Each Sunday Pastor Joe Tolin teach a very popular Sunday school class at 9:30 am. Below are the notes from the most recent class. Enjoy!

The Nature of Divine Revelation 4 Various Texts First Baptist Church May 19, 2019
 
Understanding the New Testament Timeline of New Testament Events 400 BC- 33 AD Intertestamental Period Israeli Occupation, Independence, and dispersion during this time 400’s BC- Persia was the world power 300’s BC- Greek/Macedonian empire 200’s BC- Egyptian Empire (Translation of the Septuagint (LXX)  
 
The Septuagint is the ______________ translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.
 
100’s BC- Syria became the world power 100’s BC- Maccabean Revolt and brief Jewish Independence  During this time the formation of branches of Judaism Pharisees Sadducees Essenes 
 
100-1 BC- Conquest by Rome of the known world including Palestine/Israel
 
4 BC- 1 AD- Birth of Jesus 30 AD- Public Ministry of Jesus Begins (Coincides with ministry of John the Baptist) 33 AD- Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost (Establishing of the New Covenant Community) 40 AD- First Gentile Convert (Acts 10) ________________  50 AD- The Jerusalem Counsel (Acts 15) What was the issue? Solution? 15:19-20 62 AD- Martyrdom of James the brother of Jesus            - The Arrest of Paul and him taken to Rome
 
 
 
 
Acts 28:30-31 (ESV) 30 He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, 31  proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. 
 
68 AD- Nero Caesar dies 70 AD- Jerusalem and the Temple is destroyed 
 
Dates of the Writings of the New Testament Arguments for early dates: pre-70 AD completion -No mention in the New Testament writings of the Temple being destroyed -Most of the persecution spoken of in the New Testament was typically initiated by Jewish religious leaders who still had a societal standing (not so post 70 AD) -Most disputed book regarding date of authorship is Revelation 
 
Others argue for a later date of some books of the Bible
 
Cultural and Religious Background to the New Testament Galatians 4:4-5 (ESV) 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5  to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 
 
Why did the Gospel spread so rapidly?  1. The Dispersion-many Jews lived all over the Roman Empire Acts 2:5 (ESV) 5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 
 
Paul’s missiology was to go first into the synagogues or Jewish meeting places and preach the Gospel there first. Then he went to the Gentiles. 
 
2. Rome built roads all over the empire which provided relative ease of travel.
 

 
3. The religious background facilitated a rapid spread of the Gospel -The synagogues proselytized many Gentiles -Paganism was rampant and was a good point of reference for presenting the Gospel (see Acts 17:22-34) -Many of the Jews had a Messianic Hope.  -Rome was very tolerant of any religious system -Koine Greek was the trade language of the known world -LXX and the New Testament were written in Koine Greek
 
How early did we have our New Testament in its present form?  Marcion of Sinope (85 AD- 160 AD) Marcionism- the rejection of the Old Testament and much of the New Testament Marcion rejected everything in the Bible that did not agree with what he believed Paul would have written. He highly edited each book he accepted. 
 
The Marcionite Canon Portions of Luke, Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians 
 
The New Testament Canon that we presently have was compiled as a result of the Marcionite heresy and several other heresies over a period of about 200 years. Remember, everything was handwritten and copied for another 1300 years until Guttenberg’s Printing Press. The Xerox xerographic copier was released in 1949. 
 
The Dreaded Textual Variants There are over 5600 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Some are whole testaments, some portions, some books, etc. 
 
There are over 18,000 non-Greek manuscripts (Latin, Armenian, other languages)
 
Because these were hand copied, there are many variants. What is a variant? -skipping a word or a line -copying a line or word twice (no erasers or white-out) -spelling a word differently -Christians did not have money to hire professional scribes

 
-inverted word order (Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus) -noun or pronoun (He or God or Jesus or He) Major Issues: John 8:2-11 (Pericope de Adultera) 1 John 5:7 (Johannine Comma) Matthew 6:13 (See the footnote in your Bible)
 
Argument of the Ignorance of the Apostles Bart Ehrman: “For a variety of reasons, there is less debate about the authorship of 2 Peter than any other pseudepigrophon in the New Testament. The vast majority of critical scholars agree that whoever wrote the book, it was not Jesus’ disciple Simon Peter. As was the case with 1 Peter, this author is a relatively sophisticated and literate Greek-speaking Christian, not an Aramaic-speaking Jewish peasant.”  
 
Ehrman’s point: Peter did not know Greek and was ignorant. 
 
The Truth (Courtesy of Dr. Peter J. Williams, Principle of Tyndale House Cambrideg and an expert in Biblical and Ancient Languages) “He came from Bethsaida (John 1:44), which became a Greek polis (city) around AD 31 but studiously avoided learning Greek. He traded in fish, but made sure he only sold to Aramaic speakers. He lived in Capernaum on an international trade route, but avoided talking to foreigners. He fished on the Sea of Galilee, but if in the middle of this little lake his boat met boats of fishermen from the Greek-speaking Decapolis on the far shore he made sure only to use Aramaic or sign language. His parents somehow managed to give his little brother Andrew a Greek name uncommon for Palestine, but knew no speak Greek. The fact that they chose names for both their sons which work in Greek (Simon & Andrew) was actually just to spite Greek speakers. He signed up with an itinerant rabbi (teacher), but did not receive any language education. He travelled as a preacher in the linguistically mixed villages of Palestine, but always spoke only to Aramaic speakers. He travelled to the Decapolis & Caesarea Philippi, but always remembered to block his ears when the locals spoke Greek. If he travelled from Palestine in later life, he worked hard not to learn Greek. Because... we all just KNOW he was an Aramaic speaking peasant.”    
 
  
 
Books of the New Testament The Gospels Matthew Mark Luke John
 
Historical Book Acts
 
Epistles or Letters of Paul Romans 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians 1 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Timothy Titus Philemon
 
General Epistles or Letters Hebrews James 1 Peter  2 Peter 1 John 2 John

Books of the New Testament The Gospels Matthew Mark Luke John