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Book Genres Of The New Testament

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1. Identify three types of book genres found in the New Testament and note some of the characteristics of each type.
a. Gospels – The portraits of the person and work of the long pronounced Messiah. Matthew portrays Christ as King; Mark portrays Christ as a servant; Luke portrays Christ as man; and John portrays Christ as God (Unger, 1967). In the Gospels, Christ is made known to the world and his gospel provided in his death, resurrection, and ascension. The books called the Gospels deal with the life and ministry of Jesus. The Gospels do not present us with simple memoirs; rather, they give us proclamations and instructions written from theological standpoints. Additionally, they lack historical background, and analysis of character and personality, …show more content…

Early church tradition ascribes the books of the New Testament, written in Greek about A.D. 45-95, to the apostles Matthew, John, Paul, and Peter and to their associates Mark, Luke, James, and Jude, the last two also being half-brothers of Jesus. Early church tradition is material that appears in early Christian writings subsequent to the books of the New Testament, that is, from the late first or early second century onward for several centuries. The order of books then, follows a certain logic and is developed as a matter of Christian tradition. The Gospels appear at the beginning because they narrate the momentous events of Jesus’ career. After the Gospels comes the triumphant aftermath of Jesus’ life and ministry in the Acts of the Apostles, a stirring account of the successful upsurge and outreach of the church in Palestine and throughout Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, and as far as Rome. Acts is the last of the historical books of the New Testament. The Letters and Revelation explain the theological significance of the foregoing redemptive history and spells out implications for Christian conduct. Revelations is the book that looks forward to Christ’s return and draws the New Testament to a fitting close (Gundry, …show more content…

In Acts 15 the Council at Jerusalem meets. During these sequence of meetings described in verses 4 through 22, is a general meeting of welcome and report about the work being done among the Gentiles (vv. 5-6); a meeting of the leaders while the church was still assembled (vv. 6-11); a meeting of the apostles, the elders, and the whole assembly (vv. 12-22). Some of the Pharisees having become Christian brought their Judaic beliefs with them. As a result, they believed that Gentiles must first become converts to Judaism and be circumcised (vs. 1), before they would be eligible to be saved by faith. Peter addresses the elders and apostles and presented an argument regarding his own experience: God had sent him to preach to the Gentiles (10:28-29) and give the Holy Spirit to them (15:8) which is the proof of God’s acceptance. He further explains that through the grace of our Lord, circumcision was no longer required to be saved. That rather than be saved by our own acts of righteousness, our grace and freedom was found in the person of Jesus Christ who died for our sins, rose again, and ascended to heaven. The Jewish Christians accepted this explanation and agreed to with four stipulations of their own regarding Gentile behavior. Paul speaks again in Ephesians 2 of this unity in Christ between the Jewish Christian and the Gentile Christian being through Christ, based on what he did through his death, which effectively tore apart the wall that formerly separated them, making

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