Five Key Lutheran Principles for Dealing with Scripture

1.Law & Gospel

2.Shows forth Christ

3.Scripture interprets Scripture

4.The Plain Meaning of the Text

5.Public Interpretation

Three-Fold Sense of the WORD

1) Word Incarnate

God Speaks to us through Jesus the Christ.

“Jesus Christ is the Word of God incarnate, through whom everything was made and through whose life, death and resurrection God fashions a new creation.”

Three-Fold Sense of the WORD

2) Word Proclaimed

God Speaks to us through believers who tell the story of God’s love in Jesus.

“The proclamation of God’s message to us as both Law and Gospel is the Word of God, revealing judgment and mercy through word and deed, beginning with the Word in creation, continuing in the history of Israel, and centering in all its fullness in the person and work of Jesus Christ.”

Three-Fold Sense of the WORD

3) Word Written

God Speaks to us through Scripture.

“The canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the written Word of God. Inspired by God’s Spirit speaking through their authors, they record and announce God’s revelation centering in Jesus Christ. Through them God’s Spirit speaks to us to create and sustain Christian faith and fellowship for service in the world.”

Approaches to the Bible that may be Problematic…

1. Reading the Bible without community.

2. Reading the Bible without its context.

3. Reading the Bible without expectancy.

4. Reading the Bible without care and attention to the nature of the Bible.

5. The continuing challenge to the authority of the Bible is neglect.

New Testament Time LineNew Testament Time Line

New Testament

30 A.D.• Jesus is born in Bethlehem

B.C.

• He begins his ministry at 30

• Jesus is crucified and raised

• Jesus returns to God

• The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost & the Church is born

A.D.

33 A.D.

*50 days after resurrection

Salvation History Time LineSalvation History Time Line

• Jerusalem is destroyed• Paul’s Letters, Hebrews & ... ... Catholic Letters circulate

35 A.D.

• Paul’s conversion & journeys• The Gospels are written, ...beginning with Mark

65 A.D.

• John’s Revelation

70 A.D.

• NT Cannon is ... ... ... recognized

150 A.D.

New Testament Time LineTime Line

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.“

(Matthew 16:13-16)

YOU?

Luther named as “main books” of the New Testament…

John

1 John

Galatians

Romans

Ephesians

1 Peter

Which “Books” written first?

1 & 2 Thessalonians

Galatians

Philippians

Philemon

1 & 2 Corinthians

Romans

The Synoptic Gospels

Matthew

Mark

Luke

Four Source Theory

Timeline

Four Source Gospel Theory

They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, "Can you see anything?" And the man looked up and said, "I can see people, but they look like trees, walking." Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

Mark 8:22-25

The Pseudo-Pauline Epistles

Colossians

Ephesians

The Pastoral Epistles

(1 & 2 Timothy;

Titus)

Hebrews

The “Catholic Epistles”(Bear the name of the author, not the recipient)

James

1 & 2 Peter

Jude

1, 2 & 3 John

Also called “Church Epistles”

Johannine Literature

The Gospel

according to John

The Revelation

to John

First and Last Words

Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.

In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah…

LUKE

First and Last WordsThen he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah* is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.“

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

LUKE

First and Last WordsIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life,* and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.

JOHN

First and Last Words

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, "Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?" When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!" So the rumor spread in the community* that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?“

This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

JOHN

First and Last Words

An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.

MATTHEW

First and Last Words

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.“

MATTHEW

Letters

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-18

ApocalypseThen I looked, and there was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like the Son of Man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand! Another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to the one who sat on the cloud, "Use your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is fully ripe." So the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over fire, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, "Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe." So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God. And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a horse's bridle, for a distance of about two hundred miles.

REVELATION 14:14-20

The Current New Testament Canon

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

Acts of

the Apostles

Romans

1 & 2 Corinthians

Galatians

Ephesians

Philippians

Colossians

1 & 2 Thessalonians

1 & 2 Timothy James

Titus 1 & 2 Peter

Philemon 1,2 & 3 John

Hebrews Jude

Revelation of

John

Factor Influencing Canonization

1. Apostolicity (Who was the author? Was the writing associated with one of the apostles?)

2. Orthodoxy(How well did the writing reflect the community’s beliefs about who Jesus was and is?)

3. Universality(Was the writing commonly used and well-known to the Christian churches?)