Now we will start our second lesson, which is about the New Testament The New Testament is divided slightly differently from the Old Testament, however, they also have some similarities for example, you will see here Historical book you will also see Prophetic book What also happens there in the Old Testament, right? ! Well, the most important division that we have in the New Testament is Matthew, Mark, Luke and John those are what we know as the Gospel also called Biographical books Why biographical?
Because they talk about the biography, the life story of Jesus but, within that division, there is a subdivision and what kind of division would that be? These first three books: Matthew, Mark and Luke, they are called synoptic Gospels that is, they look at Christ from the same point of view from the same perspective portraying more deeply as to that boy who was born, his life story, the trajectory of Jesus as the son of man But John, he gives more emphasis, a little differently, the sequence of the narrative also doesn’t correspond as much as in Matthew, Mark and Luke When you read Matthew, Mark and Luke it may seem like you’re rereading the same book because the narratives are very similar but John’s narrative is different. John focuses more on miracles, on signs And he starts: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ”.
(John 1:1) He says: “all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made”. In verse 14 he says: and the Word, this Word that was with God, and is God, He was made flesh, and lived among us That is, John emphasizes the divinity of Christ more than his on work, that he came to do here personally, as a man, his suffering, the humiliations he went through. This is what sets John's Gospel apart from the synoptic Gospels, which are those that portray Jesus from the same perspective, from the same point of view.
However, John is also a Gospel and he also tells the story of Jesus. Then we have a very small section here that you can see here, it’s the book of Acts it is considered the only historical book, the only book essentially historical in the New Testament Although here they also tell Jesus' life story, because they're part of what is called the Gospels, or even Biographical books, the Historical book section only begins with the book of Acts It could be called Acts of the Apostles, or Acts of the Church, or even Acts of the Holy Spirit, Because starting from this book the Church begins to develop, to grow, to bear fruit, after the baptism in the Holy Spirit, in Acts, Chapter 2, in which the body is formed between Jews and Gentiles. What we know today as the Church it is nothing more than the congregation of saints.
Well, here we have, in red, a section of books these are actually letters. They are not books, these are letters that apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, he also writes to the Corinthians, okay? !
You can see here two letters that we have in hand: the First letter to the Corinthians, the Second letter to the Corinthians. We also have the letter to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians (two letters to the Thessalonians), two letters to his disciple Timothy, to Titus, another disciple of Paul, to Philemon, and, finally, to the Hebrews. The letter Paul writes to the Hebrews, clearly, should have been written in Hebrew Why [am I mentioning this]?
Because the New Testament was written in Greek, koine Greek, a common language at the time, but the letter he writes to the Hebrews, certainly, should be written in Hebrew. However, after you've done a lot of research, you'll understand why I'm saying that it is a Pauline epistle, okay? !
Later I will prepare a lesson to explain about the authorship of Paul to the Hebrews But the main point is this: there is the idea that Paul wrote it in Hebrew, but who translated it into Greek was Luke, ok? ! Here we have another group of epistles, which are not part of the Pauline epistles, they are General Epistles, also known in Theology as Universal Epistles.
James, one letter, two letters of Peter: First and Second letters of Peter, First, Second and Third [letters] of John and the letter of Judas, this is not Judas Iscariot. Finally, we have the only book considered essentially Prophetic in the New Testament, which is the book of Revelation. Slowly we develop the study, this is just a presentation about biblical contents, it is important for you to understand how the books are divided, to know who wrote them, so that you can observe the way they addressed the Church, the way they expressed themselves when greeting, when saying “goodbye” to the Church, and how each one of them used to do it.
Paul had something peculiar that differentiated him from the others. You will also see that Revelation is a very rich book, but it is impossible to understand Revelation without Daniel, for example, without Zechariah, which are part of the Old Testament. That is why the Bible is one book as a whole, it is connected from beginning to the end.
Genesis reveals that God created the heavens and the earth, Revelation reveals that John saw a new heaven and a new earth. This is brilliant, such a beautiful thing from God! So I hope that during these classes you will learn a lot.
Pray for us, and may God bless your life! Amen? !
