Mobile Ed: NT281 How We Got the New Testament (4 hour course)
Overview
In this course, Dr. Michael Heiser explains the story of how we got the New Testament—he guides you from the process of inspiration to the discovery and transmission of manuscripts. Dr. Heiser describes the role of scribes throughout time and discusses significant Greek New Testament manuscripts upon which modern translations are based. Because most students of the Bible read it in their own language, he also examines translation philosophies and controversies.
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion you should be able to:
- Identify basic facts about the scope and structure of the NT
- Discuss the concepts of inspiration, inerrancy, and canon with respect to the NT
- Explain the compositional process of the NT
- Trace the transmission of the NT from its beginning to modern times
- Identify the various textual witnesses to the NT
- Describe the nature of textual variants and the process of textual criticism
- Discuss how to evaluate English translations
Course Outline
Introduction
- Introducing the Speaker and the Course
Unit 1: Preliminary Issues
- What Is the New Testament?
- The Term “New Testament”
- Exploring “Covenant” Using the Topic Guide
- The Scope of the New Testament
- Number of New Testament Books
- Order and Structure of New Testament Books
- Titles of New Testament Books
- The Authority of the Testaments
- Creating a Custom Guide to Study 2 Timothy 3:16
- Road Map for this Course
Unit 2: Inspiration
- Two Sides to Inspiration
- Flawed Conception of Inspiration
- Coherent Conception: Major Verses
- Coherent Conception: Textual Phenomena
Unit 3: The Composition of the New Testament Books
- Preview
- Researching Important Dates with the Timeline Tool
- The Language of the New Testament
- Defining “Autograph”
- Producing Documents in a Graeco-Roman World
- Understanding Technical Terms
- Amanuenses
- Use of External Source Material
- Exploring Ancient Texts Relevant to the Text of the New Testament
- Literary Intent and Occasion
Unit 4: Canonical Recognition of the New Testament Books
- Concept of Canon
- Early Development
- The Impact of Canon on Copying and Transmission
Unit 5: Manuscripts of the New Testament
- The Copying Enterprise
- The Innovation of the Codex
- Manuscript Types and Discoveries
- Papyri
- Uncials and Sinaiticus
- Using Textual Apparatuses in Logos
- Uncials: Alexandrinus
- Viewing Codex Sinaiticus in Logos
- Uncials: Vaticanus
- Uncials: Codex Bezae
- Minuscules
- Lectionaries
- Quotations from the Fathers
- Searching for New Testament Citations in the Early Church Fathers
- Early Versions of the New Testament
- Archaeological Factors in Dating Manuscripts
- Dating and the Forms of Manuscripts
- Dating and Paleography
- Carbon-14 Dating
- Manuscript Families
- Alexandrian Family
- Byzantine Family
Unit 6: The History of the Text’s Transmission
- The Early Centuries (1st–4th)
- The Byzantine Era (400–1516)
- The “Received Text” (1516–1633)
- Erasmus’ First Edition (1516)
- Erasmus’ First and Third Editions
- Later Editions of Erasmus’ Text
- The Period of Critical Research (1633–1881)
- Important Scholarly Work
- Westcott and Hort
- Positive Reaction to Westcott and Hort
- Negative Reaction to Westcott and Hort
- H. von Soden’s Text (1913)
- Eberhard Nestle (1898–1963)
- UBS First Edition
- UBS Third Edition and Nestle-Aland Edition
- Modern Majority Text Editions
- SBL Greek New Testament
- Comparing Major Editions of the Greek New Testament
Unit 7: The Impact of Textual History
- Pre-20th Century
- Evaluating Modern Translations
- The American Standard Version
- The Revised Standard Version
- The New American Standard Bible
- The New International Version
- The New King James Version
- The New Revised Standard Version
- The New English Translation
- The English Standard Version
Unit 8: Textual Criticism of the New Testament
- Preview of the Process
- Determining Variants
- Gathering Evidence: The Specialist
- Gathering Evidence: The Nonspecialist
- Using Digital Tools for Conducting Text-Critical Research
- Evaluating Evidence: Types of Variants
- Unintentional Variants: Word Division
- Unintentional Variants: Letter Confusion
- Unintentional Variants: Eye Skipping
- Unintentional Variants: Haplography
- Unintentional Variants: Dittography
- Unintentional Variants: Transposition
- Unintentional Variants: Faulty Hearing
- Intentional Variants: Clarifying the Text
- Intentional Variants: Conflation
- Intentional Variants: Harmonization and Smoothing
- Evaluating Variants
- Evaluating Variants: Internal Considerations
- Evaluating Variants: External Considerations
- Evaluating Variants: Logical Considerations
- Investigating the “Johannine Comma” with Various Tools
- Textual Criticism, Inspiration, and Inerrancy
Unit 9: The “King James Only” Controversy
- Preview of the Issue
- The Merit Argument
- The Providence Argument
- The Satanic Argument
- The Heresy Argument
- A Personal Note
Conclusion
- Course Summary
Product Details
- Title: NT281 How We Got the New Testament
- Instructor: Dr. Michael S. Heiser
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Publication Date: 2014
- Product Type: Logos Mobile Education
- Resource Type: Courseware, including transcripts, audio, and video resources
- Courses: 1
- Video Hours: 4
Partially includedAbout Dr. Michael S. Heiser
Dr. Michael S. Heiser is a former Scholar-in-Residence for Faithlife Corporation, the makers of Logos Bible Software. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Awakening School of Theology and Ministry at Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida. His varied academic background enables him to operate in the realm of critical scholarship and the wider Christian community. His experience in teaching at the undergraduate level and writing for the layperson have both directly contributed to Logos’ goal of adapting scholarly tools for nonspecialists.
Dr. Heiser earned his PhD in Hebrew Bible and Semitic languages and holds and MA in ancient history and Hebrew studies. He is the coeditor of Old Testament Greek Pseudepigrapha with Morphology and Semitic Inscriptions: Analyzed Texts and English Translations, and can do translation work in roughly a dozen ancient languages, including Biblical Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Ugaritic cuneiform. He also specializes in Israelite religion (especially Israel’s divine council), contextualizing biblical theology with Israelite and ancient Near Eastern religion, Jewish binitarianism, biblical languages, ancient Semitic languages, textual criticism, comparative philology, and Second Temple period Jewish literature. In addition, he was named the 2007 Pacific Northwest Regional Scholar by the Society of Biblical Literature.
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.
Reviews
11 ratings
Bill Nelson
2/10/2023
Joseph E
4/22/2022
nl
4/1/2019
James Brooks
3/3/2019
Deacon Kurt Lucas
1/25/2019
Adrian Daniel Odom
8/22/2017
This is the first mobile ed course I ever watched. It's still my favorite.
Matt Hamrick
7/16/2016
I like all of Dr. Michael Heiser's courses and this one is no different. He is very clear presenting the material and making us think for ourselves. He covers most everything one needs to know to for the material. The History of the Text's Transmission is by far my most favorite segments in Mobile Ed thus far. I did this course in the summer session for 2016 and again two weeks is very fast. I followed the study plan presented by Faithlife and found myself wanting to read more of the elective stuff but to absorb all that material would take longer than 2 weeks. I favor a longer timeframe in future summer sessions.
MJ. Smith
7/15/2016
This is an excellent course for providing basic information without forcing the student to potentially rethink their position. It is clear that Dr. Heiser is knowledgeable and most comfortable discussing manuscripts and their production with the related textual criticism. It is also clear that he teaches from the priorities of an academic which is appropriate but should be acknowledged. I think that running the course as a two week summer course limits the number of the readings that the student can actually read in a way that detracts from the course. Summer continuing education credits that I have taken on campus or in my parish have been a bit more demanding on the reading side. I believe that one purpose of a survey course is to introduce one to resources to read to learn more about the subject than a survey can offer. However there were several topics outside manuscripts and text criticism that I expected to have covered: 1. Debates on the actual canon of the NT and their echos long after the canon was "officially" settled (in theory but not in practice). 2. The use of the NT in the church throughout history and the effects of that on transmission. 3. Theological options for the "providential" preservation of the NT after its completion. 4. Mention of more English Bibles outside the KJV lineage that have extensive use within the mainline Protestant market. 5. And, if the issue of the KJV only was to be presented, then the Greek Orthodox NT critical edition/translation, the Aramaic primacy group, and the liberal addition of Gnostic texts back into the NT canon should also be mentioned. However, Dr. Heiser has a very effective teaching style and does a great job of emphasizing the salient points. He is also amazingly capable of taking controversial topics and presenting them in a way that is not controversial or combative.
Kirby Hansen
7/15/2016
This course is an excellent overview of the subject material and just what I was looking for. Some depth for the non-expert without becoming boring or tedious. It also provided some helpful suggestions for new Logos materials and ways to use Logos 6 more effectively without too much sales pressure. I thought Dr. Heiser provides a very balanced approach to the various controversies over which Greek families and editions are best and I was pleased to learn, at least to my satisfaction, something that I had already come to believe on my own: namely that all of the available Christian English translations including the KJV are doctrinally sound and that choosing a favorite pretty much becomes a personal choice (I do not consider the New World Translation to be a Christian translation since it does not support a Trinitarian view).
