...The Gospels include the first 4 books of the New Testament which are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These stories in a way show the time period from Jesus' birth to Jesus' death and resurrection. One of the purposes of the 4 Gospels is to share the same stories but from different people with different perspectives from each other. Which has a whole message in it's self. I believe a key theme in these 4 books is the theme of laying down your life for others. Jesus obviously laid down his life in huge ways for all of us and we are to lay down our lives for others as well. We are taught in these books many things that we are called to carry out still to this day. There are so many themes that I can not even begin to list them all. You can get...
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...The Gospel and the Four Gospels In the beginning the New Testament is given in metaphor as described as a turtle. The New Testament should be treated just like a snapping turtle. You do not know that it’s a snapping turtle until your each out for it and it quickly snaps back at you. You have to be very careful in approaching both, we have to take into consideration that dealing with them both we have to not only look at the impression or the first impression they give off. You would think you can trust a turtle because it’s so harmless, but you don’t know until you reach out. The New Testament is innocent until you start to read and you start to see that it’s definitely different from your other readings. The first four documents will give us a more mature look about the New Testament. The content of the message is that its important when reading and studying the four Gospels. You have to recognize that each of the Gospels are written and specifically designed for a certain audience and group of people. Matthew is written for the Jewish audience. Mark is written to the Romans. Luke is written to the Greek. John is written to the Christian that is born again. Even though they all generally, but not always, include events that are the same but gives different information from a certain event. The biggest difference in the four Gospels is that God is reaching out to everyone. He created us all different but the bible was that one source that will make us all alike. He creared...
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...Theology of the Four Gospels The first three gospels are sometimes called the 'synoptic' or same view gospels. This is because they each cover teaching and miracles by Jesus that are also covered in another account. The fourth gospel, John, writing later, recounts Jesus' other words and miracles that have a particular spiritual meaning. All four gospels present Jesus as both the Son of God and son of man. In this paper information will be provided that describes the major theological differences between the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Information will also be provided that describes a theological perspective of the gospel of John. Finally, information in this paper will include how ones understanding of the various theological perspectives presented in the four Gospels can be used as an additional tool to facilitate the proclaiming of the Four Gospels. Theological Differences between the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John The Gospel According to Matthew The first three books of the New Testament have been identified as the synoptic gospels. These books are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The first book of the New Testament is identified as the book of Matthew. Matthew was one of the first twelve disciples of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 9:1; 10:1-4 and therefore an eye-witness. Matthew records more of Jesus' teaching concerning God's heavenly kingdom than the other writers, Mark, Luke, or John. In the first four books of Matthew, the miracle story of Jesus’...
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...A sacred text is used by a religion to understand their worldview and their religion better. A sacred text is what a religion believes is holy and authoritative. Religious texts help its followers to worship and pray. Both Christianity and Judaism are monotheistic and as such there are similarities but also differences within each religion. The sacred text for Judaism is the Tanach while Christianity has the Bible. The essay will explore the structure of each sacred text, what type of literature is in each canon, authorship of the text and how it is used in practice. Structure of each canon Christians believe the Bible is their sacred text. The Bible is a library of 66 books and is made of two parts, Old Testament (39 books) and New Testament (27 books). The Old Testament...
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...Essence of the New Testament: A Survey (2012), and the New Testament documents. Chapter 1: How We Got the New Testament 1. How many documents does the New Testament consist (1)? 27 2. The New Testament was written approximately between AD ¬¬¬_45___ and _100___ (1). 3. What materials were the New Testament documents written upon (1)? Leather and paper scrolls 4. What are the original New Testament document called (1, 2)? autograph 5. What is a codex in reference to the early New Testament writings (2)? Modern day books 6. What is the name of the Latin codex collection (2)? Ta Bibla 7. In the study of the New Testament, to what does the term canon refer (2)? Authoritive books 8. What three languages did God choose as the media for his self-revelation (2)? Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek 9. The Old Testament was primarily written in ____Hebrew__ (2). 10. Parts of the Old Testament were written in __Aramaic____ (2). 11. The New Testament was written in __Greek____ ______(2). 12. New greek______ ______was the language of the common people during the first century AD (2). 13. Why do you think God allowed the autographs to vanish (3)? To avoid biliolatry 14. In spite of the absence of the autographs, approximately 5,000 Greek manuscripts and an additional 13,000 fragments of the New Testament documents exist, providing significant manuscript evidence for New Testament scholars (3). compared to early writings 15. Motivators for canonizing the New Testament include the heretic...
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...the New Testament, the Historical Jesus, and How Manuscripts Can Reveal What Texts Conceal Tom Dykstra I grew up with a picture of Paul traveling through Asia and Europe, founding congregations, counseling and teaching the men and women who had given their life to Jesus. If he could not visit them, he sent letters. When Paul died, his letters were kept as treasures. Each church that had received one of his letters saved it, had it read during worship services, and exchanged copies of the letter with other congregations close by. Later the congregations tried to complete their collection. But this view does not match the uniformity of manuscript evidence. --David Trobisch 1 It is even more remarkable that attempts to reconstruct the supposed document 'Q' (the lost collection used by both Matthew and Luke postulated by those who argue that Matthew and Luke are independent) use text-critical terminology to describe their activities. However, since all they are doing is making selections from a twentieth-century printed text, which does not even presume to provide confidently the text of the four-Gospel collection, never mind that of the independent first-century texts, this use of language must be dismissed as illusory. --David Parker 2 Modern scholarship has produced detailed biographies of Paul, massive multi-volume inquiries into “the historical Jesus,” and mountains of exegetical literature that claims to extract the author’s meaning from each word of each New Testament book...
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...CHHI 301, Research Paper 1 The New Testament Canon I have asked myself many times the question of where the bible came from. Was it divine prophesies, or was it simply a mish mash of letters, writings, and books all crammed together into one volume. How and when it was decided which books and letters was would be included, and who decided that? In this paper we will discuss how the New Testament was put together and the origins of the New Testament Canon. The New Testament is a very young document that dates from around 1,900 to 2000 years old. This may seem like a long time ago, but compared to the age of the Old Testament, and other recorded ancient writing it is really pretty recent. It is commonly accepted by most rational thinking people that the Bible as we currently have it today, didn’t just appear one day, but was put together by many different writers, and by many different scholars. So this begs the real question how did the current New Testament come to being and who besides God was behind the publication of the New Testament Canon. I will try in this research paper to paint a picture of how the New Testament Canon came to be, who was involved and what the process was that was used to select the books that were ultimately used. Most scholars agree that the early writers were not aware, or even intended to have books or letters published in the New Testament, they were simply writing to a specific audience. As an example when Paul wrote...
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...Bible. Texts from the Bible stand at the center of analysis, while accompanying textbooks help us to contexualize biblical materials within history. Each week revolves around a particular theme with one lecture on the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and one on the New Testament. Themes include creation, birth, the hero, the mountain, the community, the Temple, suffering, and the end of time. As we place biblical texts in their historical contexts, we will consider the Bible as a literary work with distinct genres, themes and conventions. The thematic connections between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament will be explored at the same time that differences in their style and message are investigated. While reading the Bible, we will develop a vocabulary for discussing literary texts as well as a vocabulary specific to texts from the ancient world. This lively and pluralistic course provides a thorough introduction to the literature of the Bible. Course Objectives The Bible is a central text that has influenced literature, history, and global politics. This course instructs students in reading and interpreting the Bible according to its structure and tropes and within its original contexts. The Bible is read in English according to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). Students study theories of biblical authorship and gain insight...
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...and is held by most Christians to be the Messiah, foretold in the Hebrew Bible or “Old Testament”. They believe him to be the savior of mankind, and the son of God. However, in modern times, the use of critical scholarship in analysis of the Bible and to the New Testament Gospels in particular, has lead to an accelerating rate of disintegration in the traditional Christian belief system. The term "scholarship" implies the application of the scientific method of the evaluating evidence on the basis of objective standards unhindered from any personal involvement or biases. The main source of information on Jesus is from the Christian Gospels. Some scholars claim that the sources on which the Gospels are based were written within the living memory of Jesus' lifetime. There are four such Gospels the earliest being Mark (68-73 AD), followed by Matthew (70-100 AD), Luke (80-100 AD), and John (90-110 AD). Many conservative Christians accept these writings as evidence for a historical Jesus and as an account of his life and death. According to the Christian Gospels, Jesus was born in Bethlehem between 6 BC and 6 AD. The Gospel Mark, reports that Jesus was "the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon" he also states that Jesus had sisters. Nothing of Jesus is recorded between 7 AD when Jesus visits the Temple in Jerusalem as a boy, and 25 AD when John baptized Jesus in the river Jordan. The Gospels states that starting around 27 AD, Jesus began traveling the country side performing...
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...The four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John 1. Introduction The term Gospel means good news, a message which was desperately needed (Guthrie, 1965: 11). According to Talbot (2013: 69) gospels can be divided into 2 groups namely the Synoptic gospels- Matthew, Mark and Luke and Gospel of John. He explains that Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic gospels because they have so much in common. Kotze (6), outlines their similarities and differences as follows: |Mark | |Matthew | |Luke | |Total: 661 verses | |Total :1068 verses | |Total: 1149 verses | |600 verses parallel to Matthew | |505 verses parallel to Mark | |380 verses parallel to Mark | |61 verses peculiar to Mark | |235 versus parallel to Luke | |235 versus parallel to Matthew | | | |328 verses peculiar to Matthew | |534 verses peculiar to Luke | There are suggestions due the similarities and differences that (1) Mark was the original writer and was copied by Matthew and Luke (2) Matthew was original writer copied by Luke, and Mark made a shorter version. The material where obtained from the following suggested sources: (1) Oral tradition – the good news spread by word of mouth before it was written down (2) An earlier...
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...2015 The gospel according to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. The book of Matthew basically tells how the Messiah, Jesus Christ, rejected by Israel, finally sends the disciples to preach his gospel to the world. It does not so much indicate a literary genre but characterizes the contents of the book: good news about Jesus Christ. The book of Matthew may be considered a Midrash theological interpretation on the gospel of Mark. Matthew, whose name means “gift of the Lord,” was a tax collector who left his work to follow Jesus (Matthew 9:9–13). In Mark and Luke he is called by his other name, Levi. Although the author did not record his name within the text itself, the first book found in the New Testament has historically been credited to the writing of Matthew, a tax collector and one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. Some New Testament scholars doubt the authorship of Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew, like all the other New Testament gospels, was originally anonymous and only attributed to Matthew, the disciple of Jesus, later in the second century. The author relied on Mark's Gospel for everything he knew about the life and mission of Jesus. There are two lines of evidence that proves the authorship of Matthew, the superscription of the ancient manuscripts and the patristic witness. According to NT scholar D. Edmond Hiebert, the first gospel’s “identifying superscription, ‘The Gospel According...
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... Student’s Name Date In the New Testament, the Last Supper refers to the last meal that Jesus shared with his disciples on the night of his betrayal. This last meal mentioned in different terms in different texts. These terms include the Lord's Supper, Eucharist, communion and mass. The last supper serves as an encouragement and a unifying factor to Christians. It binds them in fellowship of love, trust and mutual acceptance. Sharing of the last supper is one of the orders that Jesus gave to his church. It is ideally Christian’s remembrance of Jesus, acknowledgement of his presence, confident hope in his second coming, fellowship with him and his people, self-examination, thanksgiving and gratitude. 1This paper explores the last supper event as presented by the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and 1st Corinthians. Historical Background of the Last Supper The last supper concept dates back to the early times in the Old Testament where Jews used to celebrate the Passover. The Passover ritual entailed an opening course where the paterfamilias spoke a blessing over the first cup of wine. The preliminary dish comprised green herbs, bitter herbs and a sauce made of fruit puree placed over a table also...
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...The Canonization of the New Testament When we think about the New Testament in our Bibles today most of us pay little attention to, or have little regard for the history that surrounds how it came to be. This is partly because of the high position we as Evangelicals have for our Bibles. We are taught that the Bible is infallible and never contradicts itself. I agree whole heartedly that the Bible is God's Holy Word and infallible non contradictory. But two weeks ago if you were to ask me how the Bible was put together or "canonized", I would have told you that there was some sort of council that decided which books should be in there, but ultimately it was God's sovereign will. Now the last part would be correct, but the rest is at best debatable. So how was the Bible put together? Since the argument is extremely complex and much of the details are lost or were never recorded, we will be exploring the different events that drove the movement, along with several different opinions of when the Bible was Complete or Canonized. There were two particular movements during the second century that made the Church realize a need to have a compilation of books that were universally accepted. The first movement, although not as well know, was Marcionism. This heretical sect was started by Marcion who was born into Christianity but had a deep dislike for Judaism and the material world. He believed that the God and Father of Jesus are not the same as the creator Yahweh, and it was...
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...Running Head: THE NEW COVENANT FOR ALL MANKIND The New Covenant: New Testament Canionization? Abstract The canonization of the New Testament evolved over 400 years following the death of Jesus, influenced by social upheaval, different cultures, and political pressures of the era. This paper examines how the 27 books of the New Testament were formulated, recognized as Holy Scriptures, and eventually declared for inclusion in the new canon. It will examine how the new scriptures were evaluated using a new four-step criterion, determining which books were divinely inspired. It will also examine a new classification system, created to help determine which writings were acceptable, disputed, or rejected from consideration. Finally, the decision of which books to include in the New Testament is addressed during four major councils held by the church during the fourth century. The New Covenant: New Testament Canonization. After the death of Jesus, the apostles, and other followers, spread the word of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. The primary method of teaching was by way of oral communication, spreading the message by word of mouth. As time went by, and the Apostles started to die, the first efforts were made to capture their life with Jesus into written word. The dissemination of these works was a slow process due to the hindrance in transportation and the inability to mass produce the writings. The ability to capture and fully understand these divine works...
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...doctrines rest, and the Psalmist rightly said, ‘If the foundation be destroyed, then what can the righteous do?’” In his statement he expresses the truth behind the fact that the Christian faith resides on the fact that the Bible is inerrant. Interesting enough the Bible of today with its 66 books, 39 Old Testament, and 27 New Testament are very similar to the bible of the early church. In the words of Herman Ridderbos, "the history of the Canon is the process of the growing consciousness of the Church concerning its ecumenical foundation.” People have often wonder why certain books made into the Bible, but others did not. In this paper will look how we got the Bible we have today and what movements, people, and doctrines effected. Old Testament Canon The Old Testament known to Christians in the Bible is what is known to Jews as the Tanakh. This is made of the writings of the Laws, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Jesus Christ stated in Luke 24:44 “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Initially the Jewish Canon was closed by Judas Maccabaeus in 164 BC. That was some 250 years prior to the Synod of Jamnia. The Old Testament Canon was officially finalized at the Synod of Jamnia in AD 90 by a council of Jewish rabbi’s. Much of the dispute laid with the Apocryphal and Pseudepigrapha Books (unknown authored apocalyptic letters). While this council was decided upon by...
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