1. Pharisaic Jew

2. Roman Culture- socially prominent

3. Hellenistic Culture- wrote in Koine Greek

4. Experience with Jesus- transformed his past life as Saul

• Romans
• I and II Corinthians
• Galatians
• Phillipians
• I Thessalonians
• Philemon

Ephesians 

Colossians 

II Thessalonians

I and II Timothy

Titus

Letters of... 

• Recomendation
• Consolation
• Paraenaetic Letter (moral instruction or advice)
• Friendship
• Apologetic

OUTLINE

• Gretting
• Thanksgiving & Prayer
• Body of letter
  • Teaching on an issue
  • Parenesis (Moral exhortation)
• Conclusion
  • Reinforce purpose
  • Travel plans
  • Regards & Benediction

• Style- similarities with other writings
  • vocab
  • sent length/structure
  • standard form used (thanksgiving,bless...)
• Theology-belief of Christ (law, eschatology, christology, ecclesiology)
• Ethics- how should ppl live?

writing a piece using someone elses name

...many think people signed paul's name, but Paul didn't actually write the book

• earliest writing in NT (~50 CE)
• Paul founded church on his 2nd missionary journey
• Sent Timothy back to check on church and wrote them from Corinth
• Thessalonica = capital of Roman province of Macedonia

• God as father
• Brothers and Sisters= other believers, new family in church
• Paul as a wet nurse= cares for them so much
• Paul as father

• Corinth= near Greece, site of Isthmian Games every 2 years
• Paul spends 18 months here on his second missionary journey
• Church has very diverse members 

1. Rivalries & Factions- unity amidst diversity
2. "Porneia" & Lawsuits- bodies belong to God, grace towards each other
3. Marriage, Divorce, Celibacy- singleness preferred by Paul, but marriage OK
4. Food sacrificed to idols- don't cause yourself or others to stumble, but OK if you eat with a clear conscience
5. Behavior of Christians in Assembly - worship should be orderly and build up others
6. Resurrection of Dead- Christ was raised and transformed

1. Ephesians
2. Philippians
3. Colossians
4. Philemon

• Thsi is God's Eternal Purpose
• Reconciliation (btwn humanity and God AND Jews and Gentiles)
• Unity
• Ethics
• New Life
• Household Codes
• Christians relation to society

• paterfamilia- man is head
• hierarchical and fixed
• Slaves could purchase freedom

Worshiped godess

*Paul might address woman as submissice because of the worship of Artemis

Pastoral Epistles

I and II Timothy

Titus

...most believe not written by Paul

• focused on woman and slaves not rocking boat socially (submission)
• Church structure reflecting 2nd century
• Church's purpose-preserve the faith

-1,2,3 John were probably written by a member of the Johannine community(students or scribes) near the end of the 1^st century.

-The author was probably not the same person who wrote the Gospel of John, but his theological views are very similar.

Communities experiencing strife and division-calls his readers both to doctrinal and behavioral faithfulness.

• -Does the Gospel of Thomas use an independent source or rely on the Synoptic gospels?
• -Could some of these sayings be closer to the way Jesus actually expressed himself?
• -Could some of the sayings not found in the Synoptic gospels be authentic sayings of Jesus?
• -Is the entire collection from the 1^st century or was it compiled much later in the 2^nd century?

-Discovered at Nag Hammandi(in Egypt, type of Christianity)-different than the dead sea scrolls found in the Mediterranean and the group that found those were not Christian, they were Jewish

-No narratives or stories of Jesus

-No references to the actions of Jesus

-No reference to death or resurrection

-Collection of 114 sayings

-No context or order

-Makes sense in gnostic context

Characteristics of Gnosticism

-emphasizing knowledge (Gr. Gnosis) as a way of salvation.

-Dualism-material world evil, spiritual world good. God is completely spirit and no direct connection with world.

-Material world a result of disaster. Elements of divine trapped in human bodies.

-Divine sparks can only be set free by getting secret knowledge (Gnosis) of who they are and how they can return to their heavenly home.

-Christ in Gnostic religions is a divine being who came to earth to reveal this saving knowledge to those with the divine spark.

-True Gnostics are opposed to this material world and live ascetic lives so as not to be enslaved to it.

-or, Gnostic believe what they do in the material world does not affect their spirituality.

Good...lets the meaning of the text come through; reading out of the text what's there adn trying to understand the meaning in historical context.

"What text meant"

How do we interpret the meaning of texts today

"what text means"

1. Chronological/Historical-scholars- understanding meaning to 1st readers
2. Futurist-media- all Rev. is abotu future so look at what it means for our future
3. Symbolic- try to understand symbols and how they apply to ppl in history
4. Canonical- "rule and standard" in NT; why is it last book in NT

Characteristics of Apocolyptic

emphasis on...

• angels
• esoteric- mystery to be solved
• determinism- end already decided
• numbers
• beasts & animals
• nearness to the end
• pseudonymous
• symbolism
• pessimism-world controlled by evil
• optimism-good will prevail in end

Emperor who was called "Lord" and "God"

-emperor during mid 90s when Revelation was probably written

the lifting of the veil

...something being revealed

Audience in Revelation = 7 churches in Asia Minor

1. Ephesus
2. Smyrna
3. Pergamos
4. Thyatira
5. Sardis
6. Philadelphia
7. Laodicea

• precise #s, not rounded
• mystery- whats #s significance?
• 4,7,12 (repition and sacredness shows God-centered cosmos)

• Explanatory- why world is way it is
• Imaginative- creates alternative world where good triumphs
• Therapeutic- control of destructive feelings
• Transformative- reworks experience of reality... hang in there

Decisions based on principles or values (Religious Views)

...i will NEVER lie

Hay's ideas to help with making decisions

1. Cross- Jesus as example for God's faithfulness
2. Community- church comes before individual
3. New Creation- church embodies power of ressurection in midst of a not-yet-redeemed world

• Paul was a tentmaker
• Ministered in large urban centers
• wrote letters in his absence

Procedure Jewish men needed to complete to be considered Jews

Essenes

Belief that physical body is evil and human souls don't belong in material world, need to have a revelation from heavenly light.

Opposed the canon

says Mark was first because it's the shortest and worst written.

...not believed to be true anymore

synoptics use this image, but John uses Jesus as representation of the kingdom