time to reread the Book Notes introductory material.
When it's time to prepare for a test or to write a paper, you'll
already have formed ideas about the New Testament. You'll be able to
go back through it, refreshing your memory as to the words and
events described, so that you can support your opinions with
evidence drawn from the text itself. Patterns will emerge, and ideas
will fall into place. Give yourself a dry run with one of the sample
tests in the guide. These tests present both multiple-choice and
essay questions. An accompanying section gives answers to the
multiple-choice questions as well as suggestions for writing the
essays. If you have to choose a term-paper topic, you may select one
from the list of suggestions in the book. This guide also provides
you with a reading list, to help you when you start doing research
for a term paper, and a selection of stimulating or provocative
passages from commentators, to spark your thinking before you write.
The Bible has been translated into English many times and in many
different styles. At the suggestion of the editors of this Barron's
Book Notes series, the King James Version is used in this volume.
It's the most widely circulated English translation, and its phrases
have entered our language more than those of any other. In many
editions of the King James Version, you'll find some words printed
in italics. These are words that lack an exact equivalent in the
original, but are supplied by the translators because of differences
between Greek and English grammar and idioms. You can read more
about the different versions of the New Testament in the section on
Translations.
NEW TESTAMENT: THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS TIMES
Thousands of years ago, great centers of population, political power,
art, and technology were located in the river valleys of the Middle
East--the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates in Mesopotamia
(now Iraq) and the valley of the Nile in Egypt. Between these
centers lay the less thickly settled, less prosperous land of
Palestine, which from perhaps the thirteenth century B.C. was the
home of the people of Israel. Around 1000 B.C. Israel was a strong
kingdom under Saul, David, and Solomon. After Solomon the nation was
weakened by division into a northern kingdom called Israel and a
southern kingdom called Judah.
Non-Israelite peoples of the ancient Middle East worshiped many gods,
who represented powers of nature like the sun, the storm, and the
fertility of the soil or aspects of human existence like motherhood,
wisdom, and sexual love. The Israelites worshiped one God, whom they
conceived as creator of all things. They believed that God had made
a covenant (a solemn agreement) with Abraham, promising to give
Palestine to Abraham's descendants. They believed that the twelve
