New Testament Scholarship for Non-Scholars

Episode Outline:
0:00 What is New Testament scholarship, and how did it begin?
0:48 Bart and Megan on blog dinners, teaching, and Sumerian
4:16 Why most people never hear what New Testament scholars actually say
7:30 Was there anything like New Testament scholarship in antiquity?
8:43 Printing, manuscripts, and the birth of modern scholarship
10:13 How textual criticism led to bigger historical questions
12:11 Early critical scholarship and the challenge to Gospel reliability
13:59 Source criticism: why scholars looked for earlier written sources
15:43 Form criticism and the search for oral traditions behind the Gospels
20:58 Did early Christians alter and reshape stories about Jesus?
22:32 How similar methods affected the study of Acts and Paul
25:18 What happened after redaction criticism?
28:29 Literary criticism, social history, and the fragmentation of the field
31:47 What should non-specialists take away from all this scholarship?
35:04 Can scholarship threaten or deepen religious faith?
38:08 Weekly Update: free webinar on Gospel authorship
39:52 New Insights conference and why it matters for non-scholars
44:18 Listener Q&A: cliffhangers, Christian music, documentaries, and apocalyptic Jesus
51:56 Final summary: what New Testament scholarship is and why it matters

Episode Description
Even though millions of people read the Bible, few know what experts who have devoted their lives to historical scholarship on it have to say about it, or, even more important, why they say it. In this episode we talk about how scholarship on the New Testament has developed over the centuries, decades, and recent years, how critical scholarship actually works to make better sense of the NT and opens up important ways of interpreting the text, and whether and how this kind of academic approach to the NT can or should affect a person's faith commitments.

Also watch these episodes:
Does Biblical Scholarship Destroy Faith?
Does Biblical Scholarship Destroy Faith?

The Gospel Truth: What Are the Gospels of the New Testament?
The Gospel Truth: What Are the Gospels of the New Testament?

How Did Christianity Take Over the Roman World?
How Did Christianity Take Over the Roman World?

Megan asks Bart:

-Last month in my interview with Robyn Walsh she talked about how modern understandings of the New Testament are deeply rooted in a long history of scholarship. It seems that to understand the critical views of scholars today about the NT you have to know something about the history of the field of study. Does that seem right to you?

-Was there anything comparable to NT scholarship in the ancient world, or were people who wrote about the NT more interested in theological issues?

-When did modern NT scholarship, as we know it, start?

-How were these more critical examinations received, by both other scholars and the general public?

-So once they have a grasp on the written sources, does that solve the problems they were having?

-What is form criticism, and how does it differ from other forms of textual study?

-Did these scholars have any actual evidence that Christian story tellers were altering and even inventing stories and sayings of Jesus?

-We’ve been talking about the Gospels; do the same kinds of developments happen for the rest of the New Testament, the book of Acts, the letters of Paul, and so on?

-What has been happening since the mid-20th century?

-What would be the big takeaways for a lay person interested in knowing more about the NT?

-Does all this scholarship detract from the religious importance of these texts?