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.
Metanarrative Essay The Biblical metanarrative can be explained by a Christian as the true and triumphant story from the beginning in Genesis until the future is prophesied in Revelation. Others who may not be a Christian do not understand the true power and love God has over us and for us and may just simply see it as a story or a rule book that they don’t want to follow. They see the Bible and all the things and plans God has for us and our lives and just think they don’t want any part of it and instead they live in sin. It is important that these people not only learn the true story but understand it as well.
“Exploration of Similarities in Religious Texts: A Further Look at the Koran, the Tanakh and the New Testament”
...er reading the book it made me more conferrable with this side of Jesus. I loved the character of Andreas and I seek to become more and more like that Galilean from Nazareth that he was searching for Jesus. I loved his passion and constant anxiety to need to learn more about Jesus that something I aspire to have.
This amazement continues when one ponders why the similarities are rarely, if ever, discussed when the topic of Judaism or Christianity comes up in an academic setting. It would seem as if the shared beliefs between the two are not simply a product of chance, but rather the opposite. It is clear that Zoroastrian theology had an enormous effect on the formation and rise of Christianity.
1. Carter’s book focuses on the diverse ways the Early Christians dealt with their world, where imperial politics, economics, culture, and religion were mixed together (x). Furthermore, the author organized his book around important imperial realities that New Testament writings negotiate (x). The audience for Carter’s book includes high school or college students, Bible study groups, Sunday school students, clergy, and scholars interested in insights about passages in the New Testament to study.
1996. “Sacrifices and Offerings in Ancient Israel” in Community, Identity, and Ideology: Social Science approach to the Hebrew Bible., ed. Charles E. Carter.
The purpose of this essay is to examine the barriers to the spread of Christianity during the Roman Empire. The relationship between Christians, Jews, and the Roman Empire was quite complicated. The Romans became involved with the Jews in 63 B.C.E. as part of their domination of the eastern Mediterranean. Christianity originated 6 B.C.E – 29 C. E. by a Palestinian Jew named Jesus, proclaiming to be the Messiah. The NIV Bible is the primary source for this essay. Leviticus from the Old Testament is written as a series of rituals or laws given to Moses by God. The book of Acts, I Corinthians and Galatians are from the New Testament. Acts was written by Luke, one of Jesus’ disciples, and outlines the spread of Christianity. I Corinthians and Galatians are letters to the early church written by Paul, a leader and missionary. The authors of the books of the Bible record eye witness accounts and revelations from God. The World History I textbook and The Survey of World History/Civilization online content are secondary sources used to connect events in the Bible to historical events during the Roman Empire. Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire despite opposition from the Jews, the Romans, and problems with the early church.
I found this book to be a rather interesting read. I enjoyed how Levathes researched this book and wrote it to try to explain about this specific period of time and how it is very non-fiction.
There are many Christians, whether you believe or not that question why they should read the Old Testament/Hebrew bible. They feel it is unnecessary because of todays’ times and how things have changed, so they think that the Bible is far behind in what is going on in today’s world. Nevertheless, the Bible is current and is never outdated; therefore, we should never assume, especially as Christians that there is nothing new we can learn from the Bible. Reasons why Christians should read the Old Testament is because we should know that the Bible is still relevant in today’s world, to know God and his nature which in turn can transform one’s life, and to get wisdom and understanding so that they can apply to their lives.
However, I was most fascinated by his use of literary context, and I feel like this is where I gained the most knowledge from his exegesis. I had previously known nearly nothing about types of biblical literature, and was quite intruiged not only by the apocalyptic genre as a whole, but also how biblical literature applied to the literary styles of the
A small part that stuck out to me that I kind of disliked was how Ben described the church as his mistress at the beginning of chapter one. Not my favorite word choice, but I did not completely dislike it because I saw where he was coming from when making this point. Also, after hearing other people’s opinions on the book this part was something that many people complained about which could have swayed my opinion on it. Ben makes many points throughout the book that gets the reader thinking and he does not force his views on the readers; he simply gives his findings for what he researched and how he applied it to his personal life and work life. I did not like some of the decisions he made in his life, but it was those decisions that lead him to do his research and better his life for. I did not like the decisions because they were choices I would not have made, but he is not me and I am not him. If he had not made the choices he did, the research he had collected would not
The term millennium does not appear anywhere in Scripture. The idea originated from a thousand year period of time that characterizes the reign of the Messiah. In fact, the phrase “thousand years” is stated six times in Revelation 20. There are three main schools of thought based upon one’s view of the thousand-year reign of Christ. These views are: Amillennial, Postmillennial and Premillennial. Over the centuries these prophetic differences have caused conflict within the body of Christ and are still currently widely debated. Instead of the book of Revelation being the basis of comfort (1 Thess. 4:18) among Christians it has become a bone of contention. However, this controversy should not deter Christ’s disciples from receiving the blessings that Revelation has to offer (Rev. 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14). Rather, one should study prophecy under the Spirit’s guidance and look at the data provided within the full context of the Word assessing each of the views for correct motives and presuppositions. Therefore, this paper will examine the nature, timing, and duration of the millennium as well as the occupants of the millennial kingdom and the relationship of Israel and the Church to the millennial kingdom. The aim of this paper is to address “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place” (Rev. 1:1, ESV).
Levine, Amy –Jill and Douglas Knight. The Meaning of the Bible: What Jewish and Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us. New York: HarperOne, 2011
In our first class session we accomplished a lot, we learned about the key themes that can be found in the New testament and how one goes about questioning the themes and connecting the new and old testaments. The one major theme that we found to be one of the big ones of the New Testament was Jesus and all his deeds, death and resurrection. When this theme was first revealed to the class, I thought well obviously! But once we began to talk about all the other themes such as restoration, redemption, the church and the building relationship between the Jews and Gentiles. And Dr. Hall began to connect each theme together with a link and with each connection every last theme eventually led back to Jesus and his deeds, death and resurrection
Carson, D.A., and Douglas J. Moo. An Introduction to the New Testament. 2nd Edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2005.