INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

1.      The Canonical New Testament and the Academic Discipline ‘Introduction to the New Testament’

The history of the discipline ‘Introduction to the NT’ has been determined from the very beginning by the problematic of the New Testament canon: how to reconcile or relate the theological conclusions derived from the NT as canonical Scripture and the findings of purely historical study of the documents of NT? In other words, it is an attempt to answer the question, what is the relationship between the theological results and historical results as it pertains to the NT?

Johann David Michaelis (1717-1791) who is known to be the father of introduction to the NT as an academic discipline reflected on the central problem posed by canonicity and inspiration.  He argues that since the basic criterion for canonicity of the NT is apostolicity (i.e apostolic authorship) or direct successor ship of an apostle, why then are the Gospels of Mark and Luke, as well as the Acts of the Apostles which do not meet this requirement are considered canonical? However, he considered such books as approved and not as inspired, but as written with supernatural help and infallibility. Thus, for Michaelis, apostolicity, inspiration, and canonicity all belong together as a matter of cause and effect. Furthermore, doubt regarding the authorship of the following books: Hebrews, James and Jude led Michaelis to argue that they are canonical if and only if they were written by the claimed authors (i.e. Paul, James and Jude respectively). Consequently, the above problem favours the need for academic discipline ‘Introduction to NT’. More so, it led to the dissolution of a concept of canon that is bound to a dogma of inspiration and apostolic authorship. In a nutshell for Michaelis the NT is no longer a whole, but divided into apostolic and non-apostolic documents.

Johann Salomo Semler (1725-1791), in his book, Treatise on the Free Investigation of the Canon, subjected the NT to investigation from a strictly historical point of view, thereby distinguishing between Word of God and Holy Scripture. Whereas, for him, Holy Scripture contains elements that were only of significance in the past,  and no longer serve to address a message of ‘moral improvement’ to the present; the word of God at all times makes all men wise unto salvation. By equating ‘divine’ and ‘moral improvement’, Sembler separated the OT from the NT. This implies that not all parts of the canon could be inspired. Again, this distinction sorts out the contents of the Bible into historically relative elements and the abiding Word of God based on that which served the moral improvement of humanity. Furthermore, to create an opportunity for scholarly academic freedom, Semler made a distinction between religion and theology. Whereas for him, the former is the proper piety to be practised by all Christians, the latter designates the academic methods necessary for the theological education of specialists.

Johann Philipp Gabler (1753-1826) developed the distinction between biblical theology and dogmatic (systematic) theology. Biblical theology bears a historical character in that it hangs on what the sacred writers thought about divine things, while dogmatic theology bears a didactic character in that it teaches what every theologian through use of his reason philosophizes about divine things in accordance with his understanding with the circumstances of the time, the age, the place, the school to which he belongs. Again, the former always remains the same since its arguments are historical, while the latter is subjected to manifold changes.

Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792-1860) views the discipline of ‘Introduction to the New Testament’ as a critical analysis of the traditional claims to authorship and the historical and dogmatic implications of these claims.

Heinrich Julius Holtmann identifies Introduction to NT as the study of the history of the canon and not the doctrine of the canon. Hence, this evolved the division of the discipline into ‘General Introduction’ and ‘Special Introduction.’ Whereas the subject matter of the former is the growth of the NT canon and the history of the NT text, the latter is devoted to the investigation of each of the NT books.

Brevard S. Childs shifts the concept of canon to the centre of the discipline ‘Introduction.’ He makes the concept of canon the hermeneutical and historical key to NT interpretation. For him, the concept canon serves to describe a comprehensive traditioning process that already begins in the NT and extends itself organically throughout the whole development. Thus, he argues “There is an organic continuity in the canon of sacred writings of the earliest stages of the scope.”

The Goal of this Introduction

The goal of the Introduction to the NT is the illumination of both the historical origin of the NT/ early Christian documents in their own contexts and the theological  intention of these writings. Thus the discipline ‘Introduction to the NT’ is strictly understood as historical discipline which is at the same time a theological discipline.

2.      The Origin and Nature of the New Testament

The term ‘New Testament’ is used to denote a compilation of inspired Christian literature centred on the life and mission of our Lord Jesus Christ and the missionary endeavours of the Church. This phenomenon took a long period of time to develop. It is not certain when the use of this term came into existence. However, according to Raymond Brown, it is traceable to the 2^nd century AD when Christians used it to refer to their own writings. This use ultimately led to the use of the designation ‘Old Testament’ for the Hebrew Scriptures. 

The term ‘old’ as used here should not been viewed as something obsolete and invalidated but that section of the Bible that present the pre-history of man’s salvation. The term ‘testament’ refers to that which provides a clear proof of something; an indication of the will. Before it was applied to a set of writings, testament meant God’s dealing (covenant) with men - Exodus 19:5, Exodus 34: 10, 27. About 600 years before the coming of Christ, the promise of a New Covenant was made –Jer. 31:31. The term ‘new’ as used in this passage connotes renewal. Thus, the story of the covenant relationship of God with Israel is what makes up the various sections of the literature later referred to as the OT, while the story of the ‘renewed’ covenant and the accompanying relationship spreads through the pages of the NT.

The NT is a manifold witness to Jesus Christ as the saviour of the world. The whole of the Scripture point to Jesus Christ (i.e. Christocentric). The NT is a collection of manifold witnesses to Jesus Christ as the saviour of the world so that man might enter into relationship with God. The salvific death of Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the dead mark the culmination of the NT. Christ emphasised the newness of this covenant at the last supper when he said ‘this cup is the new covenant in my blood –Luke 22:20. This covenant is not restricted to Israel; it includes the Gentiles. The NT therefore, is viewed by Christians as not wholly distinct from the Hebrew Scriptures a. k. a OT and which formed the basis for the NT, but a continuation of the covenant interaction and relationship between Yahweh and Israel which took a new turn in the declaration of God’s will in Jesus Christ.

3.      Method used in the interpretation of the Bible

Because the authorship of the Bible is not only divine, but also human, hence its contents came from a context and represent a world view in many ways different from ours. Thus, any scriptural test is better understood if one knows something about the context out of which it came, how it was shaped, the kind of literature it is, the literary style and devices its author used, and how it was used by those who preserved it. The method employs in achieving this Hebrew Biblical  research is known as criticism.

What is criticism? The word criticism is derived from the Greek word krinein meaning to ‘separate’, ‘distinguish and ‘judge’. Criticism as used in the study of the scripture means a careful analysis, which aim at arriving at the original text and interpretation of the scriptures as much as possible. This is because, the human authors of the scriptures, although they were inspired, they were not exempted from human errors that are outside the sole purpose of the scripture, that is, the message of salvation. So, in this sense criticism has no negative connotation. Generally we can approach biblical study diachronically or synchronically. The diachronic approach using the historical- critical method is the study of a biblical text in its historical setting. The origin and development of the text is the concern of the exegete who uses the diachronic approach. The study of a biblical text synchronically using the literary-critical method means dealing with the text in its present mode without asking anything about its past. Synchronic method studies the Bible as a single whole.

The various steps of the historic-critical method are the following:

i.        Textual Criticism: the quest for the original wording. Textual criticism is the skill by which OT scholars attempt to search and discover all the errors and alterations that have occurred in the process of transmitting the text of the Bible and to achieve on the basis of scholarly principles a text providing a solid foundation upon which higher criticism, exegesis, etc., can build. The goal of textual criticism is editing a text which has the greatest degree of probable authenticity or originality based on the review of the textual witnesses and the scholarly principles of textual criticism. It has threefold aim namely, first, to determine the process by which a text has been transmitted and has come to exist in variant forms. Second, to establish the original wording when this is seen possible or feasible. Third, to determine the best form and wording of the text which the modern reader should use. A Bible exegete will encounter variant readings for the same passage (cf. Gen. 10:5; Mic. 1:5’ Acts 8: 37). It is important to note that none of the original manuscripts of any biblical writing has been preserved. Those survived are copies of copies handwritten by scribes. A textual critic begins with a particular instance, accumulates all the evidence possible, both internal and external, then examines and assesses the problem with his own informed judgement and creative insight.

ii.      Historical criticism: the setting in time and space. It tries to learn two sets of situations: the situations described in the text itself and the situations which gave rise to the document, that is, history in the text and the history of the text. Historical criticism seeks to overcome the historical and cultural gaps in interpreting ancient documents as well as the third-party perspective of the interpreter. According to experts, an exegete should research the historical background, the social setting and the geographical setting of the passage and date of the text in the process of historical criticism. Hence, reference to  tools like dictionaries, encyclopaedias, histories of Israel and of early Christianity, Bible atlases, geographies and comparative non-biblical literature are recommended. More so, an exegete should explore the situation out of which the text arose or the situation of the author and the audience. Lastly, an exegete should chech whether the text under consideration is an older biblical material re-presented and re-interpreted. E.g. gospels of Mathew and Luke use materials from Mark.

iii.    Grammatical criticism: the language of the text.

iv.    Literary criticism: the composition, structure, and rhetorical style of the text. It investigate the following regarding the text: its authorship, historical setting, and the various aspects of the language of the text. Strictly speaking, it pays attention only to the text: its composition, structure and mood.

v.      Form criticism: the genre and function of the text. it is known as genre analysis. It examines the form, content, and function of a particular unit and asks whether these are definitive and typical enough that the unit can be considered a literary genre in its own right. This criticism concentrates more on the individual literary sub-units or pericopes. It is also concerned with determining the Sitz im Leben (situation in life) that was instrumental in producing, shaping, or utilizing the particular genres. Form criticism points to the sociological and liturgical dimensions underneath individual texts. Its steps is as follow: identify the general literary type, identify the specific literary type, look for specific categories, suggest a life setting, analyze the completeness of the form and be alert to partial and broken forms.

vi.    Tradition criticism: the stages behind the text.

vii.  Redaction criticism: the final and canonical viewpoint and theology. It refers to that stage of interpretation whose primary focus is the final written form of the passage. It has to do with gathering and editing the earlier scripture or text to suit a particular purpose or audience. A synopsis is one of the indispensable tools for doing redaction criticism of the Gospels. Using a synopsis an exegete can examine a story or saying of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels and pinpoint the precise ways in which Matthew and Luke have redacted Mark’s version of the story. A redaction critic recognizes the distinction between what is being said in the text and what is being said through the text. It stresses the theological perspective of the unit in light of the whole. Redaction Criticism of the OT is sometimes known as “Canonical Criticism” or “Canonical Analysis” because it focuses on the final form of the text showing less interest in the pre-history of the text.

viii.                        Source Criticism: this is the study of the sources the author may have used in writing his text. by source critical study, JEDP (i.e. Yahistic, Elohistic, Deuteronomistic and Priestly traditions) were suggested as the sources of the Pentateuch. This methodology tries to get behind a work as it now stands to the sources out of which it is composed. Source Criticism studies the specific problem of whether there are written documents behind our present text. Source critics showed the contradictory styles of writing that appeared side by side in a single book, for example, calling the covenant mountain “Sinai” in one line and “Horeb” in the next.

The New Testament as the Document of the Church

The NT is the book of the church. Thus, to understand it one has to read it within the church since the NT is from the Church’s tradition. NT is from the note of apostolic preaching. The Bible is the memoir of the church. The apostles preached, as Christ had charged them to do, and then, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they and others of the apostolic age handed on to us in writing the same message they had preached. Thus, it is the record of apostolic faith and preaching Col. 4:16. Therefore, the Scripture is a fundamental element of the Church inspired by God. The authorship of the Scripture is both divine and human. The purpose of the Scripture is for salvation of soul- salvus animorum hence, the judgment of its contents should be in this light.  The process of its documentation took place over 140 years. The Bible is the triumphal story of the over-comer. For it is the victor that lives to tell the story not the vanquished. Indeed, it is the book of the church. It is the witness to the proclamation and faith of the early church. It is the norm or rule of faith.

Self Appropriation of the New Testament: NT gives us an idea of the testimony of Jesus of Nazareth. The Bible does not only help us to cultivate faith but also to develop it. Thus we need to study the scripture so as to nurture and develop our faith. Because “In God’s word we know God’s heart”- St. Jerome.

The benefit of the Scripture

The scripture helps us to interpret our political, social, etc. in the light of faith. The sacred books serve the Church as her support and vigour, and the faithful as strength for their faith, food for their soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life. The word of God builds the faithful and makes them beneficiary of the kingdom of God. The Word of God enlightens the mind, strengthens the will and fires the hearts of men with the love of God. More so, the Word of God is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith-
Romans 1:16. It is also “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work”- 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Therefore, all Christians should read the Scripture to know the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ.