The two gospels are told in profoundly different narrative styles, offering us two different interpretations of history and the individual's role in its creation, two different ways of representing the same reality. In Matthew’s story, an angel appears to Joseph to reassure him, and so he married Mary. Soon later Jesus was born in Bethlehem. After his birth, wise men see his star.…
Thomas emphasizes the faith in your heart while Mark emphasizes the death of Jesus as unlocking the path to salvation. All in all it is difficult to know what either author was truly thinking or feeling when they wrote their respective books. We can only interpret them to the best of our ability, in that the Gospels are quite the compelling mystery and we can only hope to one day unlock their…
Heavily influenced by Mark’s gospel, Luke was compelled to collect his own history as well and complete the work. Some pieces between all three books, more closely related between Mark and Luke, were similar, but told differently according to who was telling it; Mark’s Gospel is the shortest, and the most heavily abbreviated in storytelling, whereas Luke defines and describes specific scenes Mark did previously mention. It is a more “fleshed out” version. In Mark’s version of Peter’s denial, he briefly examines the scene before moving onto Jesus’s main trial: Peter’s denial was the final chord for Christ before his meeting with Pontius Pilate, and an extremely important turning point before Christ’s inevitable betrayal by his people. ““Truly…
Unlike the other Gospel accounts he mentions that Jesus spent a night in prayer before choosing his apostles (Luke 6:12-16). Other Gospel accounts show a different focus when portraying Christ. Titles attributed to Jesus that were also included in Mark and Matthew where Christ/Messiah, Son of God, Son of Man, Son of David, and King of Jews. In Luke there was new emphasis that Jesus was Lord of Israel and all nations. That he was also Savior of all but especially the poor.…
In the modern sense of the term, a biography tells about what a particular person was like over the course of their existence on earth (Professor Dale B. Martin, “Lecture 6 - The Gospel of Mark,” 2009: http://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-152/lecture-6). The gospels of Mark; however, only tells about what Jesus did as an adult, thus it is not considered a biography. Mark does not give any information regarding Jesus’ birth, such as Luke and Matthew, how he was raised, or any other information leading to the understanding of how he became notable, as a modern biography would. The gospel of mark reveals several actions that Jesus did as an adult, such as performing miracles, healings, and other divine activities. This is not an account…
Mark portrays a definitively more dynamic Jesus in his Gospel than the familiar teacher Matthew presented to us. The Gospel of Matthew was structured around his big sermons. The Gospel of Mark is structured as to make an action hero of Him. This Gospel uses the word “immediately” an astounding 42 times, especially near the beginning (1:10, 12, 18, 20, 21, 23, 28, 29, 30, 42, 43; 2:8, 12; 3:6; 4:5, 15, 16, 17, 29; 5:2, 29, 30, 42; 6:25, 27, 45, 50, 54; 7:25; 8:10; 9:15, 20, 24; 10:52; 11:2, 3; 14:43, 45, 72; 15:1). A short but flashy opener to introduce our hero- then on to His adventures gathering His ‘army’ and casting out demons.…
The four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all portray the miraculous work and life of Jesus Christ. They provide historic information about Jesus Christ that Christians believe God used to draw them into a deeper personal relationship with Him. Described in the Old Testament, a great leader who would deliver Israel from control just as King David, came to be and was born of a virgin. “When the New Testament refers to Jesus as Christ, it’s not referring to Jesus’ surname but rather to Jesus’ title as messiah, as king” (Hiles and Smith, 2014). In Colossians 1, Jesus’ true identity is stated as the “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15).…
The three Gospels share some similarities. They all tell the story of women going to the tomb of Jesus looking for His body on the first day of the week after Sabbath. The stone that was covering the entrance of the tomb was moved so the women could enter. The women were given the message/command to tell the apostles that Jesus has risen, and He is headed to Galilee before them. The women were frightened by the news and of the source(s) of the news.…
The three passion predictions in the Gospel Of Mark have very similar structures. They each talk about the Son of Man suffering at the hands of other men and eventually dying then being resurrected after three days. Additionally, they also talk about how his followers were unable to comprehend what he was saying. In the first prediction found in Mark 8:31-33 Jesus tells “them” referring to his disciples that “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by elders, the chief priests and the scribes”.…
The quest to find historical Jesus, requires us to strip the primary resources and look for other evidences for Jesus The portrayals of Jesus in the gospel is not accurate, and it is impossible to get an account of Jesus that is precise, since no one documented His story from the time of His birth. The story of Jesus can be interpreted in different ways. The church believes the Bible is the “Word of God”. For this reason, the gospels are read together or consolidated to give a full account of Jesus’ life.…
The New Testament consists of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each of the Gospels is created from four different viewpoints on the ministry, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The New Testament consists of four different accounts of Jesus; however three of them are very closely related. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are considered “synoptic” due to their similarities regarding the story of Jesus. In contrast, the Gospel According to John distinguishes itself from the other three by narrowing his focus on to the son-ship of Jesus Christ to God.…
Throughout history two terms, Messiah and Son of God, have been used by different people to indicate differing expectations as to who the savior of Israel was going to be. The term messiah is from the Hebrew word mashiach, meaning anointed. In the Greek, the word cristos translates into Christ, and it too means anointed. By identifying Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, Mark is conveying to his first-century audience that Jesus was a suffering Messiah and the Son of God who encompassed the characteristics of history’s diverse expectations.…
A significant aspect of Jesus’ portraits has to do with the titles used to describe him and point to his humanness or divinity. The diction used in Mark is less suggestive of Jesus’ divine nature than in John. The most common title for Jesus in Mark’s gospel is “Teacher” or “Master,” plain human terms that emphasize the idea of serving others. Jesus is portrayed as the servant of God, but he is nonetheless the leader of the people on earth by virtue of his status as a prophet. Jesus being identified as “Teacher” is also important because Mark’s audience, the Gentiles, was relatively new to the faith, and Mark wanted to stress that Jesus was a model for them to serve God before serving themselves during the persecutions.…
With four gospels in the New Testament, there are many different ways Jesus could be represented. Each one paints a different portrait, some more similar than others due to a common source. In the Gospel of Matthew, the author chooses to focus on the teaching and prophecy fulfilling aspects of Jesus over the other possible views. The stories and references were carefully chosen to be suit the intended audience of the author, showing the savior who they needed the most. The gospel of Matthew was written anonymously around 80-90 AD and its genre closely resembles an ancient biography.…
The most effective methodologies to interpret the Bible To understand the Bible from a scholarly perspective is to be skeptical and make good judgments based on the evidences that are given. An academic scholar of the Bible must be able to apply various research techniques, use analytic skills, and have high theological knowledge to correctly interpret the Bible. In doing so, this allows the scholar to appropriately criticize and determine the significance and implications of many of the ancient texts. People of modern societies are then able to take the meanings of these texts, and attempt to relate this information about God into their own lives. Likewise, there are many methods that scholars have used to interpret the Bible.…