An Introduction to the New Testament I: The Gospels

Greetings!!

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I’d like to welcome you to the Introduction to the New Testament Gospels course!

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The purpose of this course is to help you read the New Testament Gospels critically and provide a deeper understanding of the origins, content, development, and purpose of the Gospels. You will also develop a deeper understanding of Jesus’ life, message, sayings, miracles, death and resurrection.

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In the five weeks we will be together we will focus on five different themes:

1. Jesus in the Gospels

2. The World and Daily Life of Jesus

3. The Birth and Message of Jesus

4. The Sayings and Miracles of Jesus

5. The Death and Resurrection of Jesus

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Every week a different theme will be addressed, although I have combined the first two themes in the first week in the hopes of saving some time by focusing less on the world and daily life of Jesus so that we can have more time to talk about the other themes. With this goal in mind, I’ve enclosed the first two packets for your review.

Included in these PDF files (see below) are outlines of my lectures to help you follow along, as well as supplemental material (e.g. lists, graphs, pie charts, maps, additional readings) that you may find helpful for the class. I’ve also included a bibliography of the books I’ve used for the development of this class over the past twenty five years.

My suggestion to prepare for this week’s discussion is to listen to the lectures while looking at the handouts outlining my talks, familiarize yourself with the passages I reference (always keep a Bible handy and bring one on Thursday!), and take a look at the supplemental material.

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I will see you on Thursday, September 25th!


Jeff Waters

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Greetings!

To prepare for our next discussion on Thursday, October 2nd, I’d like you to read Mark 1:1-13; Matt 1-4:11; Luke 1-4:13; and John 1:1-34. In my audio lectures, I’ll focus particularly on the infancy narratives of Luke and Matthew and the meaning of Jesus’ enigmatic teaching of the “Kingdom of God”.

I’ve enclosed two pdf files: one is the handout which outlines my lectures to help you follow along and a supplement that includes Jesus’ family tree (based on Scripture) and the Infancy Narrative of Thomas (probably written sometime in 2nd century c.e.) that describes Jesus’ childhood. He’s a bit of a “franken-jesus”, so it’s worth a glance!

See you soon,

Jeff

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Greetings!

The material provided below will cover the next two weeks. My audio lecture this week will focus on the Our Father Prayer, the Beatitudes, and the Parables of Jesus that we will discuss on October 9th. The audio lecture the following week will cover the Miracles of Jesus that we will discuss on October 16th. My advice to prepare for class next week is to take a look at the handouts for the Our Father Prayer, Beatitudes, and Parables, take a look at the supplemental material, and read the Gospel of Thomas (if you don’t want to read the whole thing just read the first page—fascinating work!) and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (it’s fairly short). You could also watch this short video on YouTube that explains the story. https://youtu.be/1RWOpQXTltA?si=eiuPNY3B4jJRVps8

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