The World of the New Testament (Honors)

This 3-credit Honors Level integrated humanities course aims to acquaint students with the broad scope of the historical and cultural world in which the New Testament was written. Although students will read the whole New Testament, this is not a typical “Bible Survey” course. Rather, the sequence integrates the biblical readings with writings and events occurring in the Greco-Roman culture surrounding the ministry of Christ and His Apostles. For instance, what impact did Greek rhetoric have on the Epistles of Paul? Were the Apostle John and the writer of Hebrews familiar with Plato? How did the political and legal ideas of the Roman Republic, and then the Empire, inform the terminology the New Testament uses? Above all else, how specifically did God inspire the writers of the New Testament to equip subsequent generations of Christians to redemptively engage any culture in which they might live?

Course Objectives:

1. To give students a greater, more integrated understanding of the New Testament itself
2. To help students develop a “Big Picture” grasp of how the New Testament fits with major historical achievements of the Greeks and the Romans
3. To prepare young Christians biblically, historically, and apologetically for some of the distinctive attacks on the Faith that have arisen through skeptical scholarship trying to reduce the New Testament to just another man-made cultural product of Greco-Roman times.

Texts:

• The New Testament
• James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era - ISBN-10 : 0830815899
• Selected writings from Greek and Roman authors (provided by teacher)