Only rarely does one have an opportunity to tie the entire New Testament into a single bow. But that is precisely what has happened in this volume of collected studies—a group of sixteen colleagues setting out the intriguing and undulating landscape whose contours surround and expand one’s understanding of this most important scriptural text. However, any effort to say something meaningful about the aggregate of Gospels, letters, revelations, and early Christian events immediately bumps into the rich diversity that emerges from the New Testament. This diversity, uneven in its various shapes throughout the New Testament, means unevenness in its parts. Yet the differences among the books eventually wind their way into a reservoir of stunning unity that brings readers face-to-face with Jesus Christ and his loyal followers.
The idea for this volume of studies was born fifteen years ago, and some of the initial drafts for the studies herein found their beginnings at that time. Slowly, but surely, the collection of articles has come together and now tells an illuminating story about the New Testament and the diverse world that gave birth to it, putting it on a trajectory to become what it is today. Across the world, the New Testament is still one of the most widely read of humanity’s sacred writings. Latter-day Saints are among those who read, ponder, and benefit from this tome of scripture. Early on, the originators of the BYU New Testament Commentary series identified one main purpose of this book: to drive a stake into the ground that claims the New Testament as the spiritual heritage of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In our judgment, the articles gathered here do just that.
The BYU New Testament Commentary series is most unique in that it aims to “combine the best of ancient linguistic and historical scholarship with LDS doctrinal perspectives.”1 The first part of this volume may be the most intriguing to a student of the New Testament because of that aim. Titled “A Saintly Inheritance,” our authors lay out topics such as the relationship between the Book of Mormon and the New Testament, the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, how the Church has institutionally encouraged study of the New Testament through its publications, and how Latter-day Saint authors have presented their views on this important book of scripture both to Latter-day Saints and to those not of the faith.
In the second section of the book, titled “Background,” authors explore the ever-present and ever-pressing social and religious environment that helped shape the message that now fills the pages of the New Testament. Some of its books arose out of a Judaean context that reflects the texture of belief in a world influenced by Jewish interest; one thinks of the letters of James and Jude. Others of its works drank from the waters of the Hellenistic stream that ran through the eastern Mediterranean basin, undergirding its culture from the days of Alexander the Great three centuries earlier; one thinks of Luke’s book of Acts as well as the letters of Paul. A student need go no further than the opening four verses of the Gospel of Luke to see that the author sought to imitate the approach of the influential Greek historian Thucydides. Of course, Rome held sway over everything from the roads over which believers traveled to the sea lanes that allowed movement of goods and people and the Christian message, including carrying the letters of Paul and other authors to distant places.
In this light, Christian missionaries found themselves preaching to peoples of very different backgrounds. These differences shaped how the authors wrote the synoptic Gospels. Even though these Gospels share a notable number of accounts from Jesus’ life and ministry, they differ from one another in how they framed their presentations. Mark wrote to believers in Rome and its hinterland who had suffered persecution under the emperor Nero (AD 54–68); Luke wrote to a wider audience of Greek speakers, beginning with his friend Theophilus; and Matthew penned his Gospel with Jewish readers in mind, as we can witness in his rather stylized genealogy based on Jesus’ Davidic heritage at the beginning of his narration (see Matt. 1:1–17). Each of the contributions in the “Background” section build a firm foundation for students to better understand each of the New Testament texts in their cultural milieu.
In the book’s third portion, called “Collections,” the authors treat subjects related to the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament and what happened when these texts were copied and recopied. These manuscripts, and even later texts, have been the building blocks for translations of this scripture record into scores of languages, bringing the Christian hope to their readers. Determining the most original Greek readings of passages, particularly those that have to do with key doctrines and principles, informs the accuracy of translations. For example, in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, some manuscripts underlie a reading that says “whosoever is angry with his brother [or sister] without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matt. 5:22). Other manuscripts, including the earliest, 𝔓64 (c. AD 200), omit the word translated “without a cause,” changing completely the sense of Jesus’ words. Most scholars believe that the Greek term translated “without a cause” (εἰκῇ) was added by a scribe who evidently thought that Jesus’ words were too harsh. Another example comes from the final verses of Mark’s Gospel. Some manuscripts preserve a longer ending, comprising 16:9–20, and others exhibit a shorter ending, dropping off at the close of verse 8. Textual critics have weighted the evidence to support the shorter ending, but Dr. John Gee demonstrates that this cannot be the case and argues that the loss of the longer ending in Mark’s manuscripts is an example of the loss of “plain and precious things” from the Bible (1 Ne. 13:28, 29, 40).
Closely linked to the manuscripts of the New Testament are questions about how this collection of books became scripture and what conferred on these texts an aura of authority for establishing doctrine and shaping Church organization and ordinances. Following the deaths of the Apostles, the Christian churches needed guidance about how they were to understand Jesus’ life and ministry as well as how they were to minister to the needs of members. The process of creating a canon of accepted scriptural works was intended to place them side by side with the books of the Old Testament, then in the form of the Septuagint—the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that included additional books known today as the Apocrypha.
During this era, the second and third centuries, many documents produced by competing Christian sects claimed to preserve the words of Jesus and his Apostles but contradicted accepted teachings. Many of these came from Gnostics, people who believed that salvation was principally due to what people knew about heavenly teachings and not due to the events of Jesus’ death and Resurrection. One major, enduring question is how scarred the Christian churches were from the confrontation with Gnosticism. For afterwards, they faced the need to establish parameters that would help Christians decide whether doctrines and guiding principles were compromised.
The final division, named “Versions,” examines the fabric of the King James Version, published in 1611, more than four hundred years ago, and its role as the preferred and Church-published edition of the Bible used by English-speaking members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for both the Old and New Testaments. Because this translation is referred to in both official publications and conferences of the Church, there is a clear need to review its wonderful virtues and its occasional, nettlesome shortcomings, especially when measured against a growing number of more recent translations.
We turn first to a positive example. In Luke 1:57, we read in the KJV, “Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.” Next, we compare the dreary language of the New English Bible: “Now the time came for Elizabeth’s child to be born, and she gave birth to a son.” The wording of the modern translation is vapid and without wonder, without the lofty sense that a miracle had just occurred in the life of this noble woman.2 In contrast, an example of a shortcoming will be illuminating. In the KJV rendering of Ephesians 5:1, we read, “Be ye therefore followers of God.” But the term “followers” should be rendered “imitators,” changing the full extent of Paul’s words. The singular of the Greek word is μιμητής (mimētēs). For some reason, the KJV translators shied away from the possibility that humans can imitate their God. Most other translations translate this term properly. That said, following the direction given to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the King James Version occupies a prominent position in any discussion on the New Testament. Additionally, as encouraged by the Church’s General Handbook that “other editions of the Bible may be useful for personal or academic study,”3 Andrew C. Skinner provides important background on various other New Testament translations available today.
What is important to notice about all the studies in this book is the freshness, the opening of possibilities to understanding the New Testament in new, even wondrous ways. Readers will come to grasp the majesty of the New Testament message and the dense power of the patience and persistence required to create the documents included in this scriptural work. We invite all to step toward the Savior through the pages of the New Testament with the humility expressed in the words of John the Baptist: “One mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose” (Luke 3:16).
