of
The Christian New Testament
The New Testament is a collection of documents written in the first century AD that is believed by Christians to be of divine inspiration. (Accounts of what this inspiration amounts to and how it occurred, of course, are to be had in widely varied form!) There are three kinds of books contained in the NT: four Gospels, a number of letters, and the Book of The Apocalypse or Revelation.
1) The Gospels: The word 'gospel', from the Old English 'godspel', literally means "good news", and is a translation of the Greek euangelion, from which we have the word 'evangelism' (the spreading of the good news). They are accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazereth, a first-century Jewish teacher, healer and prophet believed by Christians to be God incarnate. The Gospels are titled Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, after the persons who are reputed to have written them: the apostles Matthew and John (members of Jesus inner group of disciples called "the twelve" who were "sent out" (apostelein) to preach the message after Jesus' resurrection), Mark who was a disciple of the apostle Peter, and Luke, the companion of the apostle Paul. All four of these books are thus reputed to have been written by people who either had witnessed the key events reported, or to have been close associates of someone who did. (It should be added that scholarly questions have been raised about authorship, a matter complicated by the fact that in the ancient world it was common to give credit for one's writings to some notable figure who in fact had no direct role in its composition.)
Three of these books -- those of Matthew (Matt 1), Mark (Mark 1) and Luke (Luke 1) -- bear obvious similarities to one another, reporting much the same events, often in identical language. These three Gospels are collectively referred to as the synoptic Gospels. The textual connections between these books have given rise to much scholarly speculation: for example, that the writers of Matthew and Luke drew upon Mark's gospel and some other source as pre-existing sources of the deeds and sayings of Jesus. However, while reporting essentially the same story, the synoptic Gospels seem to have been adapted for different audiences: Matthew for a Jewish audience that would want scriptural justification for the claim that Jesus is the Messiah, and Luke for an educated Hellenistic audience.
John's Gospel is very different in flavor, giving explicit theological intepretation to the life of Jesus (who is identified in the very first chapter as being identical with the Word (logos) of God through whom the world was created, and ineed as being identical with God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.") John also makes explicit what Jesus is supposed to have accomplished: he gave to everyone who would receive him the power to become children of God. (John 1)
2) The Letters -- The second group of New Testament texts consists of letters or epistles (which simply means "letters"), reputedly written by the apostles Paul, Peter, and John, and by Jesus brothers (or "near kinsmen", as Catholics interpret adelphos in order to preserve their claims of Mary's perpetual virginity) James and Jude. Some of these are addressed to Christian communities in particular places, such as Corinth or Ephesus; others are addressed to particular individuals who have been left in leadership positions in these communities; while still others (those of Peter, James, John and Jude) seem to be addressed to Christians generally. In these we see some beginnings of Christian theology (Jesus did not talk in terms of theological doctrines), but the texts contain more in the way of attempts to work out the application of the Christian message to daily life and to specific problems that have arisen in their target audiences. (For example, do Christians need to obey the kosher laws? Does one have to become a Jew first before one can become a Christian?)
3) The Apolcalypse or Revelation -- A very cryptic book purported to be a revelation experienced by the apostle John near the end of his life ("in extreme old age" -- probably around the end of the first century) on the Island of Patmos. It speaks in terms that are explicitly intended to by symbolic and whose meaning is intended to be hidden, but seems to be saying something about the circumstances that will take place at the end of the current age -- i.e., the end of the world as we know it. (Some scholars also see many or all of these symbols as pointing to events that happened in the latter part of the first century, such as the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem in 70ad and the dispersion of the Jews by the Roman occupiers.) While the precise meaning of the work is quite obscure, it is noteworthy as the clearest Biblical source for several Christian beliefs: that the world as we know it will end in war and fire, and that God will create a new Heaven and a new Earth, in which those who have received salvation in Christ will be resurrected (will live once more in new bodies); that there are both angels and demons, the latter of which are angels who have rebelled against God, and whose captain is Satan (shaitan -- literally "the adversary.) (Note that Satan is not the opposite of God, but of Micheal, the chief angel who remained loyal to God. Satan is a created being, albeit by human standards an unimagineably powerful one.) The Apocalypse (which literally means "pulling back the covering or veil") presents a view of human history's future which makes it plain that the ultimate spiritual victories are not won by way of political or military victories, but by faithfulness even to the point of martyrdom: God will eventually need to destroy the current world order and create a new one, and then both the just and the unjust will receive their rewards, and death and tears will be no more.
The central figure of the Christian message is Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians believe to be God in human form. (In later theological terms, God "freely taking a human nature unto himself" as opposed to merely appearing to be a human.) Jesus was born around 3 - 0 BC, which may seem strange given that our dating system stems from his birth, but in fact it is difficult to isolate the time of his birth with greater exactitude. According to the stories, he was born during one of the Roman censuses, and since Jews reckoned their residence not by where they lodged but by their ancestral city, Jesus' father Joseph was forced to travel with his pregnant wife Mary to Bethlehem, David's city, as he was of the lineage of David (the second king of Israel). The Gospels report that Jesus was born under less than opulent circumstances (in a stable)(Luke 2:1-7), but that it was marked by some miraculous signs, such as a bright star that appeared and appearances of angels (Matt 2; Luke 2:8-20).
We know virtually nothing of Jesus early life. (There are some documents that have outrageous stories about Jesus' childhood, but these appear to have been written in the third century and are of very dubious authenticity.) Presumably he learned his father's trade of carpentry in the town of Nazareth in Galilee) where they settled due to concerns about Herod being governer in Judea). But other than one story about him showing some precocity in talking with religion scholars in the Temple on a visit to Jerusalem as a boy (Luke 2:41-52), we next hear about him at around age 30, when he goes to be baptized by John the Baptizer (to whom he was related Cf. Luke 1).
John was cast very much in the model of Old Testament prophets. He lived in the wilderness, wore odd clothing, had a decidely odd diet of locusts and wild honey (Mark 1:2-8), and called people to repentance (literally to "turning around their minds" metanoia) because "the Kingdom of God is at hand." (Luke 3:1-20) Baptism -- a ceremonial immersion in water -- was the symbolic act of being cleansed of past sin as a result of this repentance. It is not clear that either John or those who came out to see him had a very explicit idea of what this "Kingdom of God" would consist in, though the expression "Kingdom of God" was current in that day, not least of all as a term for the longed-for restoration of the kingdom to Israel, which was then under Roman occupation. However, to some Jewish sects, such as the Essenes, it clearly had spiritual implications.
As reported by the Gospels, (Matt 3:13-16) John, inspired by the spirit of God, knew that Jesus was something special when Jesus came to be baptized by him -- indeed, he seemed to know that his own ministry was a preparation for Jesus' ministry. It is reported that when Jesus came up from the waters of baptism, God's Spirit came down and rested upon him, appearing in the form of a dove. Jesus then went into the wilderness for forty days and nights (perhaps a literal stretch of time, perhaps a figure of speech for "a long time"), where he underwent deprivations of hunger and thirst, and temptations. (Matt 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13)
When Jesus returned from the wilderness, he bagan a three-year ministry which ended in his death by crucifixion by the Romans. This ministry was noteworthy both for what Jesus said (his teaching) and what he did (particularly healing and other miracles, and casting out demons). (I report these things as things reported in the Gospels, without an attempt to prejudice the reader as to their veracity.)
Jesus in some ways fit into the mold of the itinerant Jewish rabbi, going from town to town and preaching a message. He spoke to crowds of varying sizes -- at least on several occasions numbering in the thousands, and probably pushing the limit of what one could do prior to amplification -- and had a group of followers or disciples that numbered into the hundreds, of which there was also a core group of twelve, sometimes called the apostles. He spoke in the temple in Jerusalem, in local synagogues (Jewish places of meeting and worship), and in public places. The main themes of his preaching, like those of John, were repentance and the Kingdom of God. Jesus' own preaching of these messages, however, was remarkable in several ways.
First, the style of his preaching was evidently unusual: generally, Jewish rabbis and scholars would frame their discussions in terms of commentary on sacred text, debating issues and seldom speaking in their own voice; Jesus, by contrast, spoke as someone who had authority of his own, and people found this remarkable (Matt 7:28). In addition to merely teaching, moreover, Jesus also spoke in warnings and exhortations, and was thus perceived by many as being tailored on the model of the older Hebrew prophets like Elijah. (Matt 16:13-14)
Second, while Jesus was willing to engage in short bouts of rabbinical discussion, his teaching was mainly in the form of parables -- stories with thinly-veiled symbolic meaning. (See, for example, the Parables of the Kingdom in Matt 13.) It is clear from the texts that the deeper meanings of these parables were often not understood by the audience (Matt 13: 10-15) or even by Jesus closest followers. (Matt 13:36) The function of these parables seems to be intended on somewhat of an analogy with planting seeds in order to end up with a blossoming plant: the parables are planted as seeds in the minds of the listener, from which the listener may grow into the Kingdom of God, though this is by no means the only possible result. There is strong suggestion that the Gospel writers wish to convey the idea that Jesus message could not fully be understood except in light of his eventual death and resurrection.
Third, unlike previous Jewish teachers, Jesus seemed to indicate that he himself played a pivotal role in the coming of the Kingdom of God and of the salvation and forgiveness of indivdual men and women. While proof texts for the Christian claim that Jesus understood himself to be God are fewer in number than Christians might sometimes wish, there are clearly things in John's Gospel such that, if Jesus really said them, he either believed himself to be God or was a shameless liar. (Consider Matt 24:35, 26:26-29,53-54, 28:18-20; Mark 15:61-65; Luke 9:23-27, 10:17-24, 22:66-71; John 3, 5:19-47, 6:35-40,53-58, 8:12,54-59, 10:25-30) Moreover, the Jewish authorities seemed to believe that he was making such claims, and this was their justification for asking for his death, on grounds of blasphemy. Jesus' claims about himself also seem to have been responsible for the dwindling of the numbers of his disciples, which went from the hundreds to only twelve after Jesus announces that they must eat his body and drink his blood. (John 6:35-71) (Christians see this as a prefiguring of the sacrament of communion. None of the disciples is reported as having so much as contemplated ingesting Jesus' corpse.)
The Gospels report Jesus' teaching as being accompanied with astonishing deeds: particularly miraculous healings (e.g., Mark 1:40-45) and the casting out of demons (Mark 5:1-20), which were believed to be capable of possessing human beings and to be responsible for such conditions as epilepsy and certain forms of paralysis in which voluntary control of motor functions is lost. These deeds are supposed to establish that Jesus has authority over diseases and over unclean spirits, authority which he also confers upon his disciples when he sends them out. (Luke 10:1-20) This authority also extends to the ability to multiply food to feed a large and hungry crowd (Mark 6:35-44), to transform water into wine (John 2), and to command the wind and waves (Mark 4:35-41). However, it seems clear that these miraculous manifestations (and those that Jesus' followers would later perform) are closely related to the preaching of the message of the Kingdom of God: they are intended as signs of power which attest to the veracity of the message.
Jesus shows a special and unusual concern for people who were socially marginal: he spoke with women (an unusual thing for a man to do with non-relatives) and even allowed them to attend his teachings, he had dealings with gentiles and Samaritans (who, although semitic, were on bad terms with Jews), and he was willing to deal with people who were ritually unclean, notably with lepers. His teachings likewise show a special concern with the poor.
It is clear throughout the Gospels that Jesus is making powerful enemies of the religious and civic leaders, because he is often critical of their actions and their hypocricies. The question that is on everyone's mind is one of who he is -- a prophet, a teacher, a revolutionary leader? These opinions are reflected in Mark 8:27-30 and its cognates in Mathew and Luke, and when Simon Peter says that who he really is is "the Christ, the son of God", (v. 30) Jesus indicates that this is something that could not have been figured out by human means, but must have been due to divine inspiration. However, we immediately see (Mark 8:31-37) that the real understanding of what it is to be the Christ is far different from what people (and even Peter and the other disciples) are expecting, which is a revolutionary leader who will re-establish the Kingdom of Israel. Jesus, however, says that he must die and rise on the third day. Jesus thus fails to fit into any of the possible models that were available to the minds of his contemporaries.
In the end, the religious leaders capture him, and attempt to bring witnesses to testify against him, eventually finding justification for killing him on grounds of blasphemy. However, as the Jewish leaders are not allowed to impose capital punishment themselves, they are forced to take him to the Roman representaive, Pontius Pilate, whom they eventually persuade to have Jesus crucified. He is tortured and then crucified on a hill outside the city. The Gospels report that at the hour of his death there was a darkness over the land (perhaps an eclipse), and the curtain of the Temple was torn in two. Jesus' body is taken down and laid in a tomb by a rich follower named Joseph of Arimathea, but the body cannot be enbalmed because it is the Sabbath, and so the tomb is closed and a guard is set. When Jesus friends return two days later, they find the tomb opened, and Jesus gone. Angels are reported as telling them that he has risen (Mark 16:1-8), and then over time various of his followers encounter him: first Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9-11) ,then to the twelve, (John 20:19-23) and later to even larger groups of disciples. (1Cor 15:6) This is reported to happen over a period of fifty days, at which time his followers see him ascend into heaven, and are promised that God's Holy Spirit will descend upon them as well, enabling them to carry on Jesus' work on Earth. (John 20; Acts 1:1-11)
Christianity is a religion centered around a message: the "good news" or gospel. The 20th century Christian writer C.S. Lewis once said that trouble moderns have in understanding the good news, is that the bad news that every pagan or Jew already knew has to be explained to them first. What he meant by this is that the Christian message that human beings are saved and redeemed from their sins in Jesus only makes sense against a background belief that our state is one we need to be saved from -- an idea that would have been immediately intelligible to first-century Jews and pagans, but may be somewhat foreign to modern ears.
Recall the centrality of the themes of righteousness, sin, atonement, and relationship with God in the Hebrew scriptures. The view of humanity that emerged there is that
(a) each of us commits individual transgressions against one another and against God, and hence we live in a world that is far less than what it might be,
(b) at a more fundamental level, each of us is inwardly corrupted -- the image of God has been distorted in us -- so that we cannot simply by our own design and will power act rightly from here on out, and
(c) this all leads either to a sinful life ending in a cessation of existence at death or, if we exist after death, getting the kind of afterlife a righteous person deserves seems pretty unlikely unless one has been extremely scrupulous and offered regular sacrifices for sins.
It is useful to distinguish the practical and the theological sides of the Gospel. In practical terms, the core of the Gospel message is that, in taking on a human nature, suffering and dying as one of us, and rising from the dead, God Himself has done something that allows us to be freed from the guilt of past sins (John 3:16; Romans 5:1-5; 1 Cor 15:3), cleansed from sin itself, and in the end, adopted as God's children (rather than merely being God's creatures) (John 1:12; 1John 3:1-3) and being transformed so that we are like him. (1John 3:1-3) In other words, something about this act of God's opens the door to ending both the separation between humanity and God that took place in the Fall (and which is experienced in our own lives), and to taking our fractured human nature and making it whole. However, there is an important component of human free will in all of this as well: this "salvation" is a "free gift" from God -- we cannot and need not earn it -- but we must actively receive it. (Perhaps the way one must go and pick up a gift left at the doorstep or held out to us by the giver.)
For practical purposes, this is all one need to know in order to become a Christian, and is all that is unambiguously and uncontroversially contained in the New Testament. (Theologically sophisticated readers may recognize me as an Anglican from this sentiment.) However, assigning a theological interpretation to this message of salvation has been a source of much disagreement (much of it violent) among Christians over the centuries.
Perhaps the most gentle and rationalistic interpretation is that in Jesus, God was showing us what He always is, and that this revelation in the God-man opened our eyes so that we could see that God wants to have a restored relationship with humanity and that He is loving and approachable, not simply thundering from the mountaintop, but willing to make himself vulnerable to our hands.
However, to many early Christians, influenced by the Jewish sacrificial tradition, in which animal blood was poured out for the absolution of human sin, Christ was seen as the perfect "Paschal lamb" -- the unblemished lamb used at the Passover feast, whose blood kept away the angel of death at the first passover. It is suggested, (Hebrews 9) for example, that continual animal sacrifices for individual sins could not provide a remedy for the human condition, but that God, living a perfect human life in Jesus, presented Himself as a perfect sacrifice for the whole world. This must have been a very powerful figure for people whose lives had revolved around blood sacrifices, though it may seem alien to the modern reader. (This does not, of course, mean that the lack lies in the ancient rather than in the modern reader!)
Others, both orthodox and heretical, have seen special meaning in the fact that God took on a human nature -- intermingled His nature with ours -- and in the process began to transform our nature so that it could be more like His. (Some writers have said that "He became human so that we might become divine". This theme of divinization of the believer is very powerful in Eastern Orthodox spirituality, though it should be cautioned that it is also at the root of some Christian heresies as well.) In Biblical terms, we are "grafted onto" Jesus, the root, like wild grapes grafted onto a grapevine. (In a modern variation of this, we might see this as the spiritual equivalent of exchanging DNA in a plant graft!)
What seems clear, though, is that the Christian message involves:
1) The assumption of a need for being saved and transformed and being set in a right relationship to God, and that we cannot do this on our own
2) The idea that, in Christ, God provided the conditions for this salvation, transformation and reconciliation (in particular, that Jesus' death and resurrection somehow open up this possibility)
3) A call to receive this freely-offered gift of salvation and reconciliation
4) A promise that God's own Holy Spirit will come to guide and strengthen us if we do this, and lead us in a process of being transformed and sanctified (made holy)
5) A call to cooperate in a new and amended life in Christ.
The Gospel and Moral Psychology
The New Testament contains little in the way of explicit psychological theory. Likewise what there is in discussion of what is good for humans tends to be in the form of practical exhortations. However, the New Testament does provide some central ideas that can inform a moral psychology.
1) Although humans are created in the image of God, our present state is one in which the image of God is distorted in us -- we are not only sinners, but we are people who are crippled by sin, and incapable of being wholly good. The diagnosis of the human moral condition is, if you will, a radical one: there is no human cure for it.
2) At the base of the problem is our individual relationship with God, which has been going wrong in humans ever since the Fall. (Or, if you prefer, this problem is symbolized in the story of the Fall.) Although human beings are given great freedom and dominion over the Earth, this is not enough: we reject God's sovereignty and do the things that are forbidden, and find out afterwards that there is good reason why they were forbidden. The primary sin is self-will, but we do not know how to root this out.
3) Love and self-will are opposites. [1 Cor 13] God shows us what true love and true power are in the maker of the universe becoming a poor iron age carpenter's boy, born in a stable, serving rather than being served, and enduring torture and death on a cross. This makes plain a fundamental choice: accept your inability to make yourself whole and receive God's free gift (and thereafter live a life of love), or continue to remain cut off in your own plans.
4) Receiving God's forgiveness can have a huge transforming effect here and now: both early Christians and many thereafter report that during this period there can be a huge turn-around in their lives in which they can give up bad habits, change personality traits, treat other people better, and be more joyous.
5) Early Christian experience taught, however, that one is not made perfect once and for all -- there is still a process of growth and transformation in which we need to cooperate, and this is often quite painful, and likened to carrying one's own cross up Calvary.
6) We are promised that in the resurrection we shall see God face to face -- a direct and intimate relationship -- and that this will transform us in a way we cannot imagine now. (1John 3:1-3)
7) Much as inner transformation may involve self-denial, Jesus said that he came that people might have abundant life and that their joy may be whole.
These principles are quite informal -- not in the form of a theory -- and are a mixture of diagnosis and therapy. They are concerned principally with the initial crucial stage of change -- receiving God's salvation. It would be left to later Christians to think more explicitly about the details of spiritual development and to talk about this in the form of an explicit psychology.