Theology Today - Vol 40, No. 2 - July 1983 - BOOK REVIEW - Introduction to the New Testament: Volume 1: History, Culture, and Religion of the Hellenistic Age; Volume 2: History and Literature of Early Christianity

235 - Introduction to the New Testament: Volume 1: History, Culture, and Religion of the Hellenistic Age; Volume 2: History and Literature of Early Christianity

Introduction to the New Testament:
Volume 1: History, Culture, and Religion of the Hellenistic Age;
Volume 2: History and Literature of Early Christianity
By Helmut Koester
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1982. 448 pp. $24.95. 400 pp. $22.95.

In these two volumes, Professor Helmut Koester of Harvard Divinity School integrates his reconstruction of the beginnings of Christianity into a flowing historical account of the Greco-Roman world from before Alexander to the end of the "golden age" under Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. The result is many things: a brief course in the history and literature of the Hellenistic and Roman periods, a compendium of critical historical judgments about most aspects of this period including every part of the New Testament, a "Masterplots" of ancient literature, pagan, Jewish, and Christian (more than sixty early Christian writings, some postulated or known from fragmentary quotations), a history of religions in this period, a novel treatment of the usual topics from a technical introduction to the New Testament (for example, text, canon). Critical historical judgments are frequently presented as commonplace, without any more specific documentation than one would find in, say, an

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introduction to sociology written for sophomores, though many controversial issues get fuller treatment with a rationale for conclusions in problematic areas.

Seen as characteristic for the entire period are the anxieties due to the collapse of such older political structures as the city-state and a broader, cosmopolitan perspective that informs the programs of, for example, Alexander the Great and the Apostle Paul. The new threats to the individual from fate and necessity, themes anticipated in the plays of Euripides, find remedies less in philosophy or science and more in religion and astrology. The period becomes "the age of the mystery religions," which are defined more broadly than Reitzenstein had done, so that Christianity is seen as eventually the most successful mystery religion of all.

Rather than the thesis of an oriental-Iranian origin of the mystery religions, Koester emphasizes important Greek components in theHellenized oriental cults. In like manner, he sees antecedents of the cult of the Roman emperors not so much in the external features of oriental court ceremony adopted by Alexander and his successors, but rather in "the Greek beliefs regarding the lawful rights that an extraordinary and distinguished individual could claim." Due respect is paid to the Jewish antecedents of Christianity, but this Jewish matrix is understood as thoroughly Hellenized, increasingly since the first Ptolemys.

The complexity of Koester's reconstruction of the beginnings of Christianity will be astounding to some. Among seven "authentic" Pauline letters, he finds fragments of fourteen original, mostly occasional, letters: five in II Corinthians, three in Philippians, and two in Romans, where chapter 16 preserves "the oldest extant letter of recommendation … for the 'missionary' and 'congregational president' Phoebe from Cenchrea." The chart of "The Sources of the Gospels" incorporates the standard two-source solution to the synoptic problem, but shows multiple and crisscrossing lines of influence and development. Echoes of traditions more primitive than those found in the canonical Gospels are occasionally found in apocryphal works such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, and the Dialogue of the Savior.

The further development of Christianity is treated by geographical areas: (1) Palestine and Syria, (2) Egypt, and (3) Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome. Here one finds the Revelation of John treated as "Criticism of the Apocalytic Expectation" (sic--only in the last cycle, 19:11-22:4, is the eschatological future described for the reader), Colossians as a reflection of the "Conflict with Syncretism" within the Pauline churches, and so forth.

In the Epistle of Barnabas, Koester finds material which "represents the initial stages of the process that is continued in the Gospel of Peter, later in Matthew, and is completed in Justin Martyr." The Pastoral Epistles enlist Paul in the struggle against second century gnostic interpretations of Paul by resuming the tradition of Paul the martyr, not

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by continuing the tradition of the "letters from prison," but rather by adopting the literary genre of the testament. "Whoever speaks in his own testament no longer needs to be defended, because he is already one of the 'ancient' people-in this case, a revered martyr-whose authority is beyond question."

Given the author's assumptions, Koester's two-volume work is admirably suited to its purpose. Students struggling in graduate departments of religious studies and in some seminaries will find here a framework for understanding the perspectives and conclusions that seem so foreign to simple Christian believers. In his own way, Koester defends a position that is as radical by the standards of American evangelicalism as that of the Tübingen School in its day. What he says about his use of newer materials such as the Nag Hammadi texts indicates something of his objective: "It is much better to advance scholarship, and thus our understanding, through hypothetical reconstruction than to ignore new and apparently problematic materials."

The significance of this work lies in its integrated historical reconstruction, and therein lies its vulnerability. The complex pattern of hypotheses and historical judgments presented here includes much that can and has been challenged. Many will find this position too extreme, as I do. Yet it is one with which the present generation of evangelical scholars will have to come to terms in one way or another. Perhaps such readers will also find it remarkable that the same author can say, "The several stories of the resurrection … are derived from the fact that such appearances were by all means experienced and then told by those who had 'seen the Lord,' and repeated in the style appropriate for such narratives."

Ronald D. Worden
Friends Bible College
Haviland, Kansas