Test 1.1 Flashcards
Matthew 11:28
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:30
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Year the Temple was destroyed
70 AD
Definition of Testament
a solemn declaration
Old Testament - 3 sections
o Torah (guidance, teaching, law, aka Pentateuch) o Prophets (Major and Minor) o Writings (Historical, Psalm, Proverbs)
New Testament sections
o Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
o Historical – Acts
o Letters - 21
o Prophecy – 1
Definition of Canon
Inspired Books of the Bible
years Apocryphal written
mostly 200 BC – 100 AD.
5 Vertical zone
o Coastal plains
o Shephelah
In Hebrew = “low”
o Central Mountain Range
o Syrian-African (Jordan) Rift {wilderness and the Jordan Valley}
o Eastern Plateau {Eastern mountain range}
5 Horizontal zones
o Above (upper) Galilee (Wet/inaccessible) o Beside (lower) Galilee (Jesus’ Home) o Carmel and Jezreel (Baal) o Negev (South/Dry) – Below Dead Sea o Desert (Wilderness) – Peninsula
4 Seas
o Mediterranean Sea
o Sea of Galilee
o Dead Sea
o Red Sea
3 Continents
o Europe
o Asia
o Africa
2 Worlds
- Land of Honey
- Land of Milk
Land of Honey
• North – Less space, more water • Farmers • Life is o Predictably le o Noisy and congested o Manageable • Focus on o Extras o Peoples as individuals • Nominal religion • Mixture of Judaism and Hellenism
Land of Milk
• South, more space, less water • Shepherds • Life is o Unpredictable o Silent and lonely o Exhausting • Focus on o Essentials o People in community • People are spiritual – center of Hebrew worship.
Diaspora
– the scattered Jews
Synagogue – 4 functions
- Primarily a school, children taught the law and Jewish religious traditions
- Place of worship, where creeds were recited
- Functioned as a court; where religious or civil questions were settled by the local council
- Place of social interaction; where funerals and special meetings took place and even politics were discussed
Reasons for Gospels to be written
- the speed and extent of the spread of the gospel message, made it impossible for the church to spread the gospel by oral means alone.
- Apostles aged and passed away. By AD 70 most of the apostles had perished for their faith. Sense of urgency that the material be recorded before those who knew it best were gone.
- Believers looking to future return of Christ
o Sincerely believed he was returning, but when? Unpredictable
o Wanted Jesus to be remembered up until the end of time
Synoptic Gospels
– Matthew, Mark, Luke
- Syn – together
- Optic – seen
Gospels not just Biography – but Christ Centered Biography
Christological biography
o 2 primary purposes the evangelists had in mind
1. They have selected and arranged material to tell the story of Jesus
2. Through the story of Jesus, they are saying something important to the first readers (and to us)
Author of Matthew
– Matthew (No claim of authorship in text)
Date of Authorship
– Dependent on Mark. Most likely 65 – 70 AD, before the fall of Jerusalem
Message of Matthew
– Show Jesus as Teacher, Messiah, and King of Israel.
Structure of Matthew
– Narrative interwoven with blocks of teaching
Kerygma of the Early Church definition
– proclamation the gospel of early Church
Pharisees
- Pharisee means “separated ones” or “separatists.”
- Emphasis on keeping the laws of purity, ritualism, fasted and tithed.
- They took literally being a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6).
- The most influential, and loved by the people, of the sects.
- A belief in fate
o The Pharisees, who are considered the most accurate interpreters of the laws, and hold the position of the leading sect, attribute everything to fate and to God; they hold that to act rightly, or otherwise rests, indeed, for the most part with man (J.W. 2.162-163)
o All is foreseen but freedom of choice is given (Mishnah m. Aot 3:16) - The immortality of the soul
- A final reward was to be given for good works and punishment to the wicked
o Those rewarded would rise again
o The wicked would be detained forever under the earth - Acceptance of the OT Scriptures and also traditions
- They believed in an Oral Law that God gave to Moses at Sinai along with the Torah or written law
- Think of the Torah much like the constitution of the United States
- It was a series of laws they considered open to interpretation
- The Oral law was the interpretation of what these laws meant
- They were the spiritual fathers of modern Judaism
Sadducees
- Sadducee means “to be righteous”; sometimes used as an adjective “the righteous ones.”
- A wealthy, privileged priestly sect.
- Did not have the popular support that the Pharisees had.
- The temple worship and administration were conducted by them.
- Most likely occupied the majority of the seats in the Sanhedrin.
- They wanted to maintain the priestly caste, willing to incorporate Hellenism into their lives which the Pharisees opposed
- The Hellenists were Greeks with a whole culture of influence on them
- The Sadducees rejected the idea of the Oral Law and insisted on literal interpretation of the written law
- They did not believe in the after life since it is not written in the Torah
- Ceased to exist after the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D.
- They held only to the written law and rejected traditions
- Did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, personal immortality, and reward or punishment in the future.
- Believe that man has the free will choice of good or evil.
Essenes
- They emerged out of digust with the other two
- They believed the other two sects had corrupted the city and the Temple
- They moved out of Jerusalem and lived a monk like life in the desert
- They had a strict dietary law and a life of celibacy.
- Lived near the Dead Sea – 1947 they found scrolls in a cave near it
Zealots
- Josephus called this the “fourth philosophy”
o He dated their beginning to 6 AD with their focus being more of a tax revolt. - Possible earlier existence going back to Maccabeus (1 Macc. 2:27)
- Religious Freedom Fighters
Kerygma of Early Church
- Jesus as Fulfillment of Prophecy
- Jesus’ Life and Ministry
- Jesus’ Crucifixion
- Jesus’ Resurrection
- Jesus’ Exaltation
- Gift of the Holy Spirit
- Jesus’ Return
- Call to Repentance
