The fourth chapter of McGrath’s text, like the third chapter, offers an historical look at the development of the New Testament, as well as broad summary of its’ contents with a focus on Christ Jesus being the fulfillment of the Old Testament for both the Hebrew people of Israel and the gentile people of the world. Like the Old Testament, the New Testament was first presented as spoken word, and much was transmitted between people in that way at that time.
These texts were written at the end of the first century of the Common Era (CE) perhaps as a response to the deaths of those who knew Christ Jesus personally. The desire to collect and preserve the happenings of his life, to clearly identify him as the fulfillment of Hebrew prophecy and to offer concrete and specific methods whereby Christians could live their day-to-day lives being faithful to God is the reason for the New Testament. The New Testament is divided into a number of categories useful in understanding both the nature and content of each individual text within a particular place and set of circumstances. It’s important to realize that because these texts compile various stories shared in an oral tradition, they are not historical in our post-postmodern sense of that term, nor were these texts meant to be history by their authors. Instead, they are an opportunity to hand down to future generations what was considered essential in understanding who and what Christ Jesus represents to mankind and how salvation is achieved through grace as an unmerited gift of God.
What’s remarkable is that the order of the books in the New Testament are not indicative of when they were written, but rather ordered in a way that reflects how they may be used to teach the congregations of Christians about the faith for generations to come. The Acts of the Apostles were likely written in the late 50s or early 60s CE. The Epistles likewise were written around that same time. Only later were the Gospels compiled and written. The Gospel according to Mark was the first to be written in the late 60s CE, followed by both the Gospel according to Matthew and the Gospel according to Luke in the 70s CE. The last to be written was Gospel according to John in the 80s CE.
This means that approximately thirty years passed between the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus and the creation of the New Testament as written scripture. This makes sense, however, in that those who knew Christ Jesus personally were sharing by spoken word these same stories in various congregations as shown in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles. Only as these evangelists died, either of age or as martyr, was there a great need to commit to writing the spoken word.
It’s also interesting to note that the Gospel according to Mark may have been a primary source for the writers of the other Gospels along with various oral traditions known in the early church. In regard to intended audience – meaning the time, place and persons to which these texts were written – content is also unique to each of the Gospels. The Gospel according to Matthew was written for the benefit of Jewish Christians and stresses the continuity of between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Gospel according to Mark, however, was written for the benefit of Latin (Roman) gentiles and stresses that salvation is available to Jew and gentile alike. The Gospel according to Luke is written for the benefit of Hellenistic (Greek) gentiles and stresses the ethic of caring for the poor and disadvantaged. This fits with the lesser status of Hellenistic gentiles in the greater Roman Empire of that time when compared to their Roman overlords.
The Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles are concerned with the congregations of Christians seeded through apostolic evangelism and missionary work of early evangelists. Both Peter’s work to establish and grow the early church in Palestine and surrounding areas among the Jewish people is presented, along with Paul’s efforts to do the same among the gentiles in the Hellenistic east of the Roman Empire.
The Epistles follow in order to provide encouragement, guidance, resolve disputes and establish a more robust theology for the early church. Particularly important to the early church was Paul’s theology that by unmerited grace mankind is saved, rather than by action. This isn’t to dismiss the requirement for righteousness, but rather makes clear that salvation is a gift given freely by a loving God to a sinful mankind apart from any act or work. The importance of this was to open Christianity to gentiles as well as Jews.
The New Testament ends with the Revelation of John, which could be considered a mystic work whereby John shares his visions as a method to encourage believers to keep their faith even in the midst of growing Roman persecution. To me, this is the most misunderstood and misused text of the New Testament and receives far more attention from some Protestant churches fixated on preparing for the “end time” rather than on living the Christian life of agape love and charity.
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