{"id":69466,"date":"2019-01-22T00:17:46","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T07:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=69466"},"modified":"2019-02-01T14:57:42","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T21:57:42","slug":"69466","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/01\/69466.html","title":{"rendered":"New Testament Note 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Codex<\/a>
The end of the Gospel of Luke and the beginning of the Gospel of John in the fourth-century Codex Vaticanus \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to revisit my occasional commentary on the New Testament. \u00a0I\u2019ll take it slowly and in small snippets, and I plan to go through all\u00a0four gospels and the book of Acts.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t be doing the gospels one by one, but, rather, in \u201charmony,\u201d using as the basis for my divisions of material Kurt Aland, ed., Synopsis of the Four Gospels: Greek-English Edition of the Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum<\/em>, 14th ed. (Stuttgart: German Bible Society, 2009). \u00a0The numbers in the titles of my posts in this series will refer to the sections of that publication.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll make no pretense of completeness. \u00a0I don\u2019t have anything remotely like the time that a full commentary would require. \u00a0I\u2019ll simply pick up something of interest in each section, hoping that at least some out there will find what I have to say of interest or of use.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So now I begin:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matthew 1:1<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark 1:1<\/a><\/p>\n

Luke 1:1-4<\/a><\/p>\n

John \u00a01:1-18<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matthew begins fairly abruptly, announcing that it will give the genealogy of Jesus.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark announces \u201cThe beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God\u201d \u2014 providing the first Christian occurrence of that important word gospel<\/em>. \u00a0Or, more properly, of the Greek word euangelion <\/em>[<\/em>\u03b5\u1f50\u03b1\u03b3\u03b3\u03ad\u03bb\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd] \u2014<\/em>\u00a0which is\u00a0the source of such English words as evangelist<\/em> and evangelical<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gospel<\/em>, of course, is a modern English rendering of the Old English god-spell<\/em>, or \u201cgood news,\u201d which is a calque (a literal, word-for-word translation) of the Greek\u00a0\u03b5\u1f50\u03b1\u03b3\u03b3\u03ad\u03bb\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd, which also means \u201cgood news.\u201d \u00a0Eu-<\/em> is a Greek prefix signifying \u201cgood\u201d \u2014 think of English words such as euphoria<\/em> (from the Greek phero<\/em>, \u201cto bear\u201d), eulogy<\/em> (good speech), euphemism<\/em> (good saying), eugenics<\/em> (good birth), and\u00a0euthanasia<\/em> (good death) \u2014 while the -angelion<\/em> comes from the Greek equivalent of English\u00a0\u201cmessage\u201d or \u201cnews,\u201d as does the word angel<\/em> (\u201cmessenger\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luke begins with a rather\u00a0academic-sounding prologue or preface, signifying serious historical intent and method with its reference to \u201ceyewitnesses\u201d (autoptai<\/em>, literally something like \u201cown eyes\u201d). \u00a0This is very important. \u00a0The author of Luke\u00a0was, plainly, well educated, and the gospel of Luke is written in the manner of ancient Greek historiography.\u00a0 \u00a0(For a brief review, by Noel Reynolds, of an extraordinarily interesting book on \u201ceyewitnesses\u201d and the four gospels, see this item<\/a> in the more-or-less suppressed real first issue of the Mormon Studies Review.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, entire books could be written (and have been written) on the prologue to John\u2019s gospel. \u00a0I\u2019ll content myself here with observing that\u00a0John 1:1-14 can be read as a kind of Christmas or Nativity story. Around the time of Jesus and John, Jewish thinkers (notably Philo of Alexandria) were using the term logos<\/em> (\u201cword\u201d) to describe an intermediary between humans and the Most High God. That\u2019s also the term used in\u00a0John 1:1, though its meaning is far richer than the English word<\/em> suggests. \u00a0It can mean reason<\/em>, speech<\/em>, logic<\/em>, rationality<\/em>, cosmic order<\/em>, discussion<\/em> or council<\/em>, and many other things besides. \u00a0At Faust<\/em> 1.1.889, in fact, the German poet J. W. von Goethe famously translated it as Tat<\/em> (or, in English, deed<\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For more than 2,000 years, the Christian message has been that, in Jesus, this divine intermediary came to Earth and dwelt among us.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There. \u00a0That\u2019s a bit longer than I typically intend to go on. \u00a0But it\u2019s a beginning.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 It\u2019s time to revisit my occasional commentary on the New Testament. \u00a0I\u2019ll take it slowly and in small snippets, and I plan to go through all\u00a0four gospels and the book of Acts. \u00a0 I won\u2019t be doing the gospels one by one, but, rather, in \u201charmony,\u201d using as the basis for my divisions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3112,1098,3016,3109,2974,3106,2977,2625,3007],"class_list":["post-69466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-eyewitness","tag-gospel","tag-john","tag-logos","tag-luke","tag-mark","tag-matthew","tag-new-testament","tag-new-testament-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Testament Note 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    It\u2019s time to revisit my occasional commentary on the New 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