M.Th. New Testament · Source syllabus

NT 01: Methodological and Critical Issues in New Testament Studies

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Methodology · NT 01

Methodological and Critical Issues in New Testament Studies

M.Th. New Testament · Source syllabus with original formative learning enrichment

Course focus from source objectives

No separate course description is supplied. The focus below is an excerpt from the source objectives, not a newly approved description.

To provide a better understanding of the milieu of New Testament studies

Course objectives

To provide a better understanding of the milieu of New Testament studies

To highlight a relevant methodology for New Testament studies

To discuss major critical issues in interpreting the New Testament in today's world

Source methods and requirements

Reproduced source instructions, not newly scheduled LMS deadlines or extra formative assessments.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures on selected themes of methodological importance Reading relevant modern literature on important issues of NT studies Presentations of papers by the students on important topics

Official source evaluation

Preserved from this course’s Word document, not replaced by the practice quiz.

Verbatim assessment statements, not automatically configured grade weights. Separate statements and any conflicting figures are not added together. Any percentages inside a final-exam statement describe its internal composition.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Final Examination 100%

Course arrangements

Credits are to be confirmed by AGBS. Semester, faculty, dates, deadlines and individual registrations require AGBS confirmation. Source unit numbers are retained even where repeated; they are not a weekly timetable.

Study and class spaces

Open AGBS library Open student course room Faculty teaching room

Use your faculty’s course room for class arrangements. These links do not imply a scheduled session or record attendance.

Original AGBS learning enrichment

Think beyond the outline.

These new exercises are formative suggestions, not changes to your official syllabus, deadlines or assessment weights. Your faculty decides which activities to use in class.

Your study record

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Use fictional or anonymised ministry cases. Do not enter another person’s counselling, medical or private family details.

My unit checklist

0 of 3 sections marked studied by you. This is self-reported learning progress.

Course topics4. Content and Critical issues of the New Testament (A Study of authorship, destination, audience, chronology, milieu, unity, occasion, theology and so on of the New Testament books)5. Texts of the Post-Pauline Period

Reflect

Pause and make a connection.

How would a historical-critical and a social-scientific approach frame different questions about one New Testament passage? State what your evidence can establish and where your method remains limited.

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Create and collaborate

Convene a methods-and-evidence research laboratory

Choose a passage and two methods named in the outline. Build an annotated evidence map, compare the questions each method asks and revise a small research proposal after peer critique. Distinguish primary evidence, scholarly inference and contextual application.

1. Prepare
Read the relevant source unit and record your evidence.
2. Make
Create a draft, diagram, dialogue or teaching resource.
3. Revisit
Invite peer feedback in class; revise and explain what changed.

My creative-work plan and reflection

Check your understanding

Which combination of methods is explicitly named in this outline?

Only a single unexamined reading traditionHistorical-critical method and sociological criticismA rule excluding textual transmission from study

Practice only. No marks are posted to the gradebook.

NT 01 Methodological and Critical Issues in New Testament Studies

Amazing Grace Biblical Seminary — M.Th. New Testament

AmaZing Grace Biblical Seminary Erumelikkara, Kumarapuram (PO), Aluva (via), Ernakulam (District), Kerala, India- Pin-683 565. Ph. 8547473926, 8281663926. Area A: Methodology NT 01: Methodological and Critical Issues in New Testament Studies OBJECTIVES: To provide a better understanding of the milieu of New Testament studies To highlight a relevant methodology for New Testament studies To discuss major critical issues in interpreting the New Testament in today's world TEACHING METHODS: Lectures on selected themes of methodological importance Reading relevant modern literature on important issues of NT studies Presentations of papers by the students on important topics COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Final Examination 100% COURSE OUTLINE: Geo-Political and historical settings of the New Testament-World. Jewish religion- Exilic and post-exilic contexts. Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Imperial religions and Cultures. Formation of second Temple Judaism. A Specific study on Greek Empire to Bar Kochba Rebellion. Religious Groups of the Greco-Roman World. Political and Social institutions in the Greco-Roman Roman World. Geography of the New Testament World Background of the Early Christian Religious Movements. Socio-Cultural world of Early Christianity. Taxation, Migration, displacement due to imperial governance. The place of women in the Roman World. Political institutions and Christianity. Social conflicts, persecution and formation of early Christian identity. Pauline milieu and Pauline Churches. An Introduction to methodological tools and concerns in the study of the New Testament. A Study of Formation of New Testament Canon. The text of the New Testament and its process of transmission. Historical-Critical method and Sociological Criticism. Primitive Gospel Sources - Synoptic Problem, Source Criticism, Form Criticism, and Genre Criticism. Significance of Q in the study of Gospel traditions and Current Debate on Historical Jesus 4. Content and Critical issues of the New Testament (A Study of authorship, destination, audience, chronology, milieu, unity, occasion, theology and so on of the New Testament books) Matthew, Mark and Luke - A study of communities and specific sources. Johannine Community, Johannine Gospel, I, II & III Letters and the Apocalypse. Pauline Schools - Epistles, Galatians Problem, the Corinthian Correspondence, Issue of Pseudonymity, Prison Letters, Deutero- Pauline Epistles, Opponents of Paul. 5. Texts of the Post-Pauline Period A Study of Pastorals, Inter-Textuality - James and Matthew, I Peter, II Peter and Jude and Hebrews. The closing of the New Testament canon, theological arrangements and fixing of canon, Canonical Criticism. Extra Canonical Literatures. Qumran Community and Nag Hammadi documents. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Barrett, C. K. ed. The New Testament Background. Rev. ed. San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1987. Bray, Gerald, Biblical Interpretation: Past and Present ,Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2000. Brown, R.E. An Introduction to the New Testament. New York: Paulist Press, 1998. Carson, D. A., Douglas J. Moo, and Leon Morris. An Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 1992. Carson, D.A. New Testament Commentary Survey. 4th ed. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993. Carson, Donald, Exegetical Fallacies, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1996). Colin Brown, ed. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, 3 vols. Eerdmans Press, 2001.. David A. Black and David S. Dockery, eds., Interpreting the New Testament. Essays on Methods and Issues ,Nashville: Broadman, 2001. Davids, P.H. eds. Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments. Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity, 1998. Elwell, Walter A. and Robert W. Yarbrough, eds. Readings from the First-Century World. Primary Sources for New Testament Studies. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998. Fee, Gordon D. and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. 2d ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993. Ferguson, Everett. Backgrounds of Early Christianity. 2d ed. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993. Green, Joel , ed., Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995). Joy, David, C.I, Mark and Its Subalterns: A Hermeneutical Paradigm for a Postcolonial Context, London: Equinox, 2008. Joy, David, C.I., Hermeneutics: Foundations, Delhi: ISPCK, 2012. Klein, Craig Blomberg, and R. Hubbard, Introduction to Biblical Interpretation (Dallas: Word, 1993). Lea, Thomas D. The New Testament: Its Background and Message. Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1996. Longenecker, Bruce. The Lost Letters of Pergamum. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003. Theissen, Gerd. The Shadow of the Galilean. Philadelphia: Fortress, Press, 1987. Marshall, Howard ed., New Testament Interpretation: Essays on Principles and Methods Eerdmans, 1977. Osborne, Grant R. The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1991.

Faculty review notes: The outline moves from unnumbered material to items 4 and 5. Those labels and their order are retained; missing numbers have not been supplied.

Text reproduced from NT 01 Methodological and Critical Issues in New Testament Studies.doc. Source credit values, where present, do not establish an individual registration, teaching dates or faculty approval of later changes.