New Testament Studies

Why Study the Bible?

The Bible has played an exceptionally important role in Western culture, serving as the foremost source of authority throughout the history of the Church. For more than a thousand years, the imagery and ideas of biblical texts have therefore provided inspiration and material for literature, art, political thought, and the development of society. Over the past few centuries, the Bible’s significance has expanded to a global scale. Today, it is an authoritative and influential text for approximately one billion people beyond the borders of Europe.

What Do Biblical Scholars Do?

Biblical Studies, or Exegesis, seeks to explore the Bible and its world using all relevant scholarly methods. In the case of the Old Testament, this involves investigating the emergence and development of Israelite religion against the background of the ancient Semitic cultures of the Near East. In the case of the New Testament, it involves studying the origins of Christianity in a Jewish-Hellenistic context, its beginnings with Jesus of Nazareth, and its subsequent development in the early Church.

Exegesis also seeks to understand the biblical writings anew in every generation by applying different interpretative perspectives.

Exploring a Range of Methods

Biblical scholarship draws on a rich and diverse range of methods and approaches. Historical questions are examined in the light of evidence from archaeology and contemporary written sources. The historical development of the Bible’s fundamental ideas can be traced through the analysis of traditions and their transmission. The function of biblical texts as literary works is explored using methods of literary criticism, including the study of imagery, narrative techniques, rhetoric, and other literary features.

Gender perspectives are also commonly employed in contemporary research, in both historical and literary studies.

Reading the Bible in Its Original Languages

The Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek, and its original languages play a crucial role in communication between the biblical world and our own. Anyone who seriously wishes to understand a people’s culture must first seek to understand its language.

Linguistic analysis of the original texts is fundamental to any interpretative process that seeks a deeper understanding of these writings. Through close engagement with the texts themselves, scholars can gain insight into the theological content of these richly meaningful writings.

Research Education

The New Testament is one of the most widely read and influential collections of writings in history. New Testament Studies as a research discipline focuses on the interpretation of its texts in their original language. The overarching aim of research in this field at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies is to develop a deeper understanding of the content and reception of the New Testament, as well as the skills required to evaluate and carry out interpretations of its texts. In our research, we study these texts for a variety of purposes.

Our investigations range from attempts to reconstruct historical figures and events to studies of how the texts have influenced readers and audiences throughout history, and how they have been interpreted.

Important areas of research include the content and literary characteristics of the Gospels and New Testament letters; their background in the Old Testament and in contemporary Jewish, Greek, and Roman contexts; their potential to provide information about the historical Jesus and the activities and development of the earliest communities of Christ-believers; and their reception and influence in both early Christianity and the modern period.

Although the New Testament comprises a relatively limited body of texts, New Testament Studies is a multifaceted research discipline that offers opportunities for a wide range of specializations. We regularly organize guest lectures and conferences to explore and highlight ongoing research from different perspectives. Many of us also participate as speakers and seminar leaders at international conferences, thereby contributing to a worldwide network of New Testament scholars.

The main areas of New Testament research at the department vary over time. At present, members of the teaching and research staff, together with active doctoral students, are investigating a broad range of topics. The principal research interests of the teaching and research staff concern the historical Jesus, the transmission of traditions from Jesus to the Gospels, and Paul and the Pauline letters.

The doctoral students are working on projects with historical, theological, and linguistic orientations. Their research also addresses the communication of texts and their reception and uses in the modern period.

The various research projects enrich our academic environment through their diverse approaches and provide a wide range of perspectives on the interpretation of New Testament texts. We meet regularly for research seminars, where we discuss our ongoing projects. Our seminar programme is available under:

Research Seminars at CTR