Essay On The New Testament

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Mark Allen Powell in his first chapter of Introducing the New Testament reflects on the nature of people during the times of the New Testament. This chapter opens the reader’s eyes to the numerous aspects of the New Testament narratives that deserve consideration. It goes through the major events leading up to CE (Common Era-Christian Era) which consist of four periods. Powell notes the empires that take control over the Jewish people and their land: the Persian period, the Hellenistic period, the Hasmonean period, and the Roman period (18). Then it slides into the CE addressing the people of Palestine.
One cannot fully comprehend the New Testament without looking at the historical elements of that time. The Christian, the Jewish, and the Roman world all collide during these times of both the good and the bad extremes. Throughout the New Testament, certain people groups came about due to the diversity among the Jews. The Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots, Herodians, and Samaritans branched out of the Jews and brought in their own beliefs. The Gentiles lived in Palestine, yet they were not Jews so they struggled to get along with them. My favorite group is the Sadducees who do not even believe in resurrection. That’s why they’re so sad, you see? The chapter goes on to describe the three different Herods and the way these men displayed power in the New Testament
During the Roman rule, Palestine grew unsteady, for the Jewish people were widely spread out and became “Hellenized” (31). The Greek and Roman eras influenced the Jewish language, cultures, theology, and philosophy. This overtaking brought many Christians to defend their religion by becoming Gnostic, so there could be a difference between Roman Christians and Gnostic Ch...

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...t really stood out to me or that I found to be interesting. In the beginning of the chapter it talks about how there was a story already developing before the New Testament and before Jesus. For me I often times forget that when I am studying the Bible. Thinking about this really brought light to that fact the too really understand and study the Bible you need to know a little bit of outside information, and not only rely on the Bible as your history book.
The next part of the chapter that I found to be of great note was when the book started to talk about Hellenism. I especially thought the brief part about cultural Hellenism was interesting. I kind of related it to what we call today as peer pressure. It also made me realize why there are so many different “forms” of Christianity and many of these so called “form” arose due to cultural or mythological influences.

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