Introduction
Why did God create man? Why is the Bible so misunderstood? Why are there so many different churches and beliefs? What is the Bible really all about? How do I get more out of my Bible reading? Is the Bible simply a collection of inspirational stories and passages? What was going on during the gap between the Old and New Testaments? How do all of the books of the Bible fit together? What is the true mission of the Church? Why did God choose Paul? How and why did Greek become the universal language in the first century? Where are we now on God’s prophetic calendar? When confronted by one of these or similar questions we are often left groping for answers. In this follow up study to my two-part survey of the Old Testament, I will attempt to answer some of these questions about understanding God’s word by surveying some very important components of the New Testament narrative. During this study, the approach that I will take will be, rather than go book by by, I will instead, consider the New Testament by examining what I have identified as six historical periods that make up the New Testament. Briefly stated, these six periods are:
The period of preparation – This is the period between the Old and New Testaments. This period is sometimes called the “intertestamental period.” It extends from the writing of Malachi about 420 BC to the birth of Christ around 5 BC. It is a period of about 400 years between the Testaments. It is called the period of preparation because, it was during this period that God was preparing the world for the birth of His Son. And as we will see, it was key historical events that God providentially orchestrated that set the stage for the political, geographical, historical, social and religious environment that Christ was born into.
The period of expectation – This period covers the life of Christ, which is recorded in the four Gospels.
The period of establishment – This stretch covers the period of the birth and establishment of the Church.
The period of extension – This refers to the period of the growth of the Church as it begins to extend itself out from Jerusalem to the areas of Judea and Samaria.
The period of rapid expansion – This period includes Paul’s three missionary journeys.
The period of consolidation – Finally, the book of Acts abruptly ends with Paul’s Roman imprisonment. However, some books were written after Paul’s final imprisonment at the conclusion of the book of Acts and after his execution in Rome by Nero. So, the main intent of these books was to consolidate or to solidify the churches that were started by Paul.
Now, while this study of course, will not be an exhaustive study of the New Testament, I will however attempt to briefly provide some essential chronological and historical context, that prayerfully will aid you in your private or group study of the New Testament Canon.
Why Should I Study the New Testament?
From a damp, dark prison cell in Rome, the aged Apostle Paul wrote to his young Protégé Timothy and asked him to bring him a cloak he left while he was at Troas with Carpus, and added, “when thou come, bring with you, the books, but especially the parchments” (2 Tim. 4:13). The “books” could possibly have been copies of the Old Testament. The parchments, his writing materials, were probably letters he had previously received from brethren, or copies of letters he had written under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Some of what we have in the New Testament were, more than likely, included in those parchments Paul especially wanted. Paul “particularly” wanted the parchments, so we should also.
What is the New Testament?
The New Testament actually means ‘The New Covenant’. A covenant’ was an agreement between two parties. In the original language (Greek) the meaning of a Testament is similar to a “will” effective upon death. The Testament was effective upon the death of Jesus Christ and was sealed by his blood (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; Heb 8:7-13). The New Testament is comprised of twenty-seven different books. They were written between about A.D. 45-97, in the most common language of the day which was koine Greek. This Greek language at the time, was basically the world-wide international language. Each of the books of the New Testament, were originally distributed separately and were later brought together in a logical order.
The New Testament is laid out in a way that expedites learning the grace of Christ and salvation from sin he makes possible. The biographical section (Matthew through John) presents Jesus in a way that appeals “to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” “Acts of the Apostles” reports the carrying out of his last words on earth, Acts is the “Great Commission” in action. The Epistles or letters to churches and individuals all reveal Jesus Christ as the ultimate example of conduct and thought (Ephesians 5:1; 1 Pet. 2:22; Phil. 2:5). The phrase, “even as Christ,” is frequently repeated (Col. 3:13; Ephesians. 5:23,25). The church he established receives divine instruction regarding every aspect of her work and worship (1 Cor. 7:17; 14:33). The final section (the Revelation of John) of the New Testament, in stunningly graphic words, gives rise to the expression, “Truth crushed to earth will rise again.”
The New Testament is the second, shorter part of the Christian Bible. Unlike the Old Testament, which covers hundreds of years of history, the New Testament only covers several decades, and is a collection of the religious teachings and beliefs of Christianity. The New Testament is not a single book written by one person, but, rather, a collection of twenty-seven books written in Greek by people from various places. In this study, we also will examine the New Testament from a big picture perspective. In the same way in which I surveyed the Old Testament in my previous two-part article on “Keys to Unlocking the Old Testament,” in which I shared a big picture overview of the Old Testament from a historical and chronological, or “big picture perspective.”
In the Old Testament study, I conducted a brief survey or summary of the books of the Old Testament from historical or a chronological perspective, as opposed to the standard system of studying the Old Testament from the traditional book by book perspective. see: http://drbrucelogan.com/keys-to-unlocking-the-old-testament-part-1-by-dr-bruce-logan/ The big idea being that it is a general rule of learning, that it is easier to understand the whole of a thing, when you study its various individual parts. Likewise, just as I did in my Old Testament overview, in this follow up study, I will examine the New Testament from a similar big picture perspective. In other words, in this study, while of course I will not be doing a thorough verse by verse dissection of the books of the New Testament, I will however, do a big picture examination of the New Testament by viewing the New Testament narrative through a telescope rather than a microscope. Or, to put it another way, just as I did in the Old Testament study, I will be considering the New Testament from an overall big picture perspective. The idea being, that as you begin to study the books of the New Testament on your own, and consider each book through the perspective of their historical and chronological context, it will invariably help you to take your overall understanding of God’s word to a whole new, “rightly divided” level.
Why is this so critical?
First of all, that is precisely how God revealed Himself, and that’s how God designed us to see the world, in sequential or historical order. In other words, it was never God’s intention for believers to simply view His word as a simple collection of inspirational stories and passages. It was always His intent for us to see His redemptive plan through a big picture lens. In fact, when we understand the biblical chronology and see the big picture of biblical history, and see how God providentially orchestrated His plan of redemption throughout biblical history, the Bible comes much more alive. When we understand for example, where the Tabernacle and priests and all of the Temple ordinances fit, when we understand the call of Abraham, the rise of King David, the ministry of the writing prophets including Daniel through whom God meticulously revealed the precise unfolding of future world empires and leaders, the difference between the Exodus and the Exile, the birth of Christ and the church, and the historical order of the epistles, and how they all fit together to form one single big picture, the Bible makes so much more sense.
In short, when we discover that there is a flow, a symmetry, a logical sequence, an ordered cause and effect guided by a sovereign hand, the Bible then comes more alive. And through it all, there is one singular, overarching theme, God’s plan for the redemption man through His only Son, Jesus Christ, which many Theologians call the “scarlet thread.” The Old Testament points to His first coming, and the New Testament records His prophesied arrival and His future return. It’s like the Bible and history have a single Author who knows what He’s talking about and will keep His promises to save His people
As previously mentioned, unlike the Old Testament, the entire New Testament was composed over a very short period of time, less than 60 years (possibly less than 50 years), by 8 or 9 authors, most of whom knew one another. All of the writers of the New Testament either knew of the incidents that they wrote about firsthand, or knew those who observed the incidents firsthand. They appear to know the people to whom the letters are written, with the possible exception of Hebrews and other letters which seem to be more general.
First of all, before I begin this historical overview of the New Testament, it is important to consider the question of, “why is it more helpful to do a survey study as opposed to an individual book study?” And to answer that question, I would like to suggest six benefits of doing a survey study:
As I have already pointed out, it is a general rule of learning, that it is easier to understand the parts, if you know the whole. In other words, when reading an entire book of the bible, it will make much more sense, if you understand how that particular book fits into the Old or New Testament as a whole. Very often when I teach Survey of the Old or New Testament, I use the analogy of putting together a puzzle. When you dump the puzzle pieces onto the table, the one thing that is most important in order to put those pieces together, is the picture on the puzzle box (or the big picture). And by being able to view the picture on the box, it becomes easier to place the various puzzle pieces into their proper place, or proper “context.”
Just like in the Old Testament, there is a storyline in the New Testament. Unfortunately, when you only study individual books, or individual passages, you don’t get a grasp of New Testament history. In other words, the books of the New Testament were not written in a vacuum. They were written in specific and actual historical settings to address specific situations which arose as a result of the growth of the church and specific challenges that the early church faced.
An overview of the New Testament is necessary for increased biblical literacy. In other words, you need to know more than just the various inspirational Bible stories and their moral lessons. Because by only reading the various inspirational stories in the Bible, you can only get a lose perspective of God’s bigger plan. What you need is a worldview of God’s all-encompassing plan for the ages. By looking at the big picture, it will renew our confidence that God is in control and that He is the ultimate author of scripture. By studying the big picture of the Bible, we can clearly see God’s sovereignty and providence over all, including all of human history, and God’s redemptive plan for humankind.
When doing a survey or big picture type of study of the New Testament, it gives you a bird’s-eye view of the content of the New Testament and how it all fits together from a contextual standpoint.
By seeing the big picture, it strengthens your ability to properly interpret the material and then better discern how the text does or doesn’t apply to us today.
Finally, by doing a survey study, it will help you to better defend for the faith and the bible, which in our rapidly increasing secularized culture, is being all-out assaulted as never before in American history. And the better we can understand the overall context of the New Testament, the more effective our witness will become as we use scripture in the sharing of the gospel.
In short, God inspired the writers of the books of the New Testament to write truths to inform and encourage the early Christians as they tried to model the life of Christ, and to inform unbelievers that Jesus was God’s son and the Savior of the world. In other words, in spite of the diversity of authors who wrote at different times and under different circumstances, the books of the New Testament present a central unified theme. The New Testament shows us the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan, that He first began to progressively unfold with the call of Abraham in the book of Genesis, and how that plan was fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ, and what that meant for men and women in the first century. But even more than that, the books of the new testament reveal what the coming of God’s Son means to us today and gives us insight and a template for how Christians can navigate through the increasingly secularized culture that we are living in today.
Other reasons to study the New Testament are:
It contains the words of salvation. Paul’s speech in the synagogue at Antioch gives us a clear picture of the exaltation of the New Testament. After the customary reading of the Law, Paul rehearsed a bit of Jewish history. At the very mention of Jesus, he said, “Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation(emphasis added) sent” (Acts 13:26). The word of salvation comes to the world only through the New Testament of Jesus Christ. It is the word of truth, “the gospel of your salvation” (Eph. 1:13).
The New Testament is the means to eternal life. Hearing the Master speak, Peter quickly learned that Jesus has “the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Again, from Acts 13, the Jews rejected Paul’s words. The next Sabbath, he spoke again. This time he bade them farewell and turned to the Gentiles, who when hearing the word, “were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48, NIV). The way to have eternal life is revealed in this word of salvation.
The New Testament has words of true joy and happiness. John, the apostle, wrote, “And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full” (1 John 1:4; See also 1 John 5:11). Many documents have been written on the pursuit of happiness, but it is this wonderful New Testament that gives reality to happiness and peace of with God. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). He left us his word of peace and happiness in the New Testament for us to study and obey.
The New Testament contains all man needs to be right with God (2 Pet. 1:3). All that pertains to life and godliness has been revealed to us. Peter said he would not be negligent to put his readers in remembrance of things they knew and in which they were well established. It was the “present truth” of which he continued reminding them (verse 12). The Old Testament is truth; but it is “past” truth. It furnishes the foundation for New Testament truth.
The New Testament reveals “the faith” (Gal. 3:22-25). Shortly after Pentecost, Jerusalem saw thousands becoming obedient to the gospel, including many Jewish priests, who obeyed “the faith” (Acts 6:7). Saving faith comes by hearing the message of faith. “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17, NIV). The New Testament is “the faith” must be studied consistently to be “in the faith” (2 Cor. 13:5). It is also that which Christians will defend against any attack (Jude 3).
The New Testament is the vast wealth of the knowledge of Jesus, the Christ. Nothing ever written can furnish the story of Jesus Christ like the New Testament. Heed Paul’s mandate: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Col. 3:16). To live with Christ, one must feed on his word (Matt.4:4; 1 Pet. 2:1-2). To grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must study the one and only document that reveals Jesus to us, the New Testament (2 Pet. 3:18). May the Lord bless you with an intense thirst for righteousness.
The Religious and Political World at the Time of the New Testament
Before surveying the New Testament, it would will be helpful to get a general picture of what the religious world was like when the Savior came on to the scene and when the church was formed and sent out into the world. Having an understanding of the New Testament historical background is crucial because an adequate understanding of the books in the New Testament cannot be had without some knowledge of the historical background from which they were written.
The books of the New Testament were written in first- or second-century Palestine, a region that at the time was under the rule of the Roman Empire. Many of the stories are based on the rituals and beliefs of Judaism, as Jesus Christ and his disciples were all Jews. As a result, both Greco-Roman culture and Judaic traditions dominate the political, social, and economic scene of the New Testament. Judaism at that time was not a single tradition or set of beliefs, but contained many different divisions within itself. These divisions figure prominently in New Testament stories. The strictest Jews, the Sadducees, were the upper class of priests. They interpreted scripture literally and adhered to rituals strictly. They were opposed to oral tradition and to the concept of eternal life, since the latter is not discussed in the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament. The Pharisees on the other hand, in contrast to the Sadducees, interpreted Jewish law for laypeople and established Jewish life outside of the temple. They were more liberal in their acceptance of scripture, regarding oral tradition and the words of prophets as scriptural as well.
Judaism at the time of Christ involved a rigid social hierarchy. The temple and the high priests who worked there were considered to be pure, holy, and closer to God than anyone else. The hierarchy continued with people who were Jews by birth, followed by converts to Judaism. Gentiles, or non-Jews, were considered by Jews to be ritually impure and not in the service of God. The New Testament documents a shift in this hierarchy. Christians challenged the system in which birth into the Israelite community determined a person’s level of purity. They said, instead, that repentance and acceptance of the teachings of Jesus Christ determined a person’s purity.
Similarly, the Christian church was born into a world filled with competing pagan religions, which while differing widely among themselves, all possessed one common characteristic which was the struggle to reach a god or gods who remained essentially inaccessible. Apart from Judaism, which taught that God had voluntarily disclosed Himself to the patriarchs, to Moses, and to the prophets, there was no faith that could speak with any certainty of divine revelation, nor of any true concept of sin and salvation.
The Composition and Arrangement of the New Testament
Finally, before closing part one of our study, let’s take a brief look at the overall composition or classifications of the books of the New Testament:
The books of the New Testament comprise four general categories including:
Historical Books – The four Gospels and the Book of Acts. These five books of history give us the big picture storyline of the New Testament.
Pauline Epistles – Paul wrote thirteen epistles (letters) in all. Paul addressed is epistles to specific churches or specific individuals. Their basic purpose was to bring teaching and correction. While they covered very practical issues they have sparked lofty theological debate down through the ages. Nine of his letters were written to churches and four to individuals. They are arranged with letters to the churches first, followed by letters to individuals in order of decreasing length.
General Epistles – (or Non-Pauline Epistles) – Now while Paul addressed his letters to specific churches or specific individuals, the “general epistles were written to a much broader audiences or to the churches generally. For example, in 1 Peter 1:1-2 we read that Peter addresses his letter to believers in general throughout Asia, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood Grace and peace be yours in abundance.” These eight general letters only make up 10% of the New Testament, yet they make an awesome contribution to Christian truth and doctrine. While the Pauline epistles received the title of their audiences, these were given the title of their authors. With the exception of James, most of these general epistles were probably written after Paul’s death, and deal with the issues that Paul had prophetically feared would enter the church. These included corruption, wrong doctrine and false apostles (see Acts 20:29-30; 1Tim 4:3-4).
Revelation – (or prophetic literature) – Revelation is the most controversial book in the New Testament, if not the entire Bible. It is known as the Apocalypse because it is a ‘prophetic revelation’. Written by John near the end of the first century, it culminated the entire Bible showing that since Creation there has been One on the Throne in complete control. It reveals Christ as the Heavenly Lamb of God who finally defeats Satan and his work. It gives the awesome announcement of sure judgement declaring: “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev 21:8 NKJV). Revelation also pronounces the glorious reign of King Jesus with His bride in the merged New Heaven and Earth forever.
The Gospels give us these four different, yet not conflicting accounts of the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Gospels demonstrate how Jesus was the promised Messiah of the Old Testament and laid the foundation for the world to proclaim the Gospel of salvation. Acts tells us of the beginning and the rapid growth of the Church in the first century A.D. The Pauline Epistles, written by the Apostle Paul, are letters to specific churches, giving official Christian doctrine and the practice that should follow that doctrine. The General Epistles compliment the Pauline Epistles with addition teaching and application. And finally, the book of Revelation prophesies the events that will occur in the end times.
Now, with that simple background in mind, in part 2 of our study, I will begin unpacking the chronological and historical background of the New Testament, by suggesting a six part historical division of the New Testament.
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