Week 9

Introduction
Connections
Homework Review

The New Testament Letters
Everything after the book of Acts
Context is especially key, but extra difficult here because it is prose discourse
Who remembers what Prose Discourse is?
Historical Context - 17
Description: 3 levels to Historical Context
How it fits into the whole story
Compare Romans 1:5 connection w/ Genesis 12:
How does it compare to the larger Roman culture it was written in?
This takes study and a willingness to revise our previous conclusions as we dig deeper.
The situation the specific letter was written in
1 Corinthians 11:17-34
Conclusion: It's not, how can we pretend to live in their culture, but how can we, like they did, look at the gospel and try to apply it to our culture.

Literary Context - 18
Description: It would cost a lot of money to produce a letter in that time. Paul is actually the most prolific writer of his day!
Description: All NT Letters are written as a whole, intended to be performed (spoken) out loud in one sitting.
Example: Let's hear Philemon and test our new skills
Historical & Situational Context [ Written by Paul, To a slaveowner, living out the gospel story in Roman Culture]
Greeting -> Prayer -> Body -> Conclusion -> Instructions
Does that sound like a self-help book or a book with universal advice? NO! But is there an important truth for us to learn? YES.

Apocalyptic Literature - 19
What does Apocalypse mean? Revealing
Seeing things they way they really are
A Revelation!
A Heavenly perspective on their earthly situation
Some books have there in them, some are almost entirely this
We can't do a deep enough dive to go into these today, BUT here are some skills you can take into them.
Poetic & Symbolic
Images come from other parts of the bible
Be ok with the complexity.
If you want to dive in, then go with a guide.

Conclusion
Final questions?
We have covered a lot of ground, but I am sure that you still don't feel like ok, now I got it