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Canonicity

9/20/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
9/20/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353

What is the “canon”? At first the word referred to a standard of faith. By the fourth century the term “canon” came to refer to a list of books that were considered authoritative Scripture. An important consideration in the study of canonicity is whether the canonical status or the functional authority came first. Carson and Moo explore that question first considering whether there was an authoritative list of canonical books of the Old Testament agreed upon by Jews prior to the first century. It does appear that there were canonical collections of the Torah and Prophets, though there seems to have been some doubt about identification of some canonical books. This suggests that canonicity is a matter of recognition of authority, rather than presentation of an authoritative list which will then be accepted because of the authority of those presenting it.

In studies of the New Testament books as referred to by patristic authors we see that the gospels and major Pauline letters are quoted very frequently, the rest of the New Testament is quoted less frequently, and other works that we know about are hardly ever quoted. We find a summary in Eusebius of Caesarea, who lived about 260-340.
p. 734 “In discussing the New Testament canon, Eusebius deploys a tripartite classification: the recognized books (homologoumena), the disputed books (antilegomena), and the books put forward by heretics in the name of the apostles but rejected by those Eusebius regards as orthodox. In the first category, Eusebius includes the four gospels, Acts, fourteen Pauline epistles (Eusebius includes Hebrews, though he is aware that the church in Rome did not hold Hebrews to be Pauline), 1 Peter, 1 John, and, apparently (though with some reservation) the Apocalypse. Eusebius subdivides the disputed books into those generally accepted (James, Jude, 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John) and those that are not genuine (Acts of Paul, Shepherd of Hermas, Apocalypse of Peter, Epistle of Barnabas, the Didache, and, perhaps, the Apocalypse). The third category, embracing clearly heretical writings, including gospels such as those of Peter and Thomas, acts of Andrew and John, and similar writings (H.E. 3.25).”

How were writings recognized? First and foremost by conformity to “the rule of faith” (Latin regula fidei). Does the book conform to orthodox Christian truth? A second mark is “apostolicity, which as a criterion came to include those who were in immediate contact with the apostles” (p. 736). Wherever early Christians suspect a pseudonymous work they reject it. Finally, canonicity is recognized by widespread, continuous acceptance and usage. If the text is not generally accepted as Scripture, even if it fits the two other criteria, it is not recognized as canonical.

Carson and Moo conclude that canonicity is generally recognized, then codified in lists. We recognize canonical texts because of their long and consistent use within the Christian tradition, by their authorship, and by their apostolic content.

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Revelation

9/13/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
9/13/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
“Revelation” Carson & Moo pp. 697-725

In many ways Revelation is one of the most difficult books in the New Testament. The book has a complicated and multi-faceted structure. Unfortunately, the different ways the structure may be interpreted make significant differences in the interpretation of the book as a whole. Carson and Moo think the most likely unifying theme is the repetitive use of groups of seven. They therefore outline the book as follows:
Prologue (1:1-20)
Messages to seven churches (2:1-3:22)
Vision of heaven (4:1-5:14)
Seven seals (6:1-8:5)
Seven trumpets (8:6-11:19)
Seven significant signs (12:1-14:20)
Seven bowls (15:1-16:21)
Triumph of Almighty God (17:1-21:8)
New Jerusalem (21:9-22:9)
Epilogue (22:10-21)

Early Christian testimony ascribes the book to the apostle John. However, by the later second century there were those who did not accept that view and assigned authorship to other people, in part because of the potential for interpreting chapter 20 as teaching “chiliasm,” an early term for “premillennialism,” which has historically been rejected by the Church. This cast doubt on the book’s canonicity as well. Contemporary doubts about apostolic authorship have to do more with the lack of apostolic claims in the text and stylistic differences between this and writings more universally ascribed to John. Those arguments are inconclusive, as the same author may write in a different style and with different types of claims when writing with very different intents. The book claims to be written from the island of Patmos, a place of exile used by Roman authorities.

Dating of the book of Revelation is also problematic. John lived a very long time. Early Christian authors suggest authorship during the reign of Domitian, Claudius, Trajan, or Nero. Carson and Moo consider Claudius too early and Trajan too late, leaving the most likely times during the reign of Nero (54-68) or Domitian (81-96). Both times had surges in persecution, both had increased emphasis on worship of the emperor, thus inciting the kind of struggles we find in the churches from chapters 2 and 3. Revelation 11:1-2 may suggest that the temple in Jerusalem is still standing. Yet much of the language in the book is metaphorical, so it is difficult to tell if the author refers to the temple in Jerusalem or a temple in heaven. Carson and Moo tend toward the reign of Domitian.

The book is written to seven churches in Asia Minor, probably well known to John, who had lived and worked in the area for years. Is it an apocalypse? If so, and the opening lines seem to indicate it is, it is an early example of one. Apocalypses are often pseudonymous and very symbolic. However this book does not seem to be pseudonymous. Could it rightly be considered an epistle? Possibly, though it is very complicated and symbolic in nature.We are probably safest considering it an early form of an apocalypse, but one which does not follow all the patterns which emerged by the close of the second century.

Revelation gained canonical status quite early in the West, as early as first half of the second century. It was disputed in the East into the third century. However, it was eventually received throughout Christianity. Just the same, scholars consider that Revelation is one of the books which is best interpreted in light of the canonical Gospels, Acts, the Pauline Epistles, and 1 John, rather than serving as the guide to interpret those other books.

How is the text interpreted? Four basic approaches exist in modern scholarship. First, we see the “preterist” approach. This says that the visions describe events in John’s time. Symbols and visions refer to events in the world in that day. John uses them to urge faithfulness to Christ. In the “historical” approach people see a sketch of history from Christ to the present. This approach was widely used during the Reformation, especially identifying the beast with the Papacy. In the “futurist” approach scholars look for the fulfillment of all the events in very end of the world. Finally, in an “idealist” approach scholars view Revelation as explaining the general ways of the world and God’s person as he works in the world. Carson and Moo find some truth in all approaches but tend to view the futurist approach as the most useful.

Throughout Revelation we see an emphasis on the sovereignty of God. God is able to bring all things to their rightful conclusion. There is a very high Christology. Jesus is portrayed as God. Though Jesus is presented clearly as the almighty God, the cross is always visible. Everything Jesus does is related to his death for the sins of the world. We also see the reality of God’s judgment against all sin, as he pours out his wrath and rescues his people, those whose names are written in the book of life. Revelation gives great comfort to people who are suffering, whether in the first century or the twenty-first century.

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2 Peter

8/30/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
8/30/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
“2 Peter” Carson & Moo pp. 654-668

In the second epistle of Peter we are struck by his encouragement to spiritual growth. Yet at the same time, Peter seems to use a forceful negative argument to make this encouragement. He tells about all the dangers of false teachers.

One of the important areas of commentary on 2 Peter is the similarity between this letter and the letter of Jude. The concepts discussed are very similar and some of the language used is very rare elsewhere in the Bible. Carson and Moo discuss various ways the two letters could be related and finally say they do consider that one of the letters was influenced by the other but do not have adequate data to decide which way the influence went.

2 Peter claims to be written by the apostle Peter. However, modern scholars give six reasons for rejecting this claim. The Greek is very different from 1 Peter. The teaching discussed is similar to Gnosticism of the 2nd century. The author suggests that Paul’s letters, possibly collected, are recognized as Scripture. The hope of the coming of Christ seems to be less immediate than it is in the apostolic age. The letter does not seem to be known at an early time. Finally, the form of the letter is similar to some pseudonymous writings. However, Carson and Moo answer each of these arguments, observing that they are unconvincing. This leaves us either accepting unconclusive arguments or the idea that the letter is genuine.

If Peter wrote the letter it has to be dated before Peter’s death in the mid sixties. The author suggests that death is impending, so we would place the time close to Peter’s death. Though the letter does not state a specific destination it seems to be addressed to Christians who are threatened by something quite specific, so it does not seem to be a general epistle, simply one which does not state the recipient.

2 Peter is often neglected in scholarship, with little work being done with it in recent years. Carson and Moo observe contributions in three areas. First, the letter warns us of how serious it is to deviate from the Christian faith. Second, the day of the Lord is an event to be hoped for. Finally, the letter addresses the idea of memory in the Christian walk, contrasting memory with forgetfulness. Remembering Jesus results in a life dedicated to Christ, while forgetting him results in departure from the faith.

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1 Peter

8/23/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
8/23/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
“1 Peter” Carson & Moo pp. 636-653.

Peter’s first epistle is to Christians in Asia Minor, addressing suffering. p. 636 “Unlike Paul, who often develops a theological point before applying it, Peter mixes imperative and indicative almost from the beginning of the letter.” In fact, he generally opens paragraphs with a command, then brings in theological details to support the command.

One of the controversial passages in the text is chapter 3 verses 18-22, where some find Jesus’ descent into Hades after the resurrection but some find Christ prior to the incarnation preaching through Noah.

Carson and Moo do not claim to know what kind of suffering the Christians who received the letter were suffering, but it is clear that their suffering is the occasion for the letter. Knowing what the suffering was might point us more clearly to a time and place of composition and a more specific recipient.

1 Peter depends heavily on traditional material. It quotes the Old Testament eight times, alludes to it often, and is full of Old Testament concepts. This points some scholars toward early composition of the letter. The letter seems to be a cohesive whole, with few scholars suggesting any division in the authorship. Early testimony affirms the author to be Peter. If the reference to “Babylon” in 5:13 is to Rome, and if that is a reference to the place of authorship, the date of the letter is likely in the mid 60s, though many scholars suggest Peter was in Rome much of the time after the year 42.

In recent study scholars have suggested the existence of a Petrine “school” which would have written this book after the death of Peter. Another area of scholarship is to analyze the way 1 Peter uses the Old Testament to communicate to the believers. A third area of scholarship focuses on the possible social status of the readers. 1 Peter is very helpful in its focus on the hope Christians can have in their risen Lord and by knowing they belong to the historic people of God. The book’s high Christology points to Jesus as the hope we have always had.

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James

8/16/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
8/16/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
“James” Carson & Moo pp. 619-635

James is considered the first of the “catholic” epistles - those written to the whole church as opposed to a single congregation. Rather than speaking to a specific issue in a specific congregation, James has a body arranged around four main themes: trials and maturity, Christian faith resulting in works, dealing with dissensions, and what a Christian view of the world implies. The author is poorly identified, simply as “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1.1). Since James is a very common name it is difficult to decide who could have written the lettter. Carson and Moo suggest James the son of Zebedee, James “the Lord’s brother,” James the son of Alphaeus, and James the father of Judas. Of those, the one identified as “the Lord’s brother” is, in Carson and Moo’s estimation, the best candidate.

As with the author, it is also very difficult to determine where the letter was written or when. There may be some wisdom in suggesting that the letter was written fairly early, possibly before Paul’s writings were well known, as James seems to look at the relationship of faith and works in a slightly different way than Paul, but does not address any of Paul’s statements directly. The addressees are Jewish Christians (the twelve tribes) who are scattered. Again, we do not know the nature of this scattering. The letter is in a fairly clear, generally Attic style, addressing its topics in a straightforward manner, though using metaphors freely.

James may have had an influence on some late first century works. Though the letter was well known, it was not cited as Scripture until Origen. By the time of Eusebius the book seems to be considered Scripture, but was still apparently disputed.

In recent study scholars have found themes of liberation theology and a social gospel particularly focused on the hard work of showing our faith. Yet Carson and Moo observe that it is inappropriate to say that James views salvation as being by works while Paul views works in a negative light. Rather, the two authors both see salvation being by grace through faith, but James has a greater emphasis on showing our faith by our good works.

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Pastoral Epistles

8/9/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
8/9/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
“The Pastoral Epistles” Carson & Moo pp. 554-587

The term “pastoral epistles” was given to 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus in 1703 by D.N. Berdot, followed in 1726 by Paul Anton. “Contemporary critical orthodoxy insists that the Pastorals were all written by someone other than Paul and at a time considerably later than that of the apostle” (p. 555). Considerations involved in that discussion involved vocabulary, syntax, rhetorical style, difficulty fitting the letters into what we know of Paul’s history, identification of the false teachers discussed in the letters, the interest shown in the organization of the church, and the way the theology is termed, though not necessarily its content. Carson and Moo speak to these issues, in each instance suggesting that traditional interpretation, which ascribes the letters to Paul and places them quite late in his life, is likely correct.

The section on the ecclesiastical organization strikes me as an important segment. I quote from p. 564. “Many scholars believe that the understanding of church life that is presupposed in these letters could not have appeared during Paul’s lifetime. Specifically, they see a strongly organized church with an ordained ministry.
“We should first notice that Paul seems to have had some interest in the ministry, for even on the first missionary journey he and Barnabas appointed elders in the churches they had so recently founded (Acts 14:23). The salutation at the head of the epistle to the Philippians finds Paul addressing the overseers (bishops) and deacons at Philippi as well as the saints there (Phil. 1:1).
Second, to find an interest in the ministry in the Pastorals we must exclude 2 Timothy, for in that letter there is nothing about an ordained ministry or any form of church organization. Paul does speak of God’s χάρισμα (charisma) that is in timothy through the laying on of his hands (2 Tim. 1:6), but this may well be the equivalent of a later confirmation rather than of ordination (it leads on to thoughts of “power, of love and of self-discipline,” which are just as relevant to the Christian life as to the Christian ministry). In Titus there is a direction to ‘appoint elders in every town’ (Titus 1:5) and an indication of the kind of people who should be made elder or bishop (the two terms appear to denote the same office). It is in 1 timothy that we get considerable teaching about the ministry. Here we find mention of the qualities that are to be sought in overseers and deacons (chap. 3) and an indication that elders are honored persons, to be treated with respect and to be paid for their work (5:17-20). The elder seems clearly to be equated with the overseer (bishop) in Titus 1:5-7, and there is nothing in the other two letters to indicate any other system. Despite the inferences drawn by some, there is really nothing in any of the Pastorals that demands any more organization than the ‘overseers and deacons’ of Philippians 1:1. There is also a ‘list of widows’ (1 Tim. 5:9), but it is not clear what this means (in any case, widows seem to have had a special place from the beginning [Acts 6:1]). Clearly, none of this amounts to much in the way of organization, certainly to nothing more than can have appeared in the church in comparatively early days.”

Recent study of the Pastorals has focused on the authorship, the seeming concern or lack of concern of church matters, and the types of codes of conduct and requirements of church leaders.

On p. 571 Carson and Moo turn their attention to walking through the letters in order in some detail. 1 Timothy has a good deal of exhortation to prayer and faithfulness, holding fast to the truth delivered to Timothy. The letter may well have been written from Macedonia, based on 1 Timothy 1:3. Carson and Moo suggest the letter probably dates from the early 60s, assuming that Paul was released from prison for a brief time after the end of the events detailed in Acts. Timothy is clearly the intended recipient, judging from the many personal comments, but the letter clearly applies also to the general Christian public. The text of 1 Timothy is well documented. The letter is quoted by early Christian writers as early as the second century. Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to care for his personal character issues is of great importance as we consider qualifications for ministry.

2 Timothy is written with a clear consciousness on the part of Paul that his life is almost over. Carson and Moo therefore date it in the last year of Paul’s life, possibly as early as 64 and as late as 67. Again, the letter is addressed to Timothy and has a well preserved text and early adoption into the canon. The letter points out that we strive to live out our lives realizing the consequences of God’s work in Christ.

Titus is addressed, as indicated by the name, to Titus, who was left in Crete by Paul. We have no information about when Paul might have been working in Crete other than his brief stay there in Acts 27. Therefore this suggests a work during a gap in the narrative of Acts or a time after the end of the events in Acts. Carson and Moo do not make any firm conclusions about the date. Titus appears to be echoed in Clement of Rome and is quoted by some second century authors, indicating early acceptance into the canon. The letter to Titus strongly indicates that the Christian faith serves among other things to civilize people, something which seems to have been necessary for the believers in Crete. Through reliance on the grace of the Lord we find that we are changed into his image.

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Jude

8/2/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
8/2/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
“Jude” Carson & Moo pp. 688-696


In this brief letter, Jude, following a very carefully created structure, launches into an attack against false teaching and teachers. The letter arises from a report of false teachers. While many have compared this letter with 2 Peter we see that the emphasis Peter puts on the end times is lacking in Jude. This may indicate that Jude came first or that they simply have different interests.

Who is the author? There are several people known as “Jude” or “Judas” in the New Testament. This author identifies himself as the “brother of the Lord,” thus indicating he may well have been the brother mentioned in mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55. Carson and Moo find the arguments against this individual being the author to be weak, so conclude that Jude the brother of Jesus wrote the letter. This decision puts the date of Jude earlier than we would expect if the person were not a brother of Jesus, thus leaving us with a date no later than the late 60s. This is consistent with a relationship between this letter and 2 Peter.

Recent scholarship has focused on the rhetorical nature of Jude, identifying among other features a strong structure of an exordium, a narratio, a probatio, and a peroratio. Some have also observed the repeated patterns of threes in Jude’s arguments. In any case, this is a careful and sophisticated letter. Yet the letter has largely been neglected, perhaps because of its negative message. Jude spends more time discussing what is wrong than giving answers. Yet we all need to know what is wrong with our world, and Jude helps us in this.

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Hebrews

7/26/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
7/26/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
“Hebrews” Carson & Moo pp. 596-618

Hebrews, though on the surface it might appear to be a rather general epistle, seems directed to specific readers dealing with specific problems. The absence of a typical salutation and writer’s name draws attention to the anonymity, yet the familiarity of address suggests that the specific audience who received the letter knew the author. The richness of rhetorical devices has led many to believe the letter is a homily which was adapted into a letter. The theme? Jesus, God’s Son, the supreme master of all. The earliest Christian tradition, particularly in the East, held to Pauline authorship, and the West generally embraced that tradition in the fourth century. However, Hebrews has many features which suggest an author other than Paul. In the time of the Reformation scholars started focusing on those factors and suggesting other authors. Carson and Moo weigh some of the suggestions and finally assert that we do not know who wrote the book.

In the absence of an author, the date, provenance, and destination are difficult to assess. The author does confirm not being an eyewitness of Jesus, which suggests a second generation. The author also writes as if the ceremonies around the temple in Jerusalem are perfectly operational, which suggests a date before about 66. We have no significant information about where the letter was written. While people have suggested numerous destinations, all we really know is that it was addressed to a place where there were many Jewish converts to Christ. Carson and Moo suggest Rome as a likely destination. Yet there are many unknowns.

The text of Hebrews is well established. It seems to be accepted as canonical earlier in the East than in the West, where it was not recognized as part of the canon until at least near the end of the second century.

Major topics of study in Hebrews recently have been the high Christology, the way the author uses the Old Testament, the treatment of the sabbath, and the nature of a covenant. Hebrews also sheds light on the way first century Christians interpreted Scripture. This all combines to make the letter a very fruitful ground for study.

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Philemon

7/19/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
7/19/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
"Philemon" Carson & Moo pp. 588-595

Philemon, the shortest book in the New Testament, is an extremely personal letter, discussing the status of a slave, Onesimus, and Paul's desire that he should be restored to his master's favor and accepted as a brother in Christ. The letter has uniformly been viewed as a genuine Pauline work. The setting raises some difficulties. Paul is writing from prison, but the actual location or time is unclear. Carson and Moo weigh the evidence and settle on Rome as the most likely location. Philemon gives us insight into the love and respect which is appropriate within the body of Christ. It also gives some insight into a biblical author's view of slavery. Those who are bond-slaves to Christ can live together as brothers and sisters, regardless of the master/slave relationship they may also have.

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1 & 2 Thessalonians

7/12/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
7/12/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
“1 and 2 Thessalonians” Carson & Moo pp. 532-553

At the time the letters to the Thessalonians were written this Macedonian church was newly founded. Paul visited Thessalonica probably in 48 or 49, staying briefly before being sent away after a riot and a brief imprisonment. The letters purport to come from Paul, Silas, and Timothy, but are traditionally ascribed only to Paul. Paul’s voice is clear in the letters. Even if Silas and Timothy were contributors, it seems Paul’s thoughts were predominant. Some scholars argue that there are various interpolations in 1 Thessalonians, particularly 2:13-16. However, we do not find any texts which do not include these verses so it is impossible to demonstrate such a view. 2 Thessalonians is more difficult, with some modern scholars suggesting that it is too similar to 1 Thessalonians to be Pauline and some suggesting that it is too different from 1 Thessalonians. Arguments of similarity and dissimilarity are tenuous at best. Carson and Moo then consider that both letters are genuinely Pauline, with contribution of Silas and Timothy.

The fact that Paul had founded the church at Thessalonica no earlier than 48 or 49 indicates that the letters would not be dated before at least 50, probably a bit later. Some have suggested that 2 Thessalonians would have been written before 1 Thessalonians, a situation which is possible. Yet Carson and Moo consider the order to be correct and think the letters were both written late in 50 or early in 51.

Paul’s purposes in writing seem to be to clarify his hasty departure, to remind the Thessalonians of the implications of faith in Christ, and to comfort them in the loss of some Christians. He brings the comfort of the knowledge of the resurrection to bear. Jesus who rose from the dead is able to raise the dead himself and will do so in the last day. Even as we look to this hope we are to be busy about the affairs of life, knowing that Jesus is working through us.

Recent scholarship has a heavy emphasis on the social and cultural setting of the letters, possibly trying to find modern parallels. Because of the early date of the Thessalonian letters some scholars also use them to consider developments in Paul’s theology during his years of missionary work. The letters to the Thessalonians push us to consider the implications of Christ’s resurrection and the promise of his return. They urge us to be busy about the work of the Gospel in our communities as we eagerly await our Lord’s return.

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Colossians

7/5/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
7/5/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
“Colossians” Carson & Moo pp. 516-531

After a brief introduction to the contents of Colossians, Carson and Moo discuss authorship, concluding that Paul was considered the author until the nineteenth century. In the nineteenth and twentieth century a minority of scholars questioned this, with the tendency growing since 1945. Yet the objections to Pauline authorship have been based on use of unique vocabulary, the absence of some important theological concepts, the presence of some concepts which are not very common in Paul’s writing, and the similarity to Ephesians. Carson and Moo find the objections to be fairly weak.

The letter purports to come from Paul in prison. Though Paul was imprisoned on several occasions in several places, the most likely setting would be in Rome, probably about 61. Paul writes to correct false teaching which he has heard is present in Colosse, likely some form of syncretism which denied the supremacy of Christ.

The text of the letter is relatively clean, with no substantive difficulties caused by variants. The book was accepted as canonical by the middle of the second century. It is a text with a solid history of acceptance within Christianity.

Recent study has focused on the relationship between Christianity and paganism as well as on the possible evidence for the growth of gnosticism. Scholars have been unable to identify specific teachers who adopted all the problems which Paul addresses. This has given researchers a great deal to pursue.

Colossians emphasizes the unifying work of Jesus, who holds all the Church together as one. Though we have different roles, we are one body in Christ.

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Philippians

6/28/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
6/28/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
“Philippians” Carson & Moo pp. 498-515

After a brief survey of the contents of Philippians, Carson & Moo discuss the authorship of the book. Except for the passage in chapter 2 verses 5-11 the letter is almost uniformly ascribed to Paul. The remaining seven verses appear to be an insertion, possibly by Paul, of a text existing at the time of composition, possibly an early hymn. p. 500 “In an earlier day this was often taken as a solemn doctrinal pronouncement of the apostle and made the basis for kenotic theories of the incarnation. In more recent times close attention has been given to its form, and it is now widely agreed that we should see it both as poetry and as liturgy - in short, as a hymn.”

The book was written while Paul was a prisoner, traditionally assumed to be in Rome. Carson and Moo discuss other possibilities but still tend to consider Rome as the location of composition, probably about 61-62. The letter is occasional in nature. Paul writes to reassure the Philippians of the well-being of Epaphroditus. He also wishes to acknowledge the gift they had sent him and to thank them for their prayers. Paul also commends Timothy to the Philippians.

The letter, which has no significant textual questions, was adopted into the canon quite early without dispute. In recent study scholars have investigated the unity of the letter, looking for unifying features. There have also been attempts to identify Paul’s opponents and the kind of opposition he faced.

Philippians shows us a great deal about bringing encouragement to others in their faith and action. We can know that God works in his communities as they are knit together in Christ.

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Ephesians

6/21/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
6/21/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
“Ephesians” Carson & Moo pp. 479-497

Carson and Moo introduce this chapter with a basic outline of Ephesians. They then discuss authorship. Traditionally Paul has been considered the author but that is disputed in recent scholarship. Support for Pauline authorship then evidence that detracts from this view is presented on pp. 480-486. In support is the claim of the letter itself s well as the personal notes. In early circulation the letter was accepted as authentic. It is full of Pauline features. The similarity of Ephesians and Colossians is used both to argue for and against authenticity. If a later author claimed Pauline authority to Ephesus, since Paul was not clearly honored in a great way in Ephesus (based on Revelation 2.1, compare 2 Peter 3.15) it would seem odd. Themes in Ephesians are very Pauline. The letter also states that Paul was a prisoner, which was a common situation in Paul’s later life. To detract from Pauline authorship, scholars claim that the theology of Ephesians is not sufficiently Pauline. It includes words not typically used by Paul. The style is different from some of Paul’s other letters, particularly in the very long sentences. Ephesians discusses ministry structure in a way which some say Paul did not see it in his other writing. Carson and Moo consider that Ephesians is genuinely Pauline and that it was written at approximately the same time as Colossians to address similar situations.

If the letter was written during Paul’s Roman imprisonment, which seems likely, it was written in the very late fifties or early sixties. The destination of the letter is more difficult, as “in Ephesus” is absent from the letter in some prominent manuscripts. It seems a little less personal than we might expect from the apostle who evangelized the Ephesians. Yet it is quite plausible that Paul would have written the letter to Ephesus with an expectation that it would circulate more broadly.

What is the purpose of the letter? It seems to have a great deal of miscellaneous instruction. We can’t identify a specific situation that would have led to its composition. Yet the predominant themes are purity and unity of hte faith.

Aside from the missing “in Ephesus” in 1.1 there are no significant variations in the manuscrpt evidence. The letter was accepted into the canon quite early.

In recent study many scholars have discussed authorship and the different themes of the text. We find the book of Ephesians very helpful in its view that salvation and life are due to divine action, beginning with Christ’s saving work, continuing with the Christian’s growth in knowledge of the grace of our Lord, and emphasizing life in conformity to God’s work in salvation. Throughout we see God as supremely gracious, bringing salvation to unworthy sinners.

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1 & 2 Corinthians

6/14/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
6/14/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
"1 and 2 Corinthians" Carson & Moo pp. 415-455

Both 1 and 2 Corinthians address questions which have been raised and need answers. Unlike Romans, for instance, they seem to arise from very specific questions which have been asked and may be quoted.

After the salutation and thanksgiving in 1 Corinthians, Paul compares the wisdom of the world to the wisdom of God, observing that God's wisdom seems foolish to the world but that the wisdom of the world is inferior in every way to God's wisdom, displayed in Christ crucified for sinners. In chapter 5-6 Paul discusses conflict about sexual and legal matters within the church. He then goes on to discuss topics apparently raised by the Corinthians: marriage in chapter 7, food sacrificed to idols in chapter 8, and the issue of the authority of Paul as an apostle in chapter 10. Chapters 11-14 are devoted to order in corporate worship, chapter 15 to the resurrection, then chapter 16 with miscellaneous details about a collection for relief in Jerusalem and greetings.

After the salutation and thanksgiving in 2 Corinthians Paul discusses his travel plans, emphasizing his continued commitment to come to Corinth. There have been conflicts which have led Paul to avoid visiting the Corinthians in person for a while. Paul continues in chapters 3-6 talking about the nature of ministry and its relationship to the old covenant and the new. In chapters 7-9 Paul talks about the collection for relief of suffering Christians, emphasizing that contributions are to be rooted in the love of Christ, not in the demands of the law. In the final chapters Paul discusses the apparent weakness of the apostles in terms of the worldly wisdom which the Corinthians have adopted.

Pauline authorship is almost universally ascribed to 1 and 2 Corinthians, but some scholars have suggested that 2 Corinthians was originally several different letters. Paul had visited Corinth during his second missionary journey in Acts 18. After he had left Corinth, almost certainly while he was in Ephesus, Paul heard about the troubles at Corinth and responded with 1 Corinthians. It seems he then waited for some time, though not terribly long, before writing his second letter.

Carson and Moo spend a good deal of time discussing the various theories of arrangement of the elements of 2 Corinthians. There are several fairly persuasive theories but all are lacking any manuscript evidence.

The Corinthian letters were considered canonical from an early date, being cited as early as the last decade of the first century.

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Romans

6/7/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
6/7/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
"Romans" Carson & Moo pp. 391-414

p. 391 "Romans is the longest and most theologically significant of the letters of Paul, 'the very purest gospel' (Luther). The letter takes the form of a theological treatise framed by an epistolary opening and closing. The opening contains the usual prescript and thanksgiving and is concluded with a transitional statement of the theme of the letter: the gospel as the revelation of God's righteousness, a righteousness that can be experienced only by faith."

On pp. 391-392 Carson and Moo outline the body of the book in four parts: "The gospel as the righteousness of God by faith (1:18-4:25). . . The gospel as the power of God for salvation (5:1-8:39) . . . The gospel and Israel (9:1-11:36) . . . The gospel and the transformation of life (12:1-15:13)."

Romans claims Pauline authorship, a claim which is not seriously disputed. Dating is a bit more complicated. Paul discusses the fact that he is going to Jerusalem and that he wishes to go to Rome on his way to Spain. Carson and Moo consider that the most likely place of authorship was Corinth, from where Paul may well have gone toward Jerusalem about 57.

The situation of the church at Rome is also possibly problematic. Carson and Moo do not think that Peter is likely to have founded a church in Rome prior to the time Paul would have written Romans. They also do not think it likely that Paul would make a visit such as he describes in Romans 1:8-15 to a church founded by another apostle. Rather, they suggest that the church in Rome was founded by Jews who had been present in Jerusalem at Pentecost.

Carson and Moo discuss the text of Romans on pp. 398-401. There are some suggestions of interpolations and redactions, mostly spurred on by the doxology found in 16:25-27, which "is omitted in some manuscripts and appears at different places in others" (p. 399). Carson and Moo consider that the text has always had all sixteen chapters and that it is simply slightly uncharacteristic of Paul's letters, but not necessarily inauthentic.

As to the genre of Romans, it is more like a treatise of doctrine than a personal or typical epistolary letter. The purpose is clearly to lay out doctrines in detail. Numerous possible purposes for composition have been put forward. There are few statements about the purpose of the letter, though it is clear that Paul is intending to introduce his plan to visit. We may find it more fruitful to look at multiple reasons for writing, based on the different types of information contained in the letter.

The theme of Romans has likewise shifted in scholarly opinion. Interestingly enough, Carson and Moo trace the locus of the theme moving from near the beginning, with the Reformational focus on justification by faith, to the union of Christ and the Church in chapters 6-8, to salvation history in 9-11, and to exhortations to unity in 14-15. Currently all four positions are alive.

In summary, the book seems to have undergone lively and varied scholarly discussion. It is a lively and varied book which lends itself well to such research and commentary.

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Galatians

5/31/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
5/31/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
"Galatians" Carson & Moo pp. 456-478

CONTENT
Carson and Moo observe that Paul's letter to the Galatians shows a great deal of urgency. When we confront people who are entrapped in sin and are harming themselves, it is a very important matter, in reality a matter of life and death.

p. 457 "Paul contrasts life in the Spirit with that in the flesh, which leads to instruction about right living. Paul takes up the pen himself to close with an impassioned reminder that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters - but God's new creation does."

AUTHOR
This letter has a very long history of being recognized as a work of the apostle Paul. Internal evidence and historical tradition are consistent.

DESTINATION
An address to "Galatia" is problematic. The region of Galatia is essentially divided into two portions. The northern portion, a mountainous and remote area, was settled by Gauls in the third century B.C. The southern portion, a coastal region, had a multi-ethnic community during the Roman period. We know that Paul had journeyed through the southern regions, stopping at multiple cities. However, his welcome in that area was not uniformly positive. Paul's letter to the Galatians seems to indicate a very positive experience with the people. However, Paul had been ill at the time when he apparently met the Galatians. This would tend to suggest that he would not have gone to the difficult and remote mountainous area. We are left uncertain about what portion of Galatia Paul is addressing.

DATE
pp. 461-462 "If one adopts the North Galatian theory, then because Paul could not have spent enough time ministering in the north to plant churches until about halfway through his recorded missionary service, the date of Galatians, which of course must have been written after the planting of the church, must be a little later - about the same time as Paul's letter to Rome. If the South Galatian theory is adopted, an early date is possible." Carson and Moo suggest a number of considerations which support an early date, including his lack of mention of the decree of the Jerusalem council in Acts 15, which addressed many of the issues Paul addresses in Galatians. Others suggest an affinity with the Corinthian letters and lean toward a later composition. pp. 464-465 "That the letter precedes the Jerusalem Council seems indicated by the fact that Paul makes no mention of its verdict. Even if he did not make it his main argument, it is hard to see why he should omit all mention of such a significant support to his argument against accepting the whole Jewish Torah."

OCCASION
p. 465 "From Acts 13-14 we learn that Paul and Barnabas evangelized the southern part of the province of Galatia by going first to the synagogues, where they preached to Jews and God-fearing Gentiles. but in each city Jews stirred up opposition, and the preachers turned to the Gentiles and made converts from among them."

p. 465 "But after Paul and Barnabas left the scene, apparently some Jewish Christians came into the area and taught that those who embrace the Christian salvation must submit to Jewish Law, the Torah."

p. 466 "In recent years some have argued that all or at least most of the laws that these interlopers were pressing on the Galatians were the legislative pieces that established "boundary markers" - the practices that differentiated Jews from other people . . . Certainly Paul is constantly at pains to unite Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Nevertheless, this "new perspective" on Paul is too narrow."

Carson and Moo suggest a number of situations that apparently provoked the composition. There were apparently false teachers who had come from the Jewish Christian camp. They sometimes see libertinism, spurring people to indulge in sin. There were criticisms of Paul mentioned. And the gospel of grace was compromised by the teaching which had arisen in Galatia.

TEXT
There are a number of minor variants in the text of Galatians but nothing which causes difficulties. Among the variants are the name used for Peter and whether in chapter 1 verse 6 the words "of Christ" should come after the word "grace." These are not serious problems.

ADOPTION INTO THE CANON
Galatians was adopted very early and consistently as canonical. There are hints of it in late first century and early second century authors.

GALATIANS IN RECENT STUDY
There is an ongoing debate about the identity of the people Paul was opposing. There is also a great deal of study on the rhetorical features of Galatians. Rather a lot of the most recent discussion focuses on the work of E.P. Sanders who suggested that the Jews never thought they could be saved by keeping the law. His work surfaces as a presupposition of many in Pauline studies today.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF GALATIANS
This book sets out the truth of justification by faith in Christ and by no other means. This concept is of critical importance to all Christians. There is also a strong emphasis on Christian freedom. We are justified by grace through faith and we are set free to walk in the Spirit.

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Meet the Apostle Paul

5/24/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
5/24/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
"Paul: Apostle and Theologian" Carson & Moo pp. 354-390

Paul himself is a significant figure in the New Testament. He therefore has his own chapter in Carson & Moo before they move on to discuss his books in order. As I usually do, I'll put section headers in the book in capitals then include my notes or quotations from the chapter in order.

PAUL'S BACKGROUND
"BORN IN TARSUS OF CILICIA" (ACTS 22:3)
Tarsus was a very important city, a place of learning and culture. As a Roman citizen from Tarsus Paul would be expected to be well educated. A significant note is that his name "Paulos" would have been his Roman cognomen. It is not, counter to much preaching that is popular today, a new name given to him by the Lord.
"BROUGHT UP IN THIS CITY" (ACTS 22:3)
It is unclear if Paul was raised in Jerusalem or if he moved to Jerusalem for the more advanced rabbinical education. Regardless we see that Paul had backgrounds in both the Hellenistic and Jewish worlds.
"THOROUGHLY TRAINED IN THE LAW OF OUR ANCESTORS . . . ZEALOUS FOR GOD" (ACTS 22:3)
Paul actually seems to have been more polarized in his Pharisaism than his teacher, Gamaliel, who was known as a moderate. Paul was very forceful in his zeal.
"AS I CAME NEAR DAMASCUS" (ACTS 22:6)
Paul received permission to arrest and bring Christians to trial. On his way to Damascus to do just this he had an encounter with Jesus, described in Acts 9, 22, and 26, as well as in Galatians 1. Paul's conversion and call were tied together as he saw that he was to defend the gospel in every way he could.

PAUL'S MISSIONARY CAREER AND ITS CHRONOLOGY
THE PROBLEM OF SOURCES
Paul's letters never give a comprehensive history. The data given by Luke in Acts likewise seems to be selective at points. We have to consider all the sources in order to try harmonizing them.
AN OUTLINE OF PAUL'S MISSIONARY CAREER
FROM PAUL'S CONVERSION TO THE FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY
Much of this chronology comes from Galatians 1:13-2:10. Paul visits Jerusalem three years after his conversion, then again "after fourteen years." The first visit seems clearly to be the one mentioned in Acts 9:26-30. The reference to "after fourteen years" seems to fit better with fourteen years after his conversion than fourteen years after the first visit. p. 362 "First, the prominence of Paul's conversion in Galatians 1 suggests that this event is the base for all his chronological notices in this context. Second, this sequence fits better with other chronological indications that we will note below. The visit may be "in the third year" and "in the fourteenth year" inclusively, counting partial years on both ends of the time period as well. p. 363 "the inclusive method seems to have been more typical in the ancient world, so we may prefer it in interpreting Galatians 1-2." What do we make of the three years in Arabia? p. 363 "Paul's later difficulties with the king of the Nabataeans, Aertas, suggests strongly that he was engaged in active ministry during this time (2 Cor. 11:32)."
FROM PAUL'S FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY TO HIS DEATH
p. 364 "Luke introduces the first missionary journey in Acts 13:1-3 with no indication about its relationship in time to the other events he has been narrating." p. 364 "This journey took Barnabas, Paul, and - for part of the way - John Mark to Barnabas's home, the island of Cyprus, and several cities in southern Galatia, namely, Pisidian antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts 13:4-14:26). Estimates of the time necessary for this trip of about 1,400 miles vary from one year to five years. The best guess is about eighteen months, but we simply have no way of knowing for sure."
p. 365 "Paul's second missionary journey took him to southern Galatia, quickly through Asia Minor, and on to Macedonia - in particular, the cities of Philippi (see 1 Thess. 2:2), thessalonica (see 1 thess. 2:2; Phil. 4:15-16), and berea (Acts 17:10-15) - and then Achaia, including Athens (see 1 Thess. 3:1) and Corinth (see 2 Cor. 11:7-9)."
p. 365 Later, "he graveled 'from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia' (18:23; the reference is probably to the Phrygian part of Galatia) before arriving in Ephesus (19:1; see 1 Cor. 16:8). How long Paul spent here is not clear. In Acts 20:31, Paul tells the elders of the Ephesian church that he had spent 'three years' with them. But this could be a rounding off (counting inclusively) of the period of two years and three months specified in Acts 19:8, 10. Luke, however, may not intend these two verses to summarize the entire stay in ephesus. It is safest to conclude that Paul spent anywhere from two years and three months to three years in ephesus. From Ephesus Paul moved north into Macedonia, where he met Titus returning from Corinth (Acts 20:1; cf. 2 Cor. 2:12-13). Some scholars speculate that it may have been at this time that Paul ministered in Illyricum (modern Albania and yugoslavia; see Rom. 15:19), although neither Acts nor Paul's letters describe such a trip. Paul probably wintered in Corinth (his three-month stay in Greece [Acts 20:2-3; cf. 2 Cor. 9:4]), before retracing his steps to Caesarea and Jerusalem (20:3-21:16). This journey, of approximately 2,700 miles, must have taken at least three and a half years, and probably four or five."
The text of Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome. p. 366 "Many think that Paul's life ended at this point, but two considerations point decisively to a longer interval before his death. First, apparently reliable early church accounts associate Paul's death with nero's persecution of Christians in A.D. 64-65. But it is unlikely that Paul's two-year stay in Rome brings us to this late a date. . . Second, the evidence of the Pastoral Epistles points to a period of further ministry in the eastern Mediterranean after the Roman imprisonment of Acts 28:30-31. . . Almost certainly, then, Paul was released from this first Roman imprisonment for a period of further ministry. Whether this ministry took Paul to Spain, as he had originally planned (see Rom. 15:24), is uncertain."
THE CHRONOLOGY OF PAUL'S MISSIONARY CAREER
The materials we have in the bible give us a fair relative chronology. When does this fit into the first century? The most important evidence we have is that Paul left Corinth shortly after an encounter with Gallio, a proconsul. p. 366 "Gallio was proconsul of Achaia from July of 51 to July of 52." This allows us to work backward and forward to place the second missionary journey beginning in 48. The apostolic council is probably earlier in 48. The visit to Jerusalem for famine relief probably then fits in 45 or 46. This dates Paul's conversion in the period of 32 to 35. Considering the probably date of the crucifixion as about 33, the conversion is probably closer to 35. We then can look toward the end of Paul's career and see the second missionary journey probably ending in 51, with the third beginning quickly afterward, probably spring of 52. This brings Paul back to Palestine sometime about 57, allowing him to be imprisoned in Caesarea for two years and arrive in Rome in the spring of 60. There are suggestions that Paul was released from prison briefly but then re-arrested in the Neronian persecution, then was executed about 64 or 65.

PAUL'S AUTHORITY AND THE SOURCES FOR HIS THOUGHT
PAUL'S AUTHORITY
Paul was clearly self-conscious of being an apostle, on par with all the other apostles. He does not specifically claim that his writings are inspired Scripture.
THE SOURCES OF PAUL'S TEACHING
REVELATION VERSUS TRADITION
Paul does claim that his teaching comes by the revelation of Jesus. However he also has elements which he claims as tradition, that which has been passed on from Jesus through other people.
EARLY CHRISTIAN TRADITION
There are some hints in Paul's letters that he uses early Christian tradition. For instance, there are passages of doxology which appear to be quotations from some unknown source and which tend to fall into rhythmic or poetic patterns which appear to be non-Pauline. These have been examined a great deal. Yet the examinations of them must be treated with caution. p. 372 "First, we must be careful not to overemphasize our ability to identify such passages. The line between quotation of a preexisting tradition and the use of traditional language in one's own composition is difficult, and often impossible, to draw. Second, we must be careful not to use inevitably speculative data about these traditions, such as the place of origin or theological tendency, to draw exegetical and theological conclusions. We simply do not know enough to justify such procedures."
THE EARTHLY JESUS
Of course, the person of Jesus himself was behind early Christian tradition. We do not know how much information Paul had about the specific details of Jesus' life, outside of what he may have gathered from interviews with the other apostles.
THE OLD TESTAMENT
Paul quotes extensively from the Old Testament. He also fills his writings with allusions to it. Paul seems to look consistently to the Old Testament through the filter of Jesus' fulfillment of God's promises.
THE GREEK WORLD
Paul, educated at least in part in Tarsus, would have been familiar with much of the Hellenistic world. It seems unlikely that he borrowed from a knowledge of Greek philosophy to build his theology, but he clearly knew how to use current cultural and rhetorical norms to clothe his teaching.
JUDAISM
There is a serious debate about how the world of Judaism at the time of Paul influenced him. We are advised to realize that there were many different flavors of Judaism at the time of Paul and that, while his thought world was strongly influenced by his Jewish upbringing, he governed those influences by rigorous dependence on the Christian teaching about Jesus.

PAUL AND JUDAISM
THE "NEW PERSPECTIVE"
The "new perspective" on Paul suggests that Paul was misunderstood by the Reformers. The theory first arises in a book by E.P. Sanders (1977), Paul and Palestinian Judaism. p. 376 "essentially, Sanders claims that the traditional view of first-century Judaism as a legalistic religion is wrong. After a study of Jewish sources likely to give us evidence about first-century Jewish beliefs, Sanders concludes that these sources almost unanimously portray a view of soteriology that he dubs 'covenantal nomism.' foundational to the Jewish view of salvation is the covenant that God entered into with the people Israel. God has chosen Israel, and Jews in Paul's day believed that that original gracious choice was the basis for their salvation. Viewed from this perspective, Jews did not have to do the law to be saved; they were already saved. They obeyed the law, rather, to maintain their covenantal status. As Sanders put it, Jews did not do the law to 'get in' (which would be legalism) but to 'stay in' ('nomism')." p. 377 James D.G. "Dunn was the first to use the language of 'new perspective' to describe the impact of Sanders' view of Judaism on Pauline studies, and the name has stuck as a way of describing the movement as a whole . . . Essentially, Dunn claims that what Paul opposes is the tendency of the Jews to confine salvation to their own nation. It is ethnic exclusivism, not personal legalism, that Paul finds wrong with Judaism." This is an interesting stream of scholarship. Yet it has some weaknesses. p. 378 "Several tendencies mark the 'new perspective on Paul.' First, Paul's theology is read against the background of the 'story' of salvation history. Richard Hays and N.T. Wright are two of the foremost advocates of this new way of reading Paul. The effect is to take many of the theological categories that have traditionally been interpreted in terms of individual experience and restrict them to the corporate experience of Israel and the people of God. Second, and partly as a result of the first overarching approach, the foundational Reformation contrast between 'faith' and 'works' as two opposed means of being saved is reduced or, in some more radical proposals, eliminated."

RESPONSE TO THE NEW PERSPECTIVE
p. 380 "As a comprehensive explanation of first-century Judaism, sanders' 'covenantal nomism' requires qualification. First, the claim that covenantal nomism was the only soteriological paradigm within first-century Judaism must be questioned.

p. 381 "Another reason for thinking that, alongside covenant nomism, there existed in first-century Judaism a strand of legalism is the evidence from an important set of primary documents about first-century Judaism: the New Testament."

p. 382 "our second general qualification of covenant nomism has to do with the first term in this description: the covenant. Sanders and those who have followed him base their interpretation of first-century Jewish soteriology on the assumption that God's covenant with Israel was the starting point for Jewish obedience to the law. This assumption runs into problems, however, when we begin to consider the many Jewish sectarian groups that flourished at this time."

p. 383 "Third, and perhaps most important, is the increasingly widespread recognition that, on any reading of the data, first-century Judaism was synergistic. Few scholars would deny that first-century Judaism believed that the grace of God was basic to salvation. But on Sanders' own showing, it also believed that, if one 'got in' by grace, on 'stayed in' by obedience."

In this summary of recent developments in Pauline studies, I think Carson and Moo have shown that the new perspective in Paul has some intriguing possibilities but falls short in its understanding of the nuances which are present behind the scenes in first century Judaism. Taking an entire religion and treating it as one snapshot will never catch the distinctives of different branches.

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New Testament Letters

5/17/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
5/17/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353

p. 331 "The letter was not a typical method of religious instruction among Jews." So why do we find that no fewer than twent-one of the New Testament books are letters? p. 331 "The answer is probably twofold. First, the early Chrsitian movement, with its fast growth and peripatetic missionaries, demanded a means of communication at a distance . . . A second reason the letter may have been chosen by the apostles is its sense of personal immediacy."

NEW TESTAMENT LETTERS AGAINST THEIR GRECO-ROMAN BACKGROUND
The typical letter in the Greco-Roman world included an address/greeting portion, a body, and a closing, often sending greetings to others. Most of the New Testmaent letters follow this patten, generally with a more elaborate greeting in the form of a blessing or a doxology at the beginning. p. 333 "Classifications of ancient letters have their beginning in Adolf Deissmann's famous distinction between "epistles" (carefully composed, public pieces of literature) and "letters" (unstudied, private communications). Deissmann put all the letters of Paul into the latter category, arguing that they bore the same signs of hasty composition and lack of literary pretensions as are found in the Greek papyri letters. Deissmann's distinction was an artificial one, and it is now generally agreed that one cannot erect such rigid distinctions between a private letter and a public one."

THE USE OF AMANUENSES
An amanuensis is a scribe who would take dictation. It seems that these scribes were frequently used in the New Testament. For instance, in Romans 16:22 Tertius identifies himself as the one who wrote the letter. Typically the person who dictated the letter would add a final greeting after reading over the letter and approving it (cf. 2 Thess. 3:17 and Gal. 6:11). We do not know how much leeway authors gave to their amanuenses. In some cases it may have been considerable, in others we may have almost the exact words dictated.

THE COLLECTION OF PAUL'S LETTERS
THEORIES OF A SUDDEN COLLECTION
Many scholars consder that Paul's letters were collected into a group after a period of neglect, possibly fifty years or more after composition.
THEORIES OF A GRADUAL GROWTH
Other scholars consider that Paul's letters circulated and gradually were accumulated by different churches, being identified as a complete collection during the first century.

PSEUDONYMITY AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHY
Pseudonymity is the practice of identifying oneself as a different author, purporting that one's own work is that of another. Pseudepigraphy is similar, but involves simply placing a false title or superscription on a work. The terms are today used almost synonymously. Pseudonymous or pseudepigraphical works should be distinguished from apocryphal works, which would be viewed as works that contain error which would prevent their admission into a canon.
EXTRABIBLICAL EVIDENCE
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS
Pseudonymity is a widespread practice in antiquity. It is not always shunned and does not indicate a forgery. p. 338 "a literary forgery is a work written or modified with the intent to deceive. All literary forgeries are pseudepigraphical, but not all psuedepigrapha are literary forgeries: there is a substantial class of writings which, in the course of their transmission, became associated with some figure or other - judgments made with the best will in the world, however fallacious." Carson and Moo discuss multiple reasons why pseudepigraphers would ascribe their works to others.
JEWISH EXAMPLES
Jewish literature is full of examples of texts which would be ascribed to someone else. It was not an uncommon practice. However, it was very uncommon in the writing of letters. A false claim to having written a letter would be considered fairly easy to detect.
EXTRABIBLICAL CHRISTIAN EXAMPLES
There are a good number of pseudonymous Christian works starting about the middle of the 2nd century. This includes some letters, including a collection of alleged correspondence between Paul and Seneca.
THE STANCE OF THE CHURCH FATHERS
Early Christian leaders were adamant in their opposition to works which they could find were forged or otherwise not authentic. This characteristic caution and desire to be public and honest in assessment of teaching which would be accepted as authoritative led to a higher standard of evidence among Christians than in the society at large.
EVIDENCE INTERNAL TO NEW TESTAMENT DOCUMENTS
p. 344 "Despite the consistent evidence from the early church outside the New Testament, many scholars assert, in the most confident terms, that writing letters in the name of another was common practice. Nowhere is evidence cited that any member of the New Testament church accepted the idea that a pious believer could write something in the name of an apostle and expect the writing to be welcomed."
SOME CONTEMPORARY THEORIES
p. 346 "Some are convinced that the New Testament contains many examples of literary forgeries and are unembarrassed by this conclusion."
p. 347 "On the other side are those who similarly point out how often deception plays a role in pseudepigraphy, but recall how the church universally rejected any hint of such deception."
p. 347 "In recent years several mediating positions have been advanced." These suggest that there may have been some instances of pseudonymity but that it was not widespread.

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Acts

5/10/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
5/10/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "Acts" Carson & Moo pp. 285-330

Acts serves in a way as the second volume of the gospel according to Luke, but in a way as the historical document cataloging the progress of the gospel from its roots at the time of the resurrection of Jesus in Jerusalem to the middle of the first century, by which time it had spread to a significant portion of the Roman empire. Carson and Moo outline as follows beginning on p. 286.

p. 286 "Prologue: foundations for the church and its mission (1:1-2:41). Luke begins by rooting the church and its mission in Jesus' acts and words.

p. 286 "The church in Jerusalem (2:42-6:7). Luke begins this section with a summary of the characteristics of the early church in Jerusalem."

p. 287 "Wider horizons for the church: Stephen, Samaria, and Saul (6:8-9:31).

p. 287 "Peter and the first gentile convert (9:32-12:24).

p. 288 "Paul turns to the Gentiles (12:25-16:5). From Peter, luke turns now to Paul, who dominates the remainder of the book. Paul's significance for Luke lies in his being used by God to pioneer an extensive ministry to Gentiles, to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth, and to show that the gospel was no direct threat to the Roman government.

p. 288 "Further Penetration into the Gentile world 916:6-19:20). It seems a bit odd that we should divide Luke's story at this point. Yet by the care with which he shows how Paul was directed by God's Spirit step-by-step to take the gospel into Macedonia (16:6-10), Luke implies that we have reached a decisive stage."

p. 289 "On to Rome (19:21-28:31). Again we may feel that it is rather artificial to insert a major break in the midst of Paul's stay in ephesus. But Luke again suggests such a break with his first indication that Paul was determined to go to Rome (19:21-22).

AUTHOR
The Traditional Case - throughout history it has been broadly held that Luke was the author of both Luke and Acts. p. 291 "The tradition that Luke, a companion of Paul, was the author of the third gospel and of Acts is early and unchallenged: The Muratorian Canon (C. a.d. 180-200?), Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. 3.1; 3.14.1-4), the anti-Marcionite prologue (end of second century), Clement of Alexandria (Strom. 5.12), Tertullian (Adv. Marc. 4.2), and Eusebius (H.E. 3.4; 3.24.15).

The Case against the Tradition
Arguments from the external evidence don't seem to hold much weight. They are advanced but are not overly persuasive. Even the alleged differences in theological orientation between Paul as revealed in his letters and Paul as described in Acts are not differences which can't be harmonized.

Conclusion - Carson and Moo do not find a convincing reason not to conclude that Luke was the author of Acts.

DATE
Dates suggested range from about A.D. 62 to the second century. A second century date originated with the Tubingen school, dating it from the first outside reference to the book. This view has fallen out of favor and is no longer held by many scholars. More scholars suggest that Acts was written in the 80s. It is suggested that it should be dated quite a while after the gospel, which is typically dated no earlier than 70. The book tends to have a fairly optimistic view of Roman government, which would be less likely during a period of state persecution. A date before 70 can be supported by the abrupt ending which leaves Paul in the year 62 without resolving his imprisonment, despite the fact that Paul appears to have been released from prison for a period about 62 before being imprisoned and executed around 64 or 65. For this reason, Carson and Moo suggest a date in the early to mid 60s.

GENRE, ADDRESSEES, AND PURPOSE
Genre - Luke's writing fits generally into the realm of historiography, though it has a strong element of the gospel.

Addressees and Purpose - Acts is addressed to Theophilus, probably a patron of Luke. Finding how much broader the intended audience might have been depends on Luke's purpose, which is not clearly stated in the text. He may have written to seek conciliation between different factions of early Christianity. He may have been writing to provide examples of evangelistic and apologetic works. The work includes some strong theological elements which may suggest that Luke is intending to clarify orthodox doctrine. And the theme of edification of the Christian is pervasive, indicating that Luke may well have desired to strengthen Christian communities through a narrative of the early events of the Church.

SOURCES
We do not have much information about the sources Luke may have had. He is clear that much of his material comes from research, and that research may include written and oral sources. Some of the material comes from his own eyewitness account, apparently, as there are the "we" passages of the text.

TEXT
The text of Acts is intriguing as there are two distinct text traditions. One of the two, the Western tradition, is approximately ten percent longer than the text in the Codex Sinaiticus. It is unclear at many points which may have been closer to the original text.

ACTS IN RECENT STUDY
Carson and Moo survey recent research about Acts, much of which focuses on finding the purposes which Luke may have held in writing. A great deal of effort has also gone into identifying whether Luke's writing is as historically accurate as other ancient historians. Since the mid 1960s Luke as the theologian has emerged.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF ACTS
Acts has been shown again and again to be a reliable and definitive text to inform us about the events of the early Church. Where events mentioned by Luke are mentioned by other historians Luke appears to be sound and accurate. Our expectation would be that he is a credible witness to other events as well. p. 321 "Perhaps Luke's most important contribution is precisely this careful linking of the apostolic proclamation of the Word of God with the word that Jesus both taught and fulfilled. The "Word of God" thus binds together Luke's two volumes, as the salvation that the angel first announced on the night of Jesus' birth on a Judean hillside is brought finally to the capital of the Roman Empire. Luke focuses on six key theolgoical themes, identified by Carson and Moo on pp. 322 and following.
1) The Plan of God
2) The Presence of the Future
3) Salvation
4) The Word of God
5) The Holy Spirit
6) The People of God
All these themes are illustrative of the ongoing work of the Gospel in the people of the primitive Church.

This chapter points up that in a book like Acts there is more than meets the eye at first. We can look to the text on many different levels.

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John

5/3/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
5/3/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "John" Carson & Moo pp. 225-284

John's Gospel may be variously separated into parts, but generally consists of a prologue (1:1-18), main body (1:19-chapter 20), and an epilogue (chapter 21).

AUTHOR
p. 229 "As far as we can prove, the title "According to John" was attached to it as soon as the four canonical gospels began to circulate together as 'the fourfold gospel.'" The author is not mentioned in the gospel itself but the title may have been recognized from the start.


External Evidence
p. 229 "the first writer to quote unambiguously from the fourth gospel and to ascribe the work to John was Theophilus of Antioch (c. A.D. 181)." However we do find quotes from other authors including Tatian, Claudius Apollinaris, and Athenagoras who do not specify the author but consider it an authoritative text.

p. 230 Irenaeus wote, "'John the disciple of the Lord, who leaned back on his breast, published the gospel while he was resident at Ephesus in Asia; (Adv. Haer. 3.1.1). In other words, the name of the fourth evangelist is John and is to be identified with the beloved disciple of John 13:23."

Authorship has been questioned in recent time. p. 233 "The fact remains that, despite support for Johannine authoriship by a few front-rank scholars in this century and by many popular writers, a large majority of contemporary scholars reject this view. As we shall see, much of their argumentation turns on their reading of the internal evidence. Nevertheless, it requires their virtual dismissal of the external evidence. This is particularly regrettable. Most historians of antiquity, other than New Testament scholars, could not so easily set aside evidence as plentiful and as uniform."

Among the external evidence the testimony that causes most doubt is that of Papias, who, as reported by Eusebius, suggests that there were two individuals named John, one of whom was an apostle and the other of whom was an elder, and that the elder, not the apostle, was responsible for the gospel. Recent scholarship has pointed to four reasons an appeal to Papias in this might not be appropriate.

p. 233 "In the terms of Papias, 'the discourses of the elders' means the teaching of Andrew, Peter, and the other apostles." Thus John the elder might well be an apostle.

p. 234 "It is worth noting that "apostle" and "elder" come together with a common referent in 1 Peter 5:1. Indeed, the Greek syntax Papias employs favors the view that 'Aristion and John the elder' means something like "Aristion and the aforementioned elder John.' Not only here but in H.E. 3.39.14 it is John and not Aristion who is designated 'the elder.' In choosing to refer to the apostles as elders, Papias may well be echoing the language of 3 John (on the assumption that Papias thought that epistle was written by the apostle John)."

p. 234 "It appears that the distinction Papias is making in his two lists is not between apostles and elders of the next generation but between first-generation witnesses who have died (what they said) and first-generation witnesses who are still alive (what they say).

Finally, we consider that Euesebius may have had an agenda himself. In his dislike for the apocalyptic teaching of Revelation he may have been wishing to suggest that Papias identified a non-apostolic author for revelation and possibly other writings which seem to be by the same person.

Internal Evidence (for authorship)
p. 237 "The traditional reason seems most plausible: the beloved disciple is non oether than John, and he deliberately avoids using his personal name. This becomes more likely when we remember that the beloved disciple is constantly in the company of Peter, while the Synoptics and Acts not to mention Paul link Peter and John in friendship and shared experience."

Carson and Moo detail several of the objections posed to authorship by John the apostle, most convincingly the objection that John was uneducated and therefore would not be capable of executing a literary work like the gospel. They observe that if he lived to a great age, as tradition seems to indicate, he would have had adequate time to build his skills in any way which would be necessary.

Stylistic Unity and the Johanine "Community"
Some scholars have suggested extensive redaction and source-gathering work prior to the release of John's gospel. The community would have identified the narratives which would be drawn into the gospel and would have modeled the narrative appropriately. Yet there do not seem to be the signs of such work in the gospel itself. There are some specific idiomatic ways of phrasing different concepts, but this is not unheard of within the work of a skilled author.

PROVENANCE
Geographically, we see suggestions that the gospel came from Alexandria, Antioch, Palestine, or Ephesus. Ephesus is the one location which has ancient testimony supporting it.

Conceptual Provenance
John's Religious World
Consider the conceptual world of Philo, the hermetic writings, Gnosticism, and Mandaism, all of which used a good deal of symbolism and allegory. There are many different movements available which could have influenced the thought life of John. p. 256 "Moreover, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 and their subsequent publication have shown that the closest religious movement to the fourth gospel in terms of vocabulary at least, was an extremely conservative hermetic Jewish community. This is not to say that John springs from the Essenes, thought to be represented by the Dead Sea Scrolls, but tha the appeal to strongly Hellenistic sources is now much less convincing than it was six decades ago."

John's Relation to the Synoptics
John is quite different in some respects from the synoptic gospels. He has more of a focus on Jesus' ministry in the sough than in the north. In John Jesus is very specifically identified as God, while the comparison is a little more oblique in the synoptics. However we find that the content and ideas of the gospels all are remarkably in unity. p. 258 "More impressive yet are the many places where John and the Synoptics represent an interlocking tradition, that is, where they mutually reinforce or explain each other, without betraying overt literary dependence." It appears quite clear that the four evangelists are writing about the very same events, but that they write about them differently. p. 259 "Conversely, numerous features in John are explained by details reported only by the synoptists."

Considering the relationship of John to Mark's gospel, on p. 260 Carson and Moo point out, "Granted the close friendship that Peter and John enjoyed, would it be very likely that either of them would long remain ignorant of a publication for which the other was responsible? Considerations of date then become important. For instance, if Mark was written about A.D. 64, and John within a year or two of that date, then the likelihood of mutual independence is enhanced. But if Mark was written sometime between 50 and 64, and the fourth gospel not until about 80, it is very difficult to believe that John would not have read it. The idea of hermetically sealed communities is implausible in the Roman Empire anyway, where communications were as good as at any time in the history of the world until the nineteenth century."

Do we need to assume an inter-relationship among the different gospels? p. 261 "On its own, John's account makes good historical sense. . . it is John who most persistently catalogues how much the early disciples did not understand, how much they actively misunderstood."

DATE
People have suggested a wide variety of dates, from before 70 to the last quarter of the second century. It does make sense that based on chapter 21 we can assume that Peter's death in 64 or 65 was before the composition. There are people who suggest composition very late in the first century, suggestion various reasons why the historical events in Domitian's reign (81-96) would fit well. Tradition says that John lived a very long time. Yet this does not require that the composition bet at the end of his life. Carson and Moo suggest (p. 267) a date between 80 and 85, though they are quite tentative about the dating.

DESTINATION
There is no clear destination for this gospel.

PURPOSE
While many scholars have suggested many purposes for the gospel of John, the purpose seems to be stated in chapter 20, "that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah."

TEXT
The text of John, except in a few places, seems quite solid and well documented. The narrative of the woman caught in adultery does not seem to be original, at least not original in its location. Aside from that there are very few passages with significant disputes, none of which cause any overall theological difficulty.

ADOPTION INTO THE CANON
All four canonical gospels were accepted quite solidly by the end of the second century.

JOHN IN RECENT STUDY
John has been subject to many studies of different themes over the generations. In recent years scholars have sought to do literary, social-scientific, and postmodern philosophical studies on the text, or rather on the community which created the text.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF JOHN
John adds a great deal of depth to the picture of Jesus which we receive from the synoptists. The overall picture of Jesus as a fully-functioning person who lives in perfect obedience to the Father so as to die as a substitutionary atonement gives us a more three-dimensional picture of Jesus than we find elsewhere. John is also always concerned with eschatology as well as the work of the Holy Spirit in Christ's people.

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The Synoptic Gospels

4/26/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
4/26/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "The Synoptic Gospels" Carson & Moo pp. 77-133

The synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, were first called "synoptic" by J.J. Griesbach, near the close of the 18th century. They are called synoptic meaning "same view" because they are very similar to one another in their structure and tone. In this chapter of Carson and Moo they "address significant issues that embrace all three accounts. Specifically, we examine three questions: How did the Synoptic Gospels come into being? How should we understand the gospels as works of literature? And what do the gospels tell us about Jesus?" (p. 78)

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS
The Stage of Oral Traditions: Form Criticism
Form criticism "concentrates on the earliest stage in the process by which the gospels came into being: the oral stage" (p. 79). This form of criticism arose in the early part of the 20th century. Carson and moo list six assumptions held in common by form critics (pp. 81-82).

1. "The stories and sayings of Jesus circulated in small independent units."
2. "The transmission of the gospel material can be compared to the transmission of other folk and religious traditions.'
3. "The stories and sayings of Jesus took on certain standard forms that are for the most part still readily visible in the gospels."
4. "The form of a specific story or saying makes it possible to determine its Sitz im Leben or function in the life of the early church."
5. "As it passed down the sayings and stories of Jesus, the early Christian community not only put the material into certain forms, but it also modified it under the impetus of its own needs and situations."
6. "Classic form critics have typically used various criteria to enable them to determine the age and historical trustworthiness of particular pericopes."

I wrote in the margin of p. 82, "There's a bias here which says authentic statements of Scripture diverge from early practice, thus saying that early practice is uniformly suspect." Carson and Moo had talked about the way that form critics would identify alleged modifications of the content of historical statements. They tend to assume that the early church would have changed their tradition to fit their practices rather than allowing the tradition to shape practices.

Form criticism is not entirely a bad idea. It is valuable to investigate the way that information passed from hand to hand and from mouth to ear. In a culture such as we find in Palestine in the 1st century there is a good deal of both literacy and oral tradition. The process of condensing several years of Jesus' life and ministry into a brief document such as a gospel account may have been quite complex. Yet radical form criticism seems to undermine what is known about transmission of information. It also considers that the church is by necessity going to invent materials to prove its point of view rather than taking existing materials and allowing them to influence it.

The Stage of Written Sources: Source Criticism (the Synoptic Problem)
Introduction
Source criticism seeks to understand what, if any, written sources the evangelists might have used. It deals with literary transmission, not oral transmission. The source critics will observe similar statements in the various gospels and attempt to explain why the narrative would be so similar.

The Main Solutions
1. Common dependence on one original gospel
2. Common dependence on oral sources
3. Common dependence on gradually developing written fragments
4. Interdependence - this is the direction which most scholars today find themselves going.

Theories of Interdependence
1. The Augustinian Proposal - Matthew was first, Mark borrowed from Matthew, Luke borrowed from both Matthew and Mark.
2. The "Two-Gospel" Hypothesis - Matthew was first, Luke was second, Mark borrowed from Matthew and Luke.
3. The "Two-Source" Hypothesis - Mark and a lost document commonly referred to as "Q" were borrowed from by both Matthew and Luke.

Markan Priority
Carson and Moo suggest strongly that Mark was the first gospel and that the two-source hypothesis is the most reasonable solution to the problem.

Proto-Gospel Theories - some scholars suggest that there were lost preliminary drafts of gospels which were sources for material which others have assigned to "Q."

Conclusion p. 103 "The process through which the gospels came into being was a complex one, so complex that no source-critical hypothesis, however detailed, can hope to provide a complete explanation of the situation. Granted that at least one of the evangelists was an eyewitness, that various oral and written traditions uncrecoverable to us were undoubtedly circulating, and that the evangelists may even have talked together about their work, the "scissors-and-paste" assumptions of some source critics are quite unfounded."

The Stage of Final Composition: Redaction Criticism
Redaction is a fancy word for editing. p. 104 "Redaction criticism seeks to describe the theological purposes of the evangelists by analyzing the way they use their sources." This involves making a distinction between tradition and editorial work, finding evidence of editorial work through comparison to other narratives, finding patterns in editorial move throughout a gospel, thus noting theological emphases, and identifying a setting which would have motivated the writing of a gospel account.

Origins
Redaction criticism developed in the 1950s, with Gunther Bornkamm, Hans Conzelmann, and Willi Marxsen laying out methdology for redaction criticism. This methodology is used by most contemporary scholars.

Evaluation
Redaction criticism has several weaknesses. It requires us to be able to identify what an author has altered. It tends to overlook an interest on the part of the author in historical accuracy. It tends to overlook the great commonalities of the various evangelists while seeking out their distinctives. It tends to undermine the historical trustworthiness of the gospel material. Yet it is important to an interpreter to focus on the reason why the evangelists said what they said. It points out to us that there are several different gospels but that they all have one message, Christ the Lord.

THE GOSPELS AS WORKS OF LITERATURE
The Genre of the Gospels - basically biographical in nature but with an emphasis on the divine nature and work of Jesus.

Literary Criticism
Description p. 115 "We are using "Literary Criticism" as a catchall designation for contemporary approaches to the gospels that focus on careful study of the way the gospels function as pieces of literature." This represents an emphasis on the text as we find it. Literary criticism would entail the methods we use to read and understand the Scripture.

Evaluation
Some literary critics seem to react against history itself, considering that the author is not concerned with historical accuracy. In recent years some of the critics tend to suggest that there is no definitive meaning of a text.

JESUS AND THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS
The Question of the "Historical" Jesus
The idea of "the historical Jesus" has been used since the eighteenth century to identify that which is merely human and therefore believable without assent of a supernatural influence.

The Possibility of a Historical Outline
It is important to identify the historicity of the events in the gospels. The synoptics are generally thought to follow a chronological pattern, though some of the events are not clearly defined. In the chronology we find the birth of Jesus can best be identified as happening somewhere in the years 6-4 B.C. His ministry seems to begin when he is about thirty years old, as is stated in Luke 3:23, sometime in the period of 25/26 to 28/29 A.D. The dates of Tiberius Caesar are difficult to pin down but do not contradict the gospel account. The synoptic gospels seem to require at least a year's worth of ministry. John's gospel mentions Passover three times, including the one at which the crucifixion occurred. Therefore it looks like John requires at least two and possible three years, which is not overturned in any way by the synoptic gospels. Jesus' death, according to the calculations of the time of Passover and the fact that it doesn't always happen on a Friday, could have happened in 30, 31, or 33. None of these dates are out of line with Luke's observation of Jesus' age or with any of the possible birth years.

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Luke

4/19/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
4/19/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "Luke" Carson & Moo pp. 198-224

CONTENTS
p. 198 "Luke's gospel is the longest book in the New Testament. Like Matthew, Luke follows the basic outline of Jesus' ministry established by Mark."
1. The Prologue (1:1-4)
2. The Births of John the Baptist and Jesus (1:5-2:52)
3. Preparation for the Ministry (3:1-4:13)
4. The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee (4:14-9:50)
5. Jesus' Journey to Jerusalem (9:51-19:44)
6. Jesus in Jerusalem (19:45-21:38)
7. Jesus' Crucifixion and Resurrection (22:1-24:53)

LUKE-ACTS
Luke and Acts are recognizably written by the same individual, addressed to the same individual, and related to one another. however we do need to realize that the books seem to fit into different genres, with Luke following the pattern found in the other gospels and Acts following a pattern of a historical text.

AUTHOR
Internal evidence points to an author who is not an eyewitness of Jesus' ministry (1:1-4) but who is familiar with many events. The "we" passages in Acts identify the author as someone who is frequently a companion of Paul. The statements of chapter 1 indicating an author who performed research prepares us to expect someone who would have drawn information from a variety of sources, including from those he accompanied. Early church authors identify Luke as the author, also claiming that the author was a physician. There are indications, particularly in Colossians 4:10-14, that Luke was a Gentile.

PROVENANCE
The location of the writing is unclear. Antioch, Achaia, and Rome have all been suggested. All are speculations.

DATE
Carson and Moo give a good deal of evidence that tends to point again and again to a date around 62 for the final work of Acts. Acts presupposes that the gospel has been written, but does not suggest that it has been in existence for long. Carson and Moo also list numerous suggestions for later dates, after 70, but none of those suggestions are conclusive.

ADDRESSEE(S)
The gospel is written to one "Theophilus" which means "lover of God." This could be anybody, including a noble person (see the "most excellent") using a real or assumed name, or could be an example of a person to whom Luke purports to write. The content of the gospel seems to indicate it is written with a recent convert in mind.

PURPOSE
Luke states his own purpose of writing in the prologue, to assure the reader of the certainty of what he has been taught. p. 212 "By the time Luke wrote his gospel, the early church had separated from Judaism and was, indeed, experiencing hostility from many Jews. at the same time, the new and tiny Christian movement was competing with a welter of religious and philosophical alternatives in the Greco-Roman world."

COMPOSITION
If we assume that Luke drew heavily on other written sources, it would seem that he takes about 55 percent of Mark's material (p. 212). Some suggest that Luke has borrowed a great deal, about 20 percent of the non-Markan material, from Matthew. This does leave a significant portion of the gospel without parallel. p. 213 "most scholars are persuaded that Luke and Matthew have independently used a lost source, called "Q." we think this hypothesis is likely, though the exact nature of Q must be left open." Yet we observe that Luke says he gathered information from a variety of sources. It must be allowed that some sources were written and that some were oral, gathered in the time he spent accompanying Paul and possibly other apostles.

TEXT
The text of Luke and Acts is difficult as there is a significant difference between Western and Eastern text traditions. Carson and Moo lay out a fairly detailed argument on p. 215. They tend to think that the Western text passages which are found in addition to the Eastern text are less likely to be original, while the passages which exist in the Western text but are omitted in the Eastern text are fairly likely to be original.

ADOPTION INTO THE CANON
Luke was clearly accepted as canonical by the mid-second century. There is some evidence that it was cited earlier, even in the first century. It has been universally accepted as authoritative for as long as canonicity has been articulated.

LUKE'S GOSPEL IN RECENT STUDY
In recent years text critics have suggested a variety of sources for Luke's information. They have also tended to suggest that Luke was interested in explaining eschatology to dispel the idea that Jesus' return would have been expected more or less immediately after his ascension. Narrative critics have focused on Luke-Acts as a two volume whole. pp. 218-219 "Luke is not creating a work of literature from whole cloth as a novelist might go about his or her work. He is narrating events that transpired in a particular time and place; and these "historical constraints" must be recognized."

THE CONTRIBUTION OF LUKE
Carson and Moo identify four major themes in Luke which can inform all our understanding of Scripture. First, Luke is interested in God's overall plan. Second, Luke has a focus on salvation. Third, the Gentiles are the special recipients of salvation. Finally, Jesus is the one who shows care for outcasts of all sorts.

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New Testament Studies Introduction

3/29/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
3/29/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "Thinking about the Study of the New Testament" pp. 23-76

This chapter sets out to introduce the idea of New Testament studies, giving some of the main themes addressed historically.

PASSING ON THE TEXT
Carson & Moo point out the difficulty of creating copies of written works in antiquity. I did write in the margin of the book my recollection that in the 1st century BC authors complained about the quality of cheap editions on the market, indicating that books were not always terribly expensive or carefully made. The outcome of New Testament manuscript copies tends to show that the Scripture was treated very carefully.

We see a move in the first several centuries of transmission to scrolls giving way to codices, uncial writing giving way to quicker and smaller cursive scripts, and the Scripture being presented in a multitude of different language versions.

The text also discusses writing materials including papyrus, parchment, and vellum.

The New Testament is the book with the most whole or fragmentary witnesses of all ancient literature. Very early in the history of mass printing the Greek New Testament was released in multiple different editions. From pp. 27-28 "The Elzevir brotehrs' second edition, dated 1633, boasts (in what would today be called an advertising blurb) that the reader now has 'the text which is now received by all, in which we give nothing changed or corrupted;: the words we have italicized reflect the Latin textus receptus, referring to a commonly received text, and thus a standard text. This is the 'received text' which, more or less, stands behind all English translations of the Bible until 1881. This textual tradition is grounded in what was at the time a mere handful of mostly late miniscule manuscripts."

Textual criticism tended to arise by the end of the 17th century as scholars collated different manuscripts, noting the textual descent of each manuscript thread and providing substantial footnotes which could be used to track variant readings. Bengel, working around 1734, emphasized the question of "which reading is most likely to have generated all the others" and formulated the rule "the more difficult reading is to be preferred over the easier" (p. 29).

LONGSTANDING INTERPRETIVE TRADITIONS
Liberal and conservative scholars alike tend to discount some periods of scholarship from the past, with the conservatives tending to discount theological reflection prior to the Reformation and the conservatives considering the period before the Enlightenment as a time of superstition. Yet a review of the work of the early Church does not bear this out. The early Christians were very aware of what was being accepted as canonical Scripture and why. This was a matter of intelligent debate and scholarship in its own time and should be considered with respect. Carson and Moo address some of the work in antiquity as well as current trends which those ancient authors addressed.

THE RISE OF BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
The term "biblical theology" is easily redefined in different contexts. On p. 47 Carson and Moo observe that the term was first apparently used in a book in 1607 by W. J. Christmann. By 1675 P.J. Spener and later Pietists used the term to distinguish their own theology from theologia scholastica, the Lutheran orthodox theology of their time. By 1787, Johann P. Gabler redefined biblical theology as an inductive study of the biblical text as opposed to a study of systematic or dogmatic theology. The term "biblical theology" continues to be reshaped depending on its context.

HISTORICAL CRITICISM, LITERARY TOOLS, AND THE IMPACT OF POSTMODERNISM
Historical Criticism
This discipline seeks to locate the time and setting of composition of New Testament documents. It tends to look at the Scriptures as documents which arise from collation of different source documents, though this is not necessary to the discipline. In responsible historical criticism the scholar attempts to uncover the historical setting which gave rise to the statements as they were made.
Literary Criticism
Many literary critics tend to look at figures of speech and other literary features of the New Tstament documents in a microcosm. However, the critics who have emphasized the minutiae of the text tend to be discredited as readers realize that no piece of literature is composed by lifting individual words, phrases, or clauses from other sources and pasting them together to make a finished product. Some literary critics work with the genres of the writing both in the larger books and in the smaller elements, for instance, doing studies of the use of metaphor and simile in the New Testament and other texts from that period.
The New Literary Criticism and the Turn to Postmodern Readings
Postmodernists are not my friends. That's not actually entirely true. But postmodern philosophy is one which I consider every bit as dangerous as modernist philosophy. When carried to extremes it is hostile to the idea of definitive truth. I think that is a serious problem. However in recent decades an increasing number of scholars have pursued skeptical views of texts and the idea that they have intrinsic meaning. While some of the emphases of postmodernists have been valuable correctives against modernist philosophy, it is unhealthy to carry either philosophy to its ultimate logical conclusions.
Social-Scientific Approaches
An increasing number of scholars are using a social-science approach in which they look at the historical context of the New Testament and analyze the kind of interactions individuals may have brought to the composition. They focus on the roles different characters would have in their society and family and why those roles would be important to our understanding the text.
Language and Linguistic Approaches
Many scholars, as we might expect, study the New Testament from a linguistic point of view, seeking out word usage, grammatical constructions, and lexical studies. While these grids rarely lead us to a full-bodied theological understanding of a text, they are very important as a starting point in our understanding of the Scripture.

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    About Throwing Inkwells

    When Martin Luther was dealing with struggles in his life he once saw what appeared to be an angelic being. Not trusting that he was going to be informed by someone other than the God revealed in Scripture, he took the appearance to be untrustworthy and hurled his inkwell at it. The chipped place in the plaster wall is still visible at the Wartburg Castle, though apparently the ink stain on the wall has been refreshed periodically by the caretaker.

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