NT 501 Reading the New Testament Missionally
In this course students will learn to read the New Testament and its relevant secondary literature with an intentionally missional hermeneutic. This hermeneutical New Testament competency will be developed with attention to the historical, religious, and canonical contexts of the New Testament documents in addition to the major parts of the New Testament canon itself. Finally, students in this course will attempt to work out the implications of this reading of the New Testament for communal missional praxis in the 21 st century. Prerequisite: OT 501. Three hours. Auditing prohibited.

NT 510 Biblical Greek 1
An introductory study of the original language of the New Testament-how to write it, word formation, sentence structure, vocabulary, and translation, with practice reading from the Greek New Testament. Three hours. Auditing prohibited.

NT 511 Biblical Greek 2
A continuation of Greek 1 to complete an overview of Greek grammar, vocabulary building, and to begin building fluency in reading and understanding biblical Greek. Prerequisite: Biblical Greek 1. Three hours. Auditing prohibited.

NT 521 The Story of Jesus
A study of the four Gospels, including Jewish backgrounds, the geography of Palestine and Jerusalem, some key passages about Jesus, the theology, history, and criticism of the Gospels, and exegesis of passages illustrating various genres and themes. Prerequisite: NT 510. Three hours.

NT 601 The Witness & Mission of the NT Church 1
A study of the history of the early apostolic period, as recorded in the book of Acts and illuminated by the letters of Paul. Topics include Gentile backgrounds, geography of the Mediterranean, the theology, history, and criticism of these books, and exegesis of passages illustrating various genres and themes. Prerequisite: NT 511. Three hours.

NT 602 The Witness & Mission of the NT Church 2
A study of the history of the later apostolic period, as recorded in the non-Pauline letters of the New Testament and the book of Revelation. Topics include the canon of the New Testament, the theology, history, and criticism of these books, and exegesis of passages illustrating various genres and themes. Prerequisite: NT 511. Three hours.

NT 610 Advanced Biblical Greek
Extensive practice in reading and translating the biblical text, vocabulary building, exegetical principles, and textual criticism. Prerequisite: Biblical Greek 2. Three hours .

NT 611 What's Bothering Matthew?
A study of the way Matthew uses his gospel narrative to overcome challenges in his readership, the scriptures, and the Messiah—identity, teaching, meaning. 3 hours.

NT 680 The New Testament's Use of the Old Testament
This class will explore the breadth of the NT’s use of the Old, surveying how different authors read, interpret, and apply the OT in their new Christian contexts. In addition to this descriptive element, students will begin to develop Christological hermeneutics that will be applied to reading, interpreting, and applying the OT to their own contexts. Three hours.

NT 688 American Idol: The New Testamenton Materialism & the American Dream
This class will explore the breadth of the NT’s use of the Old, surveying how different authors read, interpret, and apply the OT in their new Christian contexts. In addition to this descriptive element, students will begin to develop Christological hermeneutics that will be applied to reading, interpreting, and applying the OT to their own contexts. Three hours.

NT 705x Theology of Selected Biblical Writing
A study of selected biblical writings of the New Testament from a theological perspective. Prerequisite: Biblical Greek 2. Three hours.

NT 706x Making Sense of Mark's Gospel
Mark invites us to enter his story and to become his apprentices. But we understand Mark’s theology to understand our own part in the story. This course on the Gospel according to Mark will emphasize narrative and intertextuality, even while attending to several significant historical and cultural contextual issues. Working with narrative theory will provide you with a new set of ears, able to hear this powerful story in a whole new way. Working with intertextuality will help you to understand the interconnectedness of Mark’s story and larger biblical context. This course will move through Mark section by section in close detail, and also frequently deal with significant hermeneutical and background issues. Three hours.

NT 725x The Art of Reading Scripture
This is a seminar that will explore the art of reading Scripture through the examination of nine theses on the interpretation of Scripture developed by The Scripture Project associated with the Center of Theological Inquiry located in Princeton, NJ. Students will be expected to participate in class discussions, make presentations, and complete a class project. The nine theses are: 1) Scripture truthfully tells the story of God’s action of creating, judging, and saving the world. 2) Scripture is rightly understood in the light of the church’s rule of faith as a coherent dramatic narrative. 3) Faithful interpretation of Scripture requires an engagement with the entire narrative: the New Testament cannot be rightly understood apart from the Old, nor can the Old be rightly understood apart from the New. 4) Texts of Scripture do not have a single meaning limited to the intent of the original author. In accord with Jewish and Christian traditions, we affirm that Scripture has multiple complex senses given by God, the author of the whole drama. 5) The four canonical gospels narrate the truth about Jesus. 6) Faithful interpretation of Scripture invites and presupposes participation in the community brought into being by God’s redemptive action – the church. 7) The saints of the church provide guidance in how to interpret and perform Scripture. 8) Christian need to read the Bible in dialogue with diverse others outside the church. 9) We live in the tension between the “already” and the “not yet” of the kingdom of God; consequently, Scripture calls the church to ongoing discernment, to continually fresh rereadings of the text in light of the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work in the world. Cross-listed with TH 725x. Three hours.

NT 802 Backgrounds of the New Testament
A survey of ancient Jewish literary sources that help to illuminate the New Testament-the Targums, the Septuagint, the OT Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, the Qumran literature, Philo, Josephus, and the rabbinic literature. Examples of how these help us understand various New Testament passages. Prerequisite: Greek 2. Three hours.