Unit Introduction

This Unit sets out to study the historical context, literature and major events of the New Testament, understood as a set of first century documents. The approach is historical throughout, and no prior knowledge of the New Testament is assumed. We set out to answer four basic questions:

  1. What kinds of documents are found in the New Testament?
  2. Into what kinds of contexts in the ancient world do they fit? This question then subdivides into two:
  3. How ought an historian to deal with such documents?
  4. What kinds of results have historians come to when they have dealt with the New Testament?
The Unit begins with an overview of the three centuries B.C. as they effected the land of Israel and the Jewish people, both from the point of view of the Jewish people and from that of the wider Graeco-Roman world. We then focus down on Judaism as it existed in the first centuries B.C. and A.D., before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Having drawn an outline of the cultural and social context of the life of Jesus, we then turn to the nature of the evidence about him, primarily in the Gospels. What kinds of literature are they, and how did they come to be written? How should an historian use such works? Having determined the proper historical methods for approaching the Gospels, we then set out to sketch the career and central ideas of Jesus.
    The second half of the Unit deals with the evidence for, and growth of, the early Christian movement in the two generations after the death of Jesus. We deal with the book of the Acts of the Apostles, the letters of Paul, and a number of other New Testament works in some detail, attempting to sketch the diversity and vitality of the earliest churches. Historical questions touched on include: the value and limitations of Acts as a narrative of earliest Christian history, the nature and beliefs of the earliest Christian movement, its development from a purely Jewish "revival movement" into an independent "religion" in the wider Graeco-Roman world, the career and leading ideas of Paul and a number of other early Christian writers of the first century.
    The Unit is taught with two lectures and one tutorial per week: it is available to both Internal and External Macquarie students, and to the general public as a "Continuing Education" unit. For further information see the University Calendar, or contact Dr. Chris Forbes, either by email, or by phone on 9850 8821. For information for non-Macquarie students wishing to undertake Macquarie Ancient History units as "Continuing Education" students, contact Mrs. Anne Irish, either by email, or by phone on 9850 8833.

For Unit documentation and other facilities see the links below:

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Unit Schedule: lecture and tutorial topics week by week
Unit Requirements: Text Books
Unit Requirements: Assessment.
Major Essay Topics and Bibliographies
Weekly Tutorial Topics and associated material
Main Unit handout: Weekly Bibliographies and other Lecture Material
An outline of New Testament chronology.

The Pre-circulated portions of the Exam Paper can be found here.


Dr. Forbes' Office Hours will be announced in the first or second week of term.

Online Forum:

Once again this year we will be running an Online Forum, an electronic ‘Bulletin Board’ based on Blackboard CE6 where issues related to the Unit can be discussed. To gain access to this system you will need a computer capable of running one of the common modern browsers. (See the Browser Check on the Login page for more details.) If you do not use one these browsers, some things in your online unit may not work, including quizzes. For more information, see the Browser Check.
The Forum provides two basic facilities: the ‘Bulletin Board’, where issues can be publicly discussed and ideas or references shared, and Email, so you can send one another private notes. I will take part in the public discussions (which are assessible; see below), and can also be reached by Email.
    Further details will be announced in the first week of term. We hope that this Online Forum will be of particular value to external students.

The direct URL of the Forum is:

https://learn.mq.edu.au/webct/homearea/homearea?
When you log on, you will be asked for your Username and Password.

If your password isn't working you can have it reset by contacting the Student Helpdesk.

If you are using a publically accessible computer, when you have finished using the web site you must log off, and exit or quit your browser. If you don't, other people can continue to use your account, which means they can use your mail, bulletins and course tools.

(And don't forget to keep a record of your password… it's so embarrasing having to contact the HelpDesk to get it changed again…)

    Further details will be announced in the first week of semester.