Reading Assignment: Barr, Preface (ix-xii) and Introduction (1-25)

Reading and Study Guide

Preface –ix-xii

1. What are the losses Barr perceives that occurred due to the shift from an oral to a print(book) culture? What gains did this shift make possible? What could you add to the points Barr makes? In your view are there corresponding losses and gains in the shift today from a book culture to a multimedia (video, audio, hypertext, internet) culture?

2. What losses and gains occurred when separate books (scrolls or codices) were bound together in a single volume?

3. In the section entitled “Goals” Barr announces he will focus on orality, rhetoric,  historical setting,  and social context.   In the section “Emphases” he notes the textbook will deal carefully with historical terminology, the “literary nature” of the New Testament, and the idea of “story”?   What does he mean by each of these terms and why does he focus on them?

Introduction – Pages 1-25. 

Note:  Barr will occasionally ask you to read a passage from the New Testament in his Reading and Reflection boxes.   You should do this as it will make the rest of what he says clearer.

1. What does Barr mean by each of the following headings (pp. 3-8)?  How does he illustrate each with examples from the story of Jesus’s birth and the shepherds in Luke 2:1-22 and 39?

The World Within the Text: Literature

The World Behind the Text: History

The World in Front of the Text: Our Culture

2.  The next section is entitled:   “Maps for the World:  Using Methods” (pp. 8-14).  What are historical studies and social analysis as Barr defines them?  What is at least one strength and one weakness of each according to Barr?  Barr has a longer section on the role of literary criticism, in part because he wants to introduce literary aspects of the letter genre in the New Testament and aspects of rhetoric.  The next few questions in this reading and study guide will focus on letters and rhetoric.

3.  How can we understand the letters as literature?  What does Barr mean by “stories’ in the letters?

4.  Why is it important to understand the New Testament letters in terms of oral performance? What are the settings, time focus, and purposes of each of the three types of ancient rhetoric? Do we have similar genres today?  Note:  Check out Table 1.2 on p. 15 and Table 1.3 on p. 16.

5.  Why is recovering the meaning for the original audiences of the New Testament texts so far as possible important according to Barr?  What are some important obstacles to doing this?  Barr covers in the section entitled “Attending to the Earliest Meanings’ on pp. 14-20.

6.  What is the point of the story Barr tells about visiting the Moravian cemetery? (pp. 21-22)

7. According to Barr, "story is the dominant metaphor for this book" (11). What does he mean by this? Why does he view it as important? How does the category "story" inform both the form and content of the introduction? Note Barr’s use of stories from his personal experience. How does this affect you as a reader?

Key Questions – Be prepared to share your answers orally in class to questions 1, 2 and 7 on the Introduction.   You may wish to write an outline of your answer or jot down notes to use in class.