NT301 The Gospels as Ancient Biography: A Theological and Historical Perspective
Overview
Dr. Jonathan Pennington, a specialist in the Gospels, discusses how to interpret these ancient biographies based on their genre rather than focusing only on their content. This course shows how a literary reading of the Gospels reveals the beauty of Jesus’ life.
Top Highlights
“So in light of all that, so far I’d like to offer you a provisional—and it has to be provisional—a provisional definition of what I think the word ‘gospel’ means when we talk about it in light of the Gospels. And it is this: building especially on the Isaianic vision (‘of Isaiah’) the nt authors define the ‘gospel’ as Jesus’ effecting of the long-awaited return of God Himself, bringing His people back from exile (a very important key idea from Isaiah) and into the true promised land (of course, that keys into the whole ot story and promise) of a new creation, forgiving their sins (you think back to Isa 53 and how crucial that is in the message of the good news) and fulfilling all the promises of God and hopes of His people.” (source)
“The idea of genre is basically that every type of literature creates a set of expectations between the reader and the writer based on certain cultural and literary conventions that really you pick up from a pretty early age in your own culture that help you learn how to interpret what’s about to be said.” (source)
“And those four biblical paradigms are, first of all, guilt/righteous—that’s one; so this issue of guilt and righteousness. The second is shame/honor. The third one is clean/unclean or defilement/cleanliness. And the fourth is fear/power.” (source)
“His message—‘gospel,’ because they understand that what they are doing is saying the same thing that Isaiah prophesied and spoke about and predicted has now come into being in the Lord Jesus. And what is the content of that gospel? I would suggest to you that it’s the same as it is in Isaiah—that God reigns and He is returning to establish His reign on the earth. And when you read the Gospels, you see that’s exactly what Jesus is preaching as well. And that’s why that phrase I mentioned a moment ago from Matthew, ‘the gospel of the kingdom,’ is so important. It’s tying right back into Isaiah and the whole expectation that God is going to return with His son—the Messiah, the King, the son of David—to establish His reign on the earth again.” (source)
- Title: NT301 The Gospels as Ancient Biography: A Theological and Historical Perspective
- Author: Jonathan T. Pennington
- Series: Logos Mobile Education
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Print Publication Date: 2014
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Courseware
- Subjects: Bible. N.T. Gospels › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. N.T. Gospels › Theology; Education › Bible. N.T. Gospels--Criticism, interpretation, etc; Education › Bible. N.T. Gospels--Theology
- Resource ID: LLS:NT301PENNINGTON
- Resource Type: Courseware Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-12T04:49:37Z
Dr. Jonathan T. Pennington is the associate professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He also served as a visiting professor at Southeastern Seminary, as well as the Institute of Biblical Studies in Orlando, Florida and Melbourne, Australia.
He earned a BA in history and his teaching certificate from Northern Illinois University, and his MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he also taught Greek for two years as an NT fellow. For five years, he also served as the associate pastor at the Evangelical Free Church of Mt. Morris in northern Illinois.
He holds a PhD in New Testament studies from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland (in St. Mary’s College), where he wrote his thesis, “Heaven and Earth in the Gospel of Matthew,” under the supervision of professors Richard Bauckham and Philip Esler. Dr. Pennington is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Tyndale Fellowship (Cambridge), the Institute for Biblical Research, and the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies. He’s published a variety of articles, reviews, and Greek and Hebrew language tools, as well as books like Heaven and Earth in the Gospel of Matthew (Brill),Cosmology and New Testament Theology (T&T Clark), and Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction (Baker Academic).