Richard Heard
An Introduction to the New Testament
A clear, concise analysis of the New Testament and each of its books: Mark,
Matthew, Luke, John, Acts, the Epistles (Galatians, Thessalonians, 1 and 2
Corinthians, Romans, Colossians, Philemon, Philippians, Ephesians, Jude, 2nd
Peter, Revelations. The context, authors, circumstance of writing, the oral
tradition, how the books were selected, their teachings, and suggested
references.
Introduction
The religious implications of modern New Testament criticism and encouragement
to follow up the evidence for oneself with the more intensive study of the text
and the important books and commentaries to which it is the function of an
Introducion is the challenge.
Part 1: The New Testament as a Whole
Chapter 1: The Critical Study of the New Testament
There are many important points on which critical opinion is likely to continue
divided, but there are good grounds for thinking that we can still get from the
New Testament a knowledge of Jesus and of his Church different in some respects
from that of earlier days but with the same power to inspire men to follow him
in their lives.
Chapter 2: How the Books of the New Testament were Selected
While the New Testament can now be regarded as 'apostolic' only partially, and
in a very wide sense, it remains true that the New Testament does contain
substantially all that has survived of those first-century Christian writings
which preserved the knowledge of the early ministry of Christ and the teaching
of the first Christian generation. As such it is of unique authority for
Christians.
Chapter 3: The Text of The New Testament
The reliability of the text is of great importance for the New Testament claims
from its readers an unique authority. We wish to be assured that, when we read
it, even in translation, we are reading essentially what the original authors
wrote, and not a corrupted version of their work. The reader of any of the
standard modern translations, such as the Revised Version, the new American
Version, or Moffatt, can have confidence that he will nowhere be seriously
misled on important points of Christian doctrine in his reading.
Part 2: The Gospels and the Life of Jesus
Chapter 4: The Study of the Gospels
To the superficial reader the gospels appear to furnish a uniformly consistent
representation of Jesus' life and message, but closer examination reveals that
there are in fact serious inconsistencies in the accounts both of what Jesus did
and said.
Chapter 5: The Oral Tradition
The modern interest in detailed biography was not marked in the ancient world.
There can be no doubt that the apostles and the family of Jesus in fact told
much more of the life of Jesus than has been preserved, but with the passing of
the earliest Christian generation, and with the catastrophe of the Jewish War
and the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, which largely severed the
communications between the Christians in Palestine and those of the Gentile
world, most of this information, preserved only orally and temporarily, was lost
to posterity.
Chapter 6: Written Gospel Sources
Many more written accounts of Jesus' teaching, his controversies, his miracles,
and his ministry, may have been in existence when our gospels were written. If
so, they have perished, and we can only search for traces of them in our
existing gospels. Sources involved in Luke, Matthew, Mark, Q, and others are
discussed.
Chapter 7: The Gospel of Mark
A great achievement of New Testament criticism of our times has been the
establishment beyond reasonable doubt that the gospel of Mark formed one of the
principal sources used both by Matthew and Luke, and that it is both the
earliest and in some ways the most important of our gospels, yet for centuries
Mark had been the least read and regarded of the four gospels.
Chapter 8: The Gospel of Matthew
Matthew's gospel is an attempt to improve and supplement Mark as a record of
Jesus' teaching and as a testimony to his Messiahship for the guidance of Jewish
Christians. Matthew adds to the narrative of Mark, which he shortens but
reproduces in essentials, only an account of Jesus' birth and infancy, a few
incidents from Q, a couple of other stories, a few variations in Mark's
narrative, and a Resurrection appearance in Galilee.
Chapter 9: The Gospel of Luke
It is unlikely that Luke, with many opportunities for gaining information,
depended for the bulk of his information, outside what was provided by Mark and
Q, on written sources. While his gospel is in some ways the most important
historically of the four, it is probable that he wrote under the handicap of
being no longer able to check the value of some of his material.
Chapter 10: The Gospel of John
In the other gospels the authors have been primarily compilers of material, and
their personal interpretation of the events of Jesus' life and of his teaching
play only a subordinate part in the shaping of their material. In this gospel
the historical facts of Jesus' life serve primarily to illustrate the author's
main themes, and the speeches put into the mouth of Jesus are made the vehicles
for the author's own interpretations of Jesus' thought.
Chapter 11: The Life of Jesus
The references to Jesus in pagan and Jewish writings of the first and second
centuries A.D. do little more than confirm that he really lived, was put to
death under Pontius Pilate (so Tacitus, Annales, 15:44), and was recognised by
those who believed in him as the Christ. Despite the lack of references to him,
the universality of the teaching, and its appeal to Gentile as well as to Jew,
is responsible for Christianity's rapid spread.
Part 3: The Acts of the Apostles and the Growth of the Church
Chapter12: The Study of the Acts of the Apostles
Acts is our most important historical source for the earliest development of
Christianity, and as such of immediate relevance for present-day Christians.
Chapter 13: The Acts Of The Apostles
Luke traces for Theophilus (who is unknown to us) the stages by which the
Christian message had spread from Jerusalem in A.D. 29 to a time and place where
Theophilus' own knowledge could continue the story.
Chapter 14: The Growth of the Church
For the early history of the Church, as for the life and teaching of Jesus, the
books of the New Testament are virtually our sole important sources. Only one of
these books, the Acts of the Apostles, is in any sense a history of the Church,
and that to only a limited degree.
Part 4: The Epistles and the Teaching of the Church
Chapter 15: The Study of the Epistles
The gospels and the speeches of Peter and Paul in Acts give important testimony
as to what the apostles taught about the Christian life and proclaimed about the
meaning of Jesus' own life, death, and resurrection; yet both the gospels and
Acts were written, not by apostles, but by later disciples, and their evidence
on particular points stands in need of confirmation, if possible, from the
apostles themselves.
Chapter 16: The Epistle of James
The authorship and early date of the epistle are matters of probability and not
of certainty. Yet if James, the brother of Jesus, is accepted as the author of
the epistle, it becomes our best witness to the beliefs of the earliest
Jerusalem church.
Chapter 17: The First Epistle of Peter
While the epistle remains a work of great spiritual power and lasting value,
whoever was the author, its especial historical significance is bound up with
the connection with Peter.
Chapter 18: Paul and His Epistles
We are severely limited in what we know about Paul, and what little we do know
comes mostly from a dozen or so letters he has written and from what Luke has to
say about his career and teaching in the Acts of the Apostles.
Chapter 19: The Epistle To The Hebrews
Modern critics have confirmed that the epistle cannot be attributed to Paul. The
writing is one of consolidation, written to stave off apathy and apostasy by
giving a better understanding of the supreme excellence of the new covenant
mediated through Christ.
Chapter 20: The Epistle of Jude
The weight of the epistle lies in its authorship. Could Jude be the brother of
Jesus? Jude writes as one whose authority is unquestioned, and as one who can
himself remember and vouch for the original content of the gospel, departure
from which is fatal. The epistle was written from somewhere in Palestine between
A.D. 60 and A.D. 80, and to whom we do not know.
Chapter 21: The Second Epistle of Peter
The evidence is clear that there is no possibility this letter could have been
written by Peter. It was written sometime in the first half of the second
century.
Chapter 22: The Johannine Epistles
There is evidence ...
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