The political, social and religious influences on the New Testament writings. Special attention is given to intertestamental Judaism and Hellenistic and Roman religion as background to New Testament Christianity.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students: Additional readings and a research paper will be assigned along with more extensive examinations to reflect the graduate students' additional responsibilities.
Athena Title
The New Testament World
Prerequisite
Junior or senior standing or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered every odd-numbered year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
Students will be able to analyze readings within Intertestamental Jewish and Hellenistic-Roman religious texts and compare them to draw out patterns of similarities and differences.
Students will be able to apply non-Christian material to the New Testament using the historical and analytical approaches of contemporary biblical scholars to understand the New Testament in relation to its contextual environment.
Students will be able to read, discuss, and interpret at length limited but important areas in New Testament backgrounds to determine the context of textual excerpts and to assess the impact of this context.
Students will be able to discuss and defend their own conclusions regarding the context of New Testament texts through writing assignments using sound reasoning based on textual evidence and historical understanding.
Topical Outline
1. Socio-historical overview of the Eastern Mediterranean from Alexander to Marcus Aurelius
2. Greek and Hellenistic philosophies and religions
3. Greco-Roman philosophies and religions
4. Jewish appropriations of Hellenistic and Greco-Roman motifs & concepts
(a) Philo, Platonic Jewish Philosopher-Apologist
(b) Josephus, Jewish Historiographer-Apologist
(c) Stoic motifs in Jewish writings
(d) Platonic motifs in Jewish writings
(e) Examples of Jewish Wisdom traditions
(f) Examples of Jewish Apocalyptic traditions
5. Influences upon Early Christianity
6. Course summation and conclusion
Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
