Survey of the New Testament

The purpose of this paper is to survey the New Testament of the Bible, keeping in mind the historical context in which it was written. The sources for the survey are Robert H. Gundry's A Survey of the New Testament, and Isaac Asimov's Guide to the Bible.

The Messianic tradition was strong among the Jews of Palestine at the time of Christ. Since General Pompey had conquered Jerusalem many years earlier, the Roman yoke was hard pressed on the Jewish people. The Jews not only were forced to pay a part of their Temple tribute to the Romans, but they considered themselves to be the Chosen People of God and, as such, were insulted that their land had been taken over by heathens. The Romans had originally appointed Hasmonean rulers over Judea (e.g., Herod the Great) but, after his death, had assumed the rule of the land directly, with a series of cruel, provincial governors enforcing the Roman laws (Gundry, 1970, pp. 3-11).

Because the Jewish people believed in Biblical prophecy, and because they had been promised a deliverer by various Hebrew prophets, the expectation was strong that a Messiah would soon come who would throw off the Roman yoke, and free the Jewish people, also establishing them as the righteous people under the Lord. Any number of Jewish preachers had made the claim that they were, in fact, the Messiah, and each had been summarily executed by the Romans, some after much armed conflict between the two. Jesus Christ, however, was different. He was not a m

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h and blood manner (Gundry, 1970, pp. 88-90). Isaac Asimov also agrees that Mark seems to have been the earliest Gospel writer, but thinks that the story of Jesus as written by this author was put into circulation in order to show the Romans that Jesus stood steadfast under affliction and suffering (which the early Christians faced under Roman persecution, as well) (Asimov, 1970, p. 903). Any history of Christianity must start with the Resurrection, for it is His rising from the dead (and appearance to many) that made Jesus' claim to Messiahship believable. If in fact he had died like other Messianic pretenders, then it is doubtful that Christianity would have ever become one of the world's great religions. It is impossible to say for sure what happened on that first Easter Sunday, but something must have happened, in order that so many individuals would believe in Jesus as the Son of God. It is clear, at any rate, that anyone who could raise Himself from the dead would have a large claim on being divine, and this belief in the Resurrection is what helped Christianity make the leap from being an offshoot religion of Judaism, to becoming a religion which eventually would sweep over the Roman Empire, eventually to become the

Category: Philosophy - S