Yale Open Course: New Testament 9 & 10

The 9th and 10th lectures are about the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, respectively.

• Luke and Acts were written by the same anonymous person
• Unlike Mark, Luke doesn't mention the "abomination of desolation" in context with the destruction of the temple
• Author is not an eye-witness to events in the Gospels
• Prof says this Gospel was written after 70 CE because the it says things that happened to Jerusalem that Mark does not say, e.g. "surrounded by armies," "will fall by the sword," "will be led captive into all nations," and "will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles."
• The theme of Jesus' death is that "prophets are killed by their own people," instead of it being an atonement.
• Prof says that unlike Luke, Mark has Jesus change the Law, e.g. in Mark 7:19 about Jesus declaring all foods clean.  (I emailed the prof about this phrase not being in the Greek)

Yale Open Course: New Testament 5

In the fifth lecture, the prof talks about the NT as reliable history.  He basically says it is not.

The lecture is focused on the differences in the stories of Paul in both Acts and Galatians.  In Acts, it says that Paul was introduced by Barnabas to the other disciples a short time after Paul's experience in Damascus.  The prof counts 5 times that Paul was in Jerusalem before the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15.  In Galatians, it says that Paul visited Jerusalem perhaps once or twice before the Jerusalem Council, and then only to see Peter and James.  The prof says that these stories are probably contradictory, even though some devout believers have tried to harmonize them.

The prof thinks the account in Galatians is probably more accurate because Paul was being so forceful about something that the readers of his letter could have verified.  However, he admits that his main point is just that the texts must be sifted in order to arrive at historical truth, rather than taken at face-value.