to adopt Greek culture. - He introduced this doctrine to Israel as well. - Hellenization brought their beliefs, practicing their traditions. 4. **Hellenization and the First Maccabees** - ATG lasted several centuries into the NT - Hellenization was the direction the world was going in with Greco-Roman culture and practicing Greek culture. - How a culture functions is based on how a person thinks. - When ATG died, his kingdom was divided but Hellenization remained and crept up into Israel. - Jews were put under extreme pressure to adopt this belief. - Book of Maccabees begins with Alexander The Great. 5. **Jewish response to Hellenism** - 4 different responses as a result to Hellenization coming into Israel: 1. Sadducees: their response is to accept Hellenism. They are open to it. They were more lenient and accepted this practice. Cooperated with gentile rulers. They tolerated the practice. They didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead. 2. Pharisees: they engaged the culture. They pushed back. They were political and diplomatic to it. 3. Essenes: reaction was to withdraw completely. They created their own community and own world. They were the ones who wrote the dead sea scrolls. 4. Zealots: fought to eliminate Greek cultures and other gentile cultures. They led wars against Rome. - They translate Hebrew scripture into Greek for the Jews appreciate their heritage, culture. 6. **Temple Story** - They lost in a battle against Rome. They defeated the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes. - He was the ruler of Syria from 175-164 BC - He became a tribute to Rome. - He put a lot of pressure on the Jews. Why? - He tried to remove all Jewish distinctives. - They turn their back on everything they once believed. 7. **The start of the Maccabean war** - Maccabean war in Modi'in was for the annihilation of the Jews. - The Maccabean war was not the Jews fight to maintain their religious and cultural distinctives. - The Maccabean war was the Jews fight to regain their Temple. - Forbidding sacrifices was not part of 1 Maccabee's description in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. - The Maccabean war did not begin because Judas Maccabee killed one of the king's officials. - Remembering the loss of Jewish identity was not a reaction to the defilement of the temple. - He challenges the king Mattathias. Mattathias is the founder of the Maccabees who is a Jewish rebel army that took of Judea during the reign. - Mattathias stood up for the Law, for God, for the Jews. - They retook control of Israel. They kicked out Antiochus, re-sanctified the Temple. - It kept the survival of Judaism as a faith. **January 15, 2025** **January 29^th^ will be our midterm.** **February 26^th^ review.** 8. **The impact of Hellenism and the war on Jewish identity** - The Hasmoneans embodied Jewish hope for a golden age. - The Hasmoneans were a Jewish dynasty of priests and kings who ruled Judea from around 140 BCE to 37 BCE. They were descendants of the Maccabees, a family of priests from Modi\'in. - the influence never really left the Jewish identity. - They realize there is a threat to the Jewish existence. - After winning the war, they want to reclaim their identity. - Now they will really live by the law and their faith - The law becomes an important sign of a distinctive of what it meant to be a Jew. Being a Jew meant following the law not Yahweh. They are putting the law above the Lord. - They become very pious, but not for the sake of purity and holiness unto God, but by living a holy separate life as a distinctive as to who they are. Preserving Judaism. - Jews fear any type of Gentile influence after what had just happened during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. To us Christians, we see this as a representation of the antichrist spirit. - The Maccabees become the royal family of Israel. It did not work because there was a collapse that took place after the 100-year rule. 9. **The Romans in the Holy land** - Romans who come into the Holy land. This is at the end of the Maccabee rule. - They had expanded the territory even beyond the borders of Solomon. - This falls apart by 60 BC. There is an internal battle within the dynasty. - Maccabees bring in Romans to help them mediate. - Romans did not invade but were invited by the dynasty. They came in at the brink of a civil war in Israel. - Romans did eventually lay siege in Jerusalem. Jewish rebels were not pleased with the condition and situation they found themselves in with the Romans. - When the Jews tried to rule themselves, they eventually invited in gentiles. - The invasion of the romans is a failure by the Jews. - The romans fused the political side and the priestly side into one. The Jewish do not permit that king and priest become one. - Reason as to why Essenes had left the community. - The Jews had assumed this would be a temporary idea, but this was the cause of the infighting. - Romans began to implement taxes. - There is an emergence of a very intense Messianic hope from the Jews because of what they are experiencing with the Romans. - This messianic hope fuels the hope that the Jews will be freed once and for all from gentile constraints. - Jesus appearing on the scene He must navigate Himself for the Jews expectations of what the Messiah is or should be. - When Jesus claims His messiahship, people are not happy. - There expectations of a Messiah were different from what Jesus portrayed Himself as. The Jews were expecting a mighty King. - Jesus came for the battle against spiritual forces and the man's heart. 10. **Psalms of Solomon** - Most famous Messianic military Text. - Written after the conquest of Pompei. - The text, being named after Solomon, gives it credibility. - 1\. Conquering Messiah 2\. He would re-establish righteousness in Jerusalem 3\. Jerusalem would become an oasis of Righteousness 11. **The Ministry of Jesus** - What got Jesus into trouble? 12. **Forgiving Sins: The Healing of the Paralytic** - Mark 2,3,5 - Luke 5:17-6:11 - Controversies that got Jesus into trouble 1. Forgiveness of sins: it is fundamental to second temple Judaism. Only God can forgive sins. Jesus is trying something you can't see to something you can see. 2\. people he associated with 3\. He engaged in religious practices 4\. Sabbath 5\. Sabbath 13. **Messing with the Sabbath** - It is a very special day. has to do with the special calendar. Sabbath is the resting day. contemplate the goodness, compassion of God. - 39 things you can't do on the sabbath. 14. **Challenging Tradition and Ritual Purity** - Matthew 15:1 - What is the tradition of the elders? The \"tradition of the elders\" is a set of oral laws that the Pharisees and scribes believed were as binding as the Mosaic Law. Interpreting the law with certain situations that came up. - "Corban" meaning given over to God. Their tradition caused them not to honor their father and mother. There rules cancelled out the rule of God. - Matthew 5:21 - Jesus is deepening the level of the law. Always going after the heart issues. 15. **Claiming to be King** - The way he came into Jerusalem got Him in trouble. - It is important as to how and why He came into Jerusalem. - The messianic figure of the nation of Israel. Zechariah said that the messiah would come riding on the back of a donkey. - He enters the city with authority and claims to be King but a different King. - "Triumphal Entry" - It is to portray the humble way of the Messiah entering the city. - People did not expect the Messiah to be crucified. **January 22, 2025** 16. **Cleansing the Temple** - Jesus is establishing authority over what only God has authority. - Jesus is going to show authority over the temple. - The temple was the place where the Prescence of God dwelled - Talmud described Jerusalem as the naval of the world - Jerusalem is the center of the world. - The temple in Jerusalem is the pinpoint of the world. - Most Holy and sacred place in the world - Synagogue is a place to be taught but did not have same significance as a temple. - Synagogues are not a replacement for the temple - Jesus challenges money changers and why? Jesus rebukes the religious leaders because of allowing this to happen in the temple. - Outer court was a place where a foreigner (gentile) can come to pray to God. They were allowed to join in to pray. Now Jewish leaders wanted to remove gentiles from being in the temple and praying. They wanted nothing to do with them. - Jesus was angry with the religious leaders because they did not allow the gentiles to come and pray, they turned the temple into a profit place - Jesus is showing He has sacred authority over the temple. - He is claiming 17. **The New Testament Collection** - How was the New Testament collected together? - Church council meeting in 4^th^ century and 5^th^ century, New Testament books have already formed themselves. WHAT WAS LEFT IN CIRCULATION CAME TO BE THE New Testament canon. - The books were recognized and not selected. - Books of the New Testament have been circulated for centuries. - They recognized something special about the books and recognize the inspiration in those books - These books carry great spiritual profit - The New Testament has credentials to be recognized. - 1\. Apostolic roots: written by apostles or someone very closely related an eyewitness of an apostle. 27 books in the NT have apostolic roots. 2. Widespread usage across a lot of geographic areas. These books made it to the outer ends of the world 3. Orthodox content (correct view): orthodox theology and particular their image of God and roots in Judaism. - Gnostics: they view the creation of the world differently than what the Bible says. They viewed it as God messed up continuously in His creation but that is contrary because the Bible says that God was very pleased with His creation. - Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp, and he was a disciple of apostle John. - Irenaeus listed 21 out of the 27 books. - Athanasius was a champion of the New Testament Canon. - Athanasius\' 39th Festal Letter, written in 367, is widely regarded as a milestone in the evolution of the canon of New Testament books. Some claim that Athanasius is the first person to identify the same 27 books of the New Testament that are in use today. **Unit 2: The Nature and the purpose of the Gospels** 18. **Orality and Memory** - Orality means oral tradition. People passed on their history, story, and family genealogy. - Ancient world lived in an oral culture. - The gospels happened and written down before the first printing press. - Material and process was very expensive. - They learned them by remembering and passing it on orally. - The apostles spoke the gospels repeatedly. - Memory was something very reliable. - It played an important part. - They must record and recall everything that happened. - Individual and corporate that is important 19. **The Value of a Voice** - The voice of a person was valued - The culture at the time valued the voice of a person telling the story - Papias was a church father from 2^nd^ century 20. **The quality and types of oralities** - **1**. **Informal and uncontrol**: no one oversaw it, and anyone can say the story. People add to the story as time goes on. There was no discipline and guarding of the original story. **2**. **formal and control**: overseen by people and controlled not by anyone sharing the story. It is a very precise model and shows a lot of respect for the story. Very strict and very precise. Gospels are treated as formal and control. **3**. **informal and control**: informal and control models mean there were apostles who oversaw how traditions were being passed on. Anyone who heard the stories can pass them on. 21. **Corporate and Individual Memory** - Multiple witnesses talking about the same events (Corporate Memory). - The gospel in the multiple angles gives us a robust, richer understanding. 22. **Examples of Memory** - The disciple's collective memory was very important. - We can rely on memory especially if we have a stake in the matter. - Couples who recall their courtship - Memories of a loved one - Viewpoints of battle - Preliterate children. Before they can read or write, they would have an oral memory. Children rely heavenly on memory. **January 29, 2025** 23. **The Gospel Genre** - **Bios, ancient Bios** (Greek and Roman literature). Not always in chronological order. - Deeds and teachings of a person. It's about what they did and taught. - Historical but not bent on every detail. - Justin martyr describes the Gospels as **apostolic memoirs.** - Role of the apostles in the gospel is forming this tradition and recording the facts that can't be overestimated. Every church would receive the truth from what the apostles formulated in what would be spread all over the place. 24. **Dates of the Gospels** - Put together a variety piece of evidence. - Look at what is in, surrounding, and not in the book. - Look at external evidence to look at the dates. - Mark and Luke as the authors of the Gospels. - Mark did not make it through first missionary journey. Mark abandons them because of pressure and persecution. - Mark is the cause of the split between Paul and Barnabas. - Mark and Barnabas are related, hence why Mark went with him. - Peter led apostle and helped Gospel to the gentiles. - Reason why it is called gospel of Mark because of tradition. Tradition tells us and people of that era ascribe the gospel of Mark to Mark. - Nobody was interested in changing the fact that Mark was the author of the gospel of Mark. - It is because it was passed on and that is part of the tradition. - Luke is very well known in his association to the Gospel. He had a reputation as a doctor. According to tradition he probably lived till an old age. - He appears to be with Paul. - Traditional authorship is consistent - The Association of Mark and Luke goes back to the 2^nd^ century. - Destruction of the Temple is a very important event. - Order of the Gospels, many believed Mark is the earliest gospel written and Matthew and Luke used Mark. 25. **Authorship of Mark** - Papias tells us that Mark is the author. - He talks about Mark's having come the earliest and passes on the oral traditions of these reports. - Mark becomes interpreter for peter accurately although not in order. - Mark is the faithful interpreter of Peter and wrote everything that was recorded. - He neither heard the Lord nor followed Him. - Mark was committed to the process of communicating what was given without adding or subtracting. - Some people challenge authorship of mark if Matthew used so much of Mark's writings. Matthew is borrowing from peter to build his gospel. - Mark is an apostolic associate and his name being in the gospel gives it more credibility. 26. **Authorship of Luke** - What causes us to believe Luke is the author of the Gospel - We section. Major events - We understand thru the "we" there is a traveling companion. It is a companion that is writing. - Eyewitness. They record what they experienced and what is being recorded. - It still lifts the quality of tradition. - Other candidates come up when it comes to the authorship of the Book of Acts. Timothy, Barnabas, Silas, Titus. - Luke has more writing of the New Testament than apostle Paul. 27. **Authorship of Matthew** - Matthew's original transcript was in Hebrew but no evidence of its original writing. Translated into Greek. - Papias tell us that original language was in Hebrew. - Matthew is only Gospel where he refers it as "Kingdom of Heaven" and not "Kingdom of God". Because Jews were very sensitive to God's name. - The audience that Matthew tries to attract are Jews like him. 28. **Authorship of John** - What we can receive from the text is: 1. John is a Jew. Deep knowledge of the feasts. 2. He has a deep meaning and understanding of Palestine. He is very familiar with these different towns. 3. He is an eyewitness of what he wrote about, and he includes himself among one of them. 4. There is an apostolic awareness. Someone who knows and understands the thinking of the apostle. 5. The anonymous disciple. John was anonymous among the key disciples. - Tradition says that John is the author 29. **The Four Gospels** - Why 4 Gospels and not just 1? - Canon decided it was better to have four books rather than just one. - Better that they be separated and not brought together as one. - Tatian wrote a word called diatessaron (through the four) trying to put all the gospels in one book. - The synoptics tend to tell the story of the earth up and heaven down. - The way the synoptics are perceived is from an earth up perspective. - It is a progressive revelation of who He is. - Begins with Him as human and then as divinity. - John wrote from a heaven down perspective. He used the beginning words in the Torah to associate with Jesus ("IN THE BEGINNING"). - God vindicates His people through time. - The Gospels are presenting the story of a unique figure who is Jesus who is sitting at the right hand of the Father. 30. **Four Perspectives of the Gospel** - **Gospel of Mark** focuses on the idea of Jesus' suffering. Talks a lot about discipleship, the cross. - **Mark's Gospel has been described as a passion narrative with a huge introduction.** - Chapter 8 onwards it gives us that Jesus is the Christ. - Suffering and exaltation. Through His suffering He was exalted. - Passion of the Christ is a suffering narrative. - **Gospel of Luke** emphasizes Gentile inclusion. - Luke and acts are one volume divided into two canons. - Included Gentiles for the promises of God. - Emphasizing Luke & acts is legitimization. Describing an attempt to legitimize the identity of a community. - In the ancient world, old things were valued. - Luke showing the foundations of Christianity. Why many then would assume it is new, it is old because it points to God. - **Gospel of Matthew** He is speaking to the people of Israel to let them know that Jesus is the Messiah, and they rejected Him. - Deals with primary Jewish audience**.** Mentions that Gentiles will inherit the promises as well - **Gospel of John** connects Jesus to the Father. 31. **The Missing Gospels** - The writings of the missing Gospels are passed the 1^st^ century. - They are relying on non-eyewitness. - Gnosticism is Greco-Roman philosophy that is being integrated into Christianity. - Dualism is everything that matters, it is evil and everything spiritual is good. They separated the physical from the spiritual. **February 5, 2025** **MIDTERM WILL COVER EVERYTHING UP TO NUMBER 30.** **EVERYTHING AFTER 30 ON THE FINAL.** 32. **Gnosticism** - 2^nd^ century phenomenon - Missing gospels from early 1^st^ century to mid-2^nd^ century - What is Gnosticism? - Greek philosophy that had a different world view in a way a person perceived the world - Dualism in the context of theology. Speaks of two aspects, that which is evil and good. - In Christianity we have that as well. - In Gnosticism, anything that was material, see, touch, was evil. - Matter was evil and only what was spiritual was good. - Gnosis is knowledge. - Gnostics believed that they had a special knowledge. - They had an appreciation of being a spiritual being, that is the core of salvation. - In Gnosticism there is no Jesus who dies for sin - They believe everything that was created from the beginning was flawed. - The body wants to do evil - This is rooted in neo-platonic view. - **1 Corinthians 6** - Gnostics took from neo-platonic view and developed their own theology - Gnosticism put an emphasis on the body but nothing in the future. They said they should have control; it had a form of morality. - Father of Gnosticism is Marcion - He twisted the bible. He took everything out of the NT, except for verses about spirituality. - When did it appear? Early part of 2^nd^ century. People said that it was at the work early on. - Gnosticism borrowed from Plato (Neo-platonic), which formed Gnosticism. - The Corinthian church was influenced by neo-platonic movement. - Gnosticism ends up becoming a syncretistic approach. Means a meshing together. - Example: two religions and bringing them together. - Bringing together of Christianity and Greek philosophy. - Never ran along side Christianity, came after Christianity. - It is a very important movement for the Church (2^nd^-3^rd^ century). It became a challenge to Christianity. - Should be regarded as a fringe movement. - Gospels and other works are known as the missing gospels. They came after the actual gospels. - Gnosticism does not represent the earliest form of Christianity. 33. **Gospel of Thomas** - 2^nd^ century AD writing, based on Gnosticism. - Hybrid Gospel. - 110-120 AD - Skeptical scholars try to date gospel of Thomas at the same time as the original gospels. - Origin said this about the gospel of Thomas, "We don't read the gospel of Thomas in churches." - The missing gospels talks to us about the heretical attacks after the formation of Christianity. 34. **Background of Gnostic Theory** - **Nag Hammadi** - A place in Egypt. A library that was discovered and early gnostic works were found as well as the missing gospels. - They were hidden because they wanted them destroyed. - **Apocryphon of John** is a work written of the Gnostic work in their belief of the creation - They state that YAHWEH is not the creator in creation. - Creation was flawed from the beginning. - Gnosticism is rooted in pious Judaism. - When the apocryphon on John was found, scholars read it, and they mentioned that they had read it before. - They read it from the writings of Irenaeus. - It unearths all the gnostic gospel writings that were meant to be destroyed and hid them. 35. **Summary of the Missing Gospels** - Jesus was someone who points us to a higher spiritual experience. - Jesus was a spirit who occupied a human body. - 2^nd^ century phenomenon - Derivative group - Fringe movement. Nothing in common between Christianity and Gnosticism. - It doesn't come from pious Jewish roots or Christianity. - Gnostics do not repost the creation story. 36. **Summary of the Nature and Purpose Gospels** -