Unit 8 · The New Testament Story

Open a New Testament and the first four books are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each one is called a gospel. The word comes from an old English word meaning "good news." Christians use it for the story of Jesus. Each Gospel tells that story from beginning to end.

The four books do not copy each other. Mark is the shortest and moves fast. Matthew quotes the Hebrew Bible often. Luke tells the most parables and pays attention to the poor. John is different from the other three. It uses long speeches and calls Jesus "the Word."

Many scholars think Mark was written first, around 70 CE. Matthew and Luke came later and share many of Mark’s stories. Christian tradition names the authors as two disciples (Matthew and John) and two of their friends (Mark and Luke). The books themselves do not sign their names.

The story of Jesus happens in a small land by the Mediterranean Sea. The Gospels call parts of it Judea and Galilee. The people there were Jewish. They read the Torah, kept the Sabbath and traveled to the Temple in Jerusalem for holidays. Jesus and his first followers were Jewish too.

But the land was not free. The Roman Empire ruled it. Rome collected taxes and sent soldiers. A king named Herod ruled for Rome when Jesus was born. Later a Roman governor named Pontius Pilate ruled Judea. The Gospels mention both men by name.

Many Jewish people hoped for a leader sent by God, called the messiah. They did not agree on what that leader would do. Jewish tradition still waits for the messiah. Christians believe Jesus was the messiah. The Greek word for messiah is "Christ." That is where the name "Jesus Christ" comes from.

Only two Gospels tell about the birth of Jesus. Luke tells it one way. Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem. There is no room at the inn. Mary lays her baby in a manger, a feeding box for animals. Angels tell shepherds in the fields, and the shepherds hurry to see the child.

Matthew tells it another way. Wise men from the east follow a star. They ask King Herod where the new king is. Herod is afraid and angry. The wise men find the child in Bethlehem and give gold and two sweet-smelling gifts, frankincense and myrrh. Then Joseph takes the family to Egypt to escape Herod.

Mark and John do not tell a birth story at all. Mark begins with Jesus as a grown man. Readers have noticed these differences for a long time. Many Christmas scenes put shepherds and wise men together, but in the Bible they come from two different books.

Before Jesus began teaching, the Gospels say a man named John was preaching by the Jordan River. He wore rough clothes made of camel hair and ate locusts and wild honey. He told people to turn away from wrong and get ready. Crowds came out from the towns to hear him.

John dipped people in the river as a sign of a fresh start. This is called baptism. It is why he is called John the Baptist. Jesus came to the river, and John baptized him. The Gospels say the sky opened and a voice said, "This is my beloved Son."

All four Gospels tell about John. That is rare. He is one of the few people who appear in every Gospel. Today many Christian churches still baptize people with water. Some dip the whole person. Some sprinkle water on the head. They point back to this story.

The Gospels say Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee and saw fishermen at work. He called Simon and his brother Andrew, and then James and John. Mark says he told them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." They left their nets and went with him.

In time there were twelve. They are called the disciples, which means students. Simon got a new name, Peter, which means "rock." Matthew was a tax collector, a job people disliked. Thomas asked hard questions. Judas is the one who, the Gospels say, later handed Jesus over.

Why twelve? Many readers connect the number to the twelve tribes of Israel from the Hebrew Bible. The Gospels also name women who traveled with Jesus and paid for the group’s needs, like Mary Magdalene and Joanna. Luke says this in chapter 8.

The Gospels say crowds came to hear Jesus teach. He often taught with a parable, a short story about everyday life with a deeper meaning. Seeds, sheep, bread, coins and vineyards fill his stories. Listeners knew these things well. The meaning was for them to figure out.

One famous parable is the sower. A farmer scatters seed. Some falls on the path, and birds eat it. Some falls on rocks and dries up. Some falls in weeds and gets choked. Some falls on good soil and grows a huge crop. Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell this story.

Then the disciples ask what it means. Jesus explains that the seed is the message, and the soils are the people who hear it. Some forget. Some give up. Some let worries crowd it out. Some take it in and change. Many teachers still use this parable to talk about listening.

In Luke 10, a lawyer asks Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus answers with a story. A man is beaten by robbers and left on the road. A priest walks by. A Temple helper walks by. Then a Samaritan stops. Samaritans and Jews did not get along in those days. The Samaritan bandages the man and pays for his care.

Jesus asks the lawyer, "Which one was a neighbor?" The lawyer says, "The one who showed mercy." Jesus says, "Go and do the same." The story does not define "neighbor" with a rule. It shows a neighbor in action. Today "Good Samaritan" means anyone who helps a stranger.

Luke 15 holds the story you heard at the start of this chapter. A younger son wastes his money and comes home. His father runs to meet him. The older brother is angry and will not come to the party. People call this the parable of the prodigal son. Prodigal means wasteful.

Matthew 5, 6 and 7 hold the longest talk by Jesus in the Gospels. He goes up a hill, sits down, and teaches. Readers call it the Sermon on the Mount. Luke has a shorter version, given on flat ground. It begins with short blessings called the Beatitudes.

Each blessing names people who are not on top and says they are blessed. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek, the peacemakers, and those who are treated badly for doing right. Christians have memorized these lines for centuries.

The sermon also gives the Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated. It teaches a prayer that Christians call the Lord’s Prayer. It says to love your enemies and not to show off when you give or pray. Many of these ideas also appear in Jewish teaching of the same time.

Many stories in the Gospels show Jesus healing. A man who cannot walk is lowered through a roof by his friends, and Jesus tells him to get up. A woman touches the edge of his cloak and is well. A blind man by the road calls out and is given his sight. The Gospels call these acts miracles.

The stories share a pattern. Someone is in need. Someone asks, or Jesus notices. Jesus speaks or touches. The person is well. Often Jesus says, "Your faith has made you whole." Sometimes he asks people to keep it quiet, and they tell everyone anyway.

Christians believe these stories show God’s power in Jesus. Other readers study them as the Gospel writers’ way of showing who they believed Jesus was. In a public school we read what the text says and how people have read it. We do not decide for anyone what really happened.

All four Gospels slow down for the last week. Jesus comes to Jerusalem for Passover, the holiday that remembers the Exodus from Egypt. He rides in on a young donkey. Crowds wave palm branches and shout "Hosanna!" Christians remember this day as Palm Sunday.

During the week Jesus teaches in the Temple courts and argues with leaders there. Some leaders decide he is dangerous. Judas, one of the twelve, agrees to help them arrest him. The Gospels say he was paid thirty pieces of silver.

On the night before his arrest, Jesus eats a meal with his disciples. Matthew, Mark and Luke say it is the Passover meal. He breaks bread and passes a cup and tells them to remember him. Christians call this the Last Supper. Many churches repeat it in a practice called communion or the Eucharist.

After the supper, the Gospels say Jesus prays in a garden and is arrested. He is questioned by Jewish leaders and then by Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate orders him put to death on a cross. This was a Roman punishment. The event is called the crucifixion. Christians remember it on Good Friday.

Jesus dies on a Friday and is buried in a tomb cut from rock. A stone is rolled across the door. On Sunday morning, women who followed him come to the tomb. The stone is moved. The tomb is empty. All four Gospels say Mary Magdalene was there.

The Gospels say Jesus rose from the dead and met his followers. Christians call this the resurrection and celebrate it at Easter. It is the center of Christian belief. Jewish tradition does not share this belief. Historians can study the texts, but they cannot prove or disprove what happened in the tomb.

Right after the four Gospels comes a book called the Acts of the Apostles, or just Acts. It is a sequel. It begins by speaking to the same person Luke’s Gospel speaks to, a man named Theophilus. Christian tradition says Luke wrote both books. Many scholars agree they have one author.

The word apostle means "one who is sent." Acts follows the people Jesus sent out. In chapter 1, Jesus tells them they will be witnesses in Jerusalem, then in Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. The rest of the book follows that map, one step at a time.

The first half of Acts is mostly about Peter in Jerusalem. The second half is mostly about Paul, who travels far. The book ends in Rome. Acts is the only book in the New Testament that tells this history. Without it, readers would not know how the churches began.

Acts 2 opens on Pentecost. This is a Jewish harvest holiday fifty days after Passover. In Hebrew it is called Shavuot. Jewish people from many lands had come to Jerusalem for it. The followers of Jesus, about 120 people, were together in one place.

The text says a sound like a strong wind filled the house. Something like small flames rested on each person. Then they began to speak in other languages. Visitors from Egypt, Rome, Arabia and other places each heard their own language. Some laughed and said the speakers must be drunk.

Peter stood up and gave a speech. Acts says about three thousand people joined the group that day. Christians call this the coming of the Holy Spirit. Many churches celebrate Pentecost each spring. Some call it the birthday of the church.

Acts 2 and 4 describe the first group in Jerusalem. They met in homes and at the Temple. They ate together. They shared what they had, so that no one in the group was in need. Some sold land and gave the money to the leaders to hand out. They called each other brothers and sisters.

Peter became the main leader. Acts 3 says he met a man at the Temple gate who could not walk. Peter said, "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you," and the man got up. The Temple leaders were not pleased. They arrested Peter more than once and told him to stop.

The group did not yet have a name. Acts 11 says people in Antioch were the first to call them Christians. Most of the first followers were Jewish. They kept going to the Temple. A big question was coming: could people who were not Jewish join too?

Acts introduces a man named Saul. He was Jewish, from the city of Tarsus, and very serious about the Torah. He believed the followers of Jesus were wrong and dangerous. Acts 8 says he went from house to house to arrest them. He set out for Damascus to find more.

Acts 9 says that on the road, a bright light flashed around him. He fell down and heard a voice: "Saul, Saul, why are you hurting me?" The voice said it was Jesus. Saul got up and could not see. His friends led him into the city by the hand. After three days a follower named Ananias came and prayed with him, and Saul could see again.

From then on, Saul told people about Jesus. Acts also calls him Paul, a Roman name. He used both. This story was so important that Acts tells it three times. Christians read it as a turning point. Paul himself writes about it more briefly in his letters, such as Galatians 1.

Paul did not stay in one place. Acts describes three long trips, usually called Paul’s missionary journeys. He started from Antioch each time. He walked Roman roads and sailed on cargo ships. He went to the island of Cyprus, then to cities in what is now Turkey and Greece.

In each city Paul went first to the synagogue, the Jewish house of prayer, and spoke there. Then he spoke to anyone who would listen. He worked as a tentmaker to pay his way. He started small groups in Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth and Ephesus. Some cities welcomed him. In others he was beaten or jailed.

On his last trip in Acts, Paul is a prisoner on a ship to Rome. A storm wrecks the ship near the island of Malta. Everyone swims to shore. Acts 28 ends with Paul in Rome, under guard, still teaching anyone who visits. The book does not say what happened to him after that.

Most of the first followers were Jewish. But Paul’s new groups were full of Gentiles, people who were not Jewish. That raised a hard question. Did Gentiles who joined have to keep the laws of the Torah, like the food rules and circumcision? Some leaders said yes. Paul said no.

Acts 15 says the leaders met in Jerusalem to decide. Peter spoke. Paul spoke. James, called the brother of Jesus, led the meeting. In the end they agreed. Gentiles could join without keeping every law. They asked only a few things, such as not eating food offered to idols.

This meeting changed history. It let the movement grow among people of every background. Jewish followers still kept the Torah. Over the next centuries the two groups grew apart. Judaism and Christianity became two separate religions, each with its own reading of the Hebrew Bible.

Paul could not be everywhere. So he wrote letters. A letter in the New Testament is also called an epistle. Thirteen letters carry Paul’s name. Some scholars think a few of them were written later by his students in his name, which was common then. The letters are named for the people they went to, like Romans and Galatians.

Ancient letters followed a pattern. First the greeting: who is writing, to whom, and a blessing. Then thanks. Then the main part, with teaching and advice. Then the goodbye, with greetings to friends by name. Paul often had a helper write while he spoke, and then signed the end himself.

The letters answer real problems. The Corinthians were fighting. The Galatians were confused about the Torah. The Philippians had sent Paul a gift. Reading a letter is like hearing one side of a phone call. You have to guess what the other side said. Many scholars think 1 Thessalonians is the oldest book in the New Testament, from around 50 CE.

The church in Corinth had a problem. Some members thought they were better than others. Some had gifts like speaking in other languages or teaching, and they showed off. Paul had heard about it in Ephesus. In chapter 13 of his first letter he changed the subject to love.

He starts big. If I speak every language, even the language of angels, and have no love, I am just a loud noise. If I know everything and have no love, I am nothing. Then he says what love does. Love is patient. Love is kind. It is not jealous. It does not brag. It does not keep a list of wrongs.

He ends with three things that last: faith, hope and love. "The greatest of these is love." The King James Version uses the old word charity here instead of love. This chapter is read at many weddings today. But Paul wrote it to a church, to tell them how to treat each other.

Not every letter in the New Testament comes from Paul. Eight more follow his. One is called Hebrews. It does not say who wrote it. Tradition once gave it to Paul, but most scholars now say the author is unknown. It compares Jesus to the priests of the Temple.

Then come letters named for their writers instead of their readers. James is full of short, practical advice, like "be quick to listen and slow to speak." Two letters carry Peter’s name. Three carry John’s name. One short one is from Jude. Because they went to many churches, not just one, they are often called the general letters.

These letters show that many leaders, not just Paul, were teaching. They also show the churches facing new problems: false teachers, hard times and long waiting. Scholars discuss who wrote each one and when. The churches kept and copied all of them.

The last book in the New Testament is Revelation. Its writer calls himself John and says he is on a small island called Patmos. He writes to seven churches in what is now Turkey. Many scholars think it was written around 95 CE, when the Roman emperor was Domitian and Christians in some places faced trouble.

Revelation is full of pictures. A throne with a rainbow around it. A lamb. A dragon. Four horsemen. A city of gold with gates of pearl. Numbers repeat: seven, twelve, one thousand. This kind of writing is called apocalypse, a Greek word meaning "unveiling." The book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible uses the same style.

Readers have disagreed about Revelation for centuries. Some Christians read it as a map of future events. Others read it as a message to its own time, using code pictures for Rome. Many read its ending as a promise: a new heaven and a new earth, where God wipes away every tear. That promise gives the book its hope.

Now you can see the whole New Testament. It has 27 books. Four are Gospels. One is Acts, the history. Twenty-one are letters. One is Revelation. All were written in Greek, the common language of the Roman world, in the first century or so. Christians read the same 27 books in every church.

The list did not settle all at once. Churches copied and shared the books for a long time. In 367 CE a bishop in Egypt named Athanasius wrote a letter listing exactly these 27. Christians differ about a few books in the Old Testament, but not about the New.

Acts ends in Rome. The story kept going. Over many centuries Christians went to Africa, Asia, Europe and later the Americas. Today there are Christians in nearly every country. Chicago has churches that pray in English, Spanish, Polish, Korean and many more languages, each reading these same books.