NT502 CA Interpreting the New Testament Instructor: Gerry Wheaton June 1 Aug 20 Weekend meetings: June 3-4; July 22-23; Aug

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1 NT502 CA Interpreting the New Testament Instructor: Gerry Wheaton June 1 Aug 20 Weekend meetings: June 3-4; July 22-23; Aug Purpose of the course To lay a strong foundation of knowledge and skills for a lifetime of detailed, careful, and fruitful study of the New Testament for ministry of many kinds. A wide range of gifts, callings, and ministries are represented among students in this course. The hope and expectation is that by furnishing a broad foundation for responsible, fruitful and rich study of the New Testament, the course will enable students to adapt the knowledge and skills acquired to the particular needs and demands of the ministry they pursue. Primary emphases The course is structured around the epistle of 1 Thessalonians. Students will be introduced to several important steps in the exegetical process in a way which combines abstract reflection on the concepts in view as well as immediate application of the skills sought through analysis of 1 Thessalonians. By the conclusion of the course, and in addition to having gained a basic understanding of how to exegete a NT passage, students will have mastered the Greek text of the entire book of 1 Thessalonians and gained considerable insight into the historical setting, cultural backdrop, Old Testament influence, and theological contours of this earliest epistle of Paul s. (This would make for a wonderful sermon, Sunday school, or Bible study series beginning in September!) Needless to say, a busy minister (in whatever ministry) cannot spend three months working through the exegesis of a single passage! Naturally, however, the process of initially acquiring and refining the exegetical skills that will root one s ministry more truly in Scripture require greater time than will be necessary to utilize them going forward in one s ministry. The course structured around three primary areas: (1) how to approach a book for extended study, reflection, and teaching; (2) how to exegete an individual passage of Scripture; (3) how to

2 interpret and appropriate the passage in a way that speaks truthfully and prophetically into the contemporary Church and society. The bulk of instruction, reading, and assigned work will focus upon the second of these (the exegetical process) since this is the most difficult area for beginning studennts. However, the first of these foci is important for establishing the fundamental historical and literary context within which every passage of the book must be exegeted, and the third focus (interpretation) is at once the most difficult and the most important step in the process since it determines the conclusions one finally draws from one s study of Scripture. Hard work and reflection at this last step cannot be neglected without short-circuiting the process by which Scripture is brought to bear in our world, today. An outline of these foci is as follows: 1) Approaching a book a. Formation of a detailed outline b. Identification of key themes and emphases c. Characterizing the socio-historical setting of a book 2) Textual analysis a. Text criticism: determining the most likely original reading of a passage in which manuscripts attest multiple variants b. Syntax and semantics: analyzing the language used by the author to communicate his message; this includes difficult grammatical constructions and the meanings of key words. c. Old Testament & Cultural backgrounds: probing the extent to which a passage reflects the influence of these backgrounds and the importance of this influence for interpretation. 3) Interpretation a. Hermeneutics: reflecting on the way in which we come to interpret a text of any kind. b. Contemporary cultural exegesis: Integrating ongoing reflection on the culture in which we live and serve into our interpretation and appropriation of Scripture. Tip for success in this course Success in this course will depend heavily upon students commitment to working for 10 hrs/week every week for the duration of the course. Whereas some courses permit an erratic or

3 irregular approach to reading and other coursework (4 hrs one week; 0 hrs another wk; 15 hrs a third week), this course is simply too demanding for such an approach. Learning in this course will happen most effectively through regular exposure to the material. Students who fall behind will very likely become overwhelmed and have difficulty completing the course in a satisfactory way. Evaluation - 7.5% Approaching a NT book - 7.5% Text criticism - 25% Syntax and semantic analyses - 20% Test on cultural backgrounds and Biblical-theological shape of New Testament thought - 20% Paper on Old Testament and cultural backgrounds - 20% Cultural exegesis Approaching a Book 7.5% (due 4pm Fri, June 17) The first assignment is to prepare a detailed outline of 1 Thessalonians (of whatever length seems appropriate) as well as a 3-5 page paper (double spaced) introducing the letter. Preparing an outline An outline forms the beachhead in any focused study of a Biblical book. As the first step in the exegetical process, the aim is to gain a provisional sense for the flow of thought across the work as a whole and so to establish the thematic context that will guide the analysis of individual passages. For this reason, an outline is not a summary of every paragraph or chapter. (Work that merely paraphrases the successive sections of the book as demarcated in an English Bible will not receive a favorable grade.) If you are uncertain how best to proceed in forming your outline, you may use the following steps: i. Read through the entire work several times. As you do, reflect carefully on the following matters (these observations should figure in your 3-5 page paper): a. Discover everything you can about the purpose. Does the author explicitly say anything about it? What is implied?

4 b. Note special emphases or concerns that emerge. What words or ideas are frequently repeated? What unusual vocabulary recurs? What, if anything, might these tell you about the occasion or purpose? ii. After having acquainted yourself with the work as a whole, seek to identify the major breaks in the text. These become the main points in your outline. Look for major shifts in the focus of the text, such changes in subject matter, changes in tone, references to historical events, etc. There are commonly only a handful of major sections in a book (if you identify 13, you have found too many!). Summarize each of these sections in a sentence or less. iii. Next, re-read the first major section and identify secondary level divisions within the text. Do the same thing with each major section. Summarize each of these sections in a sentence or less. iv. Next, identify third order divisions within each of the secondary divisions across the book. Summarize each of these sections in a sentence or less. Paper introducing the letter This is a tremendously important step as one approaches a book that one plans to preach or teach through for an extended period. Doing a preliminary survey of the lay of the land provides invaluable context for more detailed and focused study of individual passages. This can also serve as a wonderful handout for the people one is teaching. The basic idea is to identify and describe the wide range of factors that bear upon one s understanding of the author s purposes in the book. First, working from one s direct engagement with the English text (when preparing the outline), identify the key themes and emphases of the author across the work as a whole (the first question is the most important): Why does he seem to have written in the first place? What is topics does he address himself to? Are his concerns doctrinal? Do they pertain to lifestyle? Are there threats to the Church that he addresses? Where is he when he writes? When is he writing? Under what circumstances in the Church? In his own life? Are there important historical individuals who come into play beside the author? What is their role? What can you observe about the tone of the work (laudatory, urgent, fearful, protreptic, etc.). Make as many observations as possible in your notes.

5 Next, read around a fair bit of introductory material. This is an important step because it fills in gaps in your initial observations and also takes you out of your own tradition a bit and furnishes valuable additional insight into the work in view. Read the introductory discussions at the start of some of the better commentaries 1 as well as treatments in 2-3 NT introductions (for examples, see below under recommended reading). It is also beneficial to skim over 1-2 articles in the major NT dictionaries (again, see under recommended reading). The aim in this is to learn about the socio-historical circumstances of the book and its intended audience: What do we know about the city or region addressed? What do we know about the audience addressed? What about the relation of the author to the audience? How much can we say about the date and provenance of the composition? Does this bear upon interpretation in any way? Learn as much as you can about these kinds of issues from the reading. When you have finished, step back and synthesize all of your notes into a 3-5 page summative description. Use your own judgment as to what to focus upon and what to pass over, etc.. Note well: this paper should be very dense! There should be many references to passages in 1 Thessalonians as well to to the literature you have read. For referencing literature, use footnotes as learned in CT500. Text criticism (due 4pm Fri, June 24) Textual criticism is an important and difficult field of study. The aim of this portion of the course is to introduce students to the basic issues surrounding the analysis of a textual variant in a New Testament text. Students should begin by familiarizing themselves with the introduction to the 28 th edition of The Greek New Testament, edited by Nestle-Aland (pp ) paying special attention to the critical signs and abbreviations used in the textual apparatus and the margins of the Greek text (pp ). Students should then read Paul Wegner, A Student s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible: Its History, Methods, and Results (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006) chs 1-3 and ((It is assumed the students already own a Greek New Testament (either Nestle-Aland. Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th Edition. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, or, The UBS Greek New 1 The following series are best: International Critical Commentary; Anchor Biblical Commentary; New International Greek Testament Commentary; Word Biblical Commentary.

6 Testament: Reader s Edition with Textual Notes, 4th Revised Edition. Edited by Barbara Aland, et al. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2010). Students who took Greek II during the Spring of 2016 were required to purchase one of these texts. Anyone testing into the course who does not already own a Greek New Testament will need to purchase one as soon as possible.)) TC assignment 7.5% Using the analytical chart from Wegner (p. 228), analyze the following two textual variants in 1 Thessalonians: [ν]ήπιοι at 2:7, and τοῖς [a`gi,oij] ἀδελφοῖς at 5:27. Follow the examples of Wegner on pp. 250 and 252 closely, specifying the pertinent information for each witness in parentheses (e.g., 81 [minuscule from 1044; Alexandrian family; category II] ). Your conclusions should be extremely succinct (fitting easily within the final box in the chart) and should clearly reflect (1) the categories described in Wegner ch 2, and (2) the text critical logic outlined in Wegner ch 8.3. Discussions that fail to meet these criteria will receive a failing grade. Finally, consult 4-5 commentaries on 1 Thess 2:7, summarize the arguments adduced for the each of the readings, and explain the errors in the logic of those whose conclusion differs from your own. This should not take more than one single-spaced page. Wegner has ample information to support this assignment. If you wish to do additional reading, you will find helpful information for NT MSS in the back of NA 28 (pp. 792ff.). You will also find additional examples of analyses of textual variants in the magisterial work of Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman, The text of the New Testament: its transmission, corruption, and restoration (4 th ed.; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005) pp (but do NOT read the treatment of 1 Thess 2:7 [pp ] until you have completed your charts and drawn your own conclusions). Finally, include a 2-3 page summary and reflection on the article by Daniel Wallace and the Cooley lectures he gave at GCTS last January. The article (to be supplied by the professor) is: Daniel B. Wallace, Lost in Translation: How badly did the scribes corrupt the New Testament text? in ed. Daniel B. Wallace, Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament: Manuscript, Patristic, and Apocryphal Evidence (Kregel, 2011) pp The lectures can be found through the following links:

7 Lecture #1 ( Is What We Have Now What They Wrote Then? The text of every handwritten copy of the New Testament differs from the others. How major are these differences? Are any cardinal doctrines at stake? Is it possible to recover the wording of the originals? These questions and many more will be addressed in this lecture. Lecture #2 ( Tracking Down New Testament Manuscripts: An Update from Athens Beginning in January 2015, the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (SCNTM) has been digitizing one of the largest collections of New Testament manuscripts in the world. This lecture is an update on their work. Students may also find interesting a brief article on Erasmus Greek New Testament by Ryan Reeves (Dean of Gordon-Conwell s Jacksonville campus and professor of historical theology): Syntax and semantic analysis The careful study of the Greek of a passage is the foundation of one s engagement with it! This will be difficult at first, but with time (and not as much time as one may think!) students will become much more proficient at this. Although this portion of the course will require the investment of many hours, future study of a Greek passage will require considerably less time as one becomes more comfortable with the language and the tools available today to the student of Scripture. The aim of this part of the course, then, is to promote greater proficiency in the analysis of the Greek text so that students are realistically able to do their Bible study for teaching and preaching purposes beginning from the Greek text, rather than the English text, of the book in question. By setting the starting line for one s study of a given passage of Scripture further back, in this way, we set ourselves up to discover far greater riches, including aspects of Biblical instruction that are not trending in popular evangelical churches or movements. In order to accomplish the goal of greater proficiency in the analysis of Greek text, students must (1) deepen their understanding of the Greek language, and (2) develop dexterity in the use of the most important tools for the study of NT Greek.

8 Before proceding with the assignments in this section, students are strongly advised to read the following three articles (esp. on BDAG). The professor will supply PDFs for each of these. Rodney Decker, Introduction to BDAG Jim Darlack, Review of NIDNTTE David Allan Black, Linguistics for students of New Testament Greek (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2002) ch 6 Historical and comparative linguistics: The biography of Greek. Syntax and semantic analyses 25% Detailed syntactical and semantic analyses of the Greek text of 1 Thessalonians will be submitted according to the schedule below. Do not PARSE anything! Rather, pull each passage apart on the level of syntax: Discuss, explain, and analyze every facet of the grammar that is not obvious or may be interpreted in different ways. Each analysis submitted must make use of the two main reference grammars 2, focusing especially on the areas of grammar noted in the schedule below. Analyses must also utilize 1-3 technical commentaries. 3 Do NOT use Greek handbooks such as the Baylor Handbook of the Greek New Testament, or The new linguistic and exegetical key to the Greek New Testament (by Cleon Rogers), etc. These works will short-circuit your learning process in this course as well as your ability to engage in-depth the NT text yourself. (They can play a role in the future, but not in this course.) Analyses must also include studies of 1-3 words that seem to have potential significance in the passage. Does usage outside the NT contribute anything (LXX, Apocrypha, Josephus, Philo, Papyri/Inscriptions [see Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament])? Does usage elsewhere within the NT, and esp. in Paul, add anything to your understanding of the word in the passage? Conclude by explaining the meaning of the word in its context in your passage. These are to be densely written works: Be concise, not wordy! Do not submit analyses in list or tabular form, but write up your analyses in running commentary (prose) format. Use the commentaries listed above as examples. There is no page minimum or maximum. The schedule for quizzes and analyses is as follows: 2 Daniel B. Wallace, Greek grammar beyond the basics (1996); Friedrich Blass, Albert Debrunner, Robert W. Funk, A Greek grammar of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (1961). 3 The following series are best: International Critical Commentary; Anchor Biblical Commentary; New International Greek Testament Commentary; Word Biblical Commentary.

9 *Translation quiz (# of new vv in parentheses) ***Syntax & semantic analysis **New areas of syntax June 10 1 Thess 1: Thess 1:1-10 Participles, infinitives June 17 1 Thess 1:1-2:12 (12) June 24 1 Thess 1:1-2:20 (7) 1 Thess 2:1-20 Case: nominative, accusative July 1 1 Thess 1:1-3:13 (13) July 8 1 Thess 1:1-4:12 (12) 1 Thess 3:1-13 Case: genitive, dative July 15 1 Thess 1:1-4:18 (6) July 22 1 Thess 1:1-5:11 (11) 1 Thess 4:1-18 Case: genitive, dative July 29 1 Thess 1:1-5:22 (11) Aug 5 1 Thess 1:1-5:28 (6) 1 Thess 5:1-28 Definite article *The expectation is that students will require an average(!) of 2 hrs/wk translating the new text from 1 Thess and 1-2 hrs/wk reading and rereading what has already been translated. This is the best way to prepare for the weekly cumulative quizzes. Students who do not spend time daily rereading text already translated for past quizzes will quickly fall behind with vocabulary and may not be able to catch up (in the midst of all the other work in this course). Spend time with your NA 28 daily! Find a comfy chair, get a cup of coffee, and just bathe yourself in the glory of Paul s text! This is what you took Greek I & II for! **Each week, students should plan to spend 1 hr/wk familiarizing themselves with (not memorizing!) the relevant sections of Wallace. Analyses, however, must reflect use of BDF as well as Wallace and must display cumulative knowledge of the material. Thus, the analysis submitted on June 10 will focus primarily upon participles and infinitives. The analysis submitted on June 24 will focus primarily upon participles, infinitives, and the nominative and accusative cases. Etc., with each week s analysis interacting with a broader range of syntax than the previous week. ***It is strongly recommended that students spend the time familiarizing themselves with the new material in Wallace before translating each week s new text. Students can then study forms and constructions for the Analysis papers as they work through the translation. This will be a much more efficient and beneficial way of proceding than trying to cram Walace and do the analyses the day before they are due!

10 Cultural contexts: Probing Old Testament, Jewish and Greco- Roman backgrounds Test on cultural backgrounds and Biblical-theological shape of NT thought 20% (due 4pm Fri, July 15) An exam will test knowledge that is fundamental to students ability to make a basic inquiry into the cultural backgrounds of a given NT passage and to understand and benefit from scholarly discussions in commentaries, etc. The exam will be distributed (via ) and will be based on information presented in the sources listed below. Students should be prepared to write brief essay responses to questions about Ferguson s treatment of Hellenistic-Roman Philosophies (pp ), about the broad history of Palestine under Hellenism and the early Empire (pp 1-49), and about Judaism and specific Jewish groups (pp ). Essay questions will also be drawn from Middleton s sketch of Biblical theology (300 pp). These will be open-ended and will test students assimilation of the main contours of Middleton s presentation. Answers pertaining to this last topic will be expected to make extensive reference to specific passages of Scripture. Students will be permitted use of their Bibles but no other resources for the exam. Paper on OT and cultural backgrounds 20% (due 4pm Fri, Aug 5) Students will research and write a page paper (doube-spaced) on 1 Thess 4: Please stay within these page limits: this will mean, on the one hand inquiring about enough interpretive issues in the passage to fill at least 12 pages, and on the other hand, writing with sufficient thought and discipline to stay within the 15-page upper limit. There are no express citations of the Old Testament in the passage. Nevertheless, Paul s thought positively drips with OT terminology, prophecies, and categories of thought! You cannot understand this passage in a manner consistent with the thought of the apostle without taking full stock of this decisive background. In a similar way, Paul s understanding of the OT background is very largely that of a Jew of the late second Temple period. An awareness of the shape of Jewish thought on these matters is very important, therefore (again, this understanding helps to protect us from anachronistic and misleading interpretations). Finally, although Greco-Roman traditions have not contributed to

11 Paul s thinking about the issues behind the passage, this background has profoundly influenced the outlook of the Thessalonians (much the way American culture does for us!). Thus, the interpreter must take stock, as well, of the relationship between Paul s thought and the pagan cultural background of the Thessalonian Church (e.g., 1 Thess 4:13b; the parousia-concept; etc.). Papers should reflect considerable research into all three horizons of Paul s thought as these merge into an early Christian statement about the second coming of Christ and its meaning for believers. Cultural exegesis 20% Five mini-papers on Consuming Life (Bauman) Cultural exegesis is a vitally important part of the labor of Christians who wish to bring Scripture to bear upon today s church and society: if we do not know our culture, we cannot know how Scripture would speak to it! Even though we are products of our culture(s), we do not know them as well as we might think. Nor does such knowledge come without quickly and easily (reading a quick magazine article the night before a sermon or Bible lesson, for example). Such knowledge is accumulated slowly over time as we make a habit of regular reading in authors who have labored hard to study various aspects of our culture and society. The people we minister to will be better served by ministers who have developed the discipline of informed(!) reflection on contemporary life. With a view toward forming this habit, students spend time on a regular basis reading and reflecting upon Zygmunt Bauman, Consuming Life (120 pp). Write five 2-3 page summary and reflection papers, one on each section of Bauman s book (including the Introduction). Note well: this is one of the most important and influential works ever written on one of the most pervasive evils of contemporary global society! I will be looking for clear evidence of thorough synthesis of Bauman s thought. For those who are not sociologists(!), feel free to acknowledge aspects of Bauman s discussion that you find difficult to follow. You will not lose points for this, only for evident lack of effort to wrestle with this profound work. *Due dates for these papers are indicated on the suggested work schedule.

12 Quiz on Vanhoozer and Gorman (Thurs, Aug 11) An electronic quiz will be administered online to ensure preparedness for in-class discussion of the readings in Vanhoozer and Gorman. The quiz will be very short and simple (no essays questions) and will focus especially on Vanhoozer s introductory essay and the introduction, conclusion and chapters 1-3 in Gorman. Cultural exegesis paper (due 4pm Fri, Aug 19) Write an essay for a pastoral fellowship reflecting on the challenges of living the Gospel according to the specific emphases of 1 Thessalonians in a consumer society (min. 7 pp doublespaced). Your preparation for this paper should consist in a dialectical process of meditation upon Scripture in light of contemporary culture, and of meditation upon contemporary culture in light of Scripture. This is the time for creative thinking! You have labored hard on 1 Thessalonians all summer on the language of the letter, on the Old Testament background to Paul s thought, the Jewish character of certain facets of his teaching, and on the Greco-Roman foreground of his audience. consumerism. You have also been assimilating Zygmunt Bauman s analysis of contemporary Now is the time to step back from all that scientific study and ponder more generally the challenge posed by 1 Thessalonians to the outlook and lifestyle of consumer society, and the challenge posed by consumer society to the shape of redeemed life called for in 1 Thessalonians. Suggested work schedule See separate file. Attendance policy Required texts Daniel B. Wallace, Greek grammar beyond the basics: an exegetical syntax of the New Testament with scripture, subject, and Greek word indexes (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996). ISBN-10: ; ISBN-13:

13 J. Richard Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (Baker, 2014). ISBN-10: ; ISBN-13: Paul Wegner, A Student s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible: Its History, Methods, and Results (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006). Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 3rd edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003). ISBN-10: ; ISBN-13: Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends (Baker, 2007). ISBN-10: ; ISBN-13: Zygmunt Bauman, Consuming Life (1st edn.; Polity Press, 2007). ISBN-10: ; ISBN-13: Michael J. Gorman, Becoming the Gospel: Paul, Participation, and Mission (Eerdmans, 2015). Recommended texts David Trobisch, A User's Guide to the Nestle-Aland 28 Greek New Testament (SBL, 2013). ISBN- 10: X; ISBN-13: This guide introduces the complex new edition of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, 28 th Edition, explaining its structure, the textcritical apparatus and appendices, and the innovations of the new edition. Approaching a NT book For the purposes of this course it is not necessary to purchase an Introduction to the New Testament, as library resources will suffice for assigned work. For the sake of future study of the New Testament, however, it is highly recommended that one of the following introductions be purchased and utilized each time one delves into the study of a new book or corpus of the NT: o Donald Hagner, The New Testament: a historical and theological introduction (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2012). o Paul J. Achtemeier, Joel B. Green, Marianne Meye Thompson, Introducing the New Testament: its literature and theology (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2001). o Eugene Boring, An introduction to the New Testament: history, literature, theology (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012).

14 New Testament dictionaries are also very valuable resources for one s study of the NT. These will include articles by scholars on whole books, on historical and cultural background matters, and on thematic and theological issues within individual authors and across the NT as a whole. The following are the best dictionaries. o New Interpreter s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols.; Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, ). **If you were going to purchase a single resource to aid your study fo the NT in the long run, this is the work. o Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992). Most important scholarly dictionary on the NT. It is probably a bit too technical for most readers and is now fairly dated. It remains a valuable resource, however, for those occasions when one wants to follow up on a topic discovered in one of the other works cited above. o IVP Dictionary series (Dictionary of Paul and his letters; Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels; Dictionary of the later New Testament & its developments, etc.). Please note: this was a wonderful work in the 1990 s. It is now quite dated. As revisions of this work come out, it will again be a very valuable resource for NT study. Text criticism Stanley E. Porter and Craig Evans, How We Got the New Testament: Text, Transmission, Translation (Baker, 2013) A nice, succinct introduction to history and transmission. Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman, The text of the New Testament: its transmission, corruption, and restoration (4 th ed.; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005). This is the standard and most authoritative work in the field. For those who wish to delve into the field in more depth, this is the place to start. Syntax and semantic analysis Frederick W. Danker, Multipurpose Tools for Bible Study (2003), an outstanding review of the most important resources and literature for each field of Biblical studies (languages, historical backgrounds, archaeology, cognate literatures, etc.). A valuable resource for a beginning student with an academic bent.

15 David Allan Black, Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek: A Survey of Basic Concepts and Applications (Baker, 2000). A very helpful introduction to the broad field of linguistics as it bears upon New Testament study. Biblical theological matrix of NT thought T. Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to Biblical Theology (Kregel, 2009). Cultural backgrounds Joel B. Green and Lee Martin McDonald, The World of the New Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2013). A great collection of essay-length introductions to the many facets of Jewish and Greco-Roman bacgrounds to the NT, with up-to-date bibliographies. John J. Collins & Daniel C. Harlow, eds., Early Judaism: A Comprehensive Overview (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012). A thorough, accessible and authoritative survey Jewish history, culture and literature in the time of Jesus. James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman world of the New Testament era: exploring the background of early Christianity (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP, 1999). Craig Evans, Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies: A Guide to the Background Literature (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2005). ISBN: Provides important introductory information on the wide range of Jewish and Greco-Roman literature used in NT study. Very concise. A valuable resource for the beginning and intermediate student.

16 Syllabus Addendum Academic Standards Cheating and plagiarism are considered serious breaches of personal and academic integrity. Cheating involves, but is not necessarily limited to, the use of unauthorized sources of information during an examination or the submission of the same (or substantially same) work for credit in two or more courses without the knowledge and consent of the instructors. Plagiarism involves the use of another person s distinctive ideas or words, whether published or unpublished, and representing them as one s own instead of giving proper credit to the source. Plagiarism can also involve over dependence on other source material for the scope and substance of one s writing. Such breaches in academic standards often result in a failing grade as well as other corrective measures. For more information, please consult the Student Handbook. ADA Policy The seminary complies with the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. A student with a qualifying and authenticated disability who is in need of accommodations should petition the seminary in accordance with the stated guidelines in the Student Handbook. Cancellation of Class In the event the seminary has to cancel a class meeting (impending storm, professor illness, etc.), the Registration Office will send out an (via the GCTS account) notification to all students registered in the respective course. If the cancelation occurs the day of the scheduled meeting, the Registration Office will also attempt to contact students via their primary phone contact on record. The professor will contact the students (via GCTS account) regarding makeup. If a weekend class is cancelled, the class will be made up during the scheduled Make-Up weekend (see the academic calendar for the designated dates). For more info, consult your Student Handbook. Extension Policy Arrangements for submission of late work at a date on or before the end date for the semester as noted on the seminary s Academic Calendar are made between the student and professor. Formal petition to the Registration Office is not required in this case. This includes arrangements for the rescheduling of final exams. However, course work (reading and written) to be submitted after the publicized end date for the semester must be approved by the Registration Office. An extension form, available online, must be submitted to the Registration Office prior to the stated date. Requests received after this date will either be denied or incur additional penalty. For a full discussion of this policy, please consult the Student Handbook. Grades Faculty have six weeks from the course work due date to submit a final grade. Grades are posted on-line within twenty-four hours of receipt from the professor. Students are expected to check their CAMS student portal in order to access posted grades (unless instructed otherwise). Those

17 individuals who need an official grade report issued to a third party should put their request in writing to the Registration Office. Returned Work Submitted hard-copy course work will be returned to the students if they provide a self-addressed and postage- paid envelope with their final work. Work submitted without the appropriate envelope will be destroyed after the grade has been assessed and issued. Virtual Writing Center Free assistance in writing papers is available to students through the Virtual Writing Center at Gordon Conwell. The Virtual Writing Center is staffed by Gordon Conwell graduates, or writing tutors with specialized knowledge in writing and/or ESL. Generally, this service is available to students who have completed or are currently enrolled in one of the following three classes: CT500 (Introduction to Theological Research) CO501 (Introduction to Counseling Research) IS502 (Theological Research and Writing) If you enrolled in GCTS before Fall 2008, you were not required to take one of the three prerequisites above, and you may request access to the Virtual Writing Center. Also, ESL writing tutors are available to ESL students even if they are not currently enrolled in a degree program. If you do not meet one of these qualifications, but feel you would benefit from using the Virtual Writing Center, contact us and we will evaluate your status. writingcenter@gordonconwell.edu for more information.