Rate It

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

This course approaches the New Testament not as scripture, or a piece of authoritative holy writing, but as a collection of historical documents. Theref .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

Knowledge of historical context is crucial to understanding the New Testament. Alexander the Great, in his conquests, spread Greek culture throughout th .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

Of the four kingdoms that arose after Alexander's death, those of the Seleucids and the Ptolemies are most pertinent to an understanding of the New Test .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

The accounts of Paul's travels in The Acts of the Apostles and Galatians seem to contradict each other at many points. Their descriptions of a meeting i .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

The Gospels of the New Testament are not biographies, and, in this class, they are read through a historical critical lens. This means that the events t .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

The Gospel of Matthew contains some of the most famous passages that both Christians and non-Christians are familiar with. However, Matthew also present .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

We have known of the existence of the Gospel of Thomas from ancient writers, but it was only after the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices that the act .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

Luke and Acts, a two-volume work, are structured very carefully by the author to outline the ministry of Jesus and the spread of the Gospel to the genti .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

The speech that Stephen gives before his accusers in Acts shows how the author of Luke-Acts used and edited his sources. So, also, does the description .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

The Gospel of John is a gospel dramatically different from the Synoptic Gospels. It is full of long dialogues, it speaks of "signs" rather than exorcism .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

The Jesus of the Gospel of John often speaks in riddles so that his dialogues with characters such as Nicodemus appear confusing, rather than clarifying .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

It is obvious that certain narratives in the New Testament contradict each other and cannot be woven into a historically coherent whole. How, then, do s .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

The New Testament and other texts provide us with many accounts of the Apostle Paul, some that contradict each other. Throughout the history of Christia .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

1 Corinthian and 2 Corinthians give us several snapshots of the development of the Corinthian church and Paul's relationship to it. In 1 Corinthians Pau .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

The Apostle Paul's description of the Jewish Law in his letter to the Galatians demotes from being an expression of Jewish faith to an object of idolatr .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

In ancient times, documents that were falsely attributed to an author, called pseudepigrapha, were a common phenomenon. Both the Letters to the Colossia .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

Early Christianity presents us with a wide diversity in attitudes towards the law. There were also many different Christologies circulating in different .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

In the undisputed Pauline epistles, marriage is seen as a way to extirpate sexual desire - neither as a means for procreation nor as the preferred socia .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

The Acts of Paul and Thecla has a narrative quite similar to those in ancient Greco-Roman novels: Thecla becomes enamored of Paul and they share a numbe .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

There are many ways of interpreting the text, and ancient methods of interpretation may seem bizarre to our modern sensibilities. The New Testament offe .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

The principles of interpreting the New Testament in this course assume a historical critical perspective. The historical critical method of interpreting .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

The Apocalypse, or the Revelation of John, shares many of the traits found in apocalyptic literature: it operates in dualisms--earthly events contrasted .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

The Apocalypse of John showed an anti-Roman, politically revolutionary perspective. This is in contrast with Paul's writing in Romans 13, which calls fo .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

The Epistle of Jude can be dated to somewhere during post-apostolic Christianity and before the formation of the Canon. It refers to the apostles as rep .....

Introduction to New Testament (RLST 152)

How did a small group following an apocalyptic prophet in Palestine become Christianity - what is now called a "world religion"? This small movement saw .....