Unit 4, Lecture 2: Selections from the New Testament

Some Historical Considerations  Roman Empire Revisited –Republic developed into an empire under Octavian (Caesar Augustus (.30 BC-14 AD)  Western Empire (30 BC-476 AD)  Eastern Empire (30 B.C AD) –Rose to its height in 2nd century A.D. under a series of great emperors. Gibbon described this “golden age” as “the only period in history in which the happiness of a great people was the sole object of government.” –Series of catastrophes gravely weakened empire in late 2nd through late 3rd century  External invasions  Internal weakness, the greatest of which=no firm principle of imperial succession leading to civil strife and numerous, short-lived, and incompetent emperors waging war on and replacing each other with disastrous regularity –It was eventually restored to some measure of stability under the great emporers Diocletian ( ) and Constantine ( ). –The selections from the New Testament were written near the beginning of the empire’s ascendancy, and Augustine’s Confessions, the subject of lecture 3 came at the end

 Cultural sensibilities in the Empire –May be described as  Latin (Roman West) “Law, Order, practicality”  Greek East (speculative, philosophical, home of “mystery religions”)  Hebraic/Christian (monotheistic, hallmarks were faith, consciousness of sin, quest for righteousness defined as right relation to God and neighbor) –Ultimately, the latter, in its Christianized form “conquered” the empire  This lecture will be looking at some short selections from the New Testament, the foundational literature of Christianity.  We will be discussing, thus, the literature of “Jerusalem”, just as we last discussed that of Athens in “The Apology of Socrates”  This raises again, a discussion we had in the first lecture, a kind of contrastr between Greek and Hebrew approaches.  In third lecture, on Augustine, we’ll indicate how Jerusalem” conquers but incorporates a lot of “Athens” (as Augustine’s Confessions will show: Augustine both wars with and incorporates classical philosophy, a common struggle in Christian writers of his and later periods)

Hebraic/Christian Sensibility: The Birth Narratives of Jesus in Luke  The Jewish Context of Jesus –History of a “covenant” people –Emphases of Jewish Religious Life –Jesus as representing both continuity and break with Jewish Context –Narrative of birth of Jesus.  Note that Caesar has become a cultural footnote to Luke: a sign of how the Hebraic/Christian outlook came to dominate  Read birth narratives for a picture of God (note glory is revealed to the poor: a gentile gospel reflecting a Jewish sensibility))

Hebraic/Christian Sensibiliites 2: “The Sermon on the Mount” –The Significance of “Mountain” –Some Highlights of the Sermon  First “formula” (“Blessed are….”)  ‘Beatitudes (blessed = “how happy”)  Beatitudes as representing the “transvaluation of values (Nietzsche)  What makes “poor in spirit” blessed? {They are those with whom God identifies].  Second “formula” “You have heard it said of old…but I say” –Here we see continuity and discontinuity –No one who did not grasp the old could understand the “internalizing” of the new commandment. Jesus’ teaching simply represents the deepening of something already there. He is not abolishing law but “fulfilling” it by revealing the state of mind at which the law aims.

Hebraic/Christian Sensibiliites 3: “The Parable of the Prodigal Son”  The Division of Jesus and Opponents on the best way to preserve Israel –Pharisees focus on practicing traditions with rigor –Jesus, focuses on the desire of God to restore life  Significant that this story begins with “publicans and sinners” and leads to questions from Pharisees  The parable is Jesus’s defense of his actions put into story form. a narrative which can explain to those “with ears to hear” why he accepts those who are not rigorous or pure but are repentant  Brief outline of the parable  Note the tentative nature of its conclusions: The hearer is left wondering who am I in the story? –The father –The wastrel son –The elder brother