Without a clear understanding of the cultural, historic, literary and doctrinal backgrounds against which they were written we are in danger of losing the full force and meaning of some of the arguments and allusions so vigorously and significantly incorporated into the very essence of these inspired documents.
This superb work by William Fairweather was first published in 1935, and in the Preface he comments:
"In this book I have tried to respond to the friendly suggestion of Principal D. S. Cairns, D.D., Church of Scotland College, Aberdeen, that I should write as a companion volume to 'The Background of the Gospels' another upon 'The Background of the Epistles'. As in the former only the Jewish background was dealt with, relatively more space is given to the Pagan background in this, especially with reference to religion. The sketch of Roman dominion in Judea is simply historical, and not a treatment of Judaism. A discussion of Jewish religious life at the time of Christ could not, however, be omitted, and will be found in its appropriate place under the category of the Jewish world.To which Preface is also added the following introductory quotation:Of late a favourite motto has been: "Back to the Jesus of the Gospels." Underlying this is the implication, more or less avowed, that the apostolic presentation of Christian truth is either out of keeping with, or to some extent at least a perversion of, the pure and simple message enshrined in the recorded words and deeds of the Master Himself. But it has never yet been proved that there is any real opposition between the Gospels and their interpretation in the Epistles.
That there is an urgent need for getting back to the study of the Epistles is beyond question. After all, who so competent to interpret the Gospels as the writers of the letters to the Christian communities of their day? They all wrote out of their own experience, and in harmonious combination set forth clearly the nature and scope of the duties incumbent on followers of Jesus. The ethical urge of the apostolic writings coincides with one of the most pressing needs of our time. Recognition of the fact that we are the inheritors of transmitted spiritual experience should lead to a more manifest response in an intensive study of the NT Epistles.
The ground covered in the following pages is so vast that the treatment may well appear slight and inadequate. Severe compression, however, is inevitable in any attempt to furnish even a bird's-eye view of the world of thought and action lying behind the Epistles, and in the fragmentary outline here presented there is no pretence of competition with any of the numerous works on every department of such an overwhelmingly many-sided theme. The object of this survey is the more modest one of indicating the track to the reader who seeks to explore for himself, either in its main features or in some of its bypaths, a field of investigation fitted to throw light upon an important section of the New Testament.
In Part Two, where more or less detailed lists are given of passages in which parallels occur between books belonging to the post-canonical Jewish literature and the NT Epistles, the convenience of students has been specially kept in view. Other readers may disregard these comparisons without losing touch with the general topic. This applies also to other sections of the work in which a similar feature appears.
It does not belong to our task to enter upon problems of date and authorship, or to deal with the general theological content of the Epistles. It is, however, assumed that the Epistle to the Hebrews was not written by the Apostle Paul, while the Pauline authorship of the great Epistle to the Ephesians, so much debated among scholars, is left an open question..."
"The better knowledge now becoming available of the background of late Jewish thought which lies behind the ideas of Jesus Christ and the theology of the Apostle Paul is one means of bringing new light to bear on New Testament problems. A deeper knowledge of the Greek world into which Christianity came, its language, its religion, its life, is another. Palestinian customs, Jewish apocalypses, Philo, the Septuagint, Greek religion and philosophy, the freshly examined and tested utterances of the Church Fathers, and truer notions of religious psychology, modern as well as ancient, all these can contribute to that body of learning from which will come new points of view and better answers to our questions about the New Testament history."This classic study examines the following areas:
- -J. R. Ropes, The Apostolic Age, p. 9 f.
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