A Selective Tour of the Primary Sources
Some Primary Sources for Old and New Testament Study
This post marks the beginning of a series where I’ll be referencing and engaging with books from the Encountering Biblical Studies series from Baker Academic.1 This series of posts will explore two books in particular: Readings from the Ancient Near East: Primary Sources for Old Testament Study (2002), edited by Bill T. Arnold and Bryan E. Beyer, and Readings from the First-Century World: Primary Sources for New Testament Study (1998), edited by Walter A. Elwell and Robert W. Yarbrough.
While I’ve read a number of books and articles within biblical studies, I want to do my best to work as best as possible from primary sources (apart from the Bible itself) given my current knowledge and skills. I’m not fluent or highly proficient in biblical languages, so reading primary sources in the original languages is currently out of the question from the moment. The next best thing is to read English translations of the primary sources, which, when it comes to extra-biblical sources, have been expertly selected and curated in the books above. These texts are recommended by Nijay Gupta in his book Prepare, Succeed, Advance, Second Edition: A Guidebook for Getting a PhD in Biblical Studies and Beyond.2 Head over to Nijay's Substack to check out more from him.
When it comes to New Testament studies, the primary sources are the New Testament itself and the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. However, it’s also important to explore the extra-biblical sources because, as Elwell and Yarbrough,
“basic familiarity with extra-New Testament literature and related findings can open up previously unimagined vistas for understanding the New Testament itself.”3
These texts are not necessarily meant for graduate-level study, but I think this should be a good beginning to primary sources for me. It’s my goal to read these texts and others that will provide a good foundation on which to level up as I search those areas into which I want to dive even deeper and research. Before then, I’m going to get a lay of the land in terms of the content, hermeneutics, backgrounds, and languages, and then…keep reading and learning.
More information and texts in this series can be found at this link: Encountering Biblical Studies Series.
Nijay K. Gupta, Prepare, Succeed, Advance, Second Edition: A Guidebook for Getting a PhD in Biblical Studies and Beyond (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2019), Kindle Edition. You can find his book on Amazon.
Walter A. Elwell and Robert W. Yarbrough, “Introduction,” in Readings from the First-Century World: Primary Sources for New Testament Study, Encountering Biblical Studies (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic Press, 1998), 11.