The continuity of NT with OT teacliing must not be overlooked. The teacher began with such truths as were common to Judaism and Chris-
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tianity. The fundamental doctrine of the exist- ence, unity, and holiness of God he would learn from the OT. He appropriated the .Jewish heliefs as to the creation of the world and the nature and sinfulness of man. He insisted on the primary demands of the Moral Law.
After allowing for what was taken over from the OT and emhodied in the NT, the remaining subject- matter of specifically Christian teaching consists of two elements — doctrinal and ethical.
(1) Doctrinal content. — The outstanding and ever-recurring subject in Christian instruction was tlie Person and Work of Christ. St. Paul's declara- tion to the Corinthians tliat he determined not to know anything among them ' save Jesus Christ and him crucified' (1 Co 2-) was true of himself not only as a preacher, but also as a teacher. The teacliing of apostolic times, whether soteriological, eschatoIogicaXor practical, was essentially Christo- centric. While the preacher, as a herald (Kripv^), made his proclamation that Jesus was the Christ of God, and the Saviour of mankind, the teacher, in the meeting for edification or to individual listeners, had to unfold and explain the deep truths involved in this momentous fact.
The story of the events of the earthly life of Jesus, together with an account of His sinless char- acter and His death and resurrection, had to be told (1 Co 1.5"'-, 2 Co 8», Gal 4«-) much in the same way as it has been preserved for us in the Four Gospels. But the doctrinal and tlieolo"ical implications of tliese historical facts had to be made explicit by appeal both to Scripture and to spiritual experience. The gospel concerning Jesus Christ needed much exposition. In order that men should intelligently believe that Jesus was the promised Christ, as proved by His resurrection ' according to the scrip- tures ' (1 Co 15*), that He was the Saviour of sinful men tlirough His expiatory death upon the Cross (Ro 5^-*, 2 Co 5'*--'), that He was the redeeming head of the human race (Ro 5'°, 2 Co 15--), that, moreover, He was the eternal Son of God and the creative ideal of the wliole universe (Eph 1'", Col ji6t. os)^ time was needed, and methods of explana- tion which were not at the disposal of the preacher. To the teacher was allotted the important task of expounding and co-ordinating the truths pro- claimed in the preaching of the gospel.
Tlie experiences of salvation, which came to believers through their faith in Christ, required reflective consideration ; hence the prominence given in Christian teaching to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The historic gift of the Day of Pente- cost proved to be also the indwelling principle of the new Divine life in redeemed men (Ro 5' 8", 1 Co 212, Gal 4», Eph 3'«). Although the dogma of the Divine Trinity was the outcome of much later reflexion, the elements of a doctrine of the three-fold nature of the Divine existence emerged in the teaching of the 1st century.
The preacher having summoned men to repent- ance and saving faith in Christ, the teacher ex- hibited the resultant state of salvation in many aspects. The legal aspect required tlie teacher to present the truth as evangelical justification ; its regenerative results enabled him to speak of it as a 'new creation.' The family life illustrated the blessing as adoption and the possession of filial consciousness. The Jewish Dispensation supplied such ideas as the ' New Covenant ' and ' royal priesthood,' by which the Christian's new relation- ship to God could be understood. Religious and ceremonial observances in the ancient world aflbrded the basis for a fresh and more ethical conception of salvation as mystical union with a dying and risen Saviour or as sanctification through the in- dwelling Holy Spirit.
Moreover, ' things to come ' occupied a large
place, not only in the teaching of Jesus, but in the more developed doctrine of the apostles. The preacher heralded an impending Parousia ; he ex- liorted his hearers to repentance in view of the certain approach of Christ as Judge ; he proclaimed the sure and certain hope of resurrection. The teacher, on the other hand, while including these great truths in his doctrinal instruction, had many questions to face in view of the apocalyptic fancies and hopes so rife in contemporary Judaism and the Greek speculations concerning immortality so widely propagated through the Hellenistic schools of religious philosophy. The very lapse of time bi'ought its problems. The hope and belief of the primitive Church that Christ was immediately to appear called for explanation in view of what would appear to some a disappointing postpone- ment. This drew from the teacher a deeper and more spiritual interpretation of eschatological truth. 2 Thessalonians shows St. Paul, as teacher, correcting the hopes roused in his hearers by the eschatological message of St. Paul, as preacher (Ac 17^ 1 Th l'» 4>3'-). In Corinthians the Apostle deals with problems of individual immortality raised through the grim fact of death among believers. In his later Epistles the cosmical aspect of ' things to come' emerges as implicated in his maturer and final teaching concerning Christ as the eternal Son of God, who existed before the visible universe and in whom all created things are recapitulated (Eph 1™-) and will find their final consummation in glory (Pli S'"'-, Col 1''^-).