CHAPTER 2

Theology

"God-talk," or putting language and sense to one's ideas about God

Sitz im Leben

"original life setting"; form critics try to identify this and are interested in why material was remembered, preserved.

Historical Critical Approach

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Apostolic Fathers

A small number of Early Christian authors who lived and wrote between the late 1CE and early 2 CE . They are recognized as the leaders in the early church and had personal contact with the 12 Apostles St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius of Antioch, and St. Polycarp of Smyrna.

Deconstructionism

All interpretation of the text are based on subjective criteria (social/political)and possess no intristic claims to legitimacy

Old Testament

Christian terminology for the collection of books considered sacred in the religion of Judaism. Written almost entirely in Hebrew, most of these texts were considered holy before Jesus' day, especially the first 5 "books of Moses" or Law (Torah). The list of OT books was fixed (canonized) about a century after Jesus around a collection of 24 Hebrew books, and in Protestant canon, this number is 39

Exegesis

Critical interpretation of a biblical text; Is to explain or analyze a text using historical-critical tools of understanding. Typically focuses more on past meaning.

Hermeneutics

Greek verb that means "to interpret" The methods and techniques used to interpret written texts like the Bible. It is primarily concerned with the theory of interpretation Usually focuses more on present meaning and appropriation.

Canon

Greek word meaning "ruler" or "measuring rod." Applied to a group of books, canon means a recognized or standardized body of literature. With the Bible, canon denotes the collection of books accepted as authoritative

General Epistles

Hebrews James 1 and 2 Peter 1, 2 and 3 John Jude

Reader response criticism

How text have been understood and might be understood by readers who engaged them in different ways and in various context Interested in polyvalence=why do different readers find different meaning in the same texts?

Form criticism

Identifying and putting label in small units of oral tradition that have been inserted into written documents. Typically classify different types of material by forms or categories—sayings, pronouncement stories, parables, speeches, miracle stories, etc.

Athanasius

In his Easter letter of 367, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, gave a list of exactly the same books that would become the New Testament canon,[20] and he used the phrase "being canonized" (kanonizomena) in regards to them.[21] Athanasius also included the Book of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah in his Bible. He also eliminated the book of Esther from his Bible.

Stage 2 - Early Tradition

Oral and/or Written. People remember what Jesus said and did and share these memories with others. People write down brief accounts of things that Jesus said and did.

Stage 4 - Preservation of Manuscripts

People make copies of the Gospel narratives and distribute them.

Critical Methods of Study - tools used by biblical scholars

Text criticism Sociological criticism Cultural anthropology Historical criticism Source criticism Form criticism Redaction criticism Narrative criticism Rhetorical criticism Reader-Response criticism Ideological criticism Deconstruction

Apocalypse

The Book of Revelation - Written by a visionary named John, who describes the course of future events leading up to the destruction of the world and the appearance of the world to come. As such, it is principally concerned with the culmination of Christianity and is often placed in the category of "prophecy"

Apocryphal books

The word is originally Greek and means "those having been hidden away. The general term is usually applied to the books that the Protestant Christian Church considered useful but not divinely inspired. Inside Christianity, there is a larger Roman Catholic canon which includes 12-15 extra non-canonical books are texts of uncertain authenticity, or writings where the work is seriously questioned.

Source criticism

To determine what sources were used to compose the work. They do this through external and internal analysis.

Rhetorical criticism

secular approach to the Gospels that looks for ancient rhetorical patterns in the Gospels that will help us understand what the original writer wanted to convey

Redaction criticism

trying to determine where redaction (or editing) has taken place. If an author has changed something from a source and why?

NT INFORMATION

27 books - Originally written in Greek, Multiple authors, some unknown. Addressing other Christian individuals or communities (churches) between 50 to 120 C.E. C.E. = Common Era (same as old A.D.) B.C.E. = Before the Common Era (old B.C.)

NT: Structure

4 Gospels - Mt, Mk, L, J 1 Acts of the Apostles - Christian History 21 Epistles/Letters - "Pauline" Epistles (13) + General Epistles (8) 1 Apocalypse - Book of Revelation

Sociological criticism

An approach to literature that examines social groups, relationships, and values as they are manifested in literature. These approaches emphasize the nature and effect of the social forces that shape power relationships between groups or classes of people. Such readings treat literature as either a document reflecting social conditions or a product of those conditions.

Redaction

Editing and organization of a religion's scriptures

Ideological criticism

Explore how the writings of NT might be interpreted when they are read from paricular ideological perspectives, each with its own concerns and agendas. Some of the more well-known: Feminist criticism Liberation criticism African-American criticism

Stage 1- Historical Jesus

Jesus says and does things that are considered remarkable.

Organization of the Writings

Not ordered chronologically! Titles do not necessarily indicate authorship, but tradition and trajectory Luke-Acts = two volumes by one author Letters ordered from longest to shortest "Apocalypse" is the Greek word for "Revelation"

Text criticism

Reconstruct what the orignal manuscripts probably said, deciding which text is liketly to be most reliable

"Pauline" Epistles

Romans 1 and 2 Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians 1 and 2 Thessalonians 1 and 2 Timothy Titus Philemon

Stage 5 - Translation

Scholars translate copies of the Gospel narratives into other languages, including, eventually, our own.

Stages of Gospel transmission

Stage 1 - Historical Jesus Stage 2 - Early tradition: oral and/or written Stage 3 - Composition of the Gospel Stage 4 - Preservation of Manuscripts Stage 5 - Translation of the Gospel narratives into other languages Stage 6 - Reception

Stage 3 - Composition of the Gospels

The Gospel writers compile their books, drawing on both oral tradition and early written sources to form narratives of Jesus' life and work.

What is the New Testament

The second part of the Christian Bible, which along with the Hebrew Bible/Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) is considered by Christians to be the sacred canon 27 books originally written in Greek, from various authors some unknown . The NT addres other christians individuals or communities between 50 - 120 CE

Stage 6 - Reception

We hear or read about what Jesus said and did in modern editions of the Gospels.

In NT study, we use hermeneutical tools in our exegesis of the text.

as we attempt to exegete the background of the text (What did it mean?), we employ an increasingly wide variety of tools to ask questions like What does it mean? How should we hear this? What do others hear? How do we apply this to life in the 21st century?

gospel

good news

Biblical theology

is making sense of God in light of the Biblical texts

Canonization

means the process by which texts were accepted. This is not a religious concept. A canon of scripture is a list of books considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular religious community, generally in Judaism or Christianity.

Gospel

one of the canonical NT texts about the life/death of Jesus