Historical Context Assignment Instructions

Overview

Each student will write a 400 – 500-word exegetical essay describing the historical-cultural context of their selected passage. This essay should be based primarily on a close reading of the New Testament book in which Ephesians 2:1-10 is found. Therefore, you should prepare for this essay by following the inductive method described below while referring to the concepts covered in the assigned reading and course materials.

Instructions

Please do not consult textbooks, commentaries, or other resources until you have worked through the scenario and method below. Read Chapter 3 of Craig L. Blomberg and Jennifer Foutz Markley, A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010) and watch the following video via this link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wiIK8A2EFk

Here is the inductive method you will use to construct the essay:

  1. Adopt the mindset of a detective or researcher. Imagine that you’ve discovered an ancient text buried deep in the archives of the Scriptorium in the Rawlings School of Divinity at Liberty University (this sort of thing happens in libraries from time to time). You have been tasked with deciphering the hand-written Greek text and presenting a report about it to the Dean of the School of Divinity. The Dean will be addressing the media with information about the discovery, so you will need to determine, as best as possible, the following information:
    • who wrote the text;
    • when it was written,
    • where it was written;
    • to whom it was addressed and sent;
    • what purpose it served in those historical circumstances;
    • and whether it is a forgery or fake (those do exist in the antiquities market).

 

There is no textbook to grab that will give you these answers; you are the expert since you’re the only person alive who has read the text. Therefore, the only guidance you have is the information in the text itself. Only be as precise as the information in the text allows you to be. For the sake of getting into the right mindset and maintaining good method, it might help you to pretend that no book such as this exists in the New Testament; though you are able to compare what you find in it to the other books of the New Testament.

 

  1. You must draft a report (400 – 500 words) for your Dean, presenting this information, as best you can discern it, from the text. Since the Dean will be addressing the media about the discovery, any statement about the text’s historical circumstances/context will need to be supported with evidence. Therefore, when you describe the date or author, you need to include the evidence from the text that led you to your conclusions (use chapter and verse citations). Evaluate the evidence so that your Dean knows how confident you are of the information and conclusions in your report.

 

  1. As part of your report, focus especially on the passage previously selected. Based on the information you’ve given the Dean about broader historical questions (who, what, when, where, why, and how?), do you think there are any historical or cultural issues that the Dean should be aware of when the media ask questions about the meaning of the passage? Are there any events, customs, titles, activities, social structures, or concepts that reflect the ancient historical culture/setting, which might have an impact on how people today interpret the meaning of this passage in the ancient text? The Dean will need to tell the media what plans the Divinity School has for further historical-cultural research of the text and this focal passage. So, your report should prepare the Dean with a recommendation.