Introduction to the New Testament Vol. 2: History & Literature of Early Christianity

Helmut Koester, of course, needs no introduction to serious students of the N.T., having been- along with James M. Robinson- at the forefront of modern historical N.T. research and interpretation for decades. Anyone interested in early Christian developments by necessity needs to become familiar with his many contributions to the field, somewhat displayed here in his two-volume Introduction to the N.T., but more so in his collaboration with Robinson on "Trajectories through Early Christianity", and also his numerous journal articles scattered throughout the scholarly literature. This, however, isn't the place to document his vast influence on modern biblical scholarship. Here, I will just offer a brief speculation on some possible motivations of his work. Fortunately for our task, Koester laid out his orientation clearly in an important Society of Biblical Literature address delivered in 1991 (later published in the scholarly journal JBL in Spring 1992), entitled "Jesus the Victim". In my opinion, anyone who wants to understand why much of the modern N.T. critical studies took the direction it did should digest the implications in this article. Koester lays out his vision for Jesus studies here, agreeing with critics who saw too much devotional, uncritical material in earlier Jesus studies. Hence, a need to weed out this devotional worldview from critical studies of the Gospels, clearing the way for seeing Jesus anew as a real human being. We shouldn't be surprised that this was Koester's direction, being as he is a disciple of the famous Rudolph Bultmann. Well and good, after all, this motivation has been the foundation of modern N.T. scholarship and has been very fruitful, so we shouldn't quarrel with the inherent reasonableness of it. But it is interesting to see how this goal played out in subsequent years. For instance, the now (in-)famous Jesus Seminar took the impetus from Robinson and Koester and turned out material that has been highly controversial among scholars, in the interest of finding a truly "human" Jesus. For example, the oddball conclusion that Jesus is best described as an egalitarian, homily-spouting 1st-century cynic is a case in point. And the the non-apocalyptic gospel promoted by the Seminar springs directly out of the peppery studies blazed earlier by Robinson and Koester, and not a few scholars have been suspicious that this effort was perhaps fueled by personal desires to make Jesus more "presentable" to moderns... After all, an apocalyptic Jesus is a thorn in the side for anyone's sensibilities of the Perfect Human (TM) for today's needs. But what if Jesus actually was an apocalyptic prophet, much to our modern chagrin? And therein lies the problem for Koester's orientation, and also for the predominant orientation of peppery groups like the Jesus Seminar. The big question is, at what point does personal desire to mold Jesus into our own image leave off and unbiased critical examination take over? But

This was by far the best course text on Christianity that I studied while at Harvard Divinity School, and not surprisingly it was written by one of the best professors who taught there. Koester's grasp of the world from which Christianity emerged is simply masterful, and his writing is both clear and succinct.

In History and Literature of Early Christianity, Helmut Koester concludes his Introduction to the New Testament. Unlike the first volume, readers of this volume will gain a thorough knowledge of the New Testament. Koester analyzes biblical figures from John the Baptist to Jesus, and then the various apostles who established the several early Christian churches.Koester remains focused on the New Testament throughout the book, differing from Volume I by not subjecting the reader to diatribes on arcane subject matter that only partially involved the biblical world. Any reader of the New Testament will find Koester's analyses helpful in understanding how the several New Testament books were written and learn of at least one solid interpretation as to their intent.Koester expands beyond traditional New Testament books by including many that most people will be unfamiliar with, but together comprise the majority of early Christian writings. Unfortunately, Koester does not spend much time explaining why some of these writings were considered canonical while others were not; and consequently why some were ultimately included in the New Testament, while others were omitted.Similarly, Koester does not write much on the confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees, and at times contradicts himself by blaming both the Jews and the Romans as being most responsible for Jesus' execution. Koester's theology never considers the crucifixion as preordained by God.But Koester maintains his masterful presentation of antiquity and the early church, and this book should be considered essential for serious biblical scholars.

Helmut Koester,the retired professor of NT and Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School,has produced an improved version of the 2nd volume of his Intro. to the NT,which was originally an English translation of his German work.The first edition of this work is considered the premier NT Introduction from a traditional historical,higher critical perspective,from a Bultmannian perspective.(Rudolph Bultmann was his doktorfater ("doctoral adviser".) The unique geographical and chronological perspective of this volume,explaining the historical development of Early Christianity,while placing the discussion of its literature,canonical and noncanonical,in this context(a la Walter Bauer),has not changed,there is a greater attempt to explian these writings from a literary perspective,something that the original volume didn't do very well because of its historical focus.For example, the treatment of Mark, Luke-Acts,and the Pastoral Epistles are masterful in this edition.He even ventures some discussions of the theological implications of the development of certain trajectories for the life of the church as it has impacted us even to this day. One area of improvement in this version is the language:it's simpler and thus makes reading Koester's somewhat dense writing style much easier.This makes this edition more user-friendly for an upper-level undergraduate. THe bibliography has been updated and,to a certain degree,certain viewpoints have been moderated, or he is less dogmatic about them.For example,his identification od the author of the Pastoral Epistles as Polycarp he acknowledges as a minority opinion.And in his much improved section on Jesus,he firmly sides with the "Third Quest" scholars in terms of the proper methodology for ascertaining an accurate portrait of Jesus.(This is ironic sense in the bibliography for this chapter he does not cite the major works associated with this perspective:Jesus and Judaism by E.P. Sanders;Jesus and the Victory of God by N.T. Wright;or Jesus the Millenarian Prophet by Dale Allison. The only caution I have about this work is that for a person who is beginning NT study a work like this would not give them a balanced view of the breadth of "mainstream" critical views in NT studies. This book propogates Koester's mature views,which many critcal scholars would disagree with,and since he doesn't explicitly interact with other viewpoints by citing opposing authors in this book,this could give a skewed perspective on the state of contemporary NT studies which can be very contentious when it comes to issues such as the role of noncanonical literature(e.g., Gospel of Thomas,the Dialogue of the Savior,the Apocryphon of James)as being crucial in understanding the earliest stage of the development of the gospel traditions). But,in terms of his perspective,this is by far the best treatment of the NT and early Christian writings. There is none to compare.