Jesus Christ and the New Testament

2021 ◽  
pp. 102-138
Author(s):  
Donald Senior
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
First Century ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Unique Character ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Unique Identity

A unifying motif of the New Testament and one that renders it sacred in the eyes of Christian faith is its assertion of the unique identity of Jesus Christ. While much of modern biblical scholarship has attempted to reconstruct the actual historical circumstances of Jesus in his first-century Jewish context, the New Testament writings themselves find their sacred character in their affirmation of the unique character of the Jesus of faith as both human and divine. This is affirmed in a variety of ways in the Four Gospels as they consider in diverse ways the ultimate origin of Jesus, the “theophanies” that occur during Jesus’s ministry, various titles assigned to him, and the nature of his death and resurrection. While biblical scholarship legitimately explores the historical context of Jesus’s life and teaching, Christians strive to see the intrinsic connection between the historical circumstances of Jesus’s life and the faith affirmations of early Christianity about his unique identity.

scholarly journals Od charyzmatu do "Ordo exorcistarum". Rozwój praktyki egzorcyzmu w pierwotnym chrześcijaństwie

Vox Patrum ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 67-85
Author(s):  
Leszek Misiarczyk
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Ancient Judaism ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Evil Spirits ◽  
The Individual

The term „exorcism” comes from the Latin exorcismus and from the Greek term, which originally meant „an oath”, but later in a Christian environ­ment has assumed the meaning „to curse” or „to expel the demons/evil spirits”. The practice of exorcism in early Christianity has been influenced by Old Testa­ment, ancient Judaism and especially by the exorcisms done by Jesus Christ and described in the New Testament. In patristic texts of IInd and IIIrd century we find the following elements of an exorcism: prayer in the name of Jesus, recitation of some elements of early Christian Creed, reading of the Gospel and it was done as an order. An exorcism has been accompanied by the imposition of hands, fast and using of the holy cross. An exorcism has been usually performed publicly and was treated as evidence of the truth of the Christian faith. Until the IIIrd century there was no office of exorcist in the ancient Church and the ministry of it was not con­nected at all with the priesthood, but depended on the individual charisma received from God and was confirmed by the effectiveness to realase the possessed people.

scholarly journals The figure of Jesus Christ in the context of religious studies

2003 ◽  
pp. 146-157
Author(s):  
Pavlo Yuriyovych Pavlenko
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Bruno Bauer

The study of the origins of the Christian religion has always been one of the most difficult problems. This is due, first of all, to the almost complete absence of specific historical evidence of early Christianity and of its founder, which in turn led to the emergence of the so-called "mythological theory" according to which Christianity emerged "spontaneously" in Palestine and is unknown in any way. F. Engels, who borrowed from Bruno Bauer the date of writing the Book of the Annunciation of John the Theologian, the last book of the New Testament canon, played a significant role in the formation of such views. In accepting this date, understanding of Christianity as a "spontaneous" phenomenon, initially representing the movement of the underprivileged masses of the Roman Empire, played a role. In this sense, any "spontaneity" automatically excluded the historicity of virtually all evangelical characters (according to Engels, all of them are nothing but mythological images). If neither Jesus nor his apostles existed, then the gospel narrative of Christ evolved from the myth of Christ as God to the myth of Jesus as God-man.

The Remaining New Testament Books as Sacred

2021 ◽  
pp. 171-205
Author(s):  
Donald Senior
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Acts Of The Apostles ◽  
Peter 1 ◽  
1 Peter ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Unique Identity ◽  
1 John

In attempting to make the case that the defining reason the books of the New Testament are considered sacred is because of their focus on the unique identity of Jesus Christ, we have explored the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and writings of Paul. We turn now, with the same conviction, to some of the remaining New Testament books. Our goal here is not to consider every book of the New Testament but to make the case that in the vast majority of them, their proclamation of Christ is central and defining. The books we will focus on in this chapter include Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 1 John, and Revelation, taken in the order in which they appear in the canon. Despite the evident literary diversity of these texts, there is a commanding unity—a unity grounded in their focus on the figure of Jesus Christ. It is that varied but unifying portrayal found in these books which will command our attention in this chapter.

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: A Theological Reflection

1989 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-298
Author(s):  
Joel Marcus
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
First Century ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Pride And Prejudice ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament

“While Pride and Prejudice is certainly not a primary source for reconstructing the world of the New Testament, the vivid way in which it takes us into one person's crisis of perception can, I believe, allow us to enter imaginatively into the crisis of first-century people on their way to Christian faith.”

Anti-Imperial Rhetoric in the New Testament

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Diehl
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
New Testament ◽  
First Century ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Interpretive Methods ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Common ◽  
Book Of Acts ◽  
Common Era

The first of a series of three articles, this essay introduces current scholarship concerned with the use of anti-imperial rhetoric in the New Testament Gospels and the book of Acts. In the first century of the Common Era, if the powerful Roman Emperor was considered a god, what did that mean for the earliest Christians who committed loyalty to ‘another’ God? Was it necessary for the NT authors to employ subversive language, words and symbols, to conceal their true meanings from the imperial authorities in their communications to the first Christian communities? The answers to such key questions can give us a clearer picture of the culture, society and setting in which the NT was written. The purpose of this complex study is to observe how current biblical scholarship views anti-imperial rhetoric and anti-emperor implications found in the NT, assuming such rhetoric exists at all. This initial article reviews recent scholarship with respect to the background of the Roman Empire, current interpretive methods and research concerning anti-imperial rhetoric found in the NT Gospels and Acts.

scholarly journals Nuwe-Testamentiese perspektiewe op die Sabbat en die Sondag

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
S. J. Joubert
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
First Century ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Strong Emphasis ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
To Come ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Interpretative Framework

New Testament perspectives on the Sabbath and the Sunday In order to come to terms with New Testament views on the Sabbath and the Sunday, an investigation of Jewish schematizations of time and of the Sabbath in particular, around the first century A.D. is undertaken. This is followed by a discussion of relevant New Testament texts on the Sabbath and the Sunday. Finally, the available information from the New Testament is placed within the interpretative framework of the “Christ event” which inaugurated the eschaton, and which also replaced the strong emphasis on specific holy days within early Christianity. However, the Sunday was probably chosen by some early Christian groups as the most suitable day to commemorate the resurrection of Christ.

Sin in the New Testament

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Siker
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
First Century ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Jerusalem Temple ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christian Message

This book examines what the different New Testament writings have to say about sin within the broader historical and theological contexts of first-century Christianity. These contexts include both the immediate world of Judaism out of which early Christianity emerged, as well as the larger Greco-Roman world into which Christianity quickly spread as an increasingly Gentile religious movement. The Jewish sacrificial system associated with the Jerusalem Temple was important for dealing with human sin, and early Christians appropriated the language and imagery of sacrifice in describing the salvific importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Greco-Roman understandings of sin as error or ignorance played an important role in the spreading of the Christian message to the Gentile world. The book details the distinctive portraits of sin in each of the canonical Gospels in relation to the life and ministry of Jesus. Beyond the Gospels the book develops how the letters of Paul and other early Christian writers address the reality of sin, again primarily in relation to the revelatory ministry of Jesus.

Relating to Judaism, Experiencing the Sacred

2019 ◽  
pp. 285-313
Author(s):  
Eyal Regev
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
First Century ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Point Of Reference

This chapter examines how early Christian attitude toward the Temple changed and why. First-century early Christianity was a religious and social movement at the beginning of the process of identity formation. Its members had yet to determine who they were: what part of their identity was contiguous with Judaism and what part comprised all-new elements. During this process they undoubtedly looked to other non-Christian Jews as a point of reference. Literary engagement with the Temple granted the New Testament writers and their contemporary readers the opportunity to express their debt to Jewish tradition, while at the same time their distinctiveness from it. Moreover, this engagement enhanced their sense of being powerful, genuine, and sacred—that is, close to God. For them, the Temple is a means of experiencing the sacred in both old and new fashion, somewhere on the spectrum between what would later be termed “Judaism” and “Christianity.”

scholarly journals Wetenschappelijk onderzoek op het gebied van het Nieuwe Testament en grensgebieden in Nederland en Nederlandstalig Belgie, 1993- 19991

1999 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. De Jonge
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Research Trends ◽  
First Century ◽  
Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Religion And Theology ◽  
The New Testament

Scientific research on the New Testament and related fields in the Netherlands and Dutch-speaking Belgium, 1993-1999. The article gives an overview of recent and current New Testament research in the Netherlands and Belgium. The institutions and circumstances within which research is done, are discussed. The article points out that theological faculties function within an increasingly secularising society. In spite of this, and the problems the churches are experiencing, there still is a remarkable interest in religion and theology both within and outside of church and university circles. Research trends include a focus on the cultural environment of early Christianity, the history and literature of Christianity ater the first century and a linguistic and literary approach. The interest in Biblical theological issues is much more limited. These trends and the researchers working in the various fields are discussed in detail. The article concludes that much has been done in the field of New Testament research in the Dutch-speaking world in spite of fairly unfavourable circumstances.

Psalms, Philippians 2:6-11, and the Origins of Christology

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adela Yarbro Collins
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Local Culture ◽  
Passion Narrative ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Son Of Man ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christian Worship

AbstractStudents of early Christianity recognized long ago that the canonical psalms of the Jewish Bible provided a framework of meaning in which the followers of Jesus could make sense of his crucifixion. This novel hermeneutic is evident in the allusions to the Psalms in the passion narrative of the Gospel according to Mark. It appears also in the Markan Jesus's explanation of the need for the Son of Man to suffer. Most students of the New Testament today understand Philippians 2:6-11 as a pre-Pauline hymn that was composed for early Christian worship. More recent studies suggest that it is exalted prose rather than poetry. The hypothesis of this article is that Paul composed it, either for worship or for the purposes of the argument of his letter to the Philippians. In doing so, he adapted a common social practice of the local culture. The "theologos" was an official in the organized worship of an ancient deity whose duty it was to compose brief speeches, sometimes in prose, sometimes in poetry, in honor of the deity. The organized worship of the emperor included such officials. Paul acted as a "theologos" in writing a brief speech in exalted prose honoring Jesus Christ, whom he had taught the Philippians to honor instead of the emperor.

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