An Artistic Approach to New Testament Literature

An Artistic Approach to New Testament Literature

Sharon R. Chace

AN ARTISTIC APPROACH TO NEW TESTAMENT LITERATURE

Copyright © 2008 Sharon R. Chace. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

ISBN 13: 978-1-55635-121-1

EISBN 13: 978-1-4982-7665-8

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: What Is the New Testament?

Chapter 2: What Is an Artistic Approach to Biblical Literature?

Chapter 3: The Synoptic Problem

Part One: The Gospel and Growing Proclamation

Chapter 4: The Gospel according to Mark

Chapter 5: The Gospel according to Matthew

Chapter 6: The Gospel according to Luke

Chapter 7: The Acts of the Apostles

Part Two: The Community of the Word

Chapter 8: The Gospel according to John

Chapter 9: The Letters of First, Second, and Third John

Part Three: Theological Problem and Introduction to Pauline Thought

Chapter 10: Introducing Paul

Chapter 11: The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians

Chapter 12: The Letter to the Ephesians

Part Four: The Rest of Paul’s Letters

Chapter 13: The Letter to the Galatians

Chapter 14: The First Letter to the Corinthians

Chapter 15: The Second Letter to the Corinthians

Chapter 16: The Letter to the Romans

Chapter 17: The Letter to Philemon

Chapter 18: The Letter to the Philippians

Part Five: Cosmic Christ Served by Good Deeds and Growing Ministry

Chapter 19: The Letter to the Colossians

Chapter 20: The Letter of James

Chapter 21: The First and Second Letters to Timothy, and the Letter to Titus

Part Six: Christians in Crisis

Chapter 22: The First Letter of Peter

Chapter 23: The Letter of Jude

Chapter 24: The Second Letter of Peter

Part Seven: Jesus as Helper,and Christ as Risen Lord

Chapter 25: The Letter to the Hebrews

Chapter 26: The Book of Revelation

Bibliography

Dedicated in memory of Doris Brainard,religious educator and friend.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to my husband, Ernest. His support and interest help me feel more enthusiastic about my life and work. I am grateful to Fr. Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, for his ongoing, gentle encouragement during and after my days at Weston Jesuit School of Theology. The late Charlotte Currie gave the priceless gift of belief in me, saying Sharon, you can do anything you want. Thank you to Eleanor Parsons for reading the proofs and to Hope Stafford for her ongoing interest in Christian living. Friend and neighbor Anita Lynn helped me with secretarial details and cups of tea. Finally, I am thankful for the biblical writers and compilers of the book of Proverbs. One verse summarizes how publication of An Artistic Approach to New Testament Literature enlivens me: Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life (13:12).

Introduction

This book is for anyone who wants a short guide to the New Testament. My artistic approach is especially appropriate for high school and college students who are interested in the visual arts and want an imaginative supplement to more standard introductions to the New Testament. In a way, I write to my inner self, that eight-year-old girl in a sepia photographic portrait. I wore my best Sunday dress: a candy-striped taffeta blouse with an attached blue skirt. While quiet and dressed in a ladylike fashion for Sunday school, I always spoke my mind, often to the surprise of adults, who did not expect such directness from demure Sharon.

Once, at an evangelical church, I was almost asked to leave Sunday school. My question was upsetting to the Sunday school teachers, who had to caucus to decide how to answer. I asked if the red words in my Bible are really the exact words of Jesus, or are they extra quotation marks? The answer given to me was that they are the exact words of Jesus and they did not want to hear any more doubts. What I should have been told would have gone something like this: The earthly Jesus was a prophet and preacher but not a writer. His followers, some of them scribes with excellent memories, passed on his sayings by word of mouth and eventually wrote them down. Then the gospel writers collected materials about Jesus as well as his teachings and organized reports, stories, and instructions in their gospels. Sometimes in faithfulness to the person they knew Jesus to be and in the style of other writers in the ancient world, the New Testament authors put a few words into Jesus’s mouth that they knew he would or should have said. The writers of the New Testament gospels were more like artists than news reporters. These writers painted pictures of Jesus with words and artistically presented Jesus’s parables and stories. Other New Testament writers contributed artfully composed letters, sermons, and theological essays.

My focus on artistry developed over time. In 1966 I graduated from Albion College in Albion, Michigan, with an art major and English and religion minors. In 1998 I received a Master of Theological Studies (MTS) degree with a biblical concentration, from Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During my college days, professors of biblical studies focused on historical criticism or examination of the time and place of writing, as well as on meanings in the original life situations of biblical people. They were also interested in source criticism, which is the study of the biblical writers’ sources of information and styles of writing. In art history and studio art courses, professors most often emphasized the formal art elements of line, form, color, and texture, whether the students preferred realism or abstract expressionism. In a personal fullness of time, I applied those formal elements to biblical literature.

By the time I entered graduate school, people in many scholarly fields looked at the Bible through their disciplines. Evolving approaches to biblical studies include the psychology of biblical studies, the sociology of biblical studies, and various feminist critiques. As an artist, I approach the Bible artistically. In short, I use artistic characteristics to describe biblical texts and will more fully explain an artistic approach in the second chapter, What is an Artistic Approach to the New Testament?

1

What Is the New Testament?

The New Testament is a collection of books with many different kinds of writing, and a record of life in God opening up for the world. The Bible includes the Old Testament, which is the history of the Hebrew or Jewish people’s faith and life in God. The Hebrews already had a relationship with God. The New Testament tells the story of how Jesus made this relationship with God possible for all people. In our culture the word new often implies better or improved. However, in the Bible the word new often means renewed or updated. Thus, the New Testament is the record of renewed faith and covenant that was updated to include people of all nations. The New Testament records Jesus’s life, death, and crucifixion, and (in Christian belief) his resurrection, as well as the spread and development of early Christianity.

There are twenty-seven books in the New Testament. Both Roman Catholics and Protestants agree that these books should be in the New Testament. This official list of books is called the canon. The canon, or list of official books, was not decided upon quickly. As early as the end of the second century, Paul’s letters and some selections from the gospels were the approved resources for the organization of ritual and social and personal morality of developing Christianity. By the end of the fourth century AD, the list was official. The books that were chosen to be in the canon, or list of sacred books, were helpful to community, in agreement with the basic doctrines of the early church, and associated in some way with the apostles. In summary, the criteria were usefulness and helpfulness. The concept of inspired writings came after approval.

Roman Catholics include more books in the Old Testament canon than do Protestants. The number of books in the Old Testament canon is not an important difference, but it can be confusing. The extra books are the books of the Apocrypha (many Protestant Bibles include these books in a separate section). The Apocrypha can help us understand Judaism and its effects on early Christianity.

Besides the meaning of canon as a list of sacred books, the word canon can mean rule of life. The Greek word for canon means reed or measuring stick, like a ruler. The Bible can be a ruler by which we measure our lives.

Most of us have favorite parts of the Bible. This tendency is sometimes called having a canon within the canon. Having favorite passages in a favorite book is only natural. Sometimes other passages that have a different emphasis or even a different main idea affect our understanding of our favored verses. Throughout this book, I sometimes refer to counterbalancing passages of Scripture.

The books of the New Testament were not written quickly. During the first third of the first century AD, Jesus lived and preached. During the second third of the first century, people spread his teaching by word of mouth. Repeating Jesus’s sayings and stories at homes or in places of worship is called oral tradition. Paul wrote between AD 51 and 58. During the last third of the first century, gospel writers wrote down the stories that were told and compiled them. The gospel writers had different ways of organizing their materials about Jesus. Each gospel author adds to our composite picture of Jesus.

Imagine three friends dividing a piece of red licorice into three not-quite-equal pieces to show the stages in which the New Testament came into being. The first piece represents Jesus’s teachings. The second, somewhat shorter piece stands for the twenty years when the first preachers shared the good news of God’s love in Jesus. The third piece reminds us of the years when writers thought about Jesus and then wrote down all they had heard about Jesus and his way.

There are many kinds of writing in the New Testament. There are short sayings of Jesus and long letters from the Apostle Paul to churches. There are poems and prayers, letters and lists of ancestors. Stories of Jesus’s birth and accounts of his passion and last days on earth are part of the New Testament witness. Parables are a very special kind of New Testament story. Parables compare an ordinary activity, like baking bread, to God’s reign, or they compare something in nature, such as a vine, to Jesus.

If your family needs to buy groceries, someone makes a grocery list. If you want to talk to God in writing, you might write a prayer or a poem. If you have an interesting tale to tell, you could write a story. If a teacher asks you to write an essay about a person who is running for office, you might listen to the candidate’s speech and write a report. If you ran for a leadership position you would state your credentials and tell people why you would be best for the job. If you want your school to sponsor a new club or sport, chances are you will write a speech presenting your most persuasive ideas. You might create slogans or catchy sayings. There are various forms of writing for different purposes in today’s world. In biblical times there were also different kinds of writing to convey stories, ideas, history, religious insight and conviction. In the ancient world, rules for reporting were different than the guidelines for today. Still the basic idea holds true that you choose the form of writing that best suits your purpose.

Many writers and editors shared their artistic and literary gifts to give us the story of Jesus and tell us how the Christian faith spread throughout the ancient world.

The World in Front of the Text

Think about the many kinds of biblical writing, including short sayings, letters, prayers, hymns, parables, birth and passion stories, household codes, and sermons. Take a piece of computer or construction paper to represent the Bible as a whole. Then cut or tear pieces of paper in a contrasting color or colors to represent the different kinds of writing in the Bible. Write the names of the kind of writing on the cut or torn paper. Paste the pieces onto the sheet that represents the whole Bible.

A woman who took an experimental version of this course cut her small pieces of paper into shapes that suggested the type of writing. A wavy shape represented hymns. A short piece represented short sayings. An oval, womb shape represented nativity stories. You may use symbolic shapes if you wish.

2

What Is an Artistic Approach to Biblical Literature?

An artistic approach to biblical literature has two main
 characteristics:

Examination of each book of the New Testament from three vantage points: A. The Background; B. The Middle Ground or Text; and C. The Foreground.

Description of the text through the formal art elements and other artistic characteristics.

1. Examination of Each Book of the New Testament from Three Vantage Points

The background of the text is the historical background and consideration of the basic questions: What? Who? When? Where? Why? What kind of literature is the text being considered? Who wrote it? When was it written? Where was it written? Why was it written?

The middle ground, or text, is the biblical text itself in translation from the New Testament Greek. Study of sacred texts is done in tension between the background and the foreground, that is or the world in front of the text that includes our contemporary situation.

The foreground is the world in front of the text. In addition to encompassing the writings and artwork of biblical scholars and artists since the New Testament was canonized or became official, the foreground includes your world and what the biblical text means to you.

2. Description of the Text through the Formal Art Elements

An artistic approach is a way of exploring biblical literature by paying attention to the formal art elements that painterly artists designate as line, form, color and texture. As an artist of both paint and pen, I used these painterly terms to describe verbal texts.

The Use of Line in the Text

Line can mean the plot of a Bible story or a line of thought. For example, parables have a story line. The book of Romans has a very linear argument that Paul makes point by point, line by line. First John contains a circular line of thought that returns to different ways of saying that God is love. Acts is a travel story with a plot line.

Forms of Writing in the Text

Form is the type of writing such as birth story, letter, poem or prayer. Hymns are also part of New Testament literature. Sayings and sermons, genealogical lists, and greetings are types of writing throughout the New Testament.

Use of Color in the Text

Color may be an actual color, such as green or sapphire, mentioned in a biblical passage. I will note the importance of the color green in the chapter on Mark. However, most often color refers to a writer’s favorite words or phrases that color a text. For example, Mark likes the word, immediately. This word colors his fast-paced writing. Themes or main ideas also color the text, such as the theme of the cross that is especially important in Mark. Faith is a recurring theme in Paul’s letters.

Texture in the Text

Texture is the piling up of biblical passages that are related. Sometimes a New Testament verse is a quotation from or allusion to Old Testament passages. The combination of passages gives rich texture and nuances of meanings. Sometimes texture has bridge-building potential between Old and New Testaments and between Judaism and Christianity. My favorite example of an Old Testament passage that is quoted in the New Testament is Habakkuk 2:4: Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith. Listen to the Apostle Paul, perhaps in his own rendering of Habakkuk, in Romans 1:17: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith.’ The author of Hebrews develops the meanings of faith in chapter 11, often called the faith chapter. The writer suggested the life-giving context of faith in chapter 10: but my righteous one will live by faith (Heb 10:38).

The New Testament is rich in texture. The easiest way to discover texture is to use a study Bible such as The HarperCollins Study Bible or The Oxford Annotated Bible, which have notes that cite other related biblical passages.

Other Artistic Characteristics

Words that artists use to discuss their paintings can also apply to biblical literature. Such characteristics include perspective, focal point, counterbalance, and contrast. For example, Mark gives us his perspective on suffering. Christian love is the focal point of First Corinthians. The Gospel of John features contrasting power of darkness and light. Romans and James have counterbalancing thoughts.

Activity: The Foreground

The world in front of the text includes out present time. In the activity suggested in the previous chapter, readers identified various forms of writing in the New Testament. The following activity will help you experience several forms of New Testament literature. You are encouraged to read the following passages:

Sayings: The beatitudes are sayings of Jesus. You may wish to read them in Matthew 5:1–11.

Story: One of the most famous stories in the New Testament is the story of the Good Samaritan. You can find it in Luke 10:25–37.

Parable: To loosely paraphrase C. H. Dodd’s classic definition of a parable, a parable is a story that comes from nature, captures our attention, and makes us think. Sheep are part of nature. Sheep often are lost. In the parable of the lost sheep, Matthew can get people’s attention by comparing people to lost sheep, and God to the shepherd. You can find this parable in Matthew 18:10–14 and Luke 15:3–7.

Prayer: The best-known prayer in the New Testament is the Lord’s Prayer. Matthew and Luke have different versions of Jesus’s example of how to pray. You may wish to compare these two variations, in Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4.

Letter: Paul wrote letters to Christians in the first churches, or Christian assemblies. The letter known as Romans is the letter that is the most discussed by biblical theologians. Chapter 8 is especially important.

List: If your parents want to study genealogy they will likely make a list of your ancestors. Similarly