Old LHIM Classes

18 Helpful Tools to Understand the Bible – Notes Download

Why do we need extra-biblical tools to help us understand the Bible?

• Different geography
• Different history
• Different cultures (ancient Near Eastern, first-century Jewish, Greco-Roman)
• Different economics
• Different literacy rates
• Different scientific and philosophical knowledge

Bible Dictionaries

• International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
• Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)
• Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (2015)
• The IVP Bible Dictionary Series
  • Dictionary of OT: Pentateuch (2002)
  • Dictionary of OT: Historical Books (2005)
  • Dictionary of OT: Wisdom, Poetry, & Writings (2008)
  • Dictionary of OT: Prophets (2012)
  • Dictionary of NT Background (2000)
  • Dictionary of Jesus & Gospels (2013)
  • Dictionary of Paul & Letters (2023)
  • Dictionary of the Later NT (1997)

Commentaries

• Fee & Stuart: “Jesus says, ‘…It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ You will sometimes hear it said that there was a gate in Jerusalem known as the “Needle’s Eye,” which camels could go through only by kneeling, and with great difficulty. The point of this “interpretation” is that a camel could in fact go through the “Needle’s Eye.” The trouble with this “exegesis,” however, is that it is simply not true. There never was such a gate in Jerusalem at any time in its history. The earliest known “evidence” for this idea is found in the eleventh century(!) in a commentary by a Greek churchman named Theophylact, who had the same difficulty with the text that many later readers do. After all, it is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, and that was precisely Jesus’ point. It is impossible for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom. It takes a miracle for a rich person to get saved…”[[Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014). p. 29.]]
• Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary (ZIBBC – 10 vols.)
• New International Commentary (NICOT – 30 vols.; NICNT – 20 vols.)
• New International Greek Testament Commentary (NIGTC – 12 vols.)
• The New Testament for Everyone by N. T. Wright (18 vols.)

Bible Project Videos

• Book Overviews (OT – 39 videos; NT – 26 videos)
• How to Read the Bible (19 videos)
• Themes (41 videos)
• Word Studies (21 videos)
• Many more at com/explore/

Software

• Lots of translations
• Original language resources
• Cross-references
• Outlines
• Search tools
• Accordance & Logos

Search Tools

• Artificial intelligence chat bots (openai.com)
• Crowd sourced websites (info/topics)

Review

• Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias provide short articles on places, individuals, and topics in the Bible.
• Older and free research tools sometimes contain inaccuracies that more recent scholarship has overturned or updated.
• A good commentary tells you the options for interpreting a verse, reasons for each of those options, and a suggestion for which one makes the most sense.
• The Bible Project’s book overview videos are really helpful to get a general understanding of a book of the Bible.
• Bible software on PCs, tablets, and phones provide worldclass research tools to help you study scripture.
• When searching for a phrase, a topic, or something specific, you can use a Bible app, openbible.info, or AI.

The post 18: Helpful Tools to Understand the Bible first appeared on Living Hope.

17 How to Choose a Bible Translation – Notes Download

Translation basics

• Fee & Stuart: “Your Bible, whatever translation you use, which is your beginning point, is in fact the end result of much scholarly work. Translators are regularly called upon to make choices regarding meanings, and their choices are going to affect how you”[[Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 23.]]
• “Every translation is a commentary” -Lee Brice

The Bible is in three languages.

1. Hebrew: Old Testament except the Aramaic part
   1. Nearly 99% of the OT (22,945 of 23,213 verses)
2. Aramaic: half of Daniel and two passages in Ezra
   1. Daniel 2.4b-7.28; Ezra 4.8-6.18; 7.12-26
   2. About 1% of the OT (268 of 23,213 verses)
3. Greek: New Testament (all 7,968 verses)

How to begin learning Hebrew or Greek

• Immersion program in Israel or Greece
  • Whole Word Institute offers a 9-month program.
• In-person college class (usually 2 semesters)
  • Local colleges, RTS offers an 8-week summer program.
• In-person classes at a Jewish synagogue or Greek church or community center
• Online program with live instructor
  • Biblical Language Center, Liberty University, etc.
• Digital program with pre-recordings
  • Aleph with Beth (YouTube), Bill Mounce’s DVD course, etc.

How to improve your existing knowledge of Hebrew or Greek

• Reading group in-person or online
  • Read a portion each week together.
• Daily dose of Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic
  • Daily YouTube videos of one verse each (email list)
• Read every day.
  • Read the Bible; read devotionals; read comic books (Glossa House produces great resources)
• Watch modern Hebrew and Greek shows.
  • Izzy is like Netflix for Israel/Hebrew
  • Greece has lots of channels streaming online.

Translation process (1 Timothy 2:5 example)

• Greek New Testament (NA28)

Εἷς γὰρ θεός, εἷς καὶ μεσίτης θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, ἄνθρωπος Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς

• Literal translation One for god, one and mediator of god and men, man Christ Jesus
• Finished translation For (there is) one God, and (there is) one mediator between God and mankind, (the) man Christ Jesus.

New Testament critical editions

• Nestle Aland 28th Edition (NA28) based on the Editio Critica Maior (ECM), which employs the coherence based genealogical method (CBGM)
• Tyndale House Greek New Testament (THGNT) prioritizes trusted physical manuscripts over the CBGM.

Old Testament critical editions

• Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) and the partially completed Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ) print the Leningrad Codex in the main text, but include alternative readings in the footnotes.
• Hebrew Bible Critical Edition (HBCE) by Ronald Mendel is a project of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) to develop a critical edition.

Resources to see decisions about alternative readings

• NET Bible (accessible at org)
• New Testament Text and Commentary by Philip Comfort
• A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament by Bruce Metzger

Formal equivalence translation philosophy

• Fee & Strauss: “If the Greek or Hebrew text uses an infinitive, the English translation will use an infinitive. When the Greek or Hebrew has a prepositional phrase, so will the English…The goal of this translational theory is formal correspondence as much as possible.”[[Gordon Fee and Mark Strauss, How to Choose a Translation for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), p. 26.]]
• Ron Rhodes: “Formal equivalence translations can also be trusted not to mix too much commentary in with the text derived from the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. To clarify, while all translation entails some interpretation, formal equivalence translations keep to a minimum in intermingling interpretive additives into the text. As one scholar put it, ‘An essentially literal translation operates on the premise that a translator is a steward of what someone else has written, not an editor and exegete who needs to explain or correct what someone else has written.’”[[Ron Rhodes, The Complete Guide to Bible Translations (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2009), p. 30. Quotation from Leland Ryken, Choosing a Bible (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005), p. 27.]]

Dynamic equivalence translation philosophy

• Ron Rhodes: “Dynamic equivalence translations generally use shorter words, shorter sentences, and shorter paragraphs. They use easy vocabulary and use simple substitutes for theological and cultural terminology. They often convert culturally dependent figures of speech into easy, direct statements. They seek to avoid ambiguity as well as biblical jargon in favor of a natural English style. Translators concentrate on transferring meaning rather than mere words from one language to another.”[[Ron Rhodes, The Complete Guide to Bible Translations (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2009), pp. 32-33.]]

Formal vs. dynamic comparison

• Formal Equivalence Dynamic Equivalence
• Formal Correspondence Functional Equivalence
• Word for Word Thought for Thought
• Literal Readable
• Transparent to Originals Replicates Experience
• Transfer Interpretation Interpretation Built In
• Accurate Easy to Understand

Formal equivalence Bibles

• ESV: English Standard Version
• NASB: New American Standard Bible
• LSB: Legacy Standard Bible
• NRSV: New Revised Standard Version
• HCSB: Holman Christian Standard Bible

Gender Accuracy[[For a much deeper dive into this interesting topic, see session 15 from How We Got the Bible: Gender in Bible Translation, available on lhim.org or on YouTube.]]

• “Man” used to mean “men and women”
• “Men” used to mean “men and women”
• “he” used to mean “he or she”
• Translations are changing with the changes in the English language so that female readers recognize the relevance of scripture to them
• See Eph 4:28; Mat 11:15; etc.

Combatting bias

• To combat bias, look at translations from different thought camps.
• Evangelical: NIV, NLT, ESV, NASB, NET, CSB, HCSB, LEB MSG, Passion, Amplified, LSB, CEV, TEV/GNT, NCV, NIrV
• Jewish: JPS, KJB, Stone, Robert Altar, Shocken
• Catholic: NABRE, NAB, RNJB, NJB, JB, Douay-Rheims
• Mainline: NRSV, NEB, NKJ, RSV, ASV, KJV
• Unitarian: REV, NWT, Diaglott, KGV, Buzzard, NEV

Review

• If you can, learn the biblical languages so you can read the actual words of scripture rather than depending on a translation.
• Translations of the New Testament depend on the Greek critical text known as the Nestle Aland 28th edition (NA28).
• Translations of the Old Testament depend on the Leningrad Codex, which is printed in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) and the partially complete Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ). In addition, translators of the Old Testament are expected to look through the footnotes and commentary in these resources to judge readings from other sources.
• Over generations, textual critics have developed strategies and computer tools to more closely approximate the original text. As a result, newer critical texts contain reconstructions of an older stage of the text.
• Translation is the art of rendering a source text into a receptor language accurately.
• Formal equivalence translations focus on transparency to the source text and a minimum of added interpretation.
• Dynamic equivalence translations focus on readability in the receptor language. They seek clarity over ambiguity.
• Formal equivalence translations are safer, because they leave it up to the reader to figure out what a text means. However, they can contain awkward English and be difficult to read.
• Gender accuracy refers to the translation practice of including the feminine when a hypothetical singular masculine pronoun can refer to either sex or when masculine plurals include both genders.
• Bias is intrinsic to translation, especially with reference to doctrines that are widely held by committee members.
• The best way to expose and combat bias is to check translations from different thought camps. Although evangelical translations are better known, checking Jewish, mainline, Catholic, and unitarian translations provides a helpful corrective.

The post 17: How to Choose a Bible Translation first appeared on Living Hope.

The General Epistles

• Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude
• Some consider Hebrews to be Pauline, but even if Paul wrote it, it’s not to a church or a pastor, so it still fits as a general epistle
• 2 John and 3 John are technical to specific individuals and thus not general epistles

Hebrews

• Authorship
  • Evidence for Paul
    • Associated with Timothy and Rome (Heb 13:23-24)
    • Pauline themes
  • Evidence against Paul
    • Non-Pauline themes
    • Ancient uncertainty (Origen, Eusebius, etc.)
    • Non-standard opening
    • Not an eyewitness (Heb 2:3)
  • Daniel Wallace suggested Barnabas with help from Apollos.
• Audience
  • As title indicates, the audience was Jewish.
  • Persecuted (Heb 10:32-36)
• Occasion
  • Became aware of some falling away from faith (Heb 3:6; 4:14; 6:4-6; 10:23, 26-27)
  • Concern that they will return to Judaism
• Purpose
  • Convince Jewish Christians to endure in the faith instead of falling away (presumably back into Judaism)
• Mode
  • Show that Jesus is better
  • Ch 1: Jesus as God’s promised Messiah is better than the angels who gave the Law.
  • Ch 2: Jesus’ salvation is better b/c he is human.
  • Ch 3: Jesus is better than Moses.
  • Ch 7: Jesus’ priesthood is better than Aaron’s.
  • Ch 8: Jesus’ covenant is better than the old covenant b/c it has better promises.
  • Ch 9: Jesus’ heavenly priestly service is better than the priests serving at the temple on earth.
  • Ch 10: Jesus’ sacrifice is better than animal sacrifices.
  • Ch 11: The unshakable Mt. Zion covenant is better than the covenant at Mt. Sinai.
  • Overall rhetorical effect to ask, “Why in the world would Christ-followers want to downgrade to Judaism after they’ve tasted something so much better?”

1 John

• Authorship
  • No author in the document itself (1 John 1:1)
  • Early Christians refer to this letter as written by John
    • Irenaeus (a.d. 180) attributed the Gospel of John and 1 John to “John, the disciple of the Lord”[[Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.16.5, 8. ANF translation.]]
    • Later Christians agreed, including Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and the Muratorian Canon
    • Eusebius says, “But of John’s writings, in addition to the Gospel, the first of the letters is unambiguously accepted [as genuine] both by people today and by the ancients” (H.E. 3.24.17)[[Eusebius, 148.]]
  • Definitely the same John who wrote the Gospel of John (John the Apostle)
    • Same vocabulary and writing style
  • Audience
    • Christians that John is worried about
  • Occasion: concern over rogue Christians
    • “They went out from us, but they did not belong to us” (1 John 2:19).
    • They are trying to deceive the regular Christians (2:26; 3:7).
    • Many false prophets have gone out (4:1).
    • They are denying that Jesus is the Christ (2:22).
    • They may have been teaching that sin is ok (3:7-10).
  • Purpose
    • Equip Christians to discern and resist false teachings
    • Encourage them to
      • Live righteously
      • Believe correctly about Jesus
      • Love one another
    • Mode
      • Christology
        • “Confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” (4:2)
        • “Testify that the Father has sent his son as the savior of the world” (4:14).
        • “Confess that Jesus is the son of God” (4:15)
        • “Believes that Jesus is the Christ” (5:1)
        • “Believes that Jesus is the son of God” (5:5)
        • “Believes in the son of God” (5:10)
        • “Life is in his son” (5:11)
        • “Believe in the name of the son of God” (5:13)
      • Behavior (1 John 3:7-10)
        • “It is unlikely that John has in mind absolute sinless perfection, since earlier he has denounced those who say they are without sin (1:8, 10). Rather, John has in mind the blatant sinning to which those who have left the community have fallen prey (2:19). In view of the letter as a whole, such sinning probably involves denial of Christ’s human nature (4:2-3; theological lapse), flaunting of God’s (or Christ’s) commands (2:4; ethical lapse), failure to love (4:20; relational lapse), or some combination of these grave errors.”[[Yarbrough, Robert. “1 John” in Hebrews to Revelation, vol 4 of ZIBBCNT, ed. Clinton E. Arnold (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 176-212.]]
        • Many appeals to live righteously (1 John 1:.5-6; 2:1-6; 3:4-10, 23-24; 5:18)
        • Live differently than the world (1 John 2:15-17; 3:1, 13; 4:4-6; 5:4-5, 19)
        • Love your brother/sister in Christ (1 John 2:10-11; 3:11, 14-18; 4:7-12, 16-21; 5:1-3)

Review

• General epistles are for Christians in general rather than a specific church or person.
• In order to understand the general epistles, it’s helpful to figure out authorship, audience, occasion, purpose, and mode.
• Authorship is explicit for James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude, but takes some work to figure out for Hebrews and 1-3 John.
• Hebrews was probably not written by Paul but by someone who spent time with him like Priscilla, Luke, Barnabas, or Apollos.
• Audience and occasion are often intertwined and determinable by gleaning bits of historical information from the epistles themselves. As you read, ask yourself, “Who was the original audience?” and “What was going on with them?”
• To discern the purpose, ask, “What is the author’s main goal in this epistle?”
• Mode is answering the question, “How does the author go about achieving his purpose?”
• Once you’ve figured out the author, audience, occasion, purpose, and mode, understanding the rest of the epistle’s particulars is much easier.

The post 15: How to Read the General Epistles first appeared on Living Hope.

The General Epistles

• Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude
• Some consider Hebrews to be Pauline, but even if Paul wrote it, it’s not to a church or a pastor, so it still fits as a general epistle
• 2 John and 3 John are technical to specific individuals and thus not general epistles

Hebrews

• Authorship
  • Evidence for Paul
    • Associated with Timothy and Rome (Heb 13:23-24)
    • Pauline themes
  • Evidence against Paul
    • Non-Pauline themes
    • Ancient uncertainty (Origen, Eusebius, etc.)
    • Non-standard opening
    • Not an eyewitness (Heb 2:3)
  • Daniel Wallace suggested Barnabas with help from Apollos.
• Audience
  • As title indicates, the audience was Jewish.
  • Persecuted (Heb 10:32-36)
• Occasion
  • Became aware of some falling away from faith (Heb 3:6; 4:14; 6:4-6; 10:23, 26-27)
  • Concern that they will return to Judaism
• Purpose
  • Convince Jewish Christians to endure in the faith instead of falling away (presumably back into Judaism)
• Mode
  • Show that Jesus is better
  • Ch 1: Jesus as God’s promised Messiah is better than the angels who gave the Law.
  • Ch 2: Jesus’ salvation is better b/c he is human.
  • Ch 3: Jesus is better than Moses.
  • Ch 7: Jesus’ priesthood is better than Aaron’s.
  • Ch 8: Jesus’ covenant is better than the old covenant b/c it has better promises.
  • Ch 9: Jesus’ heavenly priestly service is better than the priests serving at the temple on earth.
  • Ch 10: Jesus’ sacrifice is better than animal sacrifices.
  • Ch 11: The unshakable Mt. Zion covenant is better than the covenant at Mt. Sinai.
  • Overall rhetorical effect to ask, “Why in the world would Christ-followers want to downgrade to Judaism after they’ve tasted something so much better?”

1 John

• Authorship
  • No author in the document itself (1 John 1:1)
  • Early Christians refer to this letter as written by John
    • Irenaeus (a.d. 180) attributed the Gospel of John and 1 John to “John, the disciple of the Lord”1
    • Later Christians agreed, including Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and the Muratorian Canon
    • Eusebius says, “But of John’s writings, in addition to the Gospel, the first of the letters is unambiguously accepted [as genuine] both by people today and by the ancients” (H.E. 3.24.17)2
  • Definitely the same John who wrote the Gospel of John (John the Apostle)
    • Same vocabulary and writing style
  • Audience
    • Christians that John is worried about
  • Occasion: concern over rogue Christians
    • “They went out from us, but they did not belong to us” (1 John 2:19).
    • They are trying to deceive the regular Christians (2:26; 3:7).
    • Many false prophets have gone out (4:1).
    • They are denying that Jesus is the Christ (2:22).
    • They may have been teaching that sin is ok (3:7-10).
  • Purpose
    • Equip Christians to discern and resist false teachings
    • Encourage them to
      • Live righteously
      • Believe correctly about Jesus
      • Love one another
    • Mode
      • Christology
        • “Confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” (4:2)
        • “Testify that the Father has sent his son as the savior of the world” (4:14).
        • “Confess that Jesus is the son of God” (4:15)
        • “Believes that Jesus is the Christ” (5:1)
        • “Believes that Jesus is the son of God” (5:5)
        • “Believes in the son of God” (5:10)
        • “Life is in his son” (5:11)
        • “Believe in the name of the son of God” (5:13)
      • Behavior (1 John 3:7-10)
        • “It is unlikely that John has in mind absolute sinless perfection, since earlier he has denounced those who say they are without sin (1:8, 10). Rather, John has in mind the blatant sinning to which those who have left the community have fallen prey (2:19). In view of the letter as a whole, such sinning probably involves denial of Christ’s human nature (4:2-3; theological lapse), flaunting of God’s (or Christ’s) commands (2:4; ethical lapse), failure to love (4:20; relational lapse), or some combination of these grave errors.”3
        • Many appeals to live righteously (1 John 1:.5-6; 2:1-6; 3:4-10, 23-24; 5:18)
        • Live differently than the world (1 John 2:15-17; 3:1, 13; 4:4-6; 5:4-5, 19)
        • Love your brother/sister in Christ (1 John 2:10-11; 3:11, 14-18; 4:7-12, 16-21; 5:1-3)

Review

• General epistles are for Christians in general rather than a specific church or person.
• In order to understand the general epistles, it’s helpful to figure out authorship, audience, occasion, purpose, and mode.
• Authorship is explicit for James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude, but takes some work to figure out for Hebrews and 1-3 John.
• Hebrews was probably not written by Paul but by someone who spent time with him like Priscilla, Luke, Barnabas, or Apollos.
• Audience and occasion are often intertwined and determinable by gleaning bits of historical information from the epistles themselves. As you read, ask yourself, “Who was the original audience?” and “What was going on with them?”
• To discern the purpose, ask, “What is the author’s main goal in this epistle?”
• Mode is answering the question, “How does the author go about achieving his purpose?”
• Once you’ve figured out the author, audience, occasion, purpose, and mode, understanding the rest of the epistle’s particulars is much easier.

1. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.16.5, 8. ANF translation.
2. Eusebius, 148.
3. Yarbrough, Robert. “1 John” in Hebrews to Revelation, vol 4 of ZIBBCNT, ed. Clinton E. Arnold (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 176-212.

The post 15: How to Read the General Epistles first appeared on Living Hope.

Letters in the First Century

• Letters written on papyrus with ink by a professional scribe (amanuensis)
• Though most letters that have survived from the ancient world were short and to the point, Paul’s Epistles are extremely long.
• Because there was no postal system, someone had to carry the letter to its destination.
• Upon arrival, most people couldn’t read, so a professional would need to read it aloud.
• This was difficult because there were no chapters, verses, paragraphs, punctuation, or spaces between words (scriptio continua).

Name Greek Words English Words Verses Chapters Romans 7113 9506 432 16 1 Corinthians 6832 9532 437 16 2 Corinthians 4480 6160 257 13 Galatians 2232 3227 149 6 Ephesians 2424 3047 155 6 Philippians 1631 2261 104 4 Colossians 1583 1993 95 4 1 Thessalonians 1484 1908 89 5 2 Thessalonians 826 1065 47 3

 

Church Epistles in Chronological Order

• Galatians 48
• 1 Thessalonians 49-51
• 2 Thessalonians 49-51
• 1 Corinthians 53-55
• 2 Corinthians 53-55
• Romans 57
• Philippians 62
• Colossians 62
• Ephesians 62

Developing Your Knowledge of the Greco-Roman World

• Get background books like The World of the New Testament by Green and McDonald and Zondervan’s Illustrated Bible Background Commentary by Clinton Arnold.
• Read the literature that has survived. Hundreds of volumes are available in the Loeb Classical Library.
• Learn about archeology in the Mediterranean world around the time of Christ (Biblical Archeological Review).
• Take a tour to visit the sites in Greece and Turkey (Spirit and Truth International).
• Study the geography of the region on maps that show the correct place names for the first century.

Deciphering the Occasion

• Each letter arose out of a specific circumstance. What was going on among the Christians in that city that caused Paul to write?
• Galatians: Judaizers had visited churches Paul founded, telling people they needed to follow the law of Moses.
• 1 Corinthians: Chloe sent word of divisions in Corinth; Paul also received a letter asking specific questions.
• 2 Corinthians: false teachers had ensconced themselves in Corinth who criticized and undermined Paul.
• Philippians: Epaphroditus brought Paul financial assistance from Philippi.

Reading the Church Epistles

• The first time through, just get your bearings. Read for scope.
• What’s going on in that church? What’s going on in that city? What are their concerns? What are the doctrinal errors that Paul is correcting?
• The second time through, read more slowly, paying attention to major units of thought (usually paragraphs). Ask yourself how each section contributes to the whole.
• Sometimes it is difficult to understand a particular sentence or phrase.
  • 1 Cor 15:29 “baptism on behalf of the dead”
  • 1 Cor 11:10 “because of the angels”
• No one understands everything. It’s more important to get the main point than understand every little nuance.

Form of ancient letters[[See Fee & Stuart, p. 59]]

1. Author(s)
2. Recipient(s)
3. Greeting
4. Prayer/thanksgiving
5. Content
6. Final greeting(s) and farewell

Content Section

• These Epistles are loaded with theology and practical application.
• Not systematic theologies, neatly organized
• Rather, they move from topic to topic based on the need of the congregation, oftentimes based on a previous (now lost) letter or communication they made to Paul.
• Romans and Ephesians come closest to laying out a theological system.

Application

• What is Paul asking them to do?
• Are my particulars similar enough to say this instruction applies to me as well?
• How much of what he said is culturally conditioned?
• Can I derive a principle that applies in general today?

Review

• Sending long letters in the Roman world was expensive and difficult due to the cost of materials, the skill required to write, and the need to have someone carry and read your letter aloud to the recipients.
• Paul sent the Church Epistles to Christian churches living in major Greco-Roman cities.
• We know much about the culture, politics, and geography of these cities due to surviving literature, archeological discoveries, and the ability to travel to them.
• Deciphering the occasion for which Paul wrote is the single most beneficial piece of information to help you understand an Epistle’s overarching purpose.
• As you read through an Epistle for the first time, try to get the big picture. Then as you read through it again, try to figure out how each section relates to the whole.
• It’s ok not to understand a particular verse. It’s more important to understand the point Paul is making rather than the particulars.
• When applying the Epistles to your life, look for comparable circumstances and general principles.

The post 13: How to Read the Church Epistles first appeared on Living Hope.

Letters in the First Century

• Letters written on papyrus with ink by a professional scribe (amanuensis)
• Though most letters that have survived from the ancient world were short and to the point, Paul’s Epistles are extremely long.
• Because there was no postal system, someone had to carry the letter to its destination.
• Upon arrival, most people couldn’t read, so a professional would need to read it aloud.
• This was difficult because there were no chapters, verses, paragraphs, punctuation, or spaces between words (scriptio continua).

Name Greek Words English Words Verses Chapters Romans 7113 9506 432 16 1 Corinthians 6832 9532 437 16 2 Corinthians 4480 6160 257 13 Galatians 2232 3227 149 6 Ephesians 2424 3047 155 6 Philippians 1631 2261 104 4 Colossians 1583 1993 95 4 1 Thessalonians 1484 1908 89 5 2 Thessalonians 826 1065 47 3

 

Church Epistles in Chronological Order

• Galatians 48
• 1 Thessalonians 49-51
• 2 Thessalonians 49-51
• 1 Corinthians 53-55
• 2 Corinthians 53-55
• Romans 57
• Philippians 62
• Colossians 62
• Ephesians 62

Developing Your Knowledge of the Greco-Roman World

• Get background books like The World of the New Testament by Green and McDonald and Zondervan’s Illustrated Bible Background Commentary by Clinton Arnold.
• Read the literature that has survived. Hundreds of volumes are available in the Loeb Classical Library.
• Learn about archeology in the Mediterranean world around the time of Christ (Biblical Archeological Review).
• Take a tour to visit the sites in Greece and Turkey (Spirit and Truth International).
• Study the geography of the region on maps that show the correct place names for the first century.

Deciphering the Occasion

• Each letter arose out of a specific circumstance. What was going on among the Christians in that city that caused Paul to write?
• Galatians: Judaizers had visited churches Paul founded, telling people they needed to follow the law of Moses.
• 1 Corinthians: Chloe sent word of divisions in Corinth; Paul also received a letter asking specific questions.
• 2 Corinthians: false teachers had ensconced themselves in Corinth who criticized and undermined Paul.
• Philippians: Epaphroditus brought Paul financial assistance from Philippi.

Reading the Church Epistles

• The first time through, just get your bearings. Read for scope.
• What’s going on in that church? What’s going on in that city? What are their concerns? What are the doctrinal errors that Paul is correcting?
• The second time through, read more slowly, paying attention to major units of thought (usually paragraphs). Ask yourself how each section contributes to the whole.
• Sometimes it is difficult to understand a particular sentence or phrase.
  • 1 Cor 15:29 “baptism on behalf of the dead”
  • 1 Cor 11:10 “because of the angels”
• No one understands everything. It’s more important to get the main point than understand every little nuance.

Form of ancient letters1

1. Author(s)
2. Recipient(s)
3. Greeting
4. Prayer/thanksgiving
5. Content
6. Final greeting(s) and farewell

Content Section

• These Epistles are loaded with theology and practical application.
• Not systematic theologies, neatly organized
• Rather, they move from topic to topic based on the need of the congregation, oftentimes based on a previous (now lost) letter or communication they made to Paul.
• Romans and Ephesians come closest to laying out a theological system.

Application

• What is Paul asking them to do?
• Are my particulars similar enough to say this instruction applies to me as well?
• How much of what he said is culturally conditioned?
• Can I derive a principle that applies in general today?

Review

• Sending long letters in the Roman world was expensive and difficult due to the cost of materials, the skill required to write, and the need to have someone carry and read your letter aloud to the recipients.
• Paul sent the Church Epistles to Christian churches living in major Greco-Roman cities.
• We know much about the culture, politics, and geography of these cities due to surviving literature, archeological discoveries, and the ability to travel to them.
• Deciphering the occasion for which Paul wrote is the single most beneficial piece of information to help you understand an Epistle’s overarching purpose.
• As you read through an Epistle for the first time, try to get the big picture. Then as you read through it again, try to figure out how each section relates to the whole.
• It’s ok not to understand a particular verse. It’s more important to understand the point Paul is making rather than the particulars.
• When applying the Epistles to your life, look for comparable circumstances and general principles.

1. See Fee & Stuart, p. 59

The post 13: How to Read the Church Epistles first appeared on Living Hope.

12 How to Read Acts Download

Luke wrote Acts.

• Acts 1:1-2
• Acts is the second volume.
• Luke is about the life of Christ.
• Acts is about the early expansion of the church.

Major events of Acts

1. 1:1-11 Jesus commissions and ascends.
2. 1:12-27 Peter initiates replacing Judas.
3. 2:1-47 Spirit is poured out, and Peter preaches.
4. 3:1-26 Peter heals lame man and preaches.
5. 4:1-6:7 Communal living in Jerusalem
6. 6:8-7:60 Stephen’s martyrdom
7. 8:1-40 Philip’s expansion to Samaria, Ethiopia
8. 9:1-31 Paul’s conversion, expansion to Damascus
9. 9:32-9:43 Peter’s mission to Lydda and Joppa
10. 10:1-11:18 Peter converts Cornelius in Caesarea.
11. 11:19-30 Barnabas brings Paul to Antioch.
12. 12:1-24 Peter’s arrest and miraculous escape
13. 12:25-16:5 Paul’s 1st missionary journey
14. 16:6-19:20 Paul’s 2nd missionary journey
15. 19:21-21:17 Paul’s 3rd missionary journey
16. 21:18-28:31 Paul’s arrest and trip to Rome

Organization of the book

• The first half is about Peter (1-12).
• The second half is about Paul (13-28).
• Acts 1:8 outlines the book: they expanded from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth.

Leading and experience of God’s spirit

• Baptized with the spirit, filled with the spirit, pour out the spirit, receive the spirit, spirit fell upon: 1:5, 8; 2:4, 17; 4:31; 8:17; 9:17; 10:44-45; 11:15-16; 13:52
• Speaking in tongues; prophecy: 2:4, 17-18; 10:46; 11:28; 19:6; 20:22-23; 27:21-22
• Exorcisms: 5:16; 8:7; 16:18; 19:12-16
• Healing and miracles: 3:6-7; 5:12, 15-16; 8:39; 9:17-18, 34-35; 12:7-10; 13:11; 14:10; 19:11; 20:9-10; 28:3-6, 8-9
• Supernatural direction: 1:16, 26; 8:26, 29; 9:10-16; 13:2; 15:28; 16:7; 18:9-10; 20:28; 21:11; 23:11; 27:23-24

Rapid expansion through conversion

• Convert 3,000 on day of Pentecost (2:41)
• 5,000 after healing lame man at the temple (4:4)
• Conversions of whole towns: Samaria (8), Lydda, and Joppa (9)
• Conversions of key people: Ethiopian treasurer (8); Paul of Tarsus (9); Cornelius the centurion (10); Sergius Paulus, proconsul of Cyprus, (13); Lydia, a wealthy Philippian merchant, (16); Crispus, a synagogue leader in Corinth, (18); Publius of Malta (28)

Perseverance through persecution

• Sadducees arrest Peter and John (4).
• Sadducees arrest apostles (5).
• A mob stones Stephen (7).
• Paul leads persecution in Jerusalem (8).
• King Herod executes James (12).
• King Herod imprisons Peter (12).
• Jewish leaders expel Paul and Barnabas from Pisidian Antioch (13).
• Jewish leaders stone Paul at Lystra (14).
• City magistrates arrest Paul and Silas at Philippi (16).
• Jewish mob attacks Jason at Thessalonica (17).
• Jewish leaders accuse Paul before Proconsul Gallio at Corinth (18).
• Demetrius instigates riot against Paul at Ephesus (19).
• Jewish mob attacks Paul at Jerusalem (21).
• Plot of Jewish leaders to murder Paul (23)
• Paul’s trial before Felix (24)
• Paul’s trial before Festus (25)
• Paul’s defense before King Agrippa (26)
• Paul’s shipwreck (27)
• Paul’s house arrest at Rome (28)

Respectful of Roman authorities

• Paul is respectful to his arresting officer, Claudius, (21:33, 37-40).
• He asserts his Roman citizenship (22:24-29).
• He cordially converses with Felix, Roman governor of Judea, (24).
• Paul appeals to have a trial before Caesar in Rome b/c he’s afraid he won’t get a fair hearing in Judea.
• Paul interacts respectfully with Festus and King Agrippa.
• King Agrippa says Paul should’ve been set free (26:31-32).
• Paul complies on the whole journey while under arrest.

Including the Gentiles

• Originally, Christianity was 100% Jewish.
• Gentiles (non-Jews) began believing in Jesus, and God demonstrated his acceptance through his spirit (see Acts 10:44-45).
• Both Peter and Paul preached to Gentiles and accepted them as part of God’s family.
• After a disagreement broke out over the Gentiles (Acts 15:1-2), the disciples decided Gentiles could be part of the church without keeping the law.

Acts is the historical spine of the NT

• Acts tells you about how Christianity came to many places mentioned in other parts of the NT.
• On Paul’s second missionary journey, he visited Galatia, Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus. These are all places to which he wrote Epistles.

Prescriptive vs. descriptive

• Does Acts prescribe how we should live or describe what they did?
• Acts 2:44-46 talks about sharing all our possessions. Is this normative for all Christians for all time?
• Fee & Stuart: “Unless Scripture explicitly tells us we must do something, what is only narrated or described does not function in a normative (i.e. obligatory) way—unless it can be demonstrated on other grounds that the author intended it to function in this way.”[[Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 124.]]

Review

• Acts is a history of the church that Luke wrote to follow his biography of Christ.
• Acts describes the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth (i.e. the Mediterranean world).
• In Acts, Luke is interested in the activity of God’s spirit, missionary activity resulting in conversions, and how Christians are respectful to Roman authorities.
• The inclusion of Gentiles into the early Christian movement caused a significant controversy, resulting in the decision that they did not need to keep the law.
• Acts provides the historical backbone into which fit many of the Epistles of the NT.
• Luke tells of Paul’s three missionary journeys, as well as his final treacherous journey to Rome under arrest.
• Although Acts shows us what is possible as we walk with God, it does not prescribe that Christians today must do everything the way they did it (descriptive not prescriptive).

The post 12: How to Read Acts first appeared on Living Hope.

12 How to Read Acts Download

Luke wrote Acts.

• Acts 1:1-2
• Acts is the second volume.
• Luke is about the life of Christ.
• Acts is about the early expansion of the church.

Major events of Acts

1. 1:1-11 Jesus commissions and ascends.
2. 1:12-27 Peter initiates replacing Judas.
3. 2:1-47 Spirit is poured out, and Peter preaches.
4. 3:1-26 Peter heals lame man and preaches.
5. 4:1-6:7 Communal living in Jerusalem
6. 6:8-7:60 Stephen’s martyrdom
7. 8:1-40 Philip’s expansion to Samaria, Ethiopia
8. 9:1-31 Paul’s conversion, expansion to Damascus
9. 9:32-9:43 Peter’s mission to Lydda and Joppa
10. 10:1-11:18 Peter converts Cornelius in Caesarea.
11. 11:19-30 Barnabas brings Paul to Antioch.
12. 12:1-24 Peter’s arrest and miraculous escape
13. 12:25-16:5 Paul’s 1st missionary journey
14. 16:6-19:20 Paul’s 2nd missionary journey
15. 19:21-21:17 Paul’s 3rd missionary journey
16. 21:18-28:31 Paul’s arrest and trip to Rome

Organization of the book

• The first half is about Peter (1-12).
• The second half is about Paul (13-28).
• Acts 1:8 outlines the book: they expanded from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth.

Leading and experience of God’s spirit

• Baptized with the spirit, filled with the spirit, pour out the spirit, receive the spirit, spirit fell upon: 1:5, 8; 2:4, 17; 4:31; 8:17; 9:17; 10:44-45; 11:15-16; 13:52
• Speaking in tongues; prophecy: 2:4, 17-18; 10:46; 11:28; 19:6; 20:22-23; 27:21-22
• Exorcisms: 5:16; 8:7; 16:18; 19:12-16
• Healing and miracles: 3:6-7; 5:12, 15-16; 8:39; 9:17-18, 34-35; 12:7-10; 13:11; 14:10; 19:11; 20:9-10; 28:3-6, 8-9
• Supernatural direction: 1:16, 26; 8:26, 29; 9:10-16; 13:2; 15:28; 16:7; 18:9-10; 20:28; 21:11; 23:11; 27:23-24

Rapid expansion through conversion

• Convert 3,000 on day of Pentecost (2:41)
• 5,000 after healing lame man at the temple (4:4)
• Conversions of whole towns: Samaria (8), Lydda, and Joppa (9)
• Conversions of key people: Ethiopian treasurer (8); Paul of Tarsus (9); Cornelius the centurion (10); Sergius Paulus, proconsul of Cyprus, (13); Lydia, a wealthy Philippian merchant, (16); Crispus, a synagogue leader in Corinth, (18); Publius of Malta (28)

Perseverance through persecution

• Sadducees arrest Peter and John (4).
• Sadducees arrest apostles (5).
• A mob stones Stephen (7).
• Paul leads persecution in Jerusalem (8).
• King Herod executes James (12).
• King Herod imprisons Peter (12).
• Jewish leaders expel Paul and Barnabas from Pisidian Antioch (13).
• Jewish leaders stone Paul at Lystra (14).
• City magistrates arrest Paul and Silas at Philippi (16).
• Jewish mob attacks Jason at Thessalonica (17).
• Jewish leaders accuse Paul before Proconsul Gallio at Corinth (18).
• Demetrius instigates riot against Paul at Ephesus (19).
• Jewish mob attacks Paul at Jerusalem (21).
• Plot of Jewish leaders to murder Paul (23)
• Paul’s trial before Felix (24)
• Paul’s trial before Festus (25)
• Paul’s defense before King Agrippa (26)
• Paul’s shipwreck (27)
• Paul’s house arrest at Rome (28)

Respectful of Roman authorities

• Paul is respectful to his arresting officer, Claudius, (21:33, 37-40).
• He asserts his Roman citizenship (22:24-29).
• He cordially converses with Felix, Roman governor of Judea, (24).
• Paul appeals to have a trial before Caesar in Rome b/c he’s afraid he won’t get a fair hearing in Judea.
• Paul interacts respectfully with Festus and King Agrippa.
• King Agrippa says Paul should’ve been set free (26:31-32).
• Paul complies on the whole journey while under arrest.

Including the Gentiles

• Originally, Christianity was 100% Jewish.
• Gentiles (non-Jews) began believing in Jesus, and God demonstrated his acceptance through his spirit (see Acts 10:44-45).
• Both Peter and Paul preached to Gentiles and accepted them as part of God’s family.
• After a disagreement broke out over the Gentiles (Acts 15:1-2), the disciples decided Gentiles could be part of the church without keeping the law.

Acts is the historical spine of the NT

• Acts tells you about how Christianity came to many places mentioned in other parts of the NT.
• On Paul’s second missionary journey, he visited Galatia, Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus. These are all places to which he wrote Epistles.

Prescriptive vs. descriptive

• Does Acts prescribe how we should live or describe what they did?
• Acts 2:44-46 talks about sharing all our possessions. Is this normative for all Christians for all time?
• Fee & Stuart: “Unless Scripture explicitly tells us we must do something, what is only narrated or described does not function in a normative (i.e. obligatory) way—unless it can be demonstrated on other grounds that the author intended it to function in this way.”1

Review

• Acts is a history of the church that Luke wrote to follow his biography of Christ.
• Acts describes the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth (i.e. the Mediterranean world).
• In Acts, Luke is interested in the activity of God’s spirit, missionary activity resulting in conversions, and how Christians are respectful to Roman authorities.
• The inclusion of Gentiles into the early Christian movement caused a significant controversy, resulting in the decision that they did not need to keep the law.
• Acts provides the historical backbone into which fit many of the Epistles of the NT.
• Luke tells of Paul’s three missionary journeys, as well as his final treacherous journey to Rome under arrest.
• Although Acts shows us what is possible as we walk with God, it does not prescribe that Christians today must do everything the way they did it (descriptive not prescriptive).

1. Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 124.

The post 12: How to Read Acts first appeared on Living Hope.

The Four Gospels

• Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
• Gospel = good news
• The Gospels are biographies about Jesus which seek to convince readers about the good news that he is the Messiah.

Basic Storyline of the Gospels

1. Birth narratives
2. John’s ministry
3. John baptizes Jesus.
4. Jesus calls the twelve.
5. Teachings of Jesus
6. Miracles of Jesus
7. Conflict with critics
8. Triumphal entry
9. Intensified conflict
10. Last supper
11. Arrest, trial, execution
12. Resurrection appearances
13. Great commission

Mark (11,305 words)

• Papias: “And the elder used to say this: ‘Mark, having become Peter’s interpreter, wrote down accurately everything he remembered, though not in order, of the things either said or done by Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor followed him, but afterward, as I said, followed Peter, who adapted his teachings as needed but had no intention of giving an ordered account of the Lord’s sayings. Consequently Mark did nothing wrong in writing down some things as he remembered them, for he made it his one concern not to omit anything that he heard or to make any false statement in them.’”[[Fragments of Papias 3.15 in Apostolic Fathers, trans. Michael Holmes, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2007).]]

John (15,633 words)

• Purpose statement: John 20:30-31 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Matthew (18,348 words)

• Five blocks of teaching
  • 5-7 Sermon on the Mount
  • 10 Missionary Instruction
  • 13 Parables of the Kingdom
  • 18 Discourse on the Church
  • 24-25 Olivet Discourse

Luke (19,483 words)

• Luke’s method: Luke 1:1-4 1 Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3 I, too, decided, as one having a grasp of everything from the start, to write a well-ordered account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may have a firm grasp of the words in which you have been instructed.
• Luke’s historical precision: Luke 3:1-2 1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

The Synoptic Gospels

• Matthew, Mark, and Luke
• Matthew and Luke quote Mark extensively.
• Both quote another source of sayings as well.
• Still, much of Matthew and Luke is unique to them.
• Fee & Stuart: “Take, for example, the fact that there is such a high degree of verbal similarity among Matthew, Mark, and Luke in their narratives, as well as in their recording of the sayings of Jesus. Remarkable verbal similarities should not surprise us about the sayings of the one who spoke as no one ever did (John 7:46). But for this to carry over to the narratives is something else again—especially so when one considers (1) that these stories were first told in Aramaic, yet we are talking about the use of Greek words; (2) that Greek word order is extremely free, yet often the similarities extend even to precise word order; and (3) that it is highly unlikely that three people in three different parts of the Roman Empire would tell the same story with the same words—even to such minor points of individual style as prepositions and conjunctions.”[[Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 141.]]
• Fee & Stuart: “The best explanation of all the data is …that Mark wrote his gospel first, probably in part at least from his recollection of Peter’s preaching and teaching. Luke and Matthew had access to Mark’s gospel and independently used it as the basic source for their own. But they also had access to all kinds of other material about Jesus, some of which they had in common. This common material, however, is scarcely ever presented in the same order in the two gospels, a fact suggesting that neither one had access to the other’s writing. Finally, John wrote independently of the other three, and thus his gospel has little material in common with them. This, we would note, is how the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the Gospels. …[W]ith the Spirit’s help, they creatively structured and rewrote the materials to meet the needs of their readers.”[[Stuart, 142.]]

Kingdom of God

• Understanding what Jesus meant by the kingdom of God is critical
• Fee & Stuart: “[T]he major hermeneutical difficulty lies with understanding “the kingdom of God,” a term that is absolutely crucial to the whole of Jesus’ ministry…”[[Stuart, 132.]]
• Likely, Jesus was pulling from Daniel who prophesies extensively about God’s kingdom coming to earth (Dan 2:44; 7:26-27)

Parables

• Short fictional stories that make a point
• Get the main point; don’t get lost in trying to find a meaning for every aspect of the story.
• Jesus told some parables to hide truth from those who didn’t want it.
• He told others to teach his disciples important truth simply and effectively.
• Still others, he told as zingers to confront his critics.

Word of God

• The Bible does not typically call itself “the word”.
• “The word” is the message Jesus preached to repent due to the coming Kingdom.
• He wasn’t telling his Jewish listeners to repent and believe in the Bible, since they already believed in it.
• Compare Mark 4:13-15; Luke 8:11-12; Mat 13:19
• Word = word of God = word of the Kingdom

Application

• Must discern between the sayings Jesus limited to the people in front of him at that time and those that remain applicable to all his followers today
• Mat 10:9-11 tells his disciples not to carry any money with them. Does that mean true Christians don’t use money and just mooch off their neighbors?
• Luke 6:27-28 tells us to love our enemies, a commandment repeated in Mat 5:43-48; Rom 12:17-21; 1 Pet 3:9-11 and exemplified by Jesus’ actions.

Review

• The NT begins with four evangelistic biographies of Jesus called Gospels.
• Mark is the shortest Gospel. Its action-packed narrative is probably derived from Peter’s recollections as well as God’s direction via his spirit.
• John is the most theologically developed, and it contains monologues where Jesus talks about himself and his relationship to his Father.
• Matthew showcases Jesus as a Rabbi who teaches his followers how to live in light of the Kingdom of God.
• Luke was a careful historian who made an effort to present a “well-ordered account” to present the life of Christ to a noble Roman audience.
• The Kingdom of God is the core of Jesus’ message and ministry. It refers to a coming age when God sets everything wrong with the world right.
• Jesus’ favorite self-title was “Son of Man,” which could either mean a human being or the ruler of the coming Kingdom.
• Parables are short fictional stories told to make a point.
• In the Gospels, the “word” refers to the message Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God, not the Bible in general.
• Although it’s hard to be sure, most think Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source as well as another sayings source.
• In order to discern what sayings of Jesus apply to you, consider the circumstances in which they were given, whether other parts of the NT repeat the statement, and what Jesus’ example can tell you.

The post 11: How to Read the Gospels first appeared on Living Hope.

The Four Gospels

• Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
• Gospel = good news
• The Gospels are biographies about Jesus which seek to convince readers about the good news that he is the Messiah.

Basic Storyline of the Gospels

1. Birth narratives
2. John’s ministry
3. John baptizes Jesus.
4. Jesus calls the twelve.
5. Teachings of Jesus
6. Miracles of Jesus
7. Conflict with critics
8. Triumphal entry
9. Intensified conflict
10. Last supper
11. Arrest, trial, execution
12. Resurrection appearances
13. Great commission

Mark (11,305 words)

• Papias: “And the elder used to say this: ‘Mark, having become Peter’s interpreter, wrote down accurately everything he remembered, though not in order, of the things either said or done by Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor followed him, but afterward, as I said, followed Peter, who adapted his teachings as needed but had no intention of giving an ordered account of the Lord’s sayings. Consequently Mark did nothing wrong in writing down some things as he remembered them, for he made it his one concern not to omit anything that he heard or to make any false statement in them.’”1

John (15,633 words)

• Purpose statement: John 20:30-31 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Matthew (18,348 words)

• Five blocks of teaching
  • 5-7 Sermon on the Mount
  • 10 Missionary Instruction
  • 13 Parables of the Kingdom
  • 18 Discourse on the Church
  • 24-25 Olivet Discourse

Luke (19,483 words)

• Luke’s method: Luke 1:1-4 1 Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3 I, too, decided, as one having a grasp of everything from the start, to write a well-ordered account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may have a firm grasp of the words in which you have been instructed.
• Luke’s historical precision: Luke 3:1-2 1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

The Synoptic Gospels

• Matthew, Mark, and Luke
• Matthew and Luke quote Mark extensively.
• Both quote another source of sayings as well.
• Still, much of Matthew and Luke is unique to them.
• Fee & Stuart: “Take, for example, the fact that there is such a high degree of verbal similarity among Matthew, Mark, and Luke in their narratives, as well as in their recording of the sayings of Jesus. Remarkable verbal similarities should not surprise us about the sayings of the one who spoke as no one ever did (John 7:46). But for this to carry over to the narratives is something else again—especially so when one considers (1) that these stories were first told in Aramaic, yet we are talking about the use of Greek words; (2) that Greek word order is extremely free, yet often the similarities extend even to precise word order; and (3) that it is highly unlikely that three people in three different parts of the Roman Empire would tell the same story with the same words—even to such minor points of individual style as prepositions and conjunctions.”2
• Fee & Stuart: “The best explanation of all the data is …that Mark wrote his gospel first, probably in part at least from his recollection of Peter’s preaching and teaching. Luke and Matthew had access to Mark’s gospel and independently used it as the basic source for their own. But they also had access to all kinds of other material about Jesus, some of which they had in common. This common material, however, is scarcely ever presented in the same order in the two gospels, a fact suggesting that neither one had access to the other’s writing. Finally, John wrote independently of the other three, and thus his gospel has little material in common with them. This, we would note, is how the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the Gospels. …[W]ith the Spirit’s help, they creatively structured and rewrote the materials to meet the needs of their readers.”3

Kingdom of God

• Understanding what Jesus meant by the kingdom of God is critical
• Fee & Stuart: “[T]he major hermeneutical difficulty lies with understanding “the kingdom of God,” a term that is absolutely crucial to the whole of Jesus’ ministry…”4
• Likely, Jesus was pulling from Daniel who prophesies extensively about God’s kingdom coming to earth (Dan 2:44; 7:26-27)

Parables

• Short fictional stories that make a point
• Get the main point; don’t get lost in trying to find a meaning for every aspect of the story.
• Jesus told some parables to hide truth from those who didn’t want it.
• He told others to teach his disciples important truth simply and effectively.
• Still others, he told as zingers to confront his critics.

Word of God

• The Bible does not typically call itself “the word”.
• “The word” is the message Jesus preached to repent due to the coming Kingdom.
• He wasn’t telling his Jewish listeners to repent and believe in the Bible, since they already believed in it.
• Compare Mark 4:13-15; Luke 8:11-12; Mat 13:19
• Word = word of God = word of the Kingdom

Application

• Must discern between the sayings Jesus limited to the people in front of him at that time and those that remain applicable to all his followers today
• Mat 10:9-11 tells his disciples not to carry any money with them. Does that mean true Christians don’t use money and just mooch off their neighbors?
• Luke 6:27-28 tells us to love our enemies, a commandment repeated in Mat 5:43-48; Rom 12:17-21; 1 Pet 3:9-11 and exemplified by Jesus’ actions.

Review

• The NT begins with four evangelistic biographies of Jesus called Gospels.
• Mark is the shortest Gospel. Its action-packed narrative is probably derived from Peter’s recollections as well as God’s direction via his spirit.
• John is the most theologically developed, and it contains monologues where Jesus talks about himself and his relationship to his Father.
• Matthew showcases Jesus as a Rabbi who teaches his followers how to live in light of the Kingdom of God.
• Luke was a careful historian who made an effort to present a “well-ordered account” to present the life of Christ to a noble Roman audience.
• The Kingdom of God is the core of Jesus’ message and ministry. It refers to a coming age when God sets everything wrong with the world right.
• Jesus’ favorite self-title was “Son of Man,” which could either mean a human being or the ruler of the coming Kingdom.
• Parables are short fictional stories told to make a point.
• In the Gospels, the “word” refers to the message Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God, not the Bible in general.
• Although it’s hard to be sure, most think Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source as well as another sayings source.
• In order to discern what sayings of Jesus apply to you, consider the circumstances in which they were given, whether other parts of the NT repeat the statement, and what Jesus’ example can tell you.

1. Fragments of Papias 3.15 in Apostolic Fathers, trans. Michael Holmes, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2007).
2. Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 141.
3. Stuart, 142.
4. Stuart, 132.

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