...Matthew, Mark and Luke are compared, and it is discovered that they look similar to one another in content and expression. As a result they a referred to as the synoptic gospels. The word “synoptic” basically means “to see together with a common view”. This raises the question of why they are similar to one another in these respects. This is known as the synoptic problem. The many similarities between the synoptic gospels have led some to wonder if the gospel authors had a common source, another written account of Christ’s birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection from which they obtained the material for their gospels. Some argue that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are so similar that they must have used each other’s gospels, or another common source. This supposed “source” has been given the title “Q” from the German word “quell” which means “source.” Another problem is that there is no evidence for the “Q” document or even a portion or fragment which has been discovered. “Q” is just the invention of liberal scholars who deny the inspiration of the Bible and they believe it to be nothing more than a work of literature, subject to some criticism given to other works of literature. This in turn renders the source very much unreliable because there is also no evidence for a “Q” document biblically, theologically or historically. If there is no “Q” document, then why are they similar? It is possible that whichever document was written first, most likely Mark, the other Gospels had access...
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...surrounding the dating of Luke’s Gospel. There has been arguments predicting the date of Luke's gospel and the possible dates are the AD60’s, AD80’s (middle late first century), AD180’s (late second century). The argument for the dating to be the AD60’s is that the book of acts had to have been written before AD62 as the book suddenly ends with the imprisonment of the apostle Paul. The book of acts ended with Paul’s imprisonment which was unexpected as it did not include any of the other important events that happened after the imprisonment took place for example: James martyrdom the brother of Jesus and the leader of Jerusalem which happened in AD62, also Paul’s martyrdom and the persecution of emperor Nero etc. Another example of evidence that Luke’s gospel was written before AD62 is that there is no mention of the fall of Jerusalem in the book of acts which happened in the AD70’s this was quite a big event that took place and was still not mentioned. The book of acts only seems to focus on the events that were relevant before the fall of Jerusalem. If the book of acts was written before AD62 then the gospel of Luke was written a short time before this. Luke’s purpose was to present the progression of the gospel from Jerusalem and Rome. Another possible date that is argued is the AD80’s as Luke’s knowledge of the great fall of Jerusalem as an event of the past is more apparent compared to Matthew and mark. Luke depended on marks gospel which is usually dated in the late...
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...evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definite version of the book -Jesus Christ was a historical figure of staggering influence -Over 80 gospels were considered for NT, but Constantine the Great chose the 4 of Matt, Mark, Luke, John -Was Constantine a Christian? Hardly – He was a lifelong pagan who was baptized on his deathbed, too weak to protest -In Constantine’s day, Rome’s official religion was sun worship – the cult of Sol Invictus, or Invincible Sun – and Constantine was its head priest -After crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Christ’s followers had multiplied exponentially and Constantine changed religion to Christianity because he was a good businessman, because he could see that Christianity was on the rise and he simply backed the winning one -Historians still marvel at the brilliance with which Constantine converted the sun-worshipping pagans to Christianity -Fused pagan symbols, dates, and rituals into growing Christian tradition, he created a kind of hybrid religion that was acceptable to both parties -transmogrification the vestiges of pagan religion into Christian symbology are undeniable -Egyptian sun disks became the halos of Catholic saints; Pictograms of Isis nursing her miraculously conceived son Horus became the blueprint for our modern images of the Virgin Mary nursing Baby Jesus; and virtual all the elements of the Catholic ritual, the miter, the alter, the doxology and communion, the act of “God-eating”...
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...order to reach heaven. Matthew 7:13-14 expresses that Christian life is not easy but filled with hardship. This verse eventually evolves into the name and definition of Early Christians which they embraced with open arms. First, one must understand the verse which is more difficult than one might think. Verses can be understood in a variety of ways to a variety of people because of situations in their life. Therefore, we must first come to an understood translation of Matthew 7:13-14. "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” NIV The first sentence is a direction. Jesus is telling you to enter through the narrow gate, not in the future, but now (Vought p. 180 & Cosby p. 126). Next sentence states that the gate and road which are wide is one to destruction and many people take this path. Yet the narrow gate with a hard or narrow road leads to life that many don’t choose. The second and third sentence can have many meanings. The wide gate and road can be dangerous because it is easy to wonder on the path also you can get lost among all the people. On the other hand, the small gate and road offers little deviation and few people to distract you. Therefore, the narrow gate leads to rough times, yet you are greatly rewarded for your faith and loyalty with eternal life, and the wide gate is easy and filled with...
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...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 _marcion_______ and the heretical movement, ___gnostisism_______ (3). 16. Marcion was a ___church bishop__________ who held a negative view of God as presented in the Old Testament (3). 17. Marcion rejected the Old Testament and as a consequence, he only accepted the Gospel according to Luke and ten Pauline epistles (3)....
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... Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the four narrators for the Gospels. The Gospel “offers distinctive information about Jesus, his public ministry, death, Resurrection, and significance” (Mueller 80). Each of the four Gospels were written at different times, and without collaboration. Due to the differences of chronological order, the order in which events took place, vocabulary, the overall contents, and similarities the Synoptic Problem was created. The Synoptic problem refers to the discussion and the relationship between the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The main question that the Synoptic problem posses is what is the nature of the relationship between the three Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, which was written first, and what sources were used in each of them? With the exception of John, the Gospels have many different similarities in the text, passages, and the specific arrangements of those passages. The reason for the Gospel written by John not being included in the synoptic problem is that there are very few agreements in the text compared to those of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. “The synoptic gospels are synoptic in that they share a majority of their information. Mark contains 93% shared information, Matthew 58% and Luke contains 41%. The Gospel of John in the only gospel that is not considered part of the synoptic gospels because it is 92% peculiar, or dissimilar in its structure and makeup” (Linderer 2). Although each of the Gospels written by...
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...the Bible with the understanding that the Bible was authored by God but written by humans in their language, with the influence of their life experiences and to the extent of their knowledge. The Bible may contain errors with regard to science, grammar or history, but not of faith. The Bible is the authority of the Church but is interpreted taking into consideration the context in which it was written. (Cory, 26). “And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:34). Mark, as most of the Bible, was written in Greek, but contains many Aramaic words, of which, most striking are the human Jesus’ final words before dying on the cross. The Gospel of Mark is the oldest of the four gospels, but does not reference the current time. It helps us understand the humanity of Jesus and how He suffered while many doubted he was the Messiah. (Cory, 128). The interpretation of this verse, using the contextual approach, is that Mark was translating for his audience. Mark wanted to be certain that the audience understood the depth of Jesus’ pain and suffering and that Jesus was human like us. Using the context of the writing, historians have identified that Mark was writing to Gentiles, in the area of Rome. (Cory, 130). Mark’s use of Aramaic indicates that Mark was not certain that the audience would understand the Greek translation and the Jewish...
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...who feel that interpreting the Bible is simply process of opening the Bible, reading a brief passage, and then offering an opinion of what that text seems to mean. What do you think about the process? How does knowledge of the historical and cultural background of the Greco Roman world influence the interpretation of the New Testament? What is involved in interpreting a passage from the New Testament? The process of reading a passage is more than just simply opening the Bible, this is history this is our guide for life. It helps us to live our lives in the way God would want us too. I believe the knowledge of the historical and cultural background of the Greco Roman world influenced the interpretation of the New Testament because of the history context, the way they lived and the heinous and pleasant things they did I think all things in that frame played a part in the interpretation of the New Testament. I believe a measure of trust faith and belief is involved when interpreting a passage. Week Two The four Gospels give us four unique portraits of Jesus. Does this diverse witness to Jesus enrich our understanding of Jesus or do the four Gospels cause confusion? What aspect of Jesus’ life has been your biggest surprise in your readings in this course? In a way it does cause confusion but with them telling everything that happened back then it guides you to better understand everything that took place. Fir me the biggest surprise is still when they crucify him even...
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...forgiven our debtors. 13And lead us into temptation, But deliver us from evil Introduction Matthew 6:9-13 is commonly referred as the “Lord’s Prayer”. In this paragraph, Jesus presented a pattern of prayer to the disciples, thus suggesting the manner in which God should be addressed and the petition we are entitled to present to Him. What is it about this paper that intrigues so many people to dig into the meaning of it? It is interesting to see from the verses above that Jesus’ prayer puts God in the first place. The first half of the prayer focuses exclusively on God and His agenda as believers adore, worship, and submit to His will before they introduce their own personal petitions. The second half of the prayer focuses on how should disciple invite God to their daily life and live upon God’s continuous spiritual provision. Even with the second half where their wills are introduced, God still takes dominant position in the relationship. The discipleship of the followers thus is being presented through day-to-day prayers. Socio-Historical Background To fully understand the meaning of the text, the first thing to do is to step back to examine the society where the text was written, back to the time where the incident happened, thus we can fully grasp the context of the paragraph. The Gospel of Matthew as we know it was almost certainly written before A.D 100. It is quoted by Ignatius (Smyrn. 1.1), writing in approximately 110-115 A.D., and probably referred to in the...
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...“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” Mark 2:23-28 Jesus and The Synoptic Gospels Dr. Charette 04/08/13 Mark 2:23-28 “One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?’ He answered, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.’ Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:23-28, NIV). Introduction This paper will focus on the passage stated above, specifically the last statement; “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” The Sabbath is a reoccurring issue between Jesus and the religious rulers. In this paper I plan to research the reason why the Sabbath was created, give an exegetical view on this passage, and show how we can learn from this teaching. The Sabbath The Sabbath was established when God created the Earth. For in Genesis 2:2-3 it says, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating...
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...one"[1] and the Latin suffixes ian and -itas) is a monotheistic[2] religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as presented in the New Testament. Christianity is the world's largest religion,[3][4] with approximately 2.2 billion adherents, known as Christians.[5][6][7][8] Most Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, fully divine and fully human, and the savior of humanity prophesied in the Old Testament. Consequentially, Christians refer to Jesus as Christ or Messiah. The foundations of Christian theology are expressed in ecumenical creeds that are accepted by followers of the Christian faith. These professions state that Jesus suffered, died, was buried, and was resurrected from the dead in order to grant eternal life to those who believe in him and trust in him for the remission of their sins. The creeds further maintain that Jesus bodily ascended into heaven, where he reigns with God the Father. Most denominations teach that Jesus will return to judge all humans, living and dead, and to grant eternal life to his followers. He is considered the model of a virtuous life. His ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning "Good News" (a loan translation of the Greek: εὐαγγέλιον euangélion). The term gospel also refers to written accounts of Jesus's life and teaching, four of which—the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—are considered canonical and are included in the Christian Bible. Christianity is an Abrahamic...
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...Paper on Christology in the Gospels Submitted to Mr. Kwok H.B. of Alliance Bible Seminary in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course of TH512-E:Systematic Theology II Sept.-Nov, 2005 Margaret, Tse Yin Yi M024110 November 29, 2005 I. The meaning of Christology 3 II. What Can Be Discerned about Jesus from His Words Concerning Issues Other than the Kingdom and Himself 3 III. What Can Be Discerned about Jesus from His Deeds and Words Proclaiming the Kingdom of God 3 IV. What Can Be Discerned about Jesus from His Words Concerning Himself… 3 V. Hosea and “the Son of the Living God” in Mattew 16:16b 3 VI. Jesus as Messiah in the Gospel of Luke 3 VII. Narrative Christology and the SON OF MAN: What the Marken Jesus says instead 3 VIII. Conclusion 3 IX. Reference 4 I. The meaning of Christology The Greek for “Messiah” is Christos, whence “Christ”. So, “christology” would discuss how Jesus came to be called the Messiah or Christ and what was meant by that designation. In a broader sense, “christology” discusses any evaluation of Jesus in respect to who he was and the role he played in the divine plan. Scholars distinguish different kinds of Christology. “Low christology” covers the evaluation of him in terms that do not necessarily include divinity, e.g. Messiah, Rabbi, Prophet, High Priest, Savior, Master. “High christology” covers the evaluation of Jesus in terms that include an aspect...
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.......................................................................... 1 Definition of Emerging.................................................................................................................... 2 Emerging from Modernism.................................................................................................... 2 Emerging from Culture.......................................................................................................... 3 Emerging Theology................................................................................................................ 4 Comparing Revisionists Theology with Orthodox Theology....................................................... 5 Identify with the Life of Jesus.............................................................................................. 6 Transform the Secular Realm................................................................................................. 8 Conclusion........................................................................................................................................ 9 Bibliography..................................................................................................................................... 12 Introduction The Emerging Church (EC) is a very recent development in the Christian Church’s history. While the term describes the movement that started nearly...
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...THE QUEST FOR HISTORICAL JESUS. DATE: MAY, 2016 It is worthy of note that the first four centuries of the life of the Church was nearly marred by the Christological heresies. Argument about the person and work of Jesus Christ. Arguments abound concerning the Historicity of the Christian religion, while many has maintained that Jesus had not intended a development of faith from his teachings, the quest to identify the historical Jesus and differentiate between the Jesus of history and the Jesus of faith is going on. One of those devastating heresies called Docetism appeared in the time of John the beloved, propounded by the Marcions and the Gnostics, a teaching that denied the human nature of Jesus Christ claiming that the body is matter and matter is evil, so that the body was just a “Phantom” a body merely given a human appearance in nature but not necessarily human, because they believe that God cannot associate with evil. So John wrote in his first epistle that “every Spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God” 1John 4:3. The Jesus of History is the Jesus of the Historical Quests which is by now is on the 3rd stage. The Christ of Faith is the Christ of the Christian belief. To have any sort of separation between the two is like having a separation between the WORD and the CHRIST contrary to the Christian faith that was in the beginning with God as mentioned by John in John 1:2, 14. One cannot separate Jesus from Christ or try to successfully...
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...highest level of professional degree obtained along with their current professional title and role. There is also an authorship listing of published works by each individual. Although the basis of this dictionary is from a conservative perspective, it acknowledges the individual writer is not restricted from including their views and thoughts and that they are responsible for their writings. The dictionary was designed for use not for scholars, but for ordinary individuals, ministers and Sunday School Teachers that want to further investigate and understand their readings. It provides a reference list of abbreviations for English pronunciation of vowels and consonants. It also includes phonetic spelling for ease of use. Luke, Gospel of: The author of this entry was E. M. Blaiklock. Dr. Blaiklock was a professor of Classics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He was widely known as an international scholar that taught Latin, Greek and ancient classics for over forty years. The article reviews the authenticity of the Third...
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