New Testament Letters

What role do the New Testament letters play in the biblical story?1.They presuppose the story of Jesus2.They define how the plot resolution works

out and how God’s people are to live in the present age.

3.The main concerns in the NT letters are the instruction, encouragement, and exhortation of God’s people (Fee and Stuart, How to Read the Bible Book by Book, 315)

Common Features of NT Letters

1. Writers are concerned with the salvation of God’s people (soteriology: entry into and maintenance of a relationship with God).

2. NT letters are written to first-generation converts to address specific situations in the lives of believers.

3. Writers understand the present in light of the future (eschatology).

4. Writers understand the ethical imperatives as expressions of God’s likeness revealed in Christ Jesus.

NT Letter FormatLetter beginning•Sender (s)•Recipient (s)•Greeting (Grace and peace to you)•Thanksgiving or blessing

Letter body•Initial exhortation•Thesis statement•Theological discussion•Ethical Admonition

Letter closing•Practical matters•Individual greetings•Personal postscript•Doxology or prayer

The Apostle Paul• “By his own extraordinary missionary activity

concentrated into a relatively few years and by the theology worked out in his letters Paul laid the foundations for the later expansion in both practice and theory.”

• Through his encounter with the risen Lord, Paul came to understand that Jesus is at the center of God’s saving purposes, and that he is Israel’s Messiah, the Son of God and Lord of all. He knew that justification is by God’s grace alone, for the ungodly had been justified through God’s sheer mercy.

• In Ephesians 3:1-13 Paul makes it clear that his missionary calling to preach the gospel to Gentiles is integral to God’s redemptive plan.

Paul’s Letters

• Looking at the letters as a whole, we can say that Paul invented a new genre of letters: indeed a whole new genre of literature. This genre is the apostolic, or pastoral, letter. Its basic function was to speak for the apostle in his absence.

• They are, in effect, a tool of his apostleship.

Paul’s letters are:

Narrative: A Story Behind and WithinPaul is always telling stories:• About God in Christ• About himself• About his relationship to his readers• About life within the community

His letters are a three-way intersection:• God’s Story• Paul’s Story• The Recipient’s Story

Authoritative: Conformity to Christ

•Paul’s letters were intended to be read in worship, and, as such, have a liturgical quality to them.• In writing a letter to be read in worship,

Paul is exercising the authoritative side of his apostolic calling as well as the pastoral side.•His words are not offered as optional,

but as Spirit-inspired prophecy.

As you read NT letters remember:

God’s story is our story. The NT Letters are another place in which God writes us into His story. (See Ephesians 1)

Paul’s Letters

Journey Writings ThemeA.D. 47-49 First Missionary Journey None

(in Asia Minor only)Galatians ? Soteriology (Christian living)

A.D. 50-53 Second Missionary Journey 1 Thessalonians Eschatology (End of Time)(through Asia Minor, Greece 2 Thessalonianstwo years in Corinth)

A.D. 53-57 Third Missionary Journey 1 Corinthians Soteriology (Christian living)(through Asia Minor, Greece, 2 Corinthians three years in Ephesus) Romans

A.D. 57-59 Caesarean Imprisonment None

A.D. 60-62 First Roman Imprisonment Ephesians Unity Among BelieversColossiansPhilippiansPhilemon

A.D. 62-66 Travel to Spain? 1 Timothy Pastoral Instruction/AdviceTitus

Second Roman Imprisonment 2 TimothyA.D. 66/67 Paul’s Martyrdom

Catholic/General Letters

Author Destination Theme

A.D. 50s Hebrews Rome, Italy Supremacy of Jesus

A.D. 40-62 James Dispersion Faith and Practice

A.D. 50-53 1 Peter Asia Minor Faith, Hope, and Suffering

A.D. 2 Peter The reality of the resurrection

A.D. 90s 1 John Ephesus/Seven Churches Assurance in the face of heresy

2 John

3 John

A.D. 40-90 Jude Unknown Expose and condemn false teachers

A.D. 96 Revelation Ephesus/Seven Churches Faithful Endurance