Western Literature(Week16)

The New Testament

The second major part of the Christian biblical canon, the first part being the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew Bible. The Greek New Testament discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity. Christians regard both the Old and New Testaments together as sacred scripture. The New Testament (in whole or in part) has frequently accompanied the spread of Christianity around the world. It reflects and serves as a source for Christian theology and morality. Both extended readings and phrases directly from the New Testament are also incorporated (along with readings from the Old Testament) into the various Christian liturgies. The New Testament has influenced religious, philosophical, and political movements in Christendom, and left an indelible mark on literature, art, and music.

The New Testament is an anthology, a collection of Christian works written in the common Greek language of the first century, at different times by various writers, who were early Jewish disciples of Jesus. In almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 37 books.

Book Discussion

P.178

Bible: Psalm 23


 Ex-President George W. Bush's Post 9/11 Speech

Protestantism

Protestantism is a form of Christian faith and practice which originated with the Protestant Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the three major divisions of Christendom, together with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Anglicanism is sometimes considered to be independent from Protestantism. The term derives from the letter of protestation from Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical.

Catholicism

Catholicism and its adjectival form Catholic are used as broad terms for describing specific traditions in the Christian churches in theology, doctrine, liturgy, ethics, and spirituality.
"Catholicism" and "Catholic" in this sense refer to the practices of several Christian churches. This sense is to be distinguished from the use of these words to refer to the Roman Catholic Church, that which is in full communion with the Holy See, as well as the Orthodox Catholic Church (commonly called the "Orthodox Church" or the "Eastern Orthodox Church"), which also considers itself the universal and apostolic church.
In the sense of indicating historical continuity of faith and practice from the first millennium, the term "catholic" is employed by many other historic churches which claim to be "heirs of the apostolic faith". These consider themselves to be catholic, teaching that the term "designates the historic, orthodox mainstream of Christianity whose doctrine was defined by the ecumenical councils and creeds" and as such, most Reformers "appealed to this catholic tradition and believed they were in continuity with it."

WASP = White Anglo-Saxon Protestant

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) is an informal, sometimes disparaging term for a group of high-status and influential White Americans of English Protestant ancestry. The term applies to a group believed to control disproportionate social, political, and financial power in the United States. It describes a group whose family wealth, education, status, and elite connections allow them a degree of opportunity held by few others.
Scholars agree that the group's influence has waned since the end of World War II, with the growing influence of other ethnic groups in the United States. The term is also used in Canada and Australia for similar elites. The term is occasionally used by sociologists to include all Americans of North European ancestry regardless of their class or power. People rarely call themselves WASPs, except humorously. The acronym is typically used by non-WASPs.

King James Bible

An English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England that begun in 1604 and completed in 1611.
First printed by the King's Printer Robert Barker, this was the third translation into English to be approved by the English Church authorities. The first was the Great Bible commissioned in the reign of King Henry VIII (1535), and the second was the Bishops' Bible of 1568. In January 1604, James I convened the Hampton Court Conference where a new English version was conceived in response to the perceived problems of the earlier translations as detected by the Puritans, a faction within the Church of England. The translation is widely considered a towering achievement in English literature, as both beautiful and scholarly.
James gave the translators instructions intended to guarantee that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology and reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained clergy. The translation was done by 47 scholars, all of whom were members of the Church of England. In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from Greek, the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew and Aramaic text, while the Apocrypha was translated from the Greek and Latin. In the Book of Common Prayer (1662), the text of the Authorized Version replaced the text of the Great Bible – for Epistle and Gospel readings (but not for the Psalter which has retained substantially Coverdale's Great Bible version) and as such was authorized by Act of Parliament.

Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah  were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and in the deuterocanonical Book of Wisdom, as well as in the Qur'an and hadith.
According to the Torah, the kingdoms of Sodom and Gomorrah were allied with the cities of Admah, Zeboim and Bela. These five cities, also known as the "cities of the plain", were situated on the Jordan River plain in the southern region of the land of Canaan.

P.117~121

Genesis 1-4 [From Creation to the Murder of Abel]

Cain and Abel
Adam knew his wife Eve intimately, and she conceived and bore Cain. She said, "I have had a male child with the Lord's help."
Then she also gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel became a shepherd of a flock, but Cain cultivated the land. ³In the course of time Cain presented some of the land's produce as an offering to the Lord. ⁴And Abel also presented [an offering]  – some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he was downcast.
⁶Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you furious? And why are you downcast? ⁷If you do right, won't you be accepted? But if you do not do right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it."
⁸Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field."
And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

— Genesis 4:1–8 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

The Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, offers an alternative version of the seventh verse:

If you offer properly, but divide improperly, have you not sinned? Be still; to you shall he submit, and you shall rule over him.

Later in the narrative, God asks Cain, "Where is Abel thy brother?" Cain replies, "I know not: am I my brother's keeper?"

And he said, "What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now [art] thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." (Genesis 4:10–12)

P. 122~125

Genesis 6-9 [Noah and the Flood]

God makes a pledge of commitment to Noah in Genesis 9:1–17. The priestly (Elohim) version takes the form of a covenant arrangement. This is the first explicit act of a covenant in the Hebrew Bible and is used seven times in this episode. God commits to continue both human and animal life and vows to never again use a deluge against humanity. The covenant is sealed with the sign of a rainbow, after a storm, as a reminder.
God blesses Noah and his sons using the same language as the priestly source of the Genesis creation narrative: "Be fruitful and increase and fill the earth." Before the flood, animals and humans coexisted in a realm of peace only knowing a vegetarian diet. After the flood, God maintained that mankind would be in charge over the animals, granting that they may be eaten for food under the condition that their blood be removed. God set these purity rules well before any transaction with Ancient Israel, effectively not confining such precedence solely to the Jewish faith. Human life receives special divine sanction because humanity is in the image of Elohim.

Raven(Omen) and Dove(Peace)
The storm cleared, and after a hundred and fifty days the waters of the flood were gone. The mountains again were seen, and the ark rested on the mountain tops. Noah opened the window of the ark and sent out birds, first a raven and then a dove, to see if the waters had gone. The raven, a big black bird with a harsh voice, flew back and forth over the waters until they dried up. The dove when first sent out found no place to light, and came back to Noah in the evening. The next time she brought back an olive leaf in her mouth. And the third time she did not come back, for the ground was dry. Then Noah uncovered the ark and the people and the animals from the ark came out to find happy homes. Noah worshiped; the Lord was pleased with his worship and promised that there should not again be a flood to destroy all things.

P. 126

The Tower of Bible

The Tower of Babel  is an etiological myth in the Book of Genesis of the Tanakh (also referred to as the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament) meant to explain the origin of different languages. According to the story, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar. There they agreed to build a city and tower; seeing this, God confounded their speech so that they could no longer understand each other and scattered them around the world.