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A Survey of The Life and Teachings of Jesus

© L.D. Underwood 2010

Table of Contents

A General Introduction to the New Testament

Preview of the Gospel Quartet

The Synoptic Problem

SLTJ:Ch 4

SLTJ:Ch 5

SLTJ:Ch 6

SLTJ:Ch 7

SLTJ:Ch 8

SLTJ:Ch 9

SLTJ:Ch 10

SLTJ:Ch 11

SLTJ:Ch 12

SLTJ:Ch 13

[[SLTJ:Ch 14]

SLTJ:Ch 15

SLTJ:Ch 16

Chapter 1: A General Introduction to the New Testament

With regard to the structure of Old and New Testaments, there are a few considerations. One should notice there is a deliberate design and development in the order in which the books of the Bible occur. These sixty-six books of the Bible show evidence of a pattern and a definite progress. That is not to say that the arrangement of the books is necessarily divinely inspired, but that order was put together by the church in the early centuries. So, we do not say that the order in which to books are found is a result of some of divine inspiration, but the order is significantly logical. There is a definite purpose and progression that can be seen. That can probably be best seen by looking at the Old Testament first.

In the Old Testament we have historical books—there are five books known as the Pentateuch; also called the law or the Torah which consist of Genesis through Deuteronomy. They are followed by twelve historical books consisting of Joshua through Ester. So, the first seventeen books of the Old Testament are historical in nature. The second section of the Old Testament can be considered didactical or teaching books; and these are the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. These are didactical books; or teaching books and are quite poetical in nature. And the last section of the Old Testament is the collection of prophetical books with five major prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel. And twelve minor prophets, Hosea through Malachi. They are called ‘minor’ not because they are less important than the major prophets, but because they are shorter in size. Thus, we have seventeen books of history followed by five books emphasizing teaching, followed by seventeen books of prophecy.

The same pattern is found in the New Testament. We have the four gospels plus the book of Acts, and these five books are historical in nature consisting of either the history of Christ, or the history of the early church. These books are followed by twenty-one didactical books known as the Epistles: the letters of Paul and Peter and James and John and the other writers of the New Testament numbering twenty-one in all. They are followed by one book exclusively devoted to prophecy—the book of the Revelation.

Understanding this pattern is quite helpful to the student of the Bible. When reading in the book of Amos, or Hosea, or Micah, or one of the other prophets, one should understand that this reading fits back into the historical framework Israel during one of the kings that was reigning at the time of when the prophet of God was uttering his prophecy.

Thus, the books are not in chronological order, but rather they are ordered by sections of emphasis. In order to deal with a particular time-frame, one needs to bring all those books that cover that same time period into balance. There is a definite pattern a definite structure to the books as we have in both the Old and New Testament, so when studying the Gospels, we are essentially looking at four of the historical books of the New Testament.

Secondly, if the dominant idea of the New Testament could be put in to one word, it would be the word ‘fulfillment’. Each Gospel account illustrates this characteristic concept. For example, Matthew has the phrase, “That it might be fulfilled.” He repeats that word about twelve times in his gospel. Additionally, his first recorded public discourse of our Lord, Matthew reports, “I came to fulfil” Again, “thus it becometh us to fulfill.” Matthew uses that word ‘fulfillment’ quite frequently from the Greek πληρόω (plēroō) meaning “to fill; make full.”1

In the same way, Mark writes “The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15, KJV). Also, Luke will record, with frequency “This day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21). In the fourth gospel account, John uses the same phrase that Matthew did, “That it might be fulfilled” numerous times in his Gospel (see John 12:38; 13:18; 15:25; 17:12; 18:9; 18:32; 19:24; 19:28).

Each Gospel illustrates this one major theme, the dominant idea of fulfillment. And what we’re saying is that the Christ of the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. He is the subject of its pages in a unique way. Remember that Job in the Old Testament made a great discovery of God on one occasion and he wrote “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee” (Job 42:5, KJV). As one examines Jesus Christ in the Gospels one will be able to say, “We have heard about Jesus, a great deal by the hearing of the ears but now our eyes actually behold him in the pages of these Gospel accounts.”

And that makes the New Testament the most vitally important book or series of books in the world—because they depict the most important person in the world, Jesus Christ. One could put it this way: taking the Old Testament all by itself, it would read very much like an unfinished symphony. Take for example the Pentateuch, the Torah, the Law as one reads through those first five books, studying that section for the very first time, one is struck with the prevalence of animal sacrifices. They appear on almost every page beginning back in the fourth chapter of Genesis and seen more clearly in Exodus, and Leviticus presents the organization of the offerings and rites and the ceremonies and the sacrifices and as one looks at all of these sacrifices of animals he might ask the question, “What are they for?” What is their purpose? Undoubtedly, they somehow point to realities outside of themselves. And yet nowhere in the Pentateuch are those animal sacrifices explained. Reading all the way through the rest of the Old Testament, the reader might become increasingly disappointed because in the Old Testament there are these unexplained ceremonies.

Examining the historical books Joshua through Ester, it is quite clear that God has prepared a chosen people. God is developing the Jewish people into a nation. Essentially a theocracy—meaning ruled by God. As this covenant people invades and occupies the land of Canaan one can picture the future of this fledgling nation as just full of possibilities. That is Joshua. By the time we read book of Judges, we find a sorry, sorted deterioration into servitude. We have seven cycles of apostasy, where the people begin to serve God, then they fall away from God and then God brings in some foreign power to oppress them and then they cry out for mercy from God, and God raises up a Judge and delivers them. They serve God for a while and then the whole cycle repeats itself seven times in the book of Judges.

This theocracy, this beautiful experiment where God is the invisible ruler, deteriorates and later becomes a monarchy as described in the books of Samuel, where we have human kings introduced because the people wanted someone they could see. And then that kingdom is disrupted into two kingdoms. There is split, there is secession from the union described in the books of Kings. Each of those kingdoms Israel in the North, Judah in the South both are swept into exile. There is record of the Babylonian captivity, and record of the Assyrian captivity.

Finally, the story is reviewed in the book of Chronicles and in the last few historical books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Ester there is just a handful, a little remnant that returns back to Judea. The walls of Jerusalem are rebuilt; but the Davidic throne, no longer exists. All we have in Judea by in the end of that historical section are a few Jews—they are merely a minor dependency, they don’t even have their own form of government. And outside Judea they are just scattered to the four winds. On might ask, “What’s happened. Why this change? Here this beautiful beginning and now this sorry declension and decline into other failures. Why?” If one reads through the rest of the Old Testament, it ends on a note of sadness because there are unachieved purposes.

Examine the poetical books of Job through Song of Solomon—philosophical books that deal with the aching problems of the human heart surely one will find some solution to those problems. But is a solution found? Clearly, there are all kinds of illuminations and penetrating practical reassuring councils and lessons and promises but there are no clear final solutions to the problem of sin or pain or death or the life beyond death. And we are left groaning with Job, “Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!” (Job 23:3, KJV). This leaves the reader without answers in his spiritual quest, for there are these unappeased longings.

Then if one reads the prophetical books of Isaiah through Malachi, he reads about these future predictions that guarantee an ultimate consummation and restitution. All focusing upon the idea that someone is coming, someone who will be God’s answer to the cry of the ages and this whole stream of Messianic prophecy which begins back in Genesis reaches floodtide proportions as one reads through the prophets. When reading through the book of Malachi, one notices the Promised One still has not come. And Malachi closes with the words, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 3:1, KJV). Thus, the curtain closes on the Old Testament with unfulfilled prophecies.

This is why the Old Testament is like an unfinished symphony—with all of these aspects of unexplained ceremonies, unachieved purposes unappeased longings unfulfilled prophecies. And that is why the New Testament completes the sacred masterpiece. That is why the historical books of the New Testament give us an explanation of those unexplained ceremonies and unachieved purposes. They find their fulfillment in Jesus. All of those offerings all those tabernacle ordinances all those unfulfilled histories of the Old Testament are taken up again and they all point to Him where they are recorded historically in the Gospels.

The same thing with the epistles—the didactical books of the New Testament. All those unappeased longings, all those unanswered questions in the Old covenant books of poetry, now find their completion in the Christ who is pictured for us in the Epistles. And the same thing with all the prophecies in the Old Testament that were unfulfilled they find their consummation and their completion and their fulfillment in the book of the Revelation. And so, Job’s cry, “Oh that I knew where I might find Him” (Job 23:3) is answered. The apostle, John through the lips of Andrew cries out, “We have found the Messiah,” which is being interpreted “the Christ”. Both testaments are vitally important to each other. We cannot have one without the other.

A story is told of a Hindu convert who was studying the New Testament and one day he came to his missionary and said, “I’ve come to ask you for the other part of the Bible.” The book I am reading seems to be so incomplete. Almost every page is telling me, “It was done in order that it might be fulfilled….” And now I want to know just what it is that has been fulfilled.

If one were to omit any chapter in the New Testament, that had a reference to the Old Testament or an allusion back to the Old Testament, he would have to eliminate 240 of the 250 chapters. There are only twenty chapters that do not have some kind of mention of the Old Testament either by direct quotation or by indirect allusion. In the New Testament is a revelation of divine supply. In the Old Testament we have the unveilings of the human heart. In the New Testament we have the unveiling of the heart of God—and the way in which he has answered humanities need in Jesus Christ.

The Old Testament and the New Testament both begin with a different representative man, Adam in the Old Testament Jesus Christ in the New Testament. They are heads of new humanity. Both testaments record temptations by Satan. There are temptations amid the lovely beauty and bounty in the Garden of Eden, in the book of Genesis, and the temptations amid the aridity and dryness of a lonely desert of Jesus Christ in the wilderness in the New Testament. Both testaments address a called-out people. We have an elected nation that is chosen in Abraham in the Old Testament, whereas we have an elect church chosen in Jesus Christ in the New Testament. They both set forth God’s standard. God’s standard is set forth in terms of Law in the Old Testament, and the Sermon on the Mount in the New Testament.

They both predict an inheritance. The inheritance of Canaan the, the land of Canaan in the Old Testament. Whereas we have spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus in heavenly places in the New Testament. Both of these testaments tell of human failure. We know that with regard to Israel and how it became apostate and how she was rejected in and ejected from the land. Just as that tragedy is given so in the New Testament we have a prospect of an organized church that is forewarned of apostasy at the end of the age also. Both end with predictions of hope. Whereas Malachi said, “Behold he shall come” (Malachi 3:1) We have the same statement in the Book of Revelation, “Behold he cometh with clouds” (Revelation 1:7), speaking of his second coming.

Both testaments are vitally important to each other. Some might suggest the Old Testament is not for today, it is the New Testament that is all important. (Of course, we won’t hear that from Old Testament scholars.) The Old Testament is vitally important for understanding the New Testament just as the New Testament is vitally important in understanding the Old Testament.

Clearly, there is definite structure and organization to the books of the Bible. Looking at the historical books of the New Testament, the key note of the whole is wrapped up in that word ‘fulfillment’.

1 Wesley J. Perschbacher, The New Analytical Greek Lexicon (Hendrickson Publishers: 1990), 332.