Great Figures of the New Testament

Great Figures of the New Testament
course no. 6206
Taught By Professor Amy-Jill Levine, Ph.D., Duke University,
Vanderbilt University

640x480 Xvid .avi
128 kbps CBR MP3

Improve your biblical literacy and re-encounter the New Testament as a great repository of literary genius.

This is the promise of Professor Amy-Jill Levine’s vivid portraits of the cast of characters in the New Testament.

This course supplements other Great Course offerings on Jesus, Paul, Christian origins, and the New Testament with an approach that focuses on individual characters.

While most of the figures treated are real, historical people, at least two (the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan) are fictional protagonists in stories told by Jesus within Luke’s Gospel.

Some figures are famous. Others, such as the Syro-Phoenician woman who must turn Jesus’ own words back upon him to gain the healing of her daughter, are not so famous but deserve to be better remembered.

Christianity’s Founding Generation

Our Great Figures include Jesus himself as well as:

* A bullheaded fisherman from Galilee
* A highly educated tentmaker from Tarsus
* Several politically unaware magi, martyrs, Roman army officers, bad rulers, and the prophets who run afoul of them
* One enigmatic betrayer
* A number of strong and interesting women (including the unnamed Samaritan, a Canaanite mother, Martha the homeowner and her sister Mary, and a repentant sinner who anoints Jesus).

Representing the models of Old Testament piety are the elderly couple Elizabeth and Zechariah. The story of their son, John the Baptist, moves us immediately into the dangerous world of the 1st century, where messianic fervor was on the rise and popular prophets knew their lives were in danger.

You encounter Jesus’ friends, the contemplative Mary and the vocal Martha, as well as their brother Lazarus.

You join conversations with:

* Jesus’ interlocutors: Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman
* The centurion with a paralyzed son
* The desperate Canaanite mother with a demon-possessed daughter.

You explore the stories of the Apostles Peter and Thomas, James and John, Mary Magdalene (who becomes known as the Apostle to the Apostles), and Judas Iscariot—from the times they spent with Jesus to their post-canonical fates.

From the early years of the church, you meet James, "the brother of the Lord," and Stephen, the first martyr.

You explore how much we really know about:

* The centurions who represent Rome’s military presence
* Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect who orders Jesus crucified
* The four generations of the Herodian royal family who appear in the pages of the New Testament.

As for Paul the Apostle, Professor Levine investigates both his presentation in Acts of the Apostles and what can be determined about him from his own letters.

How Jesus Was Perceived—Then and Later

Concerning Jesus, one lecture is devoted to how he might have been perceived by those who knew him personally.

Then Professor Levine concludes with the development of Christology: how the “anointed one" was understood as a participant in the work of creation, as a new Adam, a perfect sacrifice, a suffering servant, the second part of the Trinity, and even a lactating mother.

Unlike primarily historical introductions to the Bible, including The Teaching Company’s The Old Testament and The New Testament, these lectures frequently raise issues of religious interest.

The point of this exploration is not to inculcate any theology, let alone any particular religious world-view. Rather, it seeks to read the ancient texts anew to discover what they really say and how they were interpreted by both the secular culture and the faithful church.

How Well Do You Really Know the Bible?

You may think you already know all the great stories of the Bible. But often they are misted over by centuries of common misperceptions frequently repeated.

To take the most well-known example, it is common today to regard the snake in the Garden of Eden as Satan and to see the disobedience of Adam and Eve as resulting in Original Sin. Yet the Genesis story mentions neither Satan nor sin.

Now, by taking a fresh look through the eyes of Professor Levine, you rediscover the Great Figures of the New Testament. You learn anew from the fascinating cast of characters in the greatest story ever told.

Writes Harold McFarland, Regional Editor at Midwest Book Review:

“In Great Figures of the New Testament Professor Amy-Jill Levine of the Vanderbilt University Divinity School does an excellent job of bringing several individuals to life. Not only does she discuss well-known individuals such as Pontius Pilate, James, and Philip but also important groups and individuals who are not specified by name such as the Centurions, the woman at the well, the shepherds, and others. Professor Levine deftly discusses details of the person from the perspectives of the Biblical stories, culture, literary criticism, how the church has viewed the person through history, and how artists and worshippers have viewed them. Probably one of the most fascinating aspects of the course is how she brings their personalities to life based on how they spoke, acted, or reacted within the confines of their culture.

“Professor Levine includes some analysis of literary types such as noting the parallel between Jesus’ father Joseph going to Egypt and Joseph, Jacob’s son going to Egypt. This opens up even more interesting aspects in the lives of the figures.

“Some of the many figures discussed include Elizabeth and Zechariah, John the Baptist, Joseph, Mary and Martha, Lazarus, the Samaritan woman, Pharisees and Sadducees, Thomas, James, John, Judas Iscariot, Stephen, Philip, Paul, and Jesus.

“This is a great piece of work and sure to enlighten anyone wishing to gain a more thorough understanding of these great figures. As usual with The Teaching Company products, this is a very highly recommended purchase."

Should I Buy Audio or Video?

This course works well in all formats. The DVD version is illustrated with more than 50 images to reinforce your learning, including photographs and on-screen graphics.

Course Lecture Titles

24 Lectures
30 minutes / lecture

1. The New Testament
Why choose the particular Great Figures discussed in these lectures? What do you most need to know about their historical settings? What tools can best help you as a student to grasp the depth of these characters and the richness of their stories?

2. John the Baptist
Why did John baptize? What precisely was his relation to Jesus? Why exactly did Herod have John killed? By comparing Gospel accounts to the writings of the 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus, you will have an excellent opportunity to explore how students of the New Testament address questions of history.

3. The Virgin Mary
Unwed mother or mother goddess? Queen of Heaven who bore her child in a stable? Revered in Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Islam, yet sometimes eyed warily in Protestant thought, Mary the mother of Jesus continues to inspire intense devotion, provoke controversy, and stimulate theological reflection.

4. Joseph, Magi, and Shepherds
Staples of "the" Christmas story, even though they do not appear together in any one Gospel, these figures naturally raise the question of what the Gospel writers—and later interpreters—are trying to emphasize in their particular renderings of Jesus' birth.

5. Peter
How did a headstrong Galilean fisherman become "the prince of the apostles" and, so Catholic tradition holds, the first pope? Untangle the whole astounding, inspirational, and often-confusing story.

6. John and James, the Sons of Zebedee
Fishermen like Peter, these brothers join Jesus in a new life as "fishers of people." While the Gospels (the fourth of which John is said to have written) show them often misunderstanding their master and his mission, in the end their faithfulness is beyond question.

7. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus
These siblings are beloved friends of Jesus. Mary and Martha appear briefly in Luke's Gospel, and all three figure importantly in John's. Historically, what role did they probably play in Jesus' movement, and culturally, how have their stories been retold through the centuries?

8. "Doubting" Thomas
While "Doubting Thomas" is a familiar phrase, the complex story of this apostle whose name means simply "Twin" is less so. Why are three major extracanonical early Christian works—including a gospel and an infancy narrative—associated with him?

9. The Gentile Mother
Find out why the story of this woman (Mark and Matthew identify her ethnicity differently) who pleads with Jesus to exorcise her child is one of the most problematic miracle narratives in all the Gospels.

10. The Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son
The protagonists of these famous parables (they appear only in Luke) may be so familiar to us that we've lost a sense of just how unsettling the stories would have been to Jesus' audience or Luke's readers.

11. The Samaritan Woman
Having learned who the Samaritans are, you are now ready to meet the extraordinary and unnamed Samaritan woman who meets Jesus at a well (John 4) and has an amazing conversation with him about "living water," proper worship, her own marital history, and the identity of the Messiah.

12. Mary Magdalene
Present at the cross in all four Gospels and the sole consistent witness to the empty tomb, this Mary appears before Good Friday in only one Gospel, Luke's. Yet, from the Gospel accounts to present-day Hollywood, she has enjoyed an exceptionally rich career in Christianity and culture.

13. Pharisees and Sadducees
Who were the Pharisees and the Sadducees? What did they believe and practice, and why do the Gospels polemicize against them?

14. The Herodians
Like the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Herodian royal family—Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, Herod Agrippa I, and Herod Agrippa II—gets "bad press" in the New Testament. What does the extra-biblical historical record add?

15. Judas Iscariot
Betrayer, dupe, victim, revolutionary, or even friend of Jesus who took on the necessary dirty work of arranging his arrest—with this range of possible identities, it is no wonder that Judas has captured the imagination of interpreters for two millennia.

16. Pontius Pilate
By tracing the character of this Roman governor through the Gospels, the writings of Josephus and Philo, and later Christian theologians, we gain a valuable view on how early Christians saw their relation to both the Roman state and to the Synagogue.

17. James
Was James—the apparent successor to Peter as head of the Church at Jerusalem—called "the Brother of the Lord" because he actually was a sibling of Jesus? Did James write the epistle that bears his name?

18. Stephen
How does the story of this first follower of Jesus to be martyred open for us a window on the practices, beliefs, difficulties, and achievements of the early Jewish followers of Jesus?

19. Philip
In Acts, Luke offers us a number of colorful, intriguing vignettes about Philip that offer important clues about the growth of the early legends that scholars call the New Testament Apocrypha.

20. The Centurions
By examining stories in the Gospels and Acts about three centurions—prestigious Roman army officers—we can trace tantalizing clues about how the early Christians viewed life under the pax Romana.

21. Paul, the Hero of Acts
In this talk, you meet Paul as he is known through the companion volume to the Gospel of Luke, the Acts of the Apostles, where Paul first appears at the martyrdom of Stephen.

22. Paul, the Epistolary Evangelist
This second lecture on Paul considers what can be known about him from the letters that are attributed to him in the New Testament, weighs his authorship and views, and sketches his massive theological influence.

23. Jesus of Nazareth
This talk on "the Jesus of history" will first help you sort out major post-Enlightenment approaches such as source, form, and redaction criticism, and then help you weigh more recent scholarly reconstructions of who Jesus was, what he did, and what he taught.

24. The Christ of Faith
In the New Testament and later theological writings, knowing Jesus means more than knowing what he said and did prior to his crucifixion. In this final lecture, therefore, you examine various accounts of "the Christ of faith" as he appears in the New Testament and beyond. In the end, you are reminded of what else can, and should, be studied, again and again (cf. John 21:25).