“There are many ways of studying the Scriptures. When the
reader comes to the bible with the sole aim of of securing spiritual guidance,
he will ponder it from a devotional point of view. His principal interest will
not be with questions of who wrote what and when certain events happened, but in
learning God’s message for him now.
Another approach is to study the Bible from a literary point of view.
The Old and New Testaments constitute a veritable library of sixty-six books which represent many types of literature---including law, history, sagas, poetry, prophecy, gospel and letters. A host of problems concerning authorship, date of composition, sources utilized and literary relationships demand attention.
Another approach is to study the Bible from a literary point of view.
The Old and New Testaments constitute a veritable library of sixty-six books which represent many types of literature---including law, history, sagas, poetry, prophecy, gospel and letters. A host of problems concerning authorship, date of composition, sources utilized and literary relationships demand attention.
A third method of studying the Bible emphasizes the historical
approach. It is not too much to say that every serious attempt to understand the
scriptures must be historically oriented. Only by being acquainted with the
political, social and religious background of the biblical era can the student
understand the allusions to the contemporary culture which the biblical writers
take for granted will be obvious to their readers.
It is the aim of the present volume, which was written at the
request of the council for Religion in Independent Schools , to supply basic
information concerning the content of The New Testament and important aspects of
its historical background, as well as to let the reader see something of the
critical processes by which scholars have sought to solve some of the chief
literary problems of the gospels. It would be out of place
in a book of this kind to advocate novel theories, whether historical, literary
or hermeneutical. On the contrary, the author has attempted to present a
balanced account that represents the consensus of the present day New Testament
scholarship.
