Travelling Through the Testaments Volume 2: The New Testament

By Dr. William D. Burnham

Traveling Through the Testaments allows you to easily get a handle on ALL 66 books of the Bible!
The Bible has 66 books, more than 1,000 chapters, and was written by about 40 different authors . Now you can quickly grasp each book of the Bible at a glance with a 4-to-6 page explanation for each book, you get a clear overview


Traveling Through the Testaments is a teacher's dream with its informative content and summaries. It stirs a passion to read the Bible.

Whether for personal study or class study, for doing a survey of Bible books, you will be hard pressed to find a better resource than this one.

Most people need a little help understanding the Bible.
Traveling the Testaments provides a box top to the puzzle so the reader can easily see how the pieces fit together. Excellent resource recommended for every Bible student.

A goldmine for Sunday school teachers and preachersand a gift to any believer who wants to grow in Christ."

At a glance, you will find:
The purpose of each book summed up in 3-5 words.
The theme and how it fits in with the rest of the Bible.
Author, date, audience, and brief history of that time period.
Key verses and chapters and an outline of each book so you can find what you are looking for fast!

Traveling Through the Testaments is an excellent companion for Bible reading plans, individual and group Bible studies, or to use as a quick reference book whenever you need it. You are sure to pick up this book time and time again.

Enjoy having these key features at your fingertips:
1. Quick and Simple . Enjoy having a 4-6 page overview of each book of the Bible! Imagine having simple summaries for each book of the Bible at your fingertips.

2. Convenient and Easy-to-Use : As a Bible companion guide.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514420898

Dr. William D. Burnham

Dr. William Daniel Burnham has over twenty years of combined ministry and business experience. He has been honored with the privilege of ministering to God’s people and leading Christ’s church to follow the great commission and the great commandments in advancing God’s kingdom work. His passion is to continue to lead Christ’s church as a senior pastor by using his God-given spiritual gifts, education, special skills, to help people encounter God, connect with one another, and apply biblical truths so they may grow in spiritual maturity, becoming both salt and light in a practical way to the world in which they live. Dr. William Burnham has attended New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary where he earned his Associate Degree in Pastoral Ministries in 2,000, Bachelor of Arts Degree in Christian Ministries/Pastoral Ministries in 2004. In 2008, he received his Master of Divinity Degree in Theological Studies from Louisiana Baptist University 2011 his PhD in communication with a focus on Leadership. Dr. William Burnham was Ordained for the Gospel Ministry – at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Snellville, GA, September 2, 1998 and Licensed by the same church, March 12, 1998. Dr. William Burnham He possesses the skills of communicator, and teacher, including oral, written, and public presentation. He is known for his strong leader-ship, leadership training as well as developer, organizer, coordinator, and instruct-tor. He is a pastor, teacher, and author of several books including The Gifting, two Bible commentaries (Old and New) Testament “Traveling Through the Testaments” and numerous Bible study books and daily devotions You may view and purchase other books by Dr. Burnham at http://mkt.com/point-of-grace-church \ And you can also hear sermons by Dr. Burnham at https://soundcloud. com/williamburnham

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Copyright © 2015 by Dr. William D. Burnham.

ISBN:     Softcover      978-1-5144-2090-4

                  eBook            978-1-5144-2089-8

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Rev. date: 11/04/2015

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CONTENTS

Introduction

During the Intermission

The Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel of Mark

The Gospel of Luke

The Gospel of John

The Book of Acts

The Book of Romans

The Book of 1 Corinthians

The Book of 2 Corinthians

The Book of Galatians

The Book of Ephesians

The Book of Philippians

The Book of Colossians

The Book of 1 Thessalonians

The Book of 2 Thessalonians

The Book of 1 Timothy

The Book of 2 Timothy

The Book of Titus

The Book of Philemon

The Book of Hebrews

The Book of James

The Book of First Peter

The Book of Second Peter

The Book of First John

The Book of Second John

The Book of Third John

The Book of Jude

The Book of Revelation

Introduction

W e accept the Bible as a single divine book with a single divine author even though it was written over a course of 1,500 years and by nearly forty different human authors. How can this be? To defend such an argument, we must go back in time. We must begin by recognizing that God has sought to communicate with man his love, plans for redemption, and wisdom for living since the beginning of man’s time. Over time, God has used many different types of communication. Romans chapter 1 tells us God has and still does use creation as a means of communicating to man. Throughout the Old Testament, God used theophonies, which are preincarnate appearances of Christ, to communicate with man (Gen. 18; Ex. 3; Josh. 5, etc.). The Word of God was often communicated through prophecies (Heb. 1:1). God at times used miracles, such as the parting of the Red Sea and the Jordan River or the fleece of Gideon, etc., to communicate his divine message. But of all the methods that God has used, his written Word is still the most complete for man. God has given man his Word so we may know him, believe upon him, and follow him, and it is by faith we accept the Bible as his Word, divine and inspired (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20, 21).

Historically speaking, we accept the Bible as we know it today as the divinely inspired Word of God because of a process known as the canonization. The word canon, which means the same no matter what language, is a standard, a measuring line, a model, or a rule. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are considered their own canon. Therefore, in order for any of the writings in either testament to be placed in their canon, they had to have met the standard of rule as the inspired Word of God. Over the centuries, there have been basically three widely recognized principles used to determine which writings came about as divine inspiration. The first is that the author had to be a recognized prophet or author or one associated with him, such as in the case of the New Testament with Mark, who was Peter’s secretary, or Luke, who was Paul’s traveling companion. This also applies to Hebrews and James. Secondly, the writings could not disagree with or contradict previously accepted scriptures. And finally, the writing had to have the general consensus by the council or church as an inspired book.

With regards to the Old Testament, all the Old Testament had been written and accepted by the Jewish community, and there had been four hundred years of silence. This leaves one final question that must be asked. Why are the Apocrypha books not a part of this book? The answer is simple. We don’t use or recognize the Apocrypha books as divinely inspired books of the Bible, and there are a number of reasons for this view. First, they were written after Malachi. Secondly, they were not accepted or included in the Septuagint, which is the Hebrew Old Testament translated into Greek. Thirdly, not one passage from the Apocrypha is quoted or confirmed in the New Testament. And finally, Jesus did not conform any of it as he did recognize the Old Testament canon of his day and time (Luke 24:27, 44).

With regard to the New Testament, what relationship does the New Testament have to the Old Testament? The New Testament completes and fulfills the Old Testament. Jesus; beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. The testimony of Jesus and the New Testament fulfills all that had been promised in the Law, prophets, and writings. The entire Old Testament is Christ-centered. Stringfellow writes, The sacrifices of the Old point to our Lord—the one sacrifice… The prophecies of the Old Testament find their fulfillment in our blessed Lord. In the Old Testament, He is coming—in the Gospels He has come—in the epistles he has come in by the blessed Holy Spirit—in the Revelation he is coming again.

And Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16–17, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (NKJV).

With this in mind, this book is designed to be a compilation of recourses and studies put together in sermon-type outline that give a well-rounded overview of each Old Testament book. It is to be used by students as a quick reference guide to help them find their way around the Old Testament and by preachers as a teaching tool to better educate and equip the saints in knowledge and for service to our Lord. May all those who use it benefit from it as I have from those whose wisdom and knowledge I have gleaned from over the years in putting this together.

A Tour of the New Testament

During the Intermission

(Malachi 3:1)

Introduction

T he writers of the Old Testament passionately believed in and anticipated that the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan would come through the anointed one. The fulfillment of their prophecies was graciously realized in the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. So the New Testament is the completion of the cosmic story that began in the Old Testament (in Gen. 3:15) of God’s plan to bring salvation to the earth.

• The New Testament is less than a third the length of the Old.

• It contains twenty-seven books, written by nine different authors. (All Hebrews or Jews except Luke, who was a full Gentile.)

• It was written between about AD 45–95 in Koine (Common) Greek.

• You can break the New Testament down as follows:

four Gospels

birth of the church—Acts

Romans–Philemon—Pauline Epistles (Letters)

Hebrews–Jude—General Epistles

Revelation—prophecy

The four Gospels make up 46 percent of the New Testament. If you add Acts, these are the historical books of the New Testament, and you are up to 60 percent of the New Testament. So before we begin our tour of the New Testament, there are three things we need to know to help us better understand the New Testament, especially the Gospels.

We need to know what has been happening.

I. THE PAST FOUR HUNDRED YEARS IN THE WORLD

A. Historians have called this period that connects the Old Testament to the New Testament the silent years, which is kind of misleading.

1. Though the period was silent in terms of revelation—no prophet spoke during this time—it was anything but silent in terms of preparation.

2. As author David O’Brien writes, The events, literature and social forces of these years would shape the world of the New Testament.

While God’s voice rested, his hands were busy building the stage from which he would present his grandest speech ever—Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh!

B. The history of the period before these years must be recalled.

1. Two hundred years before this intertestament period, Jerusalem had been destroyed and the Jews were carried off into Babylonian captivity (587 BC).

a. Assyria had already destroyed the Northern kingdom of Israel 135 years earlier than that (722 BC).

b. Babylon was then overthrown by the Medo-Persian Empire, as had been prophesied by Daniel (chapters 2 and 7)

c. Cyrus (founder of the Persian Empire) issued an order for the Jews to return and build the temple.

d. Under Zerubbabel, a remnant returned, and twenty-one years later, the temple was completed (2 Chron. 36:22, 23; Ezra 1:1–4). The Old Testament books Haggai and Zechariah are about this time.

e. A short time later (515 BC), Ezra then took a small group to Jerusalem and restored worship in the temple—followed twelve years later by Nehemiah, who organized the rebuilding of the city walls (book of Nehemiah).

2. This is the picture of the Jews at the beginning period between Malachi and Matthew. The Jewish remnant was back in Judah, the temple and Jerusalem rebuilt, worship restored—but great masses of Jews remained in the land of their captivity (willingly).

It is in the remnant that we find Jewish history preserved between the Old Testament and the New.

When Malachi wrote his book, the land of the Jews belonged to the Persian Empire. It remained that way for about a century until Alexander the Great’s military machine rolled on to the scene; thus began…

II. THE POLITICAL POWERS THAT HAVE SHAPED THE WORLD

We will see this period divided by the rise and fall of kingdoms. It can be split into six different periods:

1. The Persian rule (538 BC). The Persian rule over Palestine continued until Alexander the Great and his Greek Empire in 333 BC.

a. This was the second empire mentioned by Daniel.

b. This means that the Jews were under Persian rule at the end of Malachi and remained so for the first sixty years of the intertestament period.

c. During this same period, the rival worship of the Samaritans was established (John 4:20).

d. Back in 721 BC, the Northern Kingdom of Israel (which consisted of ten tribes) were scattered throughout the cities of the Medes by the Assyrians.

e. The Assyrian emperor repopulated the cities by mixing the Jews and Gentiles—this created a mixed people called the Samaritans.

f. It was from these people that Nehemiah faced opposition on his way to Jerusalem (Neh. 2:10 and 4:1–3).

g. And the rivalry persisted all the way through the New Testament.

Then came Alexander the Great who at twenty years old transformed the face of the world in just a ten-year span. He is spoken of in Daniel 7:6; 8:1–7, 21–23.

2. The Greek rule. Alexander the Great dreamed of building a new world bound together by Greek culture and language.

a. It was a process known as Hellenization:

• This was a way of life very different from the Jews.

• Literature and art occupied a prominent place in the life of the Hellenist (classical Greeks). The poet Homer—who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, two poems still widely read today—came from this culture.

• The health of a person was emphasized, and gymnasiums and sporting events were very popular. (The Greeks had an arrogant, humanistic way of thinking summed up by one Greek philosopher who said, Man is the measure of all things.)

• Knowledge was encouraged, and the greatest of philosophers were Greeks—Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato to name just a few.

b. Alexander spread the Greek culture and founded Greek colonies but his greatest and most lasting contribution was the spread of the Greek language.

• The language of the people became known as Koine, which was the most expressive language the world has ever known, and it is the language of the New Testament.

• Unknowingly, Alexander was a tool in the hands of God by which he would prepare the world to be able to hear and receive the Gospel message.

c. Alexander the Great died at age thirty-three, and for approximately the next 150 years, his successors played a tug of war for control of the empire—with Israel stuck in the middle.

3. The Egyptian rule. (This was the longest of the six periods.) With the death of Alexander, Judah fell into the hands of the first Ptolemaic ruler. (The Ptolemies were the line of Greek kings over Egypt.)

a. Ptolemy Soter, the second Ptolemy, founded the Alexandrian Library and commissioned the famous Septuagint—the translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek.

b. At the same time, Palestine was becoming a battleground between Egypt and Syria.

4. The Syrian rule. (This was the most tragic part of the intertestament period.) Antiochus Epiphanes (one of Alexander’s successors), whose name means God made manifest, was trying to consolidate his fading empire through radical Hellenization.

a. While a segment of Jews had already adopted Greek ways, the majority of the Jews were outraged.

b. Antiochus’s brutality was aimed at wiping out the Jewish religion. (He prohibited some of the central elements of the Jewish practices and attempted to destroy all the copies of the Torah.)

c. A reign of terror fell upon all the Jews as Antiochus wrecked Jerusalem, tore down walls, and killed people.

d. He desecrated the temple in every way, culminating in the offering of a pig on the altar of sacrifice and then erecting statues of false gods on the altar (Dan. 8:13).

5. The Maccabean rule. (This was one of the most heroic periods of all history.) Antiochus’s blasphemous practices triggered the Maccabean revolt (166–42 BC).

a. Led by an aged priest named Mattathias and carried on by his son Judas Maccabeus and his brothers.

b. The revolt led to Judah’s independence, a restored temple, and reinstituted orthodox services.

c. The brothers succeeded each other until a change was made about 63 BC, when the Herod family appears on the scene leading to the Roman period.

6. The Roman rule. Judea became a providence of the Roman Empire.

a. When the Maccabean line ended, Antipater, who had been appointed over Judea by Julius Caesar in 47 BC, appointed Herod, his son, governor over Galilee.

b. He was appointed king of the Jews by Rome in 40 BC.

c. He murdered almost all his family including his wife and sons because he was paranoid they would try to take his throne. (This was Herod the Great, who was king when our Lord was born.)

d. With the Roman Empire came the Pax Romana, or Roman peace. For the next two centuries, the civilized world enjoyed peace and prosperity and, for the most part, good civil government under Roman rule.

e. It makes us realize how God was working through history to achieve his eternal purpose as he positioned the world to receive Jesus.

f. Alexander brought culture, language, and cohesiveness. Augustus brought civilized and organized peace, and the stage was set for the King of kings to arrive on earth.

While the political life was changing for the Jews, so were the religious customs. There were new groups such as scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and new institutions such as the synagogue and Sanhedrin. Because of these changes that took place in the period between Malachi and Matthew, it is important that we know

III. THE PEOPLE AND THE PLACE OF RELIGION IN THE WORLD

A. Pharisees and Sadducees. The Pharisees held that the oral law was given to Moses, to Joshua, to the elders, to the prophets, and then to the men of the Great Synagogue.

1. The name Pharisees means "separatists."

a. Pharisees were interpreters of the oral law.

b. The oral law was committed into writing at the end of the second century AD into the TALMUD—which is the interpretation of the law, and it remains the authority for the Jews to this day.

c. In Jesus’s day, oral law was still mainly oral. Jesus contradicted it many times, as he would say "You have heard it said," but his way of referring to was "but it is written" (a good example is Matt. 15:1–9).

2. Sadducees means righteous ones. They were the guardians of the temple policy and practices.

a. The Sadducees rejected the Old Testament as scripture and held only to the Law, meaning the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible).

b. The Sadducees denied the spirit world of angels, immortality, and resurrection from the dead (Acts 23:8), while the Pharisees affirmed all these doctrines.

c. Pharisees and Sadducees always opposed one another.

B. The scribes and rabbis. From the time of the Babylonian captivity, there developed a new line of scribes who were more than just secretaries and transcribers. These men became expounders, guardians, and teachers of the scriptures.

1. Scribes believed that the exile had come because of lack of knowledge of and obedience to the Torah (mostly another name for the Pentateuch, but occasionally used for the whole Law or Old Testament, but primarily just for the first five books).

a. The scribes devoted themselves to the study of the Old Testament and became experts in and were considered authorities on the interpretation of the scriptures during the intertestament period.

b. Scribes became a distinguished order in the nation and are different from priests and Pharisees. (They are mentioned in the New Testament and sometimes along with the Pharisees, but they are not alike.)

c. Jesus denounced the scribes because of their corruption and outward piousness (Matt. 23:13–18).

2. Rabbis were the teachers who passed on the scribal understanding of the scripture to the people of Israel.

C. The synagogue. There is not a single word about the synagogue in the Old Testament, but as soon as we come to the New Testament, we find them everywhere.

1. The synagogue did not exist before the captivity, but it seems to have originated during that time—when the Jews totally turned away from idolatry.

a. With the destruction of the temple in 586 BC, the synagogue became the place of education and worship for the Jews in exile.

b. Since the majority of the Jews did not return to Palestine after the exile, synagogues continued to function when they were dispersed throughout Assyria and were even established in Palestine, even after the reconstruction of the temple by Zerubbabel in 16 BC.

2. The synagogues were congregational and not priestly.

a. The great institution of preaching had its beginning in the synagogue.

b. It is from this background that the early Christian church, as organized by the apostles, took its main form of worship.

c. The titles given to the New Testament leaders—elders, bishops, deacons—are all carried over from the synagogue.

D. The Sanhedrin. This group is another Jewish institution that in the New Testament times was the supreme civil and religious tribunal of the Jewish nation. (This group is primarily responsible for the crucifying of our Lord.)

1. The Sanhedrin is referred to many times in the Gospels and Acts and is sometimes called the council.

a. The Sanhedrin was made up of the high priests: twenty-four chief priests, who represented the twenty-four orders of priesthood; twenty-four elders called elders for the people (Matt. 21:23); and twenty-two scribes, who interpreted the law both in religious and civil matters. This made a grand total of seventy-one members of the Sanhedrin.

b. Is there a more tragic verse in the history of Israel than Matthew 26:59, Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death?

It was into this world that Jesus stepped, in the fullness of time (Gal. 4:4), into the conflicting mixture of ideology and theology.

• He would challenge the hypocrisy and legalism of the Pharisees.

• He would condemn the snobby corruption and worldliness of the Sadducees.

• He would infuriate the Sanhedrin with his teaching, wisdom, authority, and truth.

• It was a dangerous course to take, and in the end, it cost him his life—and saved ours!

• God closed the gap between the testaments and brought salvation to earth.

A Tour of the New Testament

The Gospel of Matthew

Construction of the Gospels

B efore we begin our study of Matthew’s Gospel, we need to understand something about the Gospels. What type of literature do you think the Gospels are? (Are they historical, poetical, letters, or wisdom?)

1. They are historical to the New Testament.

2. They are Gospel literature. There is nothing else like them.

The Gospels (which in Greek means good news) are biographical in nature, about the life of Christ. But they