The Story of the Bible in the New Testament
On today’s episode of the Journeywomen podcast, we get to talk about the story of the New Testament with Dr. Brad Matthews of Covenant Seminary. If you’ve spent time thinking about how the 27 books of the New Testament with various authors work together to communicate one congruent message, this is the convo for you, my friends! You’re going to walk away from this conversation with tools for better understanding and studying the New Testament and with your heart’s affection stirred for Jesus.
Dr. Brad Matthews has been a member of the faculty at Covenant Theological Seminary in the New Testament department since 2008. He began his professional life as a mechanical engineer before attending Covenant to complete an MDiv degree. During his time as a seminary student, he served first as a pastoral intern in youth ministries and then as a director of campus ministry. Following that, he pursued PhD studies at the University of Durham in England while also serving as an adjunct lecturer in both Greek and Hebrew at Cranmer Hall. He completed his thesis on the nature of Christian Maturity, which involved an interdisciplinary evaluation of modern perspectives and theories using a biblical theology of maturity.
Dr. Matthews has published on the topics of Christian maturity and interpretive issues in Colossians. He is currently working on a popular version of his thesis, the topic of Christian authority, and a co-written book on Acts & Paul. He also serves part-time as a pastoral counselor for the Global Counseling Network. His academic interests, experience in the formational aspects of Covenant’s curriculum, and work as a counselor have all uniquely equipped him to support and connect with students inside and outside of the classroom.
Dr. Matthews and his wife, Catharine, have a daughter. They enjoy cooking together and taking leisurely walks in the parks and gardens near their home. He also enjoys tinkering with a classic British roadster and taking on new home improvement projects.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
When did you begin to study the New Testament more deeply? How has it changed you?
Various authors and 27 books make up the New Testament. Does it communicate a single, congruent message?
How should we go about uncovering that message? What tips do you have for reading and studying the New Testament? What are some helpful methods for interpretation?
Sometimes I feel like a Pharisee when I'm studying the Gospels, because I find the miracles hard to believe and the parables difficult to understand. How can we begin to understand what Jesus was trying to communicate through his miracles and the parables he shared?
How can we seek to understand the encouragement and the exhortations that the New Testament authors offered in their letters to the early church? How can we apply these truths to what we are experiencing in 2020?
Why is it helpful to know who wrote the book we're reading as we study the New Testament? Can you offer one of the New Testament authors as an example of how understanding their theology and background might help you better interpret and apply the text?
Where should we even start when it comes to Revelation?
If you had to sum it all up and say, "To really understand the New Testament, you have to understand X," what would that be?
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
“As you learn how to bring the fullness of who you are and the depth of the questions that you have, the Bible as a whole, the New Testament in particular, proves itself richer and constantly able to go deeper.”
“This is the Lord speaking to us through his Word by his Spirit.”
“One of the things I’ve found to be encouraging is that we’re never going to plumb the depths of who God is. We’re never going to plumb the depths of his mind or his heart.”
“As I’ve asked harder and harder questions of it, the Bible becomes more rich and more alive and able to speak to the complexity of what it means to be human in this world.”
“You have nine authors who are communicating a collaborative and cooperative, but nevertheless diverse, single message.”
“Observe the text first, then try to do interpretation. Ask, ‘what does the text say?” and pay attention to what the assumptions are that we make when we read it.”
“We are trained to make assumptions and interpretations on the fly. We need to be on guard and pay attention to that when we’re reading the text.”
Practical Steps: “Observe the text. Try to restate what it’s saying. Ask as many questions as you can. Use whatever resources are available to you (a study Bible, commentary, online resources). Figure out how to answer the questions you need to answer in order to find a faithful interpretation.”
“Allow the more clear passages to help interpret the difficult passages. This doesn't mean disregard the difficult. It means, if something is challenging, let’s acknowledge it as challenging and make sure we contextualize it within what we can say for sure from the New Testament.”
On being intimidated by the Gospels: “The narratives themselves describe disciples who walked with Jesus for three years...and still didn’t understand what was going on.”
“The Bible normalizes not fully understanding what’s going on.”
“The miracles and parables are all revealing things about the kingdom of God. Miracles are showing his power and authority over his creation. Parables are revealing the secrets and ethics of the kingdom.”
“Miracles cause us to ask, ‘Who is this guy who can command the winds and the waves? Who is Jesus?’ The parables consistently force us to ask the question, ‘Who am I? What kind of soil am I? Am I the rich fool?’”
“Miracles cause us to come in contact with the person of Jesus and recognize his authority. And also to see his good intent - miracles never do damage to creation, they always push towards what he intends for creation, for the wholeness and goodness of creation.
“Parables put in front of us the priorities, the values, the ethics of the kingdom of God and ask, ‘Where do you line up? Where do you need to repent or change or grow push further into the reality of kingdom life in this world?’”
“The large majority of the ethics and exhortations [in the New Testament letters] are fairly broad and general in terms of talking about the Christian life and don’t spell out what it looks like for you and me to live those out.”
“You also have some specific commands [in the New Testament letters] to a congregation or person that are historically informed. Typically the goal here is to try to find the principle behind it, what is the character of the command and what are the closest equivalencies to those situations?”
“Context informs so much of our communication with one another. The same is true when we read the Bible.”
“Prophetic writing is calling us to be watchful, to be always alert, seeking to be faithful to the Lord in every context of our life.”
“The one clear message of Revelation: Jesus wins. That much we can say for sure. At the end of all of this he is coming back, he will dwell with us, we will be his people, and there will be the victory that God intends.”
“The Bible is God speaking to us. This is him telling us what he wants us to hear. Therefore we don’t always have to have an immediate practical application or takeaway. The value is coming into contact with the living Lord who is speaking to us through his Word. We get to hear the whole counsel of Scripture.”
“Our faith is in Jesus who has come for us, because he wanted to be with us, and who has actually been for us what we could not be for ourselves. Because we are united with him, we actually get to participate in everything that he has done, including the glorious resurrected life that he already now lives with the Father. Therefore, the New Testament is saying ‘Jesus has accomplished the glory that God intended for humanity from the very beginning which we lost in the rebellion. Therefore nothing less than glory is what he’s going after. Within that reality that Jesus has defeated sin and death, we can now love God and love one another, and seek to live out of that love as we engage with the world around us.”
Practical step: “Read and talk with people you disagree with, often. There’s something about having to wrestle with the views of those who differ that forces us to figure out where the gaps are in our own understanding and interpretation.”
RESOURCES
Study Bibles
Commentaries (many are online)
Free seminary resources (online)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
The Bible is God speaking to us. How does understanding this truth change how you will view and study and love the Bible?
What is the importance of understanding what the New Testament is communicating and what it is pointing us towards?
What is the benefit of understanding the metanarrative of Scripture, or the big story of the Bible as you study the New Testament?
What did you learn about the character of God or the person of Jesus as you listened to this week’s episode?
What are you going to do or implement as a result of what you’ve learned this week?
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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