Mar 16, 2010
How to Study the New Testament Like a Pro: Step #2 Read Historical Background Information
While the Old Testament is essential for understanding the New Testament, roughly four-hundred years transpired after the last Old Testament book was written. New interpretations of the Old Testament emerged in between the testaments, the Intertestamental period, due to religious, political, and socio-economic events.
Israel began this period under Medo-Persian rule. Then the Greeks took over before a Jewish Dynasty revolted and took control. After a brief time of Jewish rule, the Romans, those mentioned in the New Testament, conspired to take over.
During these tumultuous years Jewish writers penned a series of books known as Intertestamental literature. Some of these books developed a strong sense of the apocalyptic—anticipating the immanent return of God to save his people and to punish evil-doers. In fact, the book of Revelation in the NT is a Christian version of Jewish apocalyptic, which is something quite different than a chronicle of events that would happen in the future.
Messianic movements rose up from the fertile ground of apocalyptic literature and various Jewish sects emerged with different applications of the Old Testament to their situations. Many scholars today view Jesus as a prophet in the apocalyptic tradition.
In order to better understand how people responded to Jesus, we need a clear picture of not only the Old Testament but also how his contemporaries read, interpreted, and applied it to their times. John the Baptist, Herod, The Pharisees, the crowds, and the disciples come to life when we read about Jesus with an awareness of his setting, the expectations of his audience, and the tumultuous period leading up to his ministry.
Suggestions for Historical Background Research
- Your best sources will be Bible Dictionaries and commentaries. Some basic Bible dictionaries are fairly inexpensive to purchase in sets of two or four if you wait for the right sale at Christian Book Distributors, though many churches should have some basic dictionaries on hand in a library. My favorite is the InterVarsity press series that’s available on a more affordable CD-ROM.
- Some local libraries will also carry the works of popular authors such as Dominic Crossan who may not hold to orthodox views of Jesus, but who can flesh out the historical setting quite well in books such as Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts. Libraries may also carry some worn dictionaries or commentaries that may be of use for extracting historical information.
- For those with a little extra time, there is a wealth of information on the Intertestamental period’s literature on the New Testament in Larry Helyer’s book Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period.
- I know you’re thinking it, so I’ll just say it: Wikipedia. Yes, you can learn a ton about the world of Jesus by reading articles on Wikipedia about the various groups, events, and characters that shaped the world of the New Testament. For starters, look up the Hasmonean Dynasty and read about its fall to the Roman dynasty of Herod.
Image credit: Jim Larranaga.
As a new reader of your blog, I’m enjoying “catching up” on back postings. But this morning’s, hmmm…. Not at all sure I’d suggest that inexperienced Bible readers and those quite unfamiliar with the basic Judao-Christian story start looking into Crossan. There are good sources of well told and accessible biblical history that don’t muddy the watters with an unorthodox Christology. Myself, I’d suggest Barclay.
Hi Richard. Thanks for your comment. That’s a good qualification to add. Most of my blog’s readers aren’t necessarily new Christians… at least so far as I can tell. In fact, the most common response I get is that folks appreciate the more advanced stuff I post here. So I wrote that based on that assumption.
Having said that, I’m very glad you added that clarification, and I generally agree. However, the particular book that I recommended has a lot of value for historical background reading and that particular book is one that I would feel comfortable recommending to a new Christian. Not all of Crossan’s works, just that book.
Is there a particular Barclay book that you’d recommend? I’ve generally been disappointed by his commentary series, but perhaps there are others I don’t know about. Are his commentaries worth another look?
And thanks for your clarifications. I confess I was reacting to Crossan in general, and I’m not familiar with the specific book you recommend. I’ll take a look.
I find Barclay’s commentaries useful for the vignettes of historical setting he often provides. And, as you point out, I’m thinking of suitability for new Christians, or at least for those who’ve never read their Bibles seriously before. I recommend them for folks who are just getting their “toes in the water,” so to speak.
Blessings!
That’s a great point. For those just starting out, I can see how Barclay would certainly provide a simple introduction with just enough background information. For the PDF version of this series I removed the Crossan reference because I think you’re correct in saying a relatively new Christian reading the rest of his works may run into some issues that aren’t going to be very edifying at the start of a Christian walk. Wow, that’s a poorly written sentence… but you know what I mean!