Unit 4
The Interpretive Journey
New Testament
14.
15.
16.
17.
Letters
Gospels
Acts
Revelation
NT – Letters
• Introduction
– As in the ancient world, letters play an important role
in our lives today
Business
Personal
Medical
Legal
New Testament Letters
Pauline
General
Romans
Hebrews
1, 2 Corinthians
James
Galatians
1, 2 Peter
Name
Ephesians
1, 2, 3 John
Name
from
Philippians
Jude
from
recipients
Colossians
1, 2 Thessalonians
1, 2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
writer
• Characteristics of NT letters
– Comparable to other ancient letters
Paul’s letters are quite long by
ancient standards, averaging
2,495 words. (R. Richards)
Why did Paul need the extra
space?
NT includes more informal, personal letters (like
Philemon) as well as more formal letters (like Romans)
– Authoritative substitutes for the author's personal
presence
• Substitute for personal presence
• Authoritative substitute
(Christ’s representatives)
– Situational – written to address specific situations or
problems in the churches
• To clarify an issue (Thessalonians)
• To address a doctrinal problem (Colossians)
• To confront the ethical behavior of readers (James)
• Implications of the occasional nature of letters
– Never meant to be read as exhaustive dictionaries of doctrine
– Be careful not to conclude too much from any one letter
Galatians – freedom
1 Corinthians – obedience
– Reconstruction the original
situation that called for the
letter in the first place
Reading a NT letter is a lot
like listening to one end of
a phone conversation.
– Carefully written and delivered
• The actual job of writing down a letter was normally
assigned to a trained scribe or secretary (amanuensis).
“I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord.”
(Rom. 16:22)
• Customary for the author to add a final greeting in his own
handwriting
“I Paul, write this greeting in my own hand.” (1 Cor. 16:21)
• Cosenders played a significant role
“Paul, Silas and Timothy, …” (1 Thess. 1:1)
• Delivery depended on trusted letter carriers
“Tychichus will tell you all the news about me.” (Col. 4:7)
– Intended for the Christian community
• Meant to be read aloud again and again to the church
“Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and
blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in
it, because the time is near.”
—Revelation 1:3
• Meant to be exchanged with other churches
“After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in
the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter
from Laodicea.”
—Colossians 4:16
Epistles: Key Questions
1. What form do epistles generally follow?
How closely does this epistle (the one I
am studying or reading) follow that form?
2. What is the occasion of the writing of the
epistle?
3. What is the historical context of this
epistle?
4. What is the literary context of this epistle?
Then, go on the interpretive journey with
each epistle.
• Form of NT letters
Standard form of a
contemporary letter
Standard form of a
NT letter
1.
Date
1.
Greeting and Salutation
2.
Name
Address
2.
Icebreaker (often
thanksgiving)
3.
Greeting
3.
4.
Body of the
letter
Body of the letter (largest
section focusing on the
specific situation)
5.
Closing &
signature
4.
Paraenesis/Exhortation
5.
Closing/Farewell
Epistolary form
Part .
Greeting /
Salutation
Function
To identify the sender and greet the
recipients
Icebreaker /
Thanksgiving
Body
To form +/or strengthen bonds and get
the readers’ attention
To state and develop the main points
of the epistle
To give final moral directions to the
readers
To wish well and say goodbye
Paraenesis /
Exhortation
Closing /
Farewell
Let’s Try This Out: 1 Corinthians
Part
Greeting / Salutation
Icebreaker /
Thanksgiving
Body
Paraenesis / Exhortation
Closing / Farewell
Beginning & Ending Point
Let’s Try This Again: 2 Corinthians
Part
Greeting / Salutation
Icebreaker /
Thanksgiving
Body
Paraenesis /
Exhortation
Closing / Farewell
Beginning & Ending Point
Sniff Out the Occasion
What specific situation brought about the need
to write?
We will not succeed in understanding the
epistle if we
Fail to realize the occasional nature of all epistles
in general
Fail to look hard for the occasion of the epistle we
are reading
Task theology is the product of each epistle
What was the occasion of …
Philemon?
Paul has come upon an escaped servant, Onesimus, of a
believer named Philemon (vs. 10)
2 John?
Many deceivers have gone out into the world (vs. 7)
Jude?
Godless men have secretly slipped in among the
believers (vs. 4)
2 Thessalonians?
Someone had told them that the day of the Lord had
already come (2:1-2)
Why is knowing the occasion of
an epistle so important?
Clues to authorial intent
Experiential immediacy
Demonstrates the
pragmatic value of
Christian faith
Limits the interpretation
options
Historical context
 Reconstruct the setting
External resources may be
very helpful for this
A commentary devoted to the
one epistle you are reading
Bible atlas/historical geography
atlas
Literary context
READ & THINK paragraphs
Note where one paragraph ends and the next begins
What (if anything) links the two?
Ask, “What’s the point of this paragraph?”
Ask, “Why did the writer use this word (or
phrase) and not a similar word?”
• How to interpret a NT letter
– Step 1 Grasp the text in their town
• Read the letter from beginning to end, the way letters
are meant to be read. This will give you a sense of the
big picture.
• Reconstruct the historical-cultural context of the biblical
writer and his audience.
• Identify the literary context of your particular passage.
• Determine the meaning of the text for the biblical
audience (observe, observe, observe!)
– Step 2 – Measure the width of the river
For NT letters the river is usually not very wide, but
there are exceptions.
– Step 3 – Cross the principlizing bridge
• Look for the broader theological message reflected in
the text. To find theological principles in letters ask
yourself the following questions:
– Does the author state a principle?
– Do you see a principle in the surrounding context?
– Do you see a reason behind a particular command or
instruction?
• Does your theological principle satisfy the following
criteria:
–
–
–
–
–
It should be reflected in the biblical text
It should be timeless and not tied to a specific situation
It should not be culturally bound
It should be consistent with the teaching of the rest of Scripture
It should be both relevant to both the biblical audience and the
contemporary audience
– Step 4 – Grasp the text in our town
Dealing with problem passages
What do you know for certain?
What meanings are possible but not certain?
What difference does each of the possible
meanings make to the main points of the epistle?
Can I afford to suspend judgment about this
passage?
The things you can be certain about in an epistle
will often lead to logical answers to the problem
passages.
Remember the occasion of the epistle.
Literary genres within the NT
epistles
Proverbs
1 Cor. 15:33
Formulas
Jas. 1:13-15, 4:1
Creeds & Hymns
Phil. 2:6-11, 1 Ti. 3:16,
Col. 1:15-20
Vice lists
Gal. 5:19-21, Rom.
1:29-31
Virtue lists
Gal. 5:22-23, 2 Peter
1:5-7
Imperative clusters
1 Thes. 5:16-22, Col.
3:18-4:6
Literary devices within the NT
epistles
 Metaphor
 1 Corinthians 15:53
 Simile
 1 Corinthians 9:26
 Rhetorical questions
 Romans 10:15
 Paradox
 1 Corinthians 15:42-44
 Question-and-exclamation
 1 Corinthians 15:35-36
Apostrophe
1 Corinthians 15:54-55
Repetition
1 Corinthians 15:43-44
Balance
1 Corinthians 15:9-11
Antithesis
1 Corinthians 15:21-22
Parallelism
1 Corinthians 15:53
2 Basic Rules Of Hermeneutics
1. A text’s application cannot contradict
what it meant to its author or to his
original audience
2. Whenever we share comparable specifics
with the NT setting, God’s word to us has
the same application as God’s word to
them
The Problem of Extended
Application
• A text’s meaning may not always be applied
to a context which is not specified by that
text
• Corroboration is needed
The Problem of Particulars that are
not Comparable
• Determine how the answers to 1st Century
issues apply to contemporary issues
– find the principle
– compare morally relevant particulars
– resist the urge to over-apply
The Problem of Cultural
Relativity
•
God’s eternal Word has been given to us
in historical particularity
1. Distinguish between the core and the
periphery
2. Distinguish between what is inherently moral
and what is not inherently moral
3. Distinguish between issues where the NT has
a uniform, consistent position, and issues
where the NT reflects differing positions
The Problem of Cultural
Relativity (continued)
•
God’s eternal Word has been given to us in
historical particularity
4. Distinguish between principle and specific
application
5. Consider the options available to the NT writer
in his culture
6. Be alerted to possible differences between 1st and
21st century cultures
7. Practice Christian charity in resolving disputes
The Problem of Task Theology
•
Epistles give theology as a response to a task
being worked on
1. Our understanding of the full occasion is limited, so
don’t presume more than is probable
2. Your question may not be the one being answered
by the epistle
3. Don’t proof-text!
• In Conclusion,
the New Testament epistles …
– Provide a window into the struggles and victories of
the early church
– Serve as authoritative substitutes for church leaders
who could not always minister in person
– Are written to address specific situations and meet
the practical needs of believers
– Are meant to be read from beginning to end, the same
way you would read a personal letter today
Use the Interpretive Journey to help you hear God
speak to you through NT letters.
NT – Gospels
• Introduction
– Gospel g “good news”
– Four Gospels g four different versions of the
one story of Jesus
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Synoptic Gospels
“see together”
–
Gospels in the NT
Gospels 47%
Acts 13%
Paul’s Letters 23%
General Letters 10%
Revelation 7%
–
Two main concerns:
1. What are the Gospels? (literary genre)
2. How should we read the Gospels?
• What are the Gospels?
– Stories
– Stories of Jesus drawn from the personal
experience of his followers, especially his apostles
– But different from modern biographies
• Do not cover the whole life of Jesus
• Often arrange events and sayings topically rather than
chronologically
• Give a lot of attention to the last week of Jesus’ life
• Do not include a detailed psychological analysis of
Jesus
– Gospels are ancient biographies rather than
modern biographies
• Not obsessed with strict chronological sequencing
• Variation in wording
• Variation in order of events
– Christ-centered or Christological biography
– Two purposes of the Gospel writers:
1. To tell individual stories of Jesus
2. Through the individual stories of Jesus, to say
something important to their readers
• How should we read the Gospels?
– Our method of reading the Gospels must match the
means God used to inspire them.
– Here we turn the two purposes of the Gospel
writers into two interpretive questions:
1. What is the main message of this particular story?
2. What is the Gospel writer trying to say to his
readers by the way he connects the smaller stories?
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
What is this episode
What is this episode
What is this episode
telling us about Jesus? telling us about Jesus? telling us about Jesus?
Episodes 1, 2, and 3
What is the Gospel writer trying to communicate to his readers by the
way he connects these stories together?
Luke 10:25-27
Luke 10:38-42
Love should transcend Doing good things for
all human barriers.
God can sometimes
cause us to miss God.
Luke 11:1-13
Jesus teaches us how
to communicate with
God through prayer.
Luke 10:25-37; 38-42; 11:1-13
Common theme of relationships. Followers of Jesus need to relate
rightly to their neighbors (service), to their Lord (devotion), and to their
Father (prayer).
– Question 1 – How do we read individual stories?
• Ask the standard story questions:
Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
• Look for interpretive clues from the author himself.
• Take note of anything that is repeated in the story.
• Pay careful attention to direct discourse.
– Question 2 – How do we read a series of stories?
•
•
•
•
Common themes or patterns
Logical connections (e.g., cause and effect)
How stories are joined to together (transitions, conjunctions)
Role of key characters
• Special literary forms in the Gospels?
– a truth is overstated for effect
“If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out
and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one
part of your body than for your whole body to be
thrown into hell.”
–
Matthew 5:29
– implicit or implicit comparison
“You are the salt of the earth.”
– Matthew 5:13
“You are like whitewashed tombs” – Matthew 23:27
– contrast between what is expected
and what actually happens
“And I'll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things
laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be
merry.” “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very
night your life will be demanded from you.’”
– Luke 12:19-20
– questions designed to
make a point rather than retrieve an answer
“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his
life?”
– Matthew 6:27
– two or more lines of text that are
intended to be read together
• Synonymous – lines say basically the same thing
• Contrastive – second line contrasts with the first line
• Developmental – second line advances thought of first
• What kind of parallelism is the verse below?
“Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.”
– Matthew 7:7
– a story with two levels of meaning,
where certain details in the story stand for other
things
• A story where every detail stands for something else?
• A story with only one point?
• A story with one main point for each main character
Rebellious son
Sinners may confess their sins and turn to God
in repentance
Forgiving father
God offers forgiveness for undeserving people
Resentful brother
Those who claim to be God’s people should not
be resentful when God extends his grace to the
undeserving.
• Conclusion
– Gospels g good news of Jesus Christ
– Four versions of the one story of Jesus
– Christological biography
– Two interpretive questions:
• What is the main message of each story?
• What is the Gospel writer trying to say to his readers
(and to us) by the way he connects the smaller stories?
NT – Acts
• Introduction
– Four versions of the life and ministry of Jesus, one story of
the birth and growth of the early church
– Title?
• “The continuing acts of Jesus by his Spirit through the apostles and
other early Christian leaders”
• “Acts” for short
– Acts presents unique interpretive challenges
• Normative – the church in every age should imitate the early church
• Descriptive – early church valuable and inspiring, but not necessarily
binding on us
• Acts: a sequel to Luke
– Luke produced a single work in two parts: LukeActs.
– Luke intended to link these two books together
• Compare Luke 1:1-4 with Acts 1:1-2
• Thematic and structural parallels between the two books
• Definite overlap between the ending of Luke and the
beginning of Acts
– What Jesus began to do during his earthly ministry
he now continues to do through his Spiritempowered followers.
• What kind of book is Acts?
– Acts is a story that focuses on key church leaders.
– Acts is theological history.
• As a historian Luke composes a reliable record of what
happened in the move of the gospel from Jerusalem to
Rome.
• As a theologian, Luke tells the story for the purpose of
advancing the Christian faith.
• Both historian and theologian?
– Luke shapes his story for theological purposes.
How do we find theology in a story?
• Ask the standard story questions
• Pay attention to clues and instructions from the author
• Look carefully at direct discourse
– Single most helpful guideline g look for repeated
themes and patterns.
• Why did Luke write Acts?
“Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the
things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were
handed down to us by those who from the first were
eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I
myself have carefully investigated everything from the
beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly
account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you
may know the certainty of the things you have been
taught.”
– Luke 1:1-4
– Acts as a comprehensive discipleship manual?
– Luke shows believers that what God promised in
the OT and fulfilled in Jesus, he now continues to
work out through his church.
Spirit
Church
– Luke’s purposes/themes:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Holy Spirit
God’s sovereignty
Church
Prayer
Suffering
Gentiles
Witness
Gospel
World
• How is Acts organized?
Acts 1:8 holds the key to understanding how Luke
organizes his story of the triumphant expansion of the
gospel from Jerusalem (heart of Israel) to Rome (heart of
the empire).
Acts 1-6
“in Jerusalem”
Acts 7-12
“in Judea and Samaria”
Acts 13-28
“to the ends of the earth”
Peter
Paul
In the very last verse of Acts, we find Paul in a Roman
prison, but the gospel of Jesus Christ marches on …
“without hindrance” (last word in the Greek text).
• Grasping the message of Acts
– We read Acts in the much the same way that we
read the Gospels
– One major interpretive challenge:
Normative
Acts is normative so
that the church in
every age should
imitate the
experiences and
practices of the early
church.
Descriptive
Acts is merely
descriptive of what
was valuable and
inspiring in the
early church, but
not necessarily
binding on us
today.
– We suggest that we interpret Acts as both
normative and descriptive. Difficulty is knowing
what is normative and what is merely descriptive.
– Guidelines for discerning what is normative.
• Look for what Luke intended to communicate.
• Look for positive and negative examples in the
characters of the story.
• Read individual episodes in light of the overall story.
• Look to other parts of Acts for clarification.
• Look for repeated patterns and themes.
NT – Revelation
• Introduction
– Your initial response to reading Revelation?
– “revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:1)
• “revelation” – unveiling or open display
• “of Jesus Christ” – both about Jesus and from Jesus
– In this “final chapter” of the Bible, God pulls back
the curtain to give his people a glimpse of his plans
for human history—plans that center around Jesus.
• Historical context
– Persecution of Christians is becoming more
intense and widespread.
• 1:9; 2:3, 9-10, 13; 3:8; 6:9
• Emperor Domitian (A.D. 81-96)
or
“Caesar is Lord”
“Jesus is Lord”
– But some Christians are turning away from Christ
and compromising with the world system.
– Revelation has a double-edged message
Comfort for
those suffering
persecution
Warning for the
complacent and
compromising
• Literary genre?
– A letter
•
•
•
•
Opens and closes like a NT letter (1:4-5; 22:21)
Whole book is a letter, not just chapters 2-3
Like other NT letters, Revelation is situational
The central theme may be overcoming
Revelation 2-3
Revelation 12:11
Revelation 21:7
Promise to those
who “overcome”
at end of the
seven messages
in chapters 2-3
Believers “overcame
him [Satan] by the
blood of the Lamb
and by the word of
their testimony; they
did not love their
lives so much as to
shrink from death”
“He who overcomes
will inherit all this,
and I will be his
God and he will be
my son”
– A prophetic letter (1:3; 22:6-7, 10, 18-19)
“Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and
blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in
it, because the time is near.”
—Revelation 1:3
• Includes both prediction and proclamation with an
emphasis on proclamation.
• Revelation is not just about the future; it is about what
God wants in the here and now.
• An “unsealed” or open book (22:10)
– A prophetic-apocalyptic letter
“The revelation [apocalypsis] of Jesus Christ, which God gave
him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it
known by sending his angel to his servant John.
—Revelation 1:3
• “Apocalyptic”
– Literature in which God promises to intervene in human
history to overthrow evil and establish his kingdom
– Intensified form of Hebrew prophecy written during time
of crisis
– Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah in the OT
– Abundance of strange and bizarre images (picture
language)
• What is the purpose of Revelation?
– Readers enter the symbolic world created by the
images of Revelation to get heavenly perspective
on their own world.
– Revelation uses prophetic counter-images to answer
the question: “Who is Lord?”
– Main message: “God will win!”
• Interpreting Revelation
– Traditional approaches:
•
•
•
•
Preterist
Historicist
Futurist
Idealist
– Guidelines for reading Revelation:
• Read Revelation with humility.
• Try to discover the message to the original readers.
• Don’t try to detect a strict chronological map of future
events.
• Take Revelation seriously, but don’t always take it
literally.
• Pay attention when John identifies an image.
• Look to the OT and historical-cultural context when
interpreting images and symbols.
• Above all, focus on the main idea and don’t press all the
details.
• How does Revelation unfold?
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Introduction (1:1-3:22)
Vision of God and the Lamb (4:1-5:14)
Opening of the Seven Seals (6:1-8:1)
Sounding of the Seven Trumpets (8:2-11:19)
People of God vs. Powers of Evil (12:1-14:20)
Pouring out of the Seven Bowls (15:1-16:21)
Judgment of Babylon (17:1-19:5)
God’s Ultimate Victory (19:6-22:5)
Conclusion (22:6-21)
• Conclusion
– A prophetic-apocalyptic letter …
– Using powerful picture language …
– To comfort the suffering and warn the
comfortable.
– Revelation answers the question: “Who is Lord?”
– Revelation gives us the heavenly perspective we
need to overcome.
– God will win!