PATIENT
The New Testament
WRITTEN
c. 50–100 CE
FORM
Gospels, history, letters, apocalypse
LANGUAGE
Koine Greek
CHIEF COMPLAINT
Who was Jesus, what did he teach, and what did the first communities make of him?
HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS
Twenty-seven texts by multiple authors, written in the ordinary Greek of the Mediterranean world and compiled into a canon over centuries (the Council of Carthage settled it in 397 CE). Paul's letters, written in the 50s, come before any of the Gospels. Jesus was crucified around 30 CE and the first Gospel, Mark, appeared around 70 CE, so for about forty years the stories were passed on by communities. The order in the Bible is not the order they were written in. The collection is in constant conversation with the Hebrew scriptures.
REVIEW OF SYSTEMS
THE GOSPELS
Four portraits, not four copies: Mark is urgent, Matthew is the Jewish Gospel and the new Moses, Luke is the Gospel of the outsider, John is the Logos Gospel.
KINGDOM OF GOD
The subject Jesus talks about more than any other, a present reality breaking into the world rather than only a destination after death.
GRACE AND CROSS
The death and resurrection are the center the whole collection orbits. Paul sums it up in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4.
PAUL'S LETTERS
Romans is the theological summit, 1 Corinthians is a church at war with itself, Galatians says there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free.
REVELATION
Apocalyptic literature in coded symbols, a message of resistance to first-century believers under Roman persecution, not a newspaper in code.
PHYSICAL EXAM — STYLE & STRUCTURE
- —Chronological order of writing: Paul (50–60 CE), Mark (~70), Matthew and Luke (~80–90), John (~90–100), Revelation (~95).
- —Matthew, Mark and Luke share a lot of material (the Synoptics). John stands apart, with no parables and long 'I am' statements.
- —None of the texts name their authors directly. The attributions are traditional.
- —Mark ends abruptly in its original form: the women flee the empty tomb afraid.
- —The Gospels are theological documents as much as historical ones. Each has its own agenda, which is the key to reading them accurately.
ASSESSMENT & PLAN
Read the Gospels in the order they were written: Mark, Matthew, Luke, John. Then Acts, then Romans and 1 Corinthians 13, then James. Treat Revelation as a letter in a genre, not a puzzle. It is a non-denominational reference guide. The full guide recommends the NRSV (scholarly) or the NIV (readable).