The New Testament

1. The New Testament Section 1: The Word of God

2. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • As human beings, we are oriented toward knowing God by our very nature and by an interior calling placed deep within us. • God communicated Himself to us first through Creation itself and then through that inner voice we all have, our conscience. • When we listen to that inner voice calling us to do good, we learn something about who God is. • But God wanted to communicate to us more than His existence; He wanted us to know His very self and His love for us. • God revealed Himself and His love in His covenants with the Israelites, through prophets, and finally through His Son, Jesus Christ.

3. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • In Jesus Christ is God's final and full revelation. • Sacred Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments, transmit God's Divine Revelation to us, or God's self communication through which He makes known the mystery of His divine plan. • We belief since Scripture tells of God's plan for us, His love, and the gift of His Son, Scripture then is sacred and holy and authored by God. • However, we do not mean God dictated Scripture, word for word; rather, He inspired human authors of Scripture. • Through Biblical Inspiration, the gift of the Holy Spirit assisted human beings to write biblical books; as such, we can say God authored the books and they teach the saving truth that God wanted us to know without error.

4. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • However, when we say the Bible was written “without error,” we are referring to the doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy, or the doctrine that the books of Scripture are free from error regarding the truth God wishes to reveal through Scripture for the sake of salvation. • Such truths that are without error are those relating to our salvation, to our faith and morals, how we are to live as God wishes, etc. • Not every fact presented in the Bible is historically or scientifically accurate. • These human authors did not go into a trance, write a book in the Bible, and then wake up. • Rather, these authors were able interpret the spiritual ramification of events and saw God in these events, therefore writing them down for future generations to also know about.

5. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • The process of forming the Bible took many hundreds of years. • The word Bible, from the Latin word biblia, means “books” or “library of books.” • The Bible is composed both of the Old and New Testaments. • The Bible began as oral tradition and separately written pieces by different evangelists and writers. • Over time, the Church authenticated certain writings as truths revealed by God, through Tradition, or the passing on of the Gospel message by the Apostles first orally, then written down in Scripture, and interpreted by the Magisterium of the Church.

6. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • The Israelites first organized the Old Testament and then gradually the New Testament was pieced together by the Church by identifying which books were truly sacred. • The New Testament has 27 books; the Old Testament has 46. • These books compose the canon of books accepted by the Catholic Church. • Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition make up the Deposit of Faith, or the heritage of our faith from the Apostles and taken all by the Magisterium as revealed truth. • We need both Sacred Scripture and Tradition together.

7. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • Many Protestants only depend on Scripture to gain salvation, basically eliminating the living transmission of authentic Church teaching and practices throughout the ages. • If we focus only on Sacred Tradition, we lack in having the Word of God t our core. • Along with Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, we have the Magisterium, or the Church's living teaching office, which consists of all bishops in union with the Pope. • The Magisterium’s job is to serve God through interpreting and expanding upon the teachings of Christ by making His teachings accessible in today.so world.

8. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective

9. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • The Old Testament tells of the preparation of Christ's coming into the world through the covenants made with Israel. • The New Testament tells of God fulfilling the covenants He made with Israel is Jesus’ coming into the world. • All Scripture, both Old and New Testament, point toward Jesus Christ. • Covenants are solemn agreements between humans and God; Jesus spoke of how He came to not abolish the Old Covenant (10 Commandments), but fulfill it in His New Covenant, the revelation of God in Jesus.

10. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • The writings found in the Old Testament were all fulfilled in Jesus Christ. • While Jesus was walking the Earth, the New Testament was waiting to be written about Him and God's entrance into our world in human form. • The process of putting the Old and New Testament together took many steps, including: • Translating the Law, Prophets, and Writings into Greek, called the Septuagint. • After translating, the texts had to be transferred from scrolls into manuscripts called codices in the second century. • The early Church then added apostolic writings about Jesus with the Septuagint, and you now had the first book of Old and New Testament writings together.

11. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • The significance of putting both the Old Testament and New Testament writings together was the Church showed that the one God who created the world and established the Old Covenant with the Jews was the same God who sent His Son, Jesus, to establish the new and everlasting covenant in Christ's blood. • To understand what God accomplished in Jesus, we have to look at the promises God made with Israel to fully understand the whole picture. • Jesus did not negate the old covenants made with Abraham or Moses, but rather came to fulfill the promises in them as God said He would.

12. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • For a particular book to be added to the canon of books of the New Testament, the early Church fathers used these four criteria to judge a piece of writing as whether of not worthy to be placed in the Bible: • Apostolic: the writing had to be based on the teaching of the Apostles and their closest companions/ disciples. • Community Acceptance: the writing had to be accepted by the Christian community as being consistent with their beliefs and practices. • Liturgical: since these writings could be used in early celebrations of the Eucharist as readings, they had to assure growth in prayer and faith of the Church • Consistent: the writing had to be consistent with the other books of Scripture and not contradict what already was accepted as God's Word.

13. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective

14. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • The books of the New Testament are divided into 5 categories: • Gospels • Acts of the Apostles • Pauline Letters • Catholic Epistles • Book of Revelation • The word Gospel comes from the Greek word evangelion, meaning “Good News.” • There are four Gospel books, that of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and they are known as the Evangelists. • These books are central to Scripture since Jesus Christ is at their center; the Gospels are the primary source from which we learn about Jesus Christ.

15. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • Each Gospel was written by a different and separate Evangelist, in different historical situations and particular audiences. • Even so, all four Gospels agree on the essential truths of Christ's Incarnation, life, Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension. • The Acts of the Apostles is considered to be a sequel to the Gospel of Luke since Luke wrote it and it speaks of how Jesus’ saving work continued and spread through the early Church to the Gentiles, from Jerusalem to Rome. • A Gentile was any non Jewish person who were not under the covenants God made with the Jewish people, and as such, were not in right relationship with God; Paul and the Apostles went out, preached, and baptized many Gentiles.

16. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • The Pauline Letters are a collection of letters and treatises believed to be written by Paul to early Christian communities he visited and set up, such as the Corinthians, Romans, Galatians, Thessalonians, Philippians, and to Philemon. • There are also letters attributed to Paul, but probably not written by him, such as to the Ephesians, Collisions, etc., concerning pastoral issues that warranted advice. • The Catholic Epistles were written by other different writers to the wider Christians audience, i.e. the entire Catholic Church. • The Book of Revelation is the last book of the New Testaments of a New Creation and a new world to come.

17. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective • The Bible begins with a vast and empty universe, on the verge of Creation, and ends with an affirmation of a hope for a New Creation. • Yet with all this discussion of letters, writings, and revelations, how did these books come about? • The New Testament was formed in 3 broad stages: • Life and Teaching of Jesus (Jesus teaching on Earth) • Oral Tradition (Apostles passing on the teachings of Jesus) • Written Books (Writing down the stories passed down or refining written texts that need more explanation)

18. Part 1: A Matter of Perspective

19. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • We mentioned that the writers of Scripture were not robots and that the Holy Spirit did not dictate Scripture to them, word for word. • Rather, the writers chose the wording and form of their writing, all while remaining true to the message of God, which was the reason they were writing in the first place. • We should, first and foremost, be attentive to what God wants revealed to us for our salvation. • We also need to understand the literary forms, or writing styles, of each of the Scripture writings to gain insight into the message God wants conveyed based on technique, content, tone, and purpose of the writing.

20. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • Understanding literary forms of Scripture can prevent misunderstanding and help us understand what the author wants to teach. • Even though we will evaluate literary forms of the New Testament in our studies, it is important to remember the Bible is not just another form of literature; it is God's manifestation, in words, of His will for us all. • Literary conventions are defining features of a particular literary form, such as starting a letter with the word “Dear.” • We need to understand the literary conventions of the New Testament writings, especially in the apocalyptic literature, which uses many events and dramatic symbols to offer people hope in a time of crisis.

21. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • People think the New Testament writers reported events just as we would have if we witnessed it ourselves. • However, biblical writers are not historians looking to simply recount exactly what happened; rather, they seek to teach the significance of Christ in the lives of their audiences so the message could fully be grasped.

22. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • We cannot and should not turn to the Bible to answer questions of science. • The inspired authors of the Bible were not scientists, historians, or reporters; their aim was to teach the truth God wanted conveyed in Scripture. • We have to understand the assumptions of the writers‘ times, especially when it comes to events and cultural elements. • For example, Samaritans were people who were treated horribly in society, which is why Jesus used a Samaritan in the parable to the Jewish people. • Another example is Genesis: according to science, the world cannot have been created in 6 days. • Instead, the author of Genesis wants us to explain the world and human origins as created out of God's love.

23. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • Another example of the Bible being misused is concerning slavery. • In the Civil War, people who were pro-slavery quoted Biblical passages that spoke of slavery and how slaves should be obedient to their master. • However, they overlook the purpose of such statements. • The purpose of such lines about slavery being written is that the author was telling of a moral truth, that of learning to love others as God loves, and compared that with social structures of the time, such as slavery and how a slave should be obedient and love his master just as God calls us to love one another. • The author was not speaking about the morals of slavery; the author was speaking about what God wants of all people and uses the social constructs of the time to better explain his point.

24. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • The author of that letter to the Ephesians recognized the Ephesians owned slaves, and as such, addressed the letter in a personal way to make his teachings accessible and understandable, much like how Jesus used parables. • The author also did not only compare his teaching to that of slavery, but also to other things, such as marriage and the family unit. • The author was applying the core teaching of love to the current historical and cultural setting of his day. • The author remains silent about the issue of slavery as moral or immoral; the purpose of the author was to spread the message of God's love to societies as they were then since this was the early days of the Church and it would take time for the message to sink into society.

25. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament

26. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • The process of creating the Old Testament for the Jewish people was very similar to the process of creating the New Testament for Christians today. • The process began with Abraham around 1850 B.C., with the stories and words of the Old Testament being passed down through oral tradition and then finally written down in different books. • The teachings of the Old Testament lay the foundation for what is revealed in the New Testament. • “The Old Testament prepares for the New and the New Testament fulfills the Old.” • Thus, we cannot focus on one piece of Scripture on its own to truly understand all of Scripture.

27. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • Remember when we discussed the idea, “an eye for an eye,” in the Old Testament? • People think God allows them to get revenge and kill people who hurt them, yet in reality, when looking at the whole of Scripture and history, we see that “an eye for an eye” was limiting the Jewish people to the punishment they could place on each other when victimized. • Love is required of people to act justly against someone who has hurt them; Jesus then says to “turn the other cheek,” which sounds contradictory to “an eye for an eye.” • However, it is not because Jesus is essentially calling us to a deeper love of neighbor and enemy to transform our world.

28. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • Understanding the context and symbolism of stories in the Bible is so important to understand the entire meaning that authors of the writings wanted to convey to us. • If we neglect the context of the stories and the cultures of the times, then we are missing an important piece of the puzzle when trying to interpret the stories. • An example of symbolism in the Bible that is heavily overlooked is that of the symbolism of mountains. • On Mt. Sinai, Moses received the 10 Commandments, or laws of God. In the New Testament, Jesus further reveals God’s laws and ways by revealing the Beatitudes. • As such, a mountain is a symbol of being close to God.

29. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament “He [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He stood up to readand was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.“ Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:16-21)

30. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • When reading Scripture, it is not enough to understand just the literary forms used, the historical and cultural contexts, and the development of such writings. • We also must keep in mind Scripture’s “divine authorship.” • To understand how to properly interpret Scripture with the Holy Spirit in mind, there are 3 principles guidelines to follow: • We must interpret Scripture with the understanding that all Scripture, both Old and New Testament, unite and point to God’s plan of salvation for us in Jesus Christ. • We must understand Scripture in light of the Church’s long Tradition, or passing down of that Good News since the beginning of the Church’s history. • We must understand that all individual Church doctrines are interconnected with Scripture, which is known as the Analogy of Faith. As such, we can rely on the Church’s Magisterium, or living teaching body of bishops and the Pope, to interpret Scripture in the context of our time properly.

31. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • We have particular tools to help us interpret Scripture at our disposal, known as Senses of Scripture, or the literal and spiritual senses of Scripture; spiritual include allegorical, moral, and anagogical interpretations. • The literal sense of Scripture refers to what Scripture actually means in contexts of literary form, history and culture, and development. • Since the literal sense reveals a tangible message, it is believed that, as inspired by God, it is also the understanding God wants us to have of Scripture. • All other senses, or interpretations, of Scripture are based in the literal meaning of Scripture.

32. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • Since Scripture is the living Word, there is also a spiritual sense to Scripture. • The spiritual sense of Scripture has been developed over time through the Church’s Tradition and is often the reason why certain Scripture readings are used for various liturgical celebrations in the year. • The spiritual sense of Scripture helps us understand Scripture in light of the Holy Spirit and of Christ’s saving actions to bring us new life. • For example, we see the literal meaning of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea as just that. However, we can also see a spiritual allegorical meaning in the crossing of the Red Sea as an image for Baptism. • In Baptism, we cross over from the death of Original Sin into a new life in Christ, just as the Israelites crossed the Red Sea from the life of slavery and death into the new life of the Promised Land awaiting them.

33. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • This example of the Red Sea’s literal and spiritual meaning is an example of Typology, or discerning God’s word in the Old Testament as prefiguring what would be accomplished through Jesus Christ. • Typology shows the deep unity between the Old and New Testament, as we are called to do when interpreting any Scripture passage. • When we use the spiritual moral sense of Scripture, we are called to act on the lessons we find in Scripture to act good and justly towards others, such as we saw with the “eye for an eye” passage. • When we use the spiritual anagogical sense of Scripture, we are lead from considering Scripture events to events in our own life that parallel Scripture and which will lead to our salvation.

34. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • The meaning of Scriptural texts always begins with understanding the literal sense of the text. • Contextualist Approach to interpreting Scripture pays attention to the context of Scripture to understand the literal and spiritual senses of the texts. • Such an approach uses our knowledge of science and history to understand the literal sense of Scripture, i.e. understanding the use of crucifixion in Jesus time because of Pontius Pilates fear of losing control over his area of power due to rebellion if Jesus was not crucified. • This understanding can also lead us to understanding the spiritual meaning of such texts, such as when Jesus died, He opened the doors for all people to eternal life.

35. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • The contextualist approach simply relates the truths of faith and science together. • If done properly, the contextualist approach to the Bible will never lead to conflicts between the truths found in Scripture and the truths found in science and history. • To properly interpret Scripture, there are people known as Biblical scholars and exegestes, or biblical scholars attempting to interpret the meaning of Biblical texts. • Their field of study is known as Biblical Exegesis, or the critical interpretation and explanation of a Biblical text.

36. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament • Biblical exegetes used literary form, history and culture, Scripture development, Church Tradition, and the teachings of the Magisterium all to guide them in interpreting Scripture. • Scripture is the living Word of God that, if we listen and meditate on it, can help make us better people and lead better lives. • Meditation comes from the Latin word meditatio, which literally means “to chew over.” • When you hear a line of Scripture that catches your mind, meditate on it, mull it over in your mind, and try to apply it to your life. • It is important to always reflect on Scripture in the proper lights of their literary forms, their historical and cultural contexts, their development over time, and in light of the Church’s teachings, to fully reveal Jesus Christ to us.

37. Part 2: Understanding the New Testament

38. Part 3: The New Testament andthe Church • The Church came first, before the New Testament existed in written form, since the New Testament was given birth by early followers of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ Himself. • It was the Church that oversaw the process of the New Testament coming together, from the stories about Christ being told by Jesus’ followers, to those accounts being gathered and verified as true, to being printed in book form over time. • All of Scripture, both the Old and New Testament, form the Word of God, or the entire deposit of truth revealed by God in Scripture and Tradition throughout history. • Jesus Christ is known as the “Word of God,” which is why we say the “Word Incarnate” or “Word becoming Man.”

39. Part 3: The New Testament andthe Church • The source of both the Old and New Testament is this Jesus Christ, the preexistent and incarnate Word of God, who came to teach us what exactly God wanted us to know through His words and deeds. • Jesus was preexistent, meaning God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit existed for all eternity, yet did not taken on human nature until the moment of the Incarnation, the Word of God becoming man. • The word Incarnate comes from the Latin “caro,” which means “to become flesh.” • Jesus was truly God and truly man all at the same time, showing His preexistent divine nature as the Word of God for all eternity, and then becoming man when Mary conceived Him in her womb.

40. Part 3: The New Testament andthe Church • We proclaim such a belief in the preexistent Word of God existing for all eternity in the form of Jesus Christ in our Nicene Creed, which says: • “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,the Only Begotten Son of God,born of the Father before all ages.God from God, Light from Light,true God from true God,begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;through him all things were made.For us men and for our salvationhe came down from heaven,and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,and became man.”

41. Part 3: The New Testament andthe Church • The profession of the Nicene Creed reflects the same message of the prologue of the Gospel of John, which speaks of this Word of God becoming man: • “In the beginningwas the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness,and the darkness has not overcome it. • This passage from the prologue on John is believed to be a hymn sung in the early Church when people gathered to celebrate the breaking of the bread.

42. Part 3: The New Testament andthe Church • When we receive the Eucharist then, we are not only receiving Body of Christ, but also the incarnate Word of God, who speaks to us the words and wisdom God wants us to know and follow.

43. Part 3: The New Testament andthe Church • When we go to Mass, we hear readings selected from the Bible, all compiled into one book called a Lectionary, or the official liturgical book containing readings of the Mass, the Gospels, Responsorial Psalms, and the Gospel Acclamations. • Specific readings are selected based on the liturgical season the Church is celebrating, such as Advent, Lent, Christmas, etc. • The Liturgical Year is the Church’s annual cycle of religious feasts and seasons that celebrate different events in Jesus’ life and form the context for the Church’s worship. • For example, Ordinary Time is not a period of time when nothing is celebrated in the Church, but rather named so because each week is named after an ordinal number (1st, 2nd, 3rd Week of Ordinary Time), in which different aspects of Christ’s life are commemorated, such as His miracles.

44. Part 3: The New Testament andthe Church • We do not hear the same readings for each season, year after year. • The Church has set up a 3 year cycle of readings for the Sunday Mass, labeled Years A, B, and C, which changes every year from one to another. • This year, we just started readings for Year A. Next year will be readings from Year B. • The readings may be different for the same season each yearin that 3 year cycle, yet the readings still reflect on the season being celebrated. • The Church also has a 2 year cycle of readings for the Weekly, or Daily Mass, labeled Years I and II. • Year I is used on odd number ending years; Year II is used on even number ending years.

45. Part 3: The New Testament andthe Church • The proclamation of the Gospel is the high point of the Liturgy of the Word, or the first half of Mass, and is always taken from the New Testament. • On Sunday, the 3 readings are usually taken one from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament other than the Gospel, and then the Gospel, all showing the connected nature between the Old and New Testament. • The Lectionary is selective in its readings, only choosing Biblical passages that capture the message of that week’s Mass. • Familiarity with the readings from the Lectionary is not the same as familiarity with the entire Bible. • The Bible gives us the fuller context of the Scripture readings; the Lectionary gives us excerpts from the Bible, yet may not give us that contextual clues we are looking for to fully understand Scripture.

46. Part 3: The New Testament andthe Church

47. Part 3: The New Testament andthe Church • In the Gospel of Luke, after the crucifixion, two men were traveling on a road to a town called Emmaus, when a stranger appeared on the road and joined them. • This stranger explained Scripture to them and at the end of the day, the two men invited the stranger to stay with them and share a meal. • When the stranger broke bread with them, the two men realized the stranger was actually Jesus, their teacher who they followed, resurrected from the dead. • The two men realized the stranger was Christ in the breaking of bread and when He taught them about Scripture, just as Jesus broke bread at the Last Supper, offering the bread and transforming it into His Body and taught His followers about Scripture.

48. Part 3: The New Testament andthe Church • The encounter with Christ on the road to Emmaus illustrates the intimate connection between Scripture and the Eucharist. • Jesus, on the road, explains Scripture to the two men; at the meal, Jesus offers the bread and wine to the two men just as He did at the Last Supper. • The two men realized it was Jesus in both the breaking of bread and His explanation of Scripture. • That is why at every Mass, there is an intimate connection between Scripture readings and the celebration of the Eucharist. • In every Mass, we encounter Christ in both Scripture readings and in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

49. Part 3: The New Testament andthe Church • The Eucharist is a memorial, as well as a living remembrance of Christ’s Passion, death, and Resurrection. • Christ is the one who offers us the Eucharist, through the priest and his ministry of offering sacrifices to God since Christ is our high priest who gives us the ultimate sacrifice, that of Himself. • The Eucharist, the entire Mass itself, is the heart and summit of the Church’s life. • Christ breaks the bread with us, just like He did with the two men on the road to Emmaus; it is up to us to realize the bread and wine are Jesus Christ, just as the two men did.

50. Part 3: The New Testament andthe Church • The Eucharist, or the entire Mass, is made up of four main parts: • Introductory Rites • Liturgy of the Word • Liturgy of the Eucharist • Concluding Rites • In the Introductory Rites, an entrance antiphon can be used in place of an entrance hymn, which is taken from either the Old or New Testament. • Also, in the Introductory Rites, is the Gloria, the words of which are taken from the Gospel of Luke after the birth of Jesus when the angels announced Jesus’ birth to the shepherds by saying, “Glory to God in the highest….”