Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 8
Faith Alihrel
Thursday, September 28, 2000
A biblical timeline: The New Testament
By Father Dale Launderville, OSB
Catholic News Service
“T r—
X he New Testament writings, of
which the Gospels and the Letters are
the two most important categories,
were composed between A.D.
50 and 125.
The Gospel writings, com
posed between A.D. 70 and 95,
preserved collections of Jesus’
sayings, stories of his mira
cles, and the account of his
passion and resurrection.
Jesus had carried out his min
istry in Galilee and Jerusa
lem, but the Gospel accounts
were composed by evangelists
working within communities
in Asia Minor and Rome.
The geographical center of
gravity for Jesus’ followers
had shifted from Jerusalem to
the cities of the Roman Em
pire under the influence of the
missionary activities of Paul
and others, and of the
temple’s destruction in
Jerusalem.
Paul had begun his mis
sionary work in A.D. 44 or 48.
In A.D. 50 he composed his
First Letter to the Thes-
salonians, the New Testa
ment’s earliest writing. This
letter was directed to the com
munity of Jesus’ followers
that Paul recently had
founded. He wrote this letter
to the Thessalonians while he
was in Corinth.
According to the Acts of the
Apostles, Paul typically began
his work in a city by preach
ing to members of the Jewish
synagogue. Most often, con
flicts arose through this
preaching, but certain mem
bers of the Jewish community
or citizens of that city would
accept his testimony and in
vite him to their homes.
In cities where Paul suc
cessfully founded communities, their
gathering places were usually the
homes of more wealthy citizens who
had accepted the Gospel Paul
preached. These homes became the
settings where the Lord’s Supper was
celebrated and the Gospel was pro
claimed.
■ ■ ■
Beginning with the Babylonian Ex
ile in B.C. 598 and extending through
the times of the Greek empires in the
eastern Mediterranean region (that is,
the Seleucid and Ptolemaic kingdoms)
in the third and second centuries
B.C., Jewish people had settled in ur
ban centers in Asia, Egypt and
Greece. These Jewish communities
looked to Jerusalem as their true
home but carried on their lives in
steady interaction with the peoples of
the cities where they resided.
The ways these communities
maintained their identity while liv
ing away from the temple contrib
uted in no small measure to the
growth of Judaism centered on the
Torah after the temple’s destruction
in A.D. 70.
The period when the New Testa
ment writings were composed was a
time of intense social and political
struggle for Jewish communities
seeking to maintain their traditions
in the face of direct and indirect
adaptations required by Roman rul
ers.
The Jewish revolt against Rome in
A.D. 66 led to the second temple’s
destruction in A.D. 70. This catastro
phe removed one pillar of Jewish iden
tity: the temple and its sacrificial
practices. The other remaining pillar,
the Torah, then grew in significance
with gatherings at synagogues for
prayer and reflection on the Torah as
the Jewish people’s distinctive prac
tices.
Paul himself was born into a Jew
ish family in the Greek city of Tarsus
in Asia Minor. In the course of his
missionary activities, Paul came to
champion the view that individuals
who were not members of the Jewish
community could become followers of
Jesus and join in the communal ac
tivities of his followers without first
becoming members of the Jewish com
munity, symbolized through the rite
of circumcision.
This separation from Jewish prac
tices was founded on the conviction
that the glorified Jesus — not
the Torah — was the central
reality and symbolic focus of
the community. But this
separation from a key prac
tice that distinguished Jews
from gentiles was opposed by
members of communities fol
lowing Jesus, particularly
those in Jerusalem and
Judea.
Paul’s view prevailed, re
sulting in a rapid increase in
the communities of Jesus’ fol
lowers in Greece and Asia Mi
nor between A.D. 44 and 64.
sea
Scripture for these early
communities of Jesus’ follow
ers was the Greek translation
of the Old Testament, which
had been prepared for the
Jewish communities in Alex
andria from the third to the
first centuries B.C.
In their gatherings, the
communities founded by Paul
read the letters he sent to
them and also those he’d sent
other communities. Paul’s
letters speak primarily about
the glorified Jesus and do not
give a picture of Jesus’ life
and ministry.
So as the apostles, the au
thoritative eyewitnesses to
the earthly Jesus, dwindled
in number, the Gospels were
written to preserve the story
of Jesus’ life and of his pas
sion, death and resurrection:
Mark, written in Rome, Alex
andria or Antioch (A.D. 70),
Matthew in Antioch (A.D.
80-90), Luke in Asia Minor
(A.D. 80) and John in Asia
Minor (A.D. 90-95).
Major social and political factors
shaping the environment in which
Paul and other missionaries pro
claimed the Gospel included:
—The Jewish population’s disper
sion to the cities of Asia and the east
ern Mediterranean.
—The stability of Roman imperial
rule from the first century B.C. to the
fifth century A.D.
—The diversity within the Jewish
communities around the turn of the
era.
The Gospel’s proclamation, of
course, led to the transformation of
the course of world history.
(Benedictine Father Launderville
is a Scripture scholar at St. John’s
University, Collegeville, Minn.)
All contents copy right ©2000 by CNS
F00DF0RTH0UGHT
You could say that the New Testament is about many things: the
long, difficult missionary journeys St. Paul undertook; the complex
questions ancient Christian communities needed to sort through
regarding their identity; worship, prayer and preaching in early-Christian
communities; or memorable personalities from the church’s early
decades.
Still, the New Testament focuses in one clear direction: on the
incarnation of God’s Son (his life, death and resurrection, and our life in
him).
What the incarnation attests is “that God goes in search of man, ” Pope
John Paul II said in a message for the church’s current jubilee year (held
in observance of the incarnation’s 2,000th anniversary). He added: “Jesus
speaks of this search as the finding of a lost sheep” (cf. Lk 15:1-7).
We discover, the pope said, that “God seeks man out, moved by his
fatherly heart” (“Tertio Millennio Adveniente,” No. 7).
Furthermore, the Christ of the incarnation is “the new beginning of
everything, ” the pope indicated (No. 6).
It seems, then, that what we’re dealing with in the New Testament is a
new start for humanity — a new creation.
David Gibson
32 Editor, Faith Alive!
New Testament Highlights
"The period when the New Testament writings were composed was a time of
intense social and political struggle for Jewish communities seeking to maintain
their traditions in the face of... adaptations required by Roman rulers."
50 A.D.
66
70
80
125A.D.
Paul, in Corinth,
writes First Letter to
the Thessalonians
Rapid increase of Jesus'
followers in Greece and
Asia Minor 44 to 64 A.D.
Jewish revolt
against Rome
Second temple destroyed;
the Torah becomes the
center of Judaism
Gospel of Mark
in Rome, Alexandria
or Antioch
Luke's Gospel in Asia Minor;
John's Gospel written here
from 90 to 95 A.D.
Matthew's Gospel in
Antioch (80-90 A.D.)
CNS graphic by Anthony De Feo