Mobile Ed: NT201 The Cultural World of the New Testament (6 hour course)
Overview
Join Dr. David deSilva as he describes important cultural concepts from the first century and shows how these concepts shed light on the New Testament. Learn why the author of 1 Peter spoke to the shame Christians were experiencing, and what cultural norms they had to fight against as they sought to follow Christ. Discover how grace and gratitude were viewed differently than they are today. Learn what purity meant for Jews, how patronage and reciprocity impacted everyday decisions, how families and households operated, and more. Dr. deSilva pulls from a variety of sources to explain these concepts and uses the books of Hebrews and 1 Peter to illustrate them.
This course will give you a better understanding of the environment early Christians were in as they broke the rules of society for the sake of the gospel.
For more studies from David A. deSilva, see Mobile Ed: NT222 Introducing the Epistles and Revelation: Their Setting and Message (12 hour course).
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion you should be able to:
- Understand cultural elements present in the first century that drive meaning of New Testament texts
- Avoid misinterpretation of potentially foreign cultural elements
- Relate ancient Jewish and Hellenistic culture to modern settings
Course Outline
Introduction
- Introducing the Speaker and the Course
Unit 1: Honor and Shame
- Introduction to Culture
- Honor, Shame, and Social Control
- Honor and Shame in Complex Cultures
- Competing for Honor
Unit 2: Honor and Shame: 1 Peter
- The Experience of Shame
- Consider the Source
- Who’s on Trial Here?
- Reinterpreting Experiences of Shame (Part 1)
- Reinterpreting Experiences of Shame (Part 2)
- Defending Your Honor
- Using a Historical Background Collection
- Honored in God’s Sight
- The Social Matrix of Perseverance
- Embodying 1 Peter
Unit 3: Patronage and Reciprocity
- Patrons, Clients, and Brokers
- The Social Context of Grace
- Running a Louw-Nida Search on Charis
- Graceful Giving
- Graceful Receiving and Expression of Gratitude
- An Example from the Life of Jesus
Unit 4: Patronage and Reciprocity: Hebrews
- God as Patron
- Jesus as Patron and Mediator
- The Letter to the Hebrews and Its Audience
- Summons to Grateful Response
- Warnings against Ingratitude (Part 1)
- Warnings against Ingratitude (Part 2)
- Cultural Awareness and Solving Theological Problems
Unit 5: Family and Household
- Establishing Kinship
- Kinship Ethics
- The Household of the Classical World
- Women in the Household
- Studying Sirach on the Silent Wife
- Children
- Analyzing Parentage and Honor (John 8:31–41)
- Slaves
- Reconfiguring Kinship
- Searching for the Cultural Concept of Kinship
Unit 6: Family and Household: 1 Peter
- New Birth into a New Family
- Ethical Implications of the New Birth
- Advice for Christians in Natural Households: Wives
- Advice for Christians in Natural Households: Husbands
- Advice for Christians in Natural Households: Slaves
Unit 7: Purity and Pollution
- Basic Concepts
- Clean, Unclean, Common, and Holy
- Early Judaism’s Purity Maps (Part 1)
- Investigating Herod's Temple
- Early Judaism’s Purity Maps (Part 2)
- What Makes Purity Codes Meaningful?
- Levels of Concern for Purity
Unit 8: Purity and Pollution: Hebrews
- Purity Regulations in a Pauline Church
- Purity and New Group Boundaries
- Rewriting Maps of Sacred Space and Personnel
- Jesus’ Death as Consecration
- Reexamining Purity Lines Today
- Building a Sermon on Defilement (Mark 7:20–23)
Conclusion
- Authentic Hearing, Authentic Following
Product Details
- Title: NT201 The Cultural World of the New Testament
- Instructor: David A. deSilva
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Publication Date: 2015
- Product Type: Logos Mobile Education
- Resource Type: Courseware, including transcripts, audio, and video resources
- Courses: 1
- Video Hours: 6
Partially includedAbout the Instructor
Dr. David A. deSilva is the trustees’ distinguished professor of New Testament and Greek at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ohio, where he’s taught since 1995. He’s written over 20 books in the areas of New Testament and Second Temple Judaism and is a leading expert on the cultural world of the New Testament.
Getting the most out of Mobile Ed
Logos Mobile Education is a highly effective cross-platform learning environment that integrates world class teaching with the powerful study tools and theological libraries available in Logos Bible Software. Every course provides links to additional resources and suggested readings that supplement the lecture material at the end of every transcript segment.
This course was produced with screencast videos. These videos provide tutorials showing you how to use Logos Bible Software in ways that are tied directly into the content of the course. We are now producing Activities resources as a replacement for screencast videos. We plan on updating this course to include this additional Activities resource in the future for no extra charge.