A friend of yours has asked you for advice about enrolling for a short course on the New Testament. Write your friend a letter of encouragement giving reasons why he or she should enrol.My dearest and bestest buddy
I’m stunned that you’re interested in studying the New Testament! But I’m excited at the same time, because it’s a book that has had a profound impact on my life, and I’m sure that it will have a similar effect on you. I can’t say how, exactly. But I know that reading it will enrich your experience of life on earth, because there are so many things about this planet that just don’t make sense without an appreciation of the contents of the canon. Then again, I think you already know I feel that way, because you’ve asked me more questions about faith in this last year than you did in the sum of the other 14 years we’ve known each other. And I never feel qualified to answer all of your questions: I am flattered that you trust me enough to ask me, and I always try to answer as honestly as I can, but really, the best thing you can do is to search for your own answers. You will find them!
Right. Enrolling for a course is a great idea, because otherwise you might find yourself bogging down quite quickly, there is just so much material, and so many areas of interest. It can be quite overwhelming. There are a few foundation stones that will help you, and a good short course will cover the basics of these:
- Understanding the nature and origin of the New Testament
- Learning how to read the New Testament – appreciating styles of writing and different genres
- Appreciating the political and social world of the New Testament
- Gaining insight into the religious and philosophical world of New Testament times
The NT was developed over a long period of time, and it will help if you understand how it all came together, who was involved in the writing and the way in which writers sourced their material: these books didn’t fall out of the sky with Gideon’s Bible stamped on the cover! The more you understand how the works came to be, the more fully you will appreciate the contents. Otherwise one risks reading most of the material out of context and making overly literal or just plain wrong interpretations of the texts, and we both know how badly that can go: we’ve both seen too many people suffer as a result of sincere but ill-informed Christians forcing their narrow-minded understanding of the Bible on the people around them. That’s unfortunately the experience of religion that sticks in people’s memories and keeps them from encountering a loving, merciful, good God.
The Gospels are a huge challenge, but if you stick with them you will learn surprising things. You’ll also understand why there are four Gospels and not just one. You’ll figure out why pastors always tell new Christians to read John’s Gospel: it’s packed full of theology! Studying Acts will help you to understand a great many things that go on in the average Christian church that might seem a bit bizarre otherwise. And then there are the letters, most of them by Paul. Yes, yes, I know: that misogynist. But there’s more to Paul than chauvinism, I promise: there are some real gems of wisdom lurking in this fascinating man’s psyche. And while you may learn something about Paul while you scrutinise his letters, you will definitely learn something about yourself. Your course might or might not include a segment on the book of Revelation: if it focuses on apocalyptic literature as a genre, you will learn something useful; if it encourages you to count verses and do complex calculations about the number of earthquakes that have happened in the last year in order to get a fix on the exact day the world will end… run away, screaming “Aaargh, bad movie, Nicolas Cage, bad movie!!”
All of that said, if you gain nothing else from your New Testament course, you will feel the satisfaction that comes from seeing how ingeniously the Gospel texts were put together. Matthew, Mark and Luke would have made amazing colleagues in our sub-editor days; I would have loved to watch any one of them handle that Germany travel guide that gave me so many headaches!
Okay, right – I must dash, pressing business. Call me if you have any questions, okay?! Love you. S
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