The GospelsThe GospelsByzantine Online

Fall 2013Sandra Collins, Ph.D.

Week 1 Week 1 IntroductionIntroduction

• Sandra (Sandee) Collins• scollins@bcs.edu• 412-321-8383, ext. 23• "For what could God

have more generously and abundantly provided in the divine writings than that the same words might be understood in various ways," (De doctrina Christiana, 3.27,28).

TextsTexts

BIBLE: BIBLE: introduction and termsintroduction and terms• Old Testament

(Christian)• Tanakh (Jewish)• Hebrew Bible

(academic)o Torah (lit. “teaching”)= can

be only first five books or a reference to the totality of the Old Testament

o Jews read the Bible descriptively

o Christians order the text to fit a predictive reading

Geography and datesGeography and dates• BCE = Before

Common Era • CE = Common Era• Judea (4th century

BCE-1st century CE)• Palestine (Latinized

Philistia; 135 CE to 20th century CE)

• Israel (1948-)

HISTORYHISTORY• Alexander the

Great and Roman Occupation (333 BCE-63 BCE)o Imposition of Hellenistic

(Greek) cultural normso Septuagint (LXX): Greek

translation of Hebrew Scriptures,Alexandria, ~250 BCE

o Establishment of Herodian kings (roughly 37-4 BCE

Herod Agrippa, or Agrippa the Great, ruler of Judea (10 BC – 44 AD)

Jesus the ChristJesus the Christ• Jesus (roughly 4

BCE – 33 CE)• Life corresponds with

Roman occupation of Judeao Pax Romana, or Roman peaceo Killed by Roman authorities

for sedition, or attempt to set up rival kingdom to that of the emperor of Rome, which is treason.

o Image (Augustus Caesar [63 BCE-14 CE]; Chiaramonti Museum, Braccio Nuovo).

Paul and earliest Paul and earliest ChristianityChristianity

• Period of 54-70 CE• Paul

o Apostle to the Gentileso Earliest NT writings we have

• Gospels o Roughly 65-90 CEo Mark is earliest; John the

latest

• 70 CEo Pivotal historical momento Temple is destroyed by Romeo Great diaspora, or expulsion,

of Jews from Judea

o Image: Existing southern steps of the Temple Mount, Jerusalem.

Johannine ChristianityJohannine Christianity• Roughly 90 CE and

following• Gospel of John;

Johannine Letters; Revelationo Strong pneumatologyo Trinitarian doctrine has its

roots here

““The Gospels are The Gospels are narratives.”narratives.”

• Image:o The ending of the

Gospel of Luke from Codex Alexandrinus, a 5th century copy of the Septuagint (Greek OT) and New Testament found in Alexandria, currently in the British Library.