The World of the New Testament

Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts

Green, Joel B., McDonald, Lee Martin, Joel B. Green, Lee Martin McDonald

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780801098611
• eBook ISBN: 9781441240545
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

This volume addresses the most important issues related to the study of New Testament writings. Two respected senior scholars have brought together a team of distinguished specialists to introduce the Jewish, Hellenistic, and Roman backgrounds necessary for understanding the New Testament and the early church. Contributors include renowned scholars such as Lynn H. Cohick, David A. deSilva, James D. G. Dunn, and Ben Witherington III. The book includes seventy-five photographs, fifteen maps, numerous tables and charts, illustrations, and bibliographies. All students of the New Testament will value this reliable, up-to-date, comprehensive textbook and reference volume on the New Testament world.

1
Introduction

Joel B. Green and Lee Martin McDonald

One of the characteristics of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures is that they are eminently translatable. A quick survey of the available English translations of the Bible is enough to demonstrate this truism, but translation into English is only a relatively recent example of the phenomenon. The “Bible” (what Christians today call the “Old Testament”) for most of the earliest Christians and the writers of the New Testament (NT) books was a translation from Hebrew into Greek. Synagogues were the sites of ongoing translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Aramaic, the vernacular of the day in Palestine. The NT documents, written in “common Greek,” were quickly translated into various Coptic dialects and into Latin. And on the story goes, with the result that today the Bible or portions of the Bible are available in more than two thousand of the world’s languages.

Although we celebrate the accessibility of the Scriptures in the language of the people, we cannot overlook the basic fact that it is far easier to translate words on a page than it is to capture the deeper sense of those words. Linguists have long been aware that most of what is communicated is not actually expressed in words but is assumed among those involved in the communicative act. The history Paul shared with the Corinthians, the cultural assumptions Luke shared with his audience, those experiences of imperial Rome shared between the author and addressees of the book of Revelation—such shared histories, assumptions, and experiences shape how these authors’ words and phrases might be heard. They thicken the significance of the words of parables or letters or homilies. Precisely because these pools of assumptions could simply be taken for granted by Paul, Luke, and John, they therefore do not sit on top of the pages of our New Testament. This is true whether we are reading the NT in English, in Greek, or in some other language. We need more than the words on the page. We need to be oriented to the background assumed by people in the NT era. We need context.

Students taking university or seminary biblical courses will often hear their professors say that the key to understanding the Bible is its context. They quickly learn the mantra of formal biblical studies: “Context, context, context! Without a context, texts easily become little more than pretexts.” Although we need more than cultural, social, and historical context in order to attend well to the NT message, we certainly do not need less. Greater awareness of the context within which the NT books were written helps us better to hear its words and to interpret them with greater precision.

1.1. Israel at the time of Jesus. (Baker Publishing Group)

This volume provides the reader with a more informed understanding of the context within which the events described in the NT would have taken place and within which the NT books themselves were written. Describing the world in which we live today would be a complex business. It is no less so for the first-century world of the NT. This is not because the first-century Mediterranean world was so much more complicated than our own, but because the day-to-day world of Roman antiquity is so much less familiar to us. Too easily we mistake its thought forms for our own or imagine that people everywhere and at all times are like us. Holding Bibles written in our languages, we easily assume that our assumptions are shared by its writers, its first-century audiences. We forget that reading the pages of the NT is for everyone in the twenty-first century a cross-cultural experience. To attend to the NT, we need a better grasp of the first-century world of Peter and Paul, Priscilla and Phoebe, as well as of the years, movements, struggles, and literatures that gave the NT era its shape.

The articles of this book are gathered into five major sections, each of which will foster greater understanding of the NT world as well as open fresh opportunities for further research. These articles provide orientation to the issues they discuss and thus serve as important first steps for gaining essential information on the background of the NT. Annotated bibliographies at the close of each chapter direct readers to some of the best resources available on each topic and will enable them to continue their research in greater depth.

For example, students today quickly learn that it is important to know the Jewish context of early Christianity. After all, Jesus was a Jew, and his earliest followers were Jews. Most of the writers of the NT documents were Jewish. They were reared in Jewish cultures, which influenced how they thought, taught, and responded within their various circumstances. Until recently, it was common to speak of a “normative Judaism” in the first century, and thus to make pronouncements about “the Jews” of the NT era—what “they” believed, “their” hopes, “their” practices, and so on. This was the key for unlocking the mission and message of Jesus, Paul, and other NT figures, whose beliefs, hopes, and practices were often understood as counterpoints to the beliefs, hopes, and practices of “the Jews.” We now know that this approach was working with little more than a caricature, a cartoon picture of the Jewish people in the Second Temple period.[1] Plainly stated, there was no singular expression of Judaism in the time of Jesus—no more than we can speak generically of “Christian beliefs in the US at the turn of the twenty-first century.” (Which Christians? Rich or poor? Old or young? Mainline or emerging? Socially progressive or conservative? Whose definition?) Although Jews shared some common characteristics, such as the practice of circumcision and Sabbath observance, they could differ, sometimes widely, on other issues, such as messianic expectation, perspectives on life after death, which religious writings were acknowledged as sacred Scripture, and precisely how to keep Torah. By filling in our understanding of the Jewish people during the NT era, we find a more complex picture than was often assumed in earlier days, and we find more continuity than we might have anticipated between these various expressions of Judaism and the beliefs and practices of the early Jesus movement. Indeed, in one of the essays that follows, we read that some twenty expressions of Judaism can be traced in the time of Jesus.

Similarly, numerous and varied Jewish books and resources informed elements of early Christianity. These include the books that compose the Old Testament (OT), but also many of the so-called apocryphal and pseudepigraphic writings that were written before, during, and after the time of Jesus. Those who want to know more about the social and religious context of the NT and early Christianity should also familiarize themselves with the many books of Philo from Alexandria, Egypt (who was roughly a contemporary of Jesus), and the historical writings of Josephus, from the last quarter of the first century. It is also important to have a sense of the writings preserved by one of the Jewish sects that thrived before AD 70, namely, the Essenes—some of whom would have been contemporaries with Jesus—who produced many of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) and preserved numerous other Jewish religious texts they welcomed into their community. Since this collection of writings was written and copied just prior to the time of Jesus, their importance for understanding the world and literature of the NT is obvious.

What of those Jews who survived the war with Rome and the destruction of Jerusalem and its sacred temple (AD 66–74), and who found ways to continue to express their faith in God and faithfulness to Torah? These Jews produced a wealth of literature that often, though not always, reflects traditions that both precede and are contemporary with the time of Jesus and the earliest Christians. Some of their writings reflect Jewish thinking one or more generations removed from the time of Jesus, but some of it is useful for understanding Jewish practices before and during the time of Jesus. The literature these pious Jews produced or collected and preserved from the second to the sixth centuries AD is known as the rabbinic tradition.

Following the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and the concomitant cessation of temple worship, some rabbis asked Rome for permission to gather at Jamnia (or Yavneh) to determine how a faith that was bound to the sacrificial system practiced in Jerusalem might continue after the temple’s destruction. Over several centuries these rabbis collected and produced a large body of important literature that includes the Mishnah, the Tosefta, and the two Talmuds (or Talmudim). This literature must be read with discernment since it does not always reflect perspectives contemporary with NT times; nonetheless, it provides a wealth of material useful in interpreting various NT texts.

One of the more important advances in our study of the NT was the discovery that not only were a number of Jewish perspectives present in the land of Israel in the time of Jesus, but also Judaism itself did not exist in isolation from the dominant culture of its day. In fact, the various ways of being Jewish to which we have already called attention are a corollary of Greek and then Roman cultural influences. How is faithfulness to the God of Israel to be measured and lived in a world of Greek and Roman overlords and in the wake of pressing influences from Greek and then Greco-Roman education, religion, architecture, economics, and politics? Following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BC, the Jewish people came under the control of the Greek (or Hellenistic) culture that influenced many of their learned leaders. And this influence continued right up to the time of Jesus and his followers.

And what of Jews living outside the land of Israel, that is, living in the Diaspora? Since the rabbinic tradition and its literature were produced only in Hebrew and Aramaic, Jews to the west, north, and south of Israel who spoke Greek and Latin were largely unaffected by that tradition until much later, in the eighth or ninth centuries AD. Jews living in the larger Mediterranean world read their Scriptures in the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures regularly called the Septuagint (LXX). This Greek translation of the books of the Hebrew Bible (HB), with certain other books composed in Greek, would constitute the Scriptures of the early churches. What was it like to navigate Jewish beliefs and faithful practices in a predominately gentile setting? What happened among Jews who could not assume that their neighbors shared their commitments to the one God of Israel or their commitments to Sabbath and purity?

Another example: after the Romans became the foremost power over the land of Israel in 63 BC, Hellenistic culture remained dominant; when traveling throughout the Mediterranean world, one could easily communicate effectively in the Greek language and encounter pervasive evidence of the influence of Hellenistic culture. Some NT writers show considerable familiarity with classical writers; moreover, some of the people and many of the events they mention are also found among the writings of Greek and Roman historians and poets. Some NT texts are set in sharper relief when read alongside the literature that originated in the worlds of Greece and Rome—their epics, histories, philosophies, religious beliefs and practices, and so on. Indeed, even on the relatively mundane level of dating events mentioned in the NT—such as the birth of Jesus and beginning of his ministry, aspects of Paul’s itinerant mission, and a number of other incidents mentioned in the Gospels and Acts—we would have little with which to work if we were unable to draw on Greco-Roman writings.

According to John’s Gospel, “the Word became flesh and made his home among us” (1:14 CEB). That is, even if the gospel it presents has a timeless appeal, the Christ to whom the NT bears witness was born on real soil found in a particular time and place. Paul, Aquila, and Priscilla had dirty hands from their work with leather (Acts 18:3). The Corinthians knew the smell of meat sacrificed to idols, and those Christ-followers to whom 1 Peter is addressed knew the real ache of scornful words tossed at them in the marketplace. On their every page, the NT writings bear witness to the settings, the times and places, of their writing. Whatever else they are, these documents are the products of the cultural world within which they were written.

All this is to say that context is crucial for understanding the NT message. Accordingly, the articles in this volume are designed to give us a firmer grip on the NT world so that we may become more able interpreters of the NT Scriptures.

Behind this volume stands the Institute for Biblical Research (IBR),[2] a scholarly community that gave the impetus for this publication to provide an introduction to the background of the NT. The IBR is a community of evangelical biblical scholars from a variety of church backgrounds and theological traditions, who are committed to advancing biblical inquiry within the broad orthodox and evangelical traditions. Several authors in this volume are internationally known for their expertise in NT scholarship and have made significant contributions to the field of biblical scholarship. Others are newer to the field but have already begun to distinguish themselves. All possess specialized knowledge in various aspects of biblical inquiry. Most are IBR members, but some are not. We celebrate all of their contributions toward producing this useful resource for those who want a better understanding of the NT in its own contexts.

The editors express their appreciation to those who have contributed to this volume, sacrificing valuable time and effort to make this an important resource for students of the NT. We also express thanks to the editors and staff of Baker Academic; from early on they recognized the usefulness of this collection as a tool for biblical research for students and pastors alike and brought their own considerable expertise to the shaping of the volume. We are particularly grateful to Timothy Reardon, who prepared the indexes for this volume. The members of IBR have long appreciated their partnership with Baker Academic, and we are grateful for their taking on this project.

2
New Testament Chronology

Lee Martin McDonald

Biblical scholars have long recognized the value of knowing the history and chronology of the NT for understanding its texts, but they also recognize the complexity of establishing reliable dates for the books and events mentioned in the NT. Outside of broad agreement that most if not all of it originated in the first century, scholars continue to debate the precise time when the NT documents were produced.

Establishing a reliable NT chronology is not an exact science, and there are many variables involved and many difficult choices to make. In antiquity, calendars and various chronologies were often rooted in the years of a king’s rule or the tenure of governors, local rulers, or high priests—as we see in the NT itself (cf. Luke 1:5; 2:1–2; 3:1–2).

Dating NT events involves examining not only the NT writings but also a number of nonbiblical writings, whether Jewish, Christian, or Greco-Roman—writings roughly contemporary with the NT. For example, some persons mentioned in the NT, such as rulers and leading biblical personalities, are also mentioned elsewhere. An important resource for dating many NT events and persons was produced in the last quarter of the first century by Josephus, a Jewish general during the Jewish war against Rome who wrote Jewish Antiquities and Jewish War, as well as The Life and Against Apion. A second primary resource is Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History (fourth century), the first widely recognized reliable history of early Christianity, which shows considerable awareness of ancient sources and events from the beginning of Christianity and its subsequent development. Along with these, those seeking to date events mentioned in the NT will find helpful the writings of Dio Cassius, Pausanius, Pliny, Suetonius, and Tacitus. Along with t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Contributors
• Abbreviations
• 1. Introduction
• 2. New Testament Chronology
• Part 1: Setting the Context
• Part 2: Setting the Context
• Part 3: The Jewish People in the Context of Roman Hellenism
• Part 4: The Literary Context of Early Christianity
• Part 5: The Geographical Context of the New Testament
• Additional Resources
• Glossary
• Index of Ancient Sources
• Index of Biblical Texts
• Index of Modern Authors
• Index of Subjects
• Endnotes
• Back Cover