Beginner's Guide to New Testament Studies

Gupta Nijay K.

Description

This accessible and balanced introduction helps readers sort out key views on the most important debated issues in New Testament studies. Well-known New Testament scholar Nijay Gupta fairly presents the spectrum of viewpoints on thirteen topics and offers reflections on why scholars disagree on these matters. Written to be accessible to students and readers without advanced training in New Testament studies, this book will serve as an excellent supplementary text for New Testament introduction courses.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• New Testament

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 17 mars 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493422203
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Endorsements
“Nijay Gupta has produced an accessible and helpful resource for students who are seeking to grasp the contours of scholarly debates on several key issues in New Testament studies. Gupta presents a fair and balanced treatment of diverging opinions and whets the reader’s appetite vis-à-vis the issues discussed.”
— Abson Joseph , Wesley Seminary, Indiana Wesleyan University
“In A Beginner’ s Guide to New Testament Studies , Nijay Gupta demonstrates the skill of a master guide as he takes readers on a fast-paced tour of the world of New Testament studies. This volume doesn’t shy away from the complexity of critical New Testament debates and yet manages to offer concise, accessible overviews that invite further study and reflection. Nijay’s pastoral sense is also evident as he anticipates the challenges presented by popular (mis)perceptions of the New Testament (in church and culture). A new generation of students will find that Nijay has demystified some of the most contested areas of scholarly debate and provided them with the opportunity to navigate their own course in studying the New Testament.”
— Ronald Herms , Fresno Pacific University
“A concise and accessible guide with salient details for beginners. The short chapters aptly expose students to the main issues and differing views among scholars, and each concludes with questions for critical reflection—questions that may be reappropriated for online, in-class, or small-group discussions. An excellent book for undergraduate students.”
— Daniel K. Darko , Gordon College
“What do New Testament scholars think about the historical reliability of John’s Gospel? What is the relationship between the historical Jesus and the apostle Paul? What is the New Testament’s view of women in leadership roles? What is the center of Paul’s theology? Do Paul’s statements about the Jewish law have any coherence? Who really wrote Jude, 2 Peter, or the Pastoral Epistles? Is the New Testament silent on the Roman Empire or does it engage in a veiled but powerful critique? It would take beginning students a lifetime to answer these questions! Or they could just read this book. Gupta has a detailed grasp of the New Testament, its sociocultural world, and the history of New Testament interpretation, and he communicates in remarkably accessible prose, providing an ideal entry point for students seeking a way in to the field of New Testament studies.”
— Joshua Jipp , Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2020 by Nijay K. Gupta
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-2220-3
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled CEB are from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. © Copyright 2011 COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. All rights reserved. Used by permission. (www.CommonEnglishBible.com).
Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016
Scripture quotations labeled NET are from the NET Bible®, copyright © 1996–2016 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NETS are from A New English Translation of the Septuagint , © 2007 by the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, Inc. Used by permission of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
Scripture quotations labeled RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Contents
Cover i
Endorsements ii
Half Title Page iii
Title Page v
Copyright Page vi
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
1. The Synoptic Problem 1
2. The Historical Jesus 15
3. The Fourth Gospel and History 31
4. Jesus and Paul 41
5. Paul’s Theological Perspective 57
6. Paul and the Jewish Law 71
7. Interpreting the Book of Revelation 87
8. Pseudonymity and the New Testament Letters 103
9. The New Testament and the Roman Empire 119
10. Women in Leadership in the New Testament 133
11. Justification by Faith and Judgment according to Works 145
12. The Old Testament in the New Testament 157
13. The Application and Use of Scripture 175
Author Index 189
Scripture Index 193
Back Cover 197
Acknowledgments
This book wouldn’t have been possible without the help of James Ernest, who accepted the original proposal, and the ongoing support of Bryan Dyer, who took over the project after James. Many of the essays in this book were field tested with my own students over the last several years, and I received substantial feedback that has helped me refine, clarify, and strengthen this work. My deepest thanks to those students, especially Alex Finkelson and Benjamin Black, who both provided focused advice and feedback that I needed at the last minute. Some chapters I sent out to subject experts for comments and a bit of extra help, so thank you to Mike Bird, Adam Winn, Anthony LeDonne, and Dean Flemming.
This book is dedicated to two of my own teachers. First, I want to honor Dr. David Aune (Ashland University) who introduced me to the academic study of the Bible when I was a teenager. I was a high school student who was able to take a college course for credit. I signed up for Dr. Aune’s introduction to the Bible. I remember asking him all of these newbie questions after class, and he would graciously take me over to his office and look things up in the Greek text to help me find specific answers. Needless to say, his love of learning inspired me. Second, I want to honor Dr. Sean McDonough, the seminary professor who taught me how to interpret the New Testament (“Look at the fish!”—let the reader understand). 1 Dr. McDonough challenged me to learn from all the best resources across the spectrum of views and then to weigh and discern the strongest position.
Last, but not least, I wish to acknowledge my family. My wife, Amy, always presses me to get to the “so what?” of academic debates. And the nightly exercise of reading the Bible with my young children constantly challenges me to reflect on how a better understanding of the Bible ought to lead toward love of God and love of neighbor.



1 . For the uninitiated, see an explanation here: Justin Taylor, “Agassiz and the Fish,” The Gospel Coalition , November 16, 2009, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/agassiz-and-the-fish/.
Introduction
When I first entered theological education as a seminary student, I found myself completely lost in the world of biblical scholarship. Not only were there so many technical terms I couldn’t define and histories of interpretation with which I was not acquainted, but it seemed like there were two, or three, or ten views on various debated issues, and I had trouble keeping them straight. Oh, how I wished I had a map that could help me find my way through the maze of scholarship, or a guide to clue me into this view and that view!
More than fifteen years later, I can now say that I have a reasonable grasp of New Testament studies. Don’t get me wrong—there are lots of subdisciplines and specialized topics that I know little or nothing about. But I have taught introduction to the New Testament and New Testament exegesis and hermeneutics many times, certainly enough to feel comfortable tracing the main views and positions—hence, this book, A Beginner’s Guide to New Testament Studies . This textbook aims to aid the uninitiated in understanding, in a simple way, some of the most important and hotly debated issues in academic study of the New Testament.
Before diving in, I want to clarify the audience, approach, and aims of this book. It is written for relative newcomers to the world of New Testament studies, not experts. Chapters are short, and for the most part, I avoid academic jargon. In each chapter, you will find a short introduction to the issue at hand, explication of two or more views, and a final set of reflections. These reflections are very important in terms of the book’s overall intentions. I do not expect that after consulting the short treatment of views I have offered, a reader will either (a) take a side or (b) change views. As will become clear, in nearly all of these debates, highly competent, well-intentioned scholars have good reasons for holding differing views. The reflections at the end of each chapter consider the key problems, paradoxes, methodological issues, and questions that undergird and generate the disagreement. In many cases I also point to tools and new perspectives that are shedding fresh light on these debates today. I sincerely hope readers will see the rich complexity and textures of the debates with a view toward