In view of the trends of biblical scholarship, it must be reaffirmed that the two testaments are to be studied together. It is debatable whether one should be simply a New Testament scholar or an Old Testament scholar: the ideal is a biblical scholar, one who is equally at home in both testaments. Although few have the mental ability to master the number of languages involved, not to mention the secondary literature, the ideal needs to be kept in view. Concentration on one testament or the other is bound to lead to a lack of balance.
This leads to a second point: the most important element in the “background” of the New Testament is the Old Testament. That is to say, one needs to understand the teaching and even the thought-forms of the Old Testament in order to come to grips with the message of the New. The writers of the New Testament documents lived and breathed in the environment of the Hebrew Bible (see F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Development of Old Testament Themes, Eerdmans, 1968). This is evident not only from the New Testament’s extensive quotations from and even more numerous allusions to the Old Testament, but also from the vocabulary and grammar of the New Testament documents. Although all wrote in Greek, the majority of the early Christian writers thought in Hebrew (or Aramaic); even though they used Greek words, these words, especially when they had theological overtones, were often used in quite different senses from their common meaning in secular Greek (see D. Hill, Greek Words and Hebrew Meanings, Cambridge, 1967). Thus all attempts to understand the new Testament from the point of view of Hellenism, especially from the alleged parallels with Greek religious thought, fall to the ground. Although Hellenism is one of the influences on the New Testament, it certainly is far from being the most important. The student is advised, therefore, to look to the Old Testament as the chief and most influential item in the background to the New Testament.
A book that merits mention before we turn to individual items in the background to the New Testament is The New Testament Background: Selected Documents, edited by C. K. Barrett (Harper, 1961). Here is a mixture of selected pagan and Jewish writings that throw light on the pages of the New Testament. It should be noted, however, that Barrett’s method of listing the pagan sources first might give the beginner the mistaken impression that these are more important than the Jewish, when the reverse is actually the case. Still, the work is a unique collection of documents and a handy companion to the New Testament for the student.
INTERTESTAMENTAL HISTORY It is all too easy for Protestants, who are not usually familiar with the Apocryphal books found in the Roman Catholic Bibles, to suppose that nothing important happened in Israel between the end of the narrative of the Old Testament (about 400 B.C.) and the coming of the Messiah. But this is far from correct. Many important events took place in the history of God’s people that were far-reaching in their influence; indeed, it was during this period that Judaism as such emerged. And so we need to understand something of the history of the so-called Intertestamental Period in order to understand the world into which the Gospel came.
Israel and the Nations by F. F. Bruce (Eerdmans, 1963) devotes the largest portion of its space to this period and provides the general reader with an accurate and interesting account. Two small but excellent books by D. S. Russell, Between the Testaments (SCM, 1960) and The Jews From Alexander to Herod (Oxford, 1967), also offer historical accounts of the period. The Hellenistic Age, edited by A. Schalit (Vol. 6 of “The World History of the Jewish People”) (Rutgers, 1972) provides a comprehensive and scholarly account of the political, social, and religious life of Jews in Palestine from 332 B.C. to 67 B.C. E. Schürer’s standard work, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ (five volumes, T. and T. Clark, 1895), is being revised by a team of scholars under the able editorship of M. Black and G. Vermes; in spite of being generally out-of-date, it is still a useful tool.
THE APOCRYPHA This is the name given by Protestants to those books that, though found in the Greek Old Testament (along with other writings), were excluded from the Hebrew canon. Included among these writings are Third and Fourth (= First and Second) Esdras, First and Second Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, Baruch, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom of Solomon, the Epistle of Jeremiah, the Prayer of Manasseh, and additions to Daniel and Esther. They are given canonical status by Roman Catholics but have been traditionally regarded by Protestants as (to use the words of Luther) “books which are not held to be equal to Holy Scripture and yet are profitable and good to read.” They provide the most accessible information on the theology and history of the intertestamental period.
The best introduction for the general reader is B. M. Metzger, An Introduction to the Apocrypha (Oxford, 1957); along similar lines is L. H. Brockington, A Critical Introduction to the Apocrypha (Duckworth, 1961), which is designed as a brief handbook for theological students. The literature itself is available in a number of modern translations including the RSV and the NEB. It is perhaps handiest to have a copy in an annotated edition, such as The Oxford Annotated Apocrypha, edited by B. M. Metzger (Oxford, 1965), or the Standard Edition of The Jerusalem Bible (Doubleday, 1966); both provide the student with helpful introductions and notes. The advanced student will wish, however, to refer to the Greek versions, which are included in the Septuagint (see CHRISTIANITY TODAY, December 19, 1970, p. 19).
The Jerome Biblical Commentary (see CHRISTIANITY TODAY, November 6, 1970, p. 21) contains excellent bibliographies on each of the Apocryphal writings, and the student wishing to do detailed study in the literature is referred to these for guidance.
OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA The Apocrypha is not the only collection of writings from the intertestamental period. Another even larger group of Jewish writings is known as the Pseudepigrapha. The designation comes from the fact that many of these writings are attributed to some Old Testament character. In this group are the Books of Enoch, the Psalms of Solomon, the Letter of Aristeas, the Book of Jubilee, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and others. There is no really convenient and up-to-date collection of these documents for the non-specialist, though the majority of them are found in the second volume of R. H. Charles (ed.), The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (Oxford, 1913). Charles is, however, a rather dated and extremely bulky tome. One of the needs of the hour is for a reliable, not overly technical introduction to the Pseudepigrapha with English translations. For now, students will have to make use of materials in books that are not directly related to the Pseudepigrapha but devote some space to these writings, or of studies that treat only a part of the literature or individual books.
The best introduction is the concluding section of O. Eissfeldt, The Old Testament: An Introduction (Harper & Row, 1965), which includes not only excellent introductions to each book but also extensive bibliographies. A good survey of a large body of the pseudepigraphical literature is the study by D. S. Russell entitled The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic (Westminster, 1964), which concentrates on the theology of some of the most important writings. The student is referred to the bibliographies in Eissfeldt for studies of the individual books and to the bibliography at the end of Russell for a selection of the more important general studies of the subject.
DEAD SEA SCROLLS Since 1947 some four hundred manuscripts, most of them fragmentary, have been discovered in the hills along the shore of the Dead Sea near the place we know as Qumran. Approximately one hundred of these are parts of the Hebrew Scriptures; the rest are other Jewish writings, some of them known previously to scholars and some now known for the first time. There is no evidence to suggest that Jesus or John the Baptist was ever connected with the Qumran movement. The value of the Scrolls for the study of the New Testament lies in the information they give about first-century Judaism, particularly sectarian or non-rabbinic Judaism. They tell us much about the religious environment of early Christianity, relating how one group of Jews interpreted the Old Testament and understood their own mission in the world. Through the Scrolls we are given much insight into the kind of religious terminology and thought-forms that prevailed when the Gospel was first expressed.
Two accurate, readable, and non-technical introductions to the Dead Sea Scrolls are available in F. F. Bruce, Second Thoughts on the Dead Sea Scrolls (Eerdmans, 1961), and W. S. LaSor, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Faith (Moody, 1962); both are available in inexpensive paperback editions. For the non-biblical literature itself there is G. Vermes’s translation and introduction, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Penguin, 1962). Here the general reader can test for himself the absurd claims that a few sensationalists have made concerning the “revolutionary” implications of the Scrolls for the Christian faith.
At a slightly more advanced level are the introductions by F. M. Cross, Jr. (The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Biblical Studies, revised edition, Doubleday, 1961) and J. T. Milik (Ten Years of Discovery in the Wilderness of Judea, Allenson, 1959). The standard scholarly edition of the Scrolls is Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (Oxford, 1955 ff.).
Literally thousands of books and essays have been written on various aspects of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The student is referred to the books mentioned above for references to some of the most important studies. The Scrolls and the New Testament, edited by K. Stendahl (Harper & Row, 1957), gathers together stimulating essays that relate the Qumran materials to various aspects of New Testament research, and J. Murphy-O’Connor (ed.), Paul and Qumran (Priory, 1968), and J. H. Charlesworth (ed.), John and Qumran (G. Chapman), bring together other essays that attempt to apply the data of the Scrolls to the Pauline and Johannine literature. For the advanced student there are two exhaustive bibliographies: W. S. LaSor, Bibliography of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1948–1957 (Fuller Seminary, 1958), and B. Jongeling, A Classified Bibliography of the Finds in the Desert of Judah, 1958–1969 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1971).
The reader should be warned that a few of the popular books published on the Dead Sea Scrolls are grossly unreliable. Most notable are those by A. Powell Davies, Edmund Wilson, and H. J. Schonfield, and some of the more recent publications of J. M. Allegro. This statement is based, not on some theological prejudice of Christian scholars, but on the verdict rendered by the world of scholarship as a whole. The earlier works of Allegro, however, are fairly reliable and are not in this category.
PALESTINE IN THE TIMES OF JESUS A student of the New Testament should always keep before him the historical context of the Incarnation—first-century Palestine under the influence of Roman rule. A scholarly but not too technical introduction to the environment into which the Gospel came is W. Forster, From Exile to Christ (Fortress, 1964). In The New Testament Era (Fortress, 1968) B. Reicke provides the reader with an admirable introduction to the setting of the gospel story, though the book includes much more than this. For the beginner there is the fascinating little book by H. Daniel-Rops, Daily Life in Palestine at the Time of Christ (Mentor, 1964); the author sketches the geographical, historical, and cultural environment of the life of Jesus. Along similar lines but more comprehensive are A. C. Bouquet, Everyday Life in New Testament Times (Scribner, 1953), and Everyday Life in Bible Times (National Geographic Society, 1967).
Long the standard study of the social and economic environment of the capital city of Judea in New Testament times but until recently available only in German is J. Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus (Fortress, 1969). This is certainly one of the more important books in this area and will remain a useful tool for the serious student for many years to come. Other works that provide introductions to the history of Palestine in New Testament times are S. Perowne, The Life and Times of Herod the Great (Hodder and Stoughton, 1956); The Later Herods (Hodder and Stoughton, 1958), also by Perowne; and G. A. Williamson, The World of Josephus (Little, Brown, 1965).
After reading Williamson one should turn to Josephus himself, since he is the chief historian of the period. His writings are available in many translations and editions; perhaps the best place to begin is with the Penguin edition of The Jewish War, translated by G. A. Williamson (1959). The advanced student will wish to make use of the nine-volume edition of the writings of Josephus in the “Loeb Classical Library,” edited by H. St. J. Thackeray et al. (Harvard, 1926–65), where the Greek text and English translations appear side by side; an excellent index appended to the set enables the student to make fruitful reference to Josephus’ works for points of contact with the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles.
RABBINIC JUDAISM This is not exactly a part of the “background” of the New Testament, since most of what we know about Rabbinic Judaism dates from later years and we can rarely be certain that a particular rabbinic idea or interpretation existed prior to A.D. 70 (the date of the destruction of Jerusalem, a decisive event for the development of Judaism during the following centuries). Nevertheless, we have good reason to suspect that there is a basic continuity between the Judaism that existed in New Testament times and that of subsequent generations; indeed, the later writings contain many traditions that are said to go back to the New Testament period and even earlier. If one uses the material cautiously and gives due regard both to the dates of the varying traditions and to the diversity of thought that existed in rabbinic Judaism (not to mention the various sects of Judaism which existed in New Testament times), study of this subject can throw much light on the New Testament.
THE DOVE
Genesis 8:15
John 1:32
Twice sent to signal
God’s relenting,
My flights were short
But to the mark.
I lighted first on land
And then on light:
The flood of grace
The grace of blood.
I saw both times,
His mercy spent,
Christ buy what God
would have redeemed.
JOHN LEAX
An interestingly written book is F. C. Grant, Ancient Judaism and the New Testament (revised edition, Oliver and Boyd, 1960); a reading of Grant will serve to correct many mistaken notions, not to say prejudices, held by Christians. Along a different line is M. Simon, Jewish Sects in the Time of Jesus (Fortress, 1967), a book that serves to emphasize that Judaism in the New Testament period was far from uniform in its views. We need to bear this in mind when attempting to relate the Judaism of the time of Christ to the teachings of the New Testament. An older yet still in print work that has not been replaced, though it needs to be corrected in various places, is A. Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1891). Whatever the weaknesses of Edersheim’s work in the light of modern research, he certainly gives the student an adequate appreciation of the fundamental Jewishness of the gospel story.
The standard study of Pharisaic Judaism is the three-volume work by G. F. Moore, Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era (Harvard, 1927–30). I. Epstein’s Judaism: A Historical Presentation (Penguin, 1959) should be on every Christian student’s bookshelf; it gives an excellent introduction to the subject in a very readable form, though it extends beyond the early period through the Middle Ages to the present day. R. A. Stewart, The Earlier Rabbinic Tradition (London: Inter-Varsity, 1949), is a useful survey of the material; the author’s longer study of Rabbinic Theology (Oliver and Boyd, 1961) is also helpful, though it tends to give an overly systematic picture of the situation. J. Bonsirven, Palestinian Judaism in the Time of Jesus Christ (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963), is designed to give the student a reliable picture of some of the fundamental teachings of the rabbis on various subjects. Not exactly bedtime reading, but an essential tool for one who wishes to examine some of the primary materials for himself, is H. L. Strack, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (1931; now in print by Atheneum).
C. G. Montefiore and H. Loewe, A Rabbinic Anthology (World, 1960), provides the Gentile with a good introduction to the ethical and religious teachings of the rabbis. A careful study of this volume will go a long way to help the Christian understand Pharisaic Judaism and will serve to remind him that the “Pharisees” of the Gospels do not represent all Jews or even all Pharisees (even in the Gospels we have Nicodemus!). J. Bowker, The Targums and Rabbinic Literature (Cambridge, 1969), and G. Vermes, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1961), provide scholarly introductions to Jewish exegesis of the Old Testament, which gives the student points of comparison for studying the interpretation of the Old Testament by early Christians. (Compare also F. F. Bruce, Biblical Exegesis in the Qumran Texts, Eerdmans, 1960). A standard reference work citing Jewish literature that could be thought to throw light on the New Testament is the German Kommentar Zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, edited by H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck (six volumes, Munich: Back, 1922–61); the student should be aware of its weaknesses, however, and should never depend on it as a final authority. Strack-Billerbeck is useful as a Gentile Christian’s key to the sources, but it is no substitute for a critical study of the sources themselves. C. G. Montefiore provides the English reader with a selection of the sort of material contained in Strack-Billerbeck, insofar as it is related to the study of Matthew and Luke, in his Rabbinic Literature and Gospel Teachings (1930, reprinted KTAV, 1970). W. D. Davies is a Christian scholar who has spent the greater part of his life relating the New Testament to Jewish literature; all his writings will be found to be helpful and reliable. The most important are Paul and Rabbinic Judaism (SPCK, 1955), Christian Origins and Judaism (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1962), and The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount (Cambridge, 1964). D. Daube, The New Testament and Rabbinic Judaism (London: Althone Press, 1956), is a very illuminating study of the subject but is, unfortunately, out of print.
For those who wish to go directly to the primary sources, the following English translations are available: H. Danby, The Mishnah; I. Epstein (ed.), The Babylonian Talmud in English; H. Freedman and M. Simon (eds.), Midrash Rabbah; and W. G. Braude (ed.), The Midrash on Psalms. All but the first are multi-volume.
THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD The tendency of a certain brand of scholarship at the end of the past century and the beginning of the present was to stress the influence of the religious ideas of the Graeco-Roman world of the first century on the thought-forms of the New Testament. The majority of scholars today recognize that this is the least important of the major influences on the New Testament, as has already been stated above. Still, Hellenism is one of the factors in the background of the New Testament, and the student cannot overlook this fact. The New Testament was, after all, written in Greek!
Two aspects of Hellenism are important for a proper understanding of the New Testament. First, there is the Greek language and its vast literature; then there is the pervasive Hellenistic culture of the first Christian century, that mixture of Greek and Oriental ideas and ideals. Perhaps the most useful tool for the student who has not had formal training in the classics is The Oxford Classical Dictionary, recently revised under the editorship of N. G. L. Hammond and H. H. Sculland (Oxford, 1970); for usefulness this is to be compared to a good Bible dictionary. M. R. P. McGuire, Introduction to Classical Scholarship (Catholic University of America, 1961), will help to orient a student in the field and offers helpful bibliographies. A. Lesky, A History of Greek Literature (Crowell, 1966), is the standard introduction to the non-Christian literature; it contains extensive bibliographies, including both translations and critical editions of the various writings. A similar though much less technical work is H. J. Rose, A Handbook of Greek Literature (Dutton, 1960), which will be found useful for the less advanced student. The most important Greek writings themselves are available in convenient parallel (Greek and English) editions in the various volumes of the “Loeb Classical Library” (Harvard). The standard lexicon to the literature is the massive tome by H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford, revised edition 1968). It is so extensive that it serves as a quasi-concordance to the literature.
The best brief introduction to the culture and history of the times is probably W. W. Tarn, Hellenistic Civilization (third revised edition, World, 1961). Much more extensive are M. Rostovtzeff’s two works: The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World (three volumes, Oxford, 1941) and The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (two volumes, second edition, Oxford, 1957). A. D. Nock, Conversion (Oxford, 1933), and C. N. Cochrane, Christianity and Classical Culture (Oxford, 1957) are complementary and important studies of the interpenetration of Christianity and Graeco-Roman culture. Both books make for fascinating reading and are available in paperback.
The Greek papyri or fragmentary documents that began to come to light out of ancient Egyptian rubbish heaps toward the end of the nineteenth century have introduced an aspect of Greek language and culture hitherto unknown to scholars. Although some of the earlier claims for their importance were, like the claims made for the Dead Sea Scrolls, exaggerated, their study is still important for an understanding of the New Testament. E. G. Turner, Greek Papyri: An Introduction (Oxford, 1968), provides the novice with an introduction to the relatively new discipline of papyrology. The most accessible collections of papyri are G. Milligan, Selections from the Greek Papyri (Cambridge, 1910; now out of print but often obtainable in used book stores), and the two volumes in the “Loeb Classical Library” entitled Selected Papyri, edited by A. S. Hunt and G. C. Edgar (Harvard, 1932–34). A. Deissmann, Light From the Ancient East (1927, now in print by Baker), is the classic survey of the material as it relates to the New Testament, though Deissmann is much too enthusiastic about the far-reaching effects of the new discoveries and tends to overstate his case. J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament (1930; now in print by Eerdmans), is the standard lexicon of the language of the papyri as it relates to the New Testament writings; it is still a very useful tool, though it needs to be brought up to date in the light of the past forty years of research. A good survey article is “The New Testament and the Papyri” by W. Barclay in The New Testament in Historical and Contemporary Perspective, edited by H. Anderson and W. Barclay (Blackwell, 1965).
BIBLIOGRAPHIES TO NEW TESTAMENT RESEARCH Many bibliographical aids are available to guide the student in his research. Space allows mention of only the most important. D. M. Scholer, A Basic Guide For New Testament Exegesis (South Hamilton, Mass.: Gordon-Conwell Bookcentre, 1971), is intended for the student who has studied some Greek and wishes to do more advanced exegesis; it is the best and most up-to-date bibliography of New Testament studies available. Along similar lines is A Bibliographical Guide to New Testament Research (Cambridge, England: The Tyndale Fellowship for Biblical Research, 1968), though it is designed with the advanced graduate student in mind and therefore includes a stronger emphasis on foreign languages. J. C. Hurd, Jr., compiled A Bibliography of New Testament Bibliographies (Seabury, 1966), designed to save the student from fruitless hours of search. B. M. Metzger has edited two very useful works: Index to Periodical Literature on Christ and the Gospels (Eerdmans, 1966) and Index to Periodical Literature on the Apostle Paul (Eerdmans, 1960); while these are not exhaustive, they will give the student an adequate bibliography with which to begin. A Classified Bibliography of the Literature on the Acts of the Apostles by A. J. and M. B. Mattill (Eerdmans, 1966) does seem, however, to be exhaustive. New Testament Abstracts, published three times a year by a team of scholars under the editorship of the faculty of Weston College (available for $10 per annum from 1627 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02138), will be the most useful tool for helping the advanced student keep up with what is being published in the two hundred or more journals that contain scholarly articles on the study of the New Testament.
George M. Marsden is associate professor of history at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has the Ph.D. (Yale University) and has written “The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience.”
