This is a review of historical backgrounds from the Old Testament and the intertestamental period which are important for understanding the New Testament.  It relates to the first five chapters in Stephen L. Harris, The New Testament:  A Student's Introduction, 5th ed. (Boston:  McGraw-Hill, 2005).  I appreciate very much the insights into the New Testament which a number of people have given me, especially 

• Joe Reiff and Jim Dawsey of Emory & Henry; 
• David St. Clair of Chilhowie United Methodist Church; 
• Nils Dahl, Paul Minear, and Paul Schubert of Yale;
• Victor Furnish and William Farmer of SMU; and
• Heinz-Dieter Knigge and Hans Conzelmann of Göttingen.  

    Each of these persons has shared with me very helpful insights into how we can express the eternal Word in our ordinary human words.  The picture above is of a synagogue in Capernaum, on the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus spent much of his time during his ministry.

   In all my review programs, key names are red, key concepts are blue, key places and groups are green, and key dates and festivals are pink.  You can study for a test most effectively by going through the program a couple of times before the test.  The material is not new; it is already in your textbook and class notes.  I hope this summary is helpful for you!

EARLY HEBREW HISTORY 

    A good starting point for our historical review is the story of Abraham & Sarah.  They were called by God to leave their homeland, the fertile Euphrates River civilization.  Now they were like a Methodist preacher's family, moving from place to place -- mostly around the land of Canaan (later known as Israel or Palestine).  When they were very old, messengers from God told them that they'd better go to Wal-Mart and buy diapers and a crib, because they were going to have a baby.  Sarah laughed when she heard this, because she was 90 years old!  But nine months later she had a boy, whom they named Yitzhak, meaning "Ha-Ha" or "Laughter."  If you just say the Hebrew name aloud, it sounds like laughter!  We usually transliterate it into English in a funny way, Isaac, with two a's together and only one s.  Yitzhak is a popular name in Israel today.  After the baby was born, Sarah said, "God has brought joy and laughter.  Everybody who hears about this will laugh with me!" (Genesis 21:6)

    The age of the patriarchs and matriarchs was the time of Abraham & Sarah, Isaac & Rebekah, Jacob & Rachel, and Joseph & Asenath.  Joseph & who?  Betcha never heard of Asenath!  She was an Egyptian P.K. (Priest's Kid) in Heliopolis (Sun City, Egypt).  Asenath married Joseph, a poor Hebrew boy who had risen to become a government official in Egypt.  Joseph invited the rest of his family to come to Egypt and settle down.  That included his father Jacob, eleven brothers, and their families and kinfolks.  

    For a few centuries, Hebrew descendants of Joseph and his brothers, the twelve Israelite tribes, lived together in peace with the Egyptians.  They even Walked Like the Egyptians!  But eventually friction arose.  Since the Hebrews were a minority group, they ended up being treated harshly by the Egyptians.  They were almost slaves, forced to work on the hardest construction projects.  Rather than earning a lot of money, as some E&H students do on summer construction jobs, the Hebrews were paid subsistence wages.  And they couldn't quit.  

    Moses was sent by God to lead his people out of Egypt to the Promised Land of Israel.  Moses had grown up in Egypt, but his call came while he was living out in the wilderness as a shepherd.  His religious experience occurred when he was looking at a thorn-bush that seemed to be on fire but didn't burn up.  There God called him to tell Pharaoh Ramses II, the King of Egypt, "Let my people go!"  Moses' right to lead his people out of Egypt was not easily won.  He had to prove himself in a series of challenges against the Pharaoh.  The final contest led to Passover, a celebration of mingled joy and sadness still observed by Jews and Christians.

    The Hebrews also had to cross a body of water often called the Red Sea, but probably identified more accurately as the Reed Sea, a swampy lake which is an extension of the Red Sea.  They made their way to Mount Sinai.  It had been identified as a holy mountain by Midianites such as Moses' wife Zipporah, who was a P.K. like Joseph's wife.  There at Mt. Sinai, Moses received a special set of covenant laws for the Hebrews.  We call them the Ten Commandments.  You probably remember most or all of the Ten Commandments.  Eight of them were negative, indicating that the Hebrews were free to make their own ethical decisions, with only these few limitations.  Only two were positive, specific things which all Hebrews must do.  One was to  preserve the holiness of the Sabbath, and we'll see how important that commandment was in the New Testament period.  The Sabbath became a cornerstone of the covenant between God and the Hebrews.  It was the seventh day of the week, celebrated from Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown.  Jews and Seventh-day Adventist Christians still observe the Sabbath.  Most other Christians use the term Sabbath to refer to Sunday, in commemoration of Jesus' resurrection on Sunday.  The other positive commandment was to honor one's parents -- that too has been central in Jewish tradition throughout history.

THE LAND OF ISRAEL

    After many years of preparation in the Sinai wilderness, the Hebrew people were ready to enter Canaan -- the land which God had promised to Abraham that he would give to Abraham's descendants some day.  Moses chose his successor, Joshua, to lead the Hebrews across the Jordan River.  It took quite a few years and a number of battles for the Hebrews to establish places for themselves.  But eventually they controlled major areas of Canaan and called the land Israel, after one of the founding fathers of the nation, Jacob, who had been given the name Isra-El, meaning "wrestler with God."  

    What kind of government would they have?  They tried a confederacy of twelve tribes, tracing the tribal structure back to Jacob's twelve sons.  The main political leaders were called judges, and they included outstanding people such as Deborah and Gideon.  But the confederacy couldn't last; it just wasn't strong enough.  The people wanted a monarchy, and finally a wise leader named Samuel anointed the first king of the Hebrews:  Saul.  Even though Saul wasn't as important or as good a king as David or Solomon, he had a much harder job -- he was the very first Hebrew king!  Everybody was watching to see if he would succeed or fail.  Saul was a very able ruler in many ways.  But he also had times of deep depression, and then only music could soothe him.  I don't mean rock videos on MTV, but mood music played on a harp by a young giant-killer named David.

    After Saul's death in battle, David became his successor.  The period when David was king was a time of prosperity which was considered by many Hebrews in later years as the Golden Age of the Israelites.  In fact, people hoped that someday that age would be restored.  They longed for a king who would be chosen by God and anointed with oil the way David was anointed by Samuel.  That future king would be called Messiah, "the Anointed One."  The New Testament Greek translation of that Hebrew word is Christ.  Handel's Messiah beautifully portrays this hope, which Christians believe was fulfilled in Jesus.  You may have heard the E&H Concert Choir sing some beautiful and powerful selections from the Messiah in concert.

    Why was David so great?  It's not that he was a saint!  The biblical writers don't censor his life story.  They show not only his heroic deeds, but also the ways in which he sometimes looked like "the Godfather"!  They tell how he got married as often as Elizabeth Taylor.  Yet the Bible also shows how close David was to God:  he confessed his sins and sought God's forgiveness and guidance.  David expanded the boundaries of the kingdom.  He carried out more building projects than a politician up for reelection.  He had the wisdom to move the capital to Jerusalem, a place in between North and South, like Washington, D.C.  But David was unable to build one particular edifice which he felt could be important for the whole nation:  the Temple.  David left the building of the Temple to his son Solomon, who worked with carpenters, masons, and other craftspersons to produce a magnificent house of worship.  Eventually religious leaders declared the Temple in Jerusalem to be the only place in the whole world where Jewish priests could offer sacrifices to God.

    After the death of Solomon, the North seceded from the Union.  For the next couple of centuries, there were two Hebrew nations:

• the northern kingdom of Israel, which included the territory of the ten northernmost tribes and had its capital at Samaria; and
• the southern kingdom of Judah, which included the territory of two tribes and had its capital at Jerusalem.

THE PROPHETS

    It was during this time that some of the greatest Hebrew prophets arose.  A prophet wasn't just a fortune-teller or seer, one who predicted the future.  Rather, a prophet proclaimed God's message of what the future would be, if people didn't change.  The possibility of change was always part of the basic message of every prophet.  Among the most significant prophets were Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea.  

    The prophets often had to use dramatic ways to get their message across.  Isaiah confronted the King of Judah during a siege and gave him a cryptic message about Immanuel ("God is with us") to strengthen the king's courage.  Amos was a Southerner who went up to Yankeeland and told the "religious" people how they were failing to practice justice, no matter how religious they were.  Hosea did something even stranger than Isaiah or Amos.  He wanted to show the people that even though they had been unfaithful to God, nevertheless God would forgive them and give them another chance.  So Hosea married a woman who was unfaithful to him.  When she committed adultery, Hosea urged their children to help bring her back to her wedding vows.  Finally she ran away from home and ended up on the slave market, but Hosea bought her back and gave her still another chance.  All this wasn't just to make Hosea look like a wimp.  Rather, it was to exhibit a tender characteristic which is basic to God:  love!  Not only in the prophets, but also in the New Testament, love is a central attribute of God.  Paul writes that it is the greatest of a triad of faith, hope, and love.  God's covenant love means that he stands by us even when we fail.  Hosea and the other prophets didn't say that God is weak or wishy-washy.  God judges, but God also forgives.  That is at the heart of the Bible!

    The prophets helped to prepare the Hebrews for a very difficult time.  The ten northern tribes of Israel were taken into captivity and scattered all over the Middle East, throughout the Assyrian Empire.  In effect, they ceased to exist as a people.  A few were left around Samaria, and they were forced to intermarry with colonists who were brought in to resettle the area.  About a century later, most of the people in the southern kingdom of Judah were taken into captivity also.  But Jeremiah and others had prepared them to accept the Exile and see meaning in it.  They were kept in a prisoner-of-war camp near Babylon, on the Euphrates River, in what we now call Iraq.  Since they were from Judah, we can from this point call them Jews, and their religion Judaism.  

    The most powerful poetry in the Bible was written during the Babylonian Exile by an anonymous prophet.  His beautiful poems were attached to the scroll of Isaiah's prophecies, so we usually call him Second Isaiah.  His message was one of comfort, pardon, and deliverance.  He said that God would use the nation of Persia, also known as Iran, to set the Jewish refugees free, so that they could return to their homeland.  Second Isaiah's prophecies were fulfilled when the Persian Empire defeated the Babylonian Empire and liberated the hostages.  Persian rulers even gave money to help many Jews return to Judah and rebuild their homes and Temple.  This was part of the official policy of the Persian Empire in freeing prisoners of war.

AFTER THE BABYLONIAN EXILE

    Once the Jewish people got back home, life wasn't just a piece of cake.  There was a lot of hard work to do.  As we see in pictures of areas destroyed by war (as in modern Iraq), homes can be so devastated that people don't know where to start in rebuilding them.  It took many years even to get the city walls of Jerusalem rebuilt, and older people cried when they saw how shabby the new Temple looked, in contrast to the magnificent Temple built by Solomon centuries earlier. 

    But through the work of leaders like Ezra and Nehemiah, the Jewish people were again a nation with a capital and a central house of worship.  They had a hymnal:  the Psalms sponsored by David, expanded, and sung over the years.  They had Proverbs, sayings about life which would form collections of wisdom literature. 

    One more thing was needed:  a book which would be the basic guide for the Jewish people.  Such a book was adopted by the priests and ratified by all.  The book was actually written on a scroll.  A replica of the scroll now occupies the place of honor in any Jewish synagogue.  When not in use in worship, it is kept in a wall niche reserved for the scroll.  This basic book of Jewish law is called in Hebrew the Torah ("Law"), or in Greek the Pentateuch ("Five Scrolls":  Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).  It was accepted by the people in the courtyard of the Temple, at a very unlikely-sounding place:  Water Gate Square!  That event is celebrated by Jews today as the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles, and booths are built in homes and synagogues all over the world.  I took the photo below of a Torah in an underground Jewish synagogue in Jerusalem, down below the holy site where Solomon's Temple once stood.

    In the centuries following the adoption of the Torah, other important books were written, which like Psalms and Proverbs became part of the Jewish scriptures.  These miscellaneous books, which became very popular, are known as the Writings.  The most powerful book in all of the Writings, Job, deals with the question of fairness:  why do good people have to endure all kinds of suffering and tragedy, while bad guys seem to get along great?  The name of this book is pronounced like the Jobe plant spikes that fertilize trees.

    Another book of the Bible, Ruth, shows a more positive approach to suffering than that of Job.  Naomi, the heroine of the story, was a woman who, like Job, had lost her children and her fortune.  But she had also lost her husband, and she was living in a foreign country, with no close relatives -- only her two daughters-in-law.  She decided to return home to Bethlehem, urging her two widowed daughters-in-law to go back to their homes and remarry.  One did.  But the other young woman, Ruth, made one of the most beautiful statements in the whole Bible, which has become a model of loving commitment.  I'll quote it in the familiar King James Version of Ruth 1:16.

    "Entreat me not to leave thee,
        or to return from following after thee,
    For whither thou goest, I will go;
        and where thou lodgest, I will lodge;
    Thy people shall be my people,
        and thy God my God.

    Naomi and Ruth came to Bethlehem with little hope left in life.  In fact, Naomi's greetings to her old friends were just about as bitter and discouraged as Job's complaints to his friends.  But that didn't stop her from trying.  She felt that God was with her, even though her life hadn't turned out very well.  Naomi proposed a somewhat sneaky plan to find Ruth a husband, by making him feel guilty about not taking good care of his kinfolks.  And it worked!  Rather than wallowing in self-pity, Naomi set some goals for herself and kept working at them until she succeeded. 

    Nine months after wedding bells rang for Ruth and her husband Boaz, a child was born who would be the ancestor of the greatest Hebrew king who ever lived.  Bethlehem would be known as his city too.  Here are some hints:  the Messiah was expected to come from his family tree.  He was pretty handy with a slingshot.  Yes, that king was David.  My mother Naomi and my grandmother Naomi would be proud of him!  In fact, Naomi's city of Bethlehem came to be known as the City of David.  Dr. Ben Letson has a daughter named Naomi -- a beautiful name in English and Japanese, as well as Hebrew!

THE GRECO-ROMAN WORLD

    The city of Bethlehem links the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Around the 300's B.C., when the Book of Ruth was probably written, many Jews hoped for the Messiah, a descendant of David, to come from Bethlehem and lead his people.  But that wouldn't be easy, because the Jews were caught up in the power politics of the Greco-Roman world at that time.  So let's talk about the Greco-Roman world.

    The main goal of both the Greek and the Roman empires was unity.  For centuries, great nations had fought with each other for domination of the Middle East.  Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, and other empires had sought to establish themselves.  Each had flourished for a time, proclaimed itself eternal, and then dwindled away.  But then the Greeks moved into a position of dominance.  To provide worldwide unity, they accepted the leadership of Alexander the Great.  He saw himself as the savior of the world, and the nickname "the Great" describes his own self-image.  

    But Alexander's "one world" did not survive his death.  His two main generals, Ptolemy and Seleucus, ended up dividing his empire between them.  Ptolemy took Egypt, with its beautiful cultural center of Alexandria.  Seleucus took Syria, with its capital of Antioch.  As usual, the Jews were in the buffer zone, caught in between two great empires.  The Jewish people were able to conform to some of the Greek laws and customs, but others caused them tremendous ethical and religious problems.  

    Which Greek empire do you think demanded stricter obedience:  Egyptian or Syrian? 

If you thought Egyptian:  no, the Egyptian or Ptolemaic Empire was pretty lenient.  It tried to convince people of the superiority of the Greek way of life, using reason.  But it tolerated Jewish customs and even produced the Septuagint, a major translation of the Jewish scriptures into Greek at Alexandria. 

The Seleucids or Syrian Greeks were the most demanding.  They tried to abolish Jewish customs and force people into a fully Greek way of life.  The most demanding Seleucid emperor was Antiochus IV, who took his throne name from the capital city of Antioch.  His nickname, Epiphanes, meaning "God incarnate," shows how he felt about himself!

    The next major Middle Eastern power was the Roman Empire.  It succeeded in taking over some of the best that the Greeks had done, in both cultural and political achievements.  The Romans added their own cultural and political accomplishments and produced a new combination.  For example, Greek deities were blended together with Roman deities, called by either name, and worshipped in order to obtain the benefits available under both cultures.  Hybrid philosophies were developed, incorporating insights about the meaning of life from both Greek and Roman history. 

    This phenomenon of melting together diverse religious beliefs and practices is called syncretism.  The Greek word SUN, syn-, like the name of the E&H sorority, means "together."  Syncretism has occurred again and again, when cultures have encountered each other.  For instance, Christians took over pagan symbols such as the Christmas tree and mistletoe, and they gave these symbols new meanings for Christianity.

    The mystery religions are important because a number of Christians were members of them before they became Christians.  The name "mystery" points to the secrecy of their teachings and rituals.  Many of the people in these groups were concerned with the mysteries of life and death:  how we can gain immortality, why there are seasons of "dying and rising" in agriculture, and how we can produce more crops or children. 

    The earth-goddess in charge of all vegetation was known as Demeter or Ceres.  The word "cereal" (as in Kellogg's Corn Flakes) comes from Ceres, because she was especially concerned with grain.  She shared her joy with the whole earth each year when her daughter Persephone was permitted to live with her above ground, and that was the growing season.  She mourned and cried when Persephone had to return to the underworld, and her tears marked the long, rainy winter, which would eventually bring life out of death and start the cycle all over again. 

    There were many other great goddesses in the Greco-Roman world:  goddesses of wisdom, such as Isis and Minerva; and goddesses of love and fertility such as Venus, Aphrodite, and Diana.

    In addition to the mystery religions, there were a number of Greek philosophies which were very important during New Testament times.  Perhaps the greatest philosopher in the world's history was Socrates.  His motto, "know thyself," is in Greek on my office door.  Socrates tried to help people look inside themselves and search out the basic questions about life.  But his searching questions, with no easy answers, made a lot of people irritated with him.  They felt that he was corrupting the youth.  He ought to stick with teaching the right ideas, and leave all those questions alone. 

Socrates was considered by many to be so annoying that he was compared to an insect.  Was he a bee, a wasp, or a horsefly?  

If you thought bee, you've confused Socrates with Hamlet, who is famous for his soliloquy on bees ("To bee or not to bee, that is the question"). 

If a wasp buzzed into your consciousness, you were thinking of the mascot for Emory & Henry. 

No, Socrates considered himself a gadfly, like the kind of fly that pesters a horse or cow, so that the animal swishes its tail to get rid of it.  But Socrates' questions were so important that they wouldn't go away -- people couldn't get rid of him easily!  In fact, through the writings of his disciple Plato, we're still trying to answer those same questions 2,400 years later!  The New Testament writers have used Socrates' and Plato's methods and concepts to express some of the truths of the Christian faith in very beautiful ways.

    Another philosophy which was used by New Testament writers was Stoicism.  It took its name from the stoas, long porches with Greek columns, like those on the front of Wiley Hall, Carriger, and McGlothlin-Street Hall.  Stoic philosophers liked to stand around in these porticos and talk about the meaning of life, just as you see people at Carriger standing around discussing great thoughts! 

    One of the most important concepts which the Stoics gave us was the idea of a cosmic intelligence, reason, or purpose that permeates the universe, giving it order and harmony.  Our souls are sparks from this essence, which is often compared with fire, because of its ethereal qualities.  Stoics called this universal principle of reason Logos, which can be translated "Reason" or "Word."  Our English word "logic" is derived from it.  The Logos is present everywhere, especially in our own intellect.  That's what enables us to be aware of "the harmony of the spheres," the basic ordering principles of the universe.  Once we fully recognize this, we don't have to worry about what appears to be chaotic or accidental; all is part of a great pattern.  We simply need to get ourselves in tune with this universal rhythm.

    Another major philosophy in the Greco-Roman world was Epicureanism.  Its founder, Epicurus, taught that everything consists of tiny bits of matter, which he called atoms.  Rather than living in the illusion that there are non-material realities, Epicurus urged his followers to enjoy the physical pleasures of life.  They shouldn't get involved in useless pursuits like politics. 

According to Epicureanism, which of these has no reality:  body, soul, or mind?

If you said body:  no, the body is made up of atoms.  It has reality, although its reality is only temporary and ceases to exist at death. 

If you said soul:  no, the soul is made up of atoms just like the body.  After death, it dissolves into nothingness, just like the body. 

If you said mind:  no, the mind is simply a product of our physical self.  It's not part of an ultimate cosmic intelligence, as the Stoics thought.  And it will cease to exist at death.  But during our lifetime, our mind is real. 

The correct answer is none of these!  Each of these -- body, soul, and mind -- has reality, although each is a temporary reality, linked to the atoms that give us individuality.  You can see how close the Epicureans were to twentieth-century existentialists like Camus and Sartre.  Their ideas were so convincing that Christian missionaries like Paul sometimes had to debate them in public!   

THE JEWISH WORLD

    Now let's turn to the Jewish world.  Looking back at their history, it was hard for the Jewish people in the 2nd century B.C. to be satisfied.  During the Golden Age of David and Solomon, they had enjoyed peace and prosperity.  They had been free to worship God.  But now the Seleucids, the Syrian Greek rulers, led by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, were trying to eliminate Judaism.  They considered it a primitive superstition.  Emperor Antiochus prohibited Sabbath worship, circumcision, and use of the Torah.  He also ordered Jews to sacrifice pigs to Zeus in the Jerusalem Temple! 

    The end to Seleucid rule came when a revolt against the Syrian Greeks was led by a freedom fighter named Judas and nicknamed Maccabeus, "The Hammer."  His supporters and fellow soldiers, the Maccabees, succeeded in liberating the Jewish people and reestablishing an independent nation.  They celebrated their victory with a festival known as Hanukkah, marking the purification and rededication of the Temple.  It is also known as the Feast of Lights, and it comes about the same time as Christmas each year.

    After a century of independence, the Jewish people found themselves under foreign rule again.  This time they were absorbed into the Roman Empire.  Herod the Great was one of the most powerful rulers appointed over the province of Palestine by the Romans.  He accomplished a lot in the way of building projects, including the reconstruction of the Jerusalem Temple.  But Herod was so paranoid about his power that he was constantly suspicious of any possible threats to his rule.  Some later Roman governors, such as Pontius Pilate, also used harsh tactics to enforce their rule.

    A new Jewish liberationist movement, called the Zealots because of the zeal (enthusiasm) which they brought to their cause, tried to walk in the footsteps of the Maccabees.  They launched a war against Rome and won popular support.  The war began in 66 A.D., Roman legions invaded Jerusalem and destroyed much of the city, including the Temple, in 70 A.D., and the last remnants of the opposition were wiped out by 73 A.D.  The Roman army got to the top of the last Zealot stronghold, Masada, and looked down from it toward the Dead Sea in the distance, as I did when I took this photograph :

    The soldiers could even see the rock outlines of their barracks (lower left) where they had lived for years, building ramps up the mountain.  But almost all 960 of the remaining Zealots -- men, women, and children -- had committed suicide rather than being taken captive by the Romans.  A second Zealot war against Rome in the 130's A.D., after New Testament times, was also a failure.

    One key question in Judaism during the New Testament period was how to interpret Jewish law.  Two groups were very important in dealing with this issue:  Sadducees and Pharisees.  The Sadducees were very conservative; they followed only those laws and doctrines which were found in the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).  The Pharisees went far beyond the written law and developed a number of interpretations which we call the oral Torah. 

    Both groups were trying to live in accordance with God's will, but they disagreed on how to determine God's will.  No scripture (Bible, or what we usually call "Old Testament") had yet been formally adopted.  However, the Torah was considered the most important of all Jewish writings.  In the Torah, there is no mention of the concept of resurrection, being raised from the dead to live again.  When a person died, the friends and relatives gave thanks to God for the gift of life which that person enjoyed.  There was no expectation of an eternal life.  So as you can guess, the Sadducees rejected any doctrine, such as resurrection, which wasn't in the Torah.  "The Torah was good enough for Moses, so it's good enough for us!"  The Pharisees, on the other hand, were willing to accept the belief, found in writings and oral traditions just before the New Testament period, that God grants us new life after death.

    The Essenes were one of the most intriguing of all Jewish groups during New Testament times.  They were not Christians, and apparently they never met Jesus.  But in some ways their small community at Qumran, on the edge of the Dead Sea, was like a lot of Christian communities.  The Essenes lived in "cells," about the size of the rooms in Hillman Hall.  They came together in the dining hall to eat and to talk about their religious beliefs.  Their whole mood was one of expectation, as they waited for the coming of not one, but two Messiahs! 

    Essenes also studied the scriptures and tried to apply them to their own time -- they studied the Torah and later writings such as prophets and Psalms.  They wrote down their interpretations on long scrolls, which we call the Dead Sea Scrolls.  You can see some of those original scrolls, from the time of Jesus, in a museum in Jerusalem today.

    This concludes our review of the historical foundations for New Testament study.  I hope that this program has been useful for you.  If you have any suggestions or comments which would help me to improve the program, please let me know.  Thanks!  If you like, you can send me e-mail: fkellogg@ehc.edu

To look at one of my other syllabi, or to review a unit in a different course, go to my Home Page.  

To review a different unit in the New Testament course, go directly to one of the following:

    Unit 2, The Gospels
    Unit 3, Paul
    Unit 4, Epistles and Revelation

If you prefer, you may return to the Emory & Henry College Home Page.

Last updated:  February 11, 2008