Looking back at my original interview questions, it is somewhat amazing to realize how much I have learned regarding Jesus of Nazareth and the times in which he lived in. It is extremely apparent that the original thoughts and ideas I had about Jesus were based on predominantly Western evangelical concepts and culture. As the course moved forward, these ideas shifted to a more historical and accurate perspective. Overall, the information and assignments provided within this class allow for one, including myself, to effectively improve upon their understanding of Jesus of Nazareth.
To begin with, I would like to discuss some of the new knowledge I was exposed to throughout the course. At the most basic level, I had no idea that each gospel …show more content…
The first major one pertains to how closely tied Jesus was to Judaism during his life. I have always separated Jesus and Judaism and in retrospect I can see that this has been detrimental to my overall understanding of Jesus of Nazareth. Reading The Misunderstood Jew by Amy-Jill Levine and discussing the “New Moses” theme that appeared in Matthew, which describes the similarities between Jesus and Moses (i.e. going on top of a mountain to get/give the Law), have helped a great deal in making this conceptual connection. The second conceptual topic, which I found to be the most compelling and interesting, would be the Synoptic Gospels/Problem. Analyzing the connections between the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke have made it apparent to me that they are all using roughly the same information/stories with different themes to support the author’s motives and ideas on who Jesus of Nazareth should be. It should be noted that I did not support the Q hypothesis we discussed in class. From what I can tell, Luke more than likely copied from Matthew, and there is not a hypothetical document we have yet to discover. The final concept that is slowly becoming more pertinent to me is that interpretations of Jesus of Nazareth vary and will continue to do so. While this comes off as extremely abstract, watching and analyzing the films “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “Jesus of Montreal” have shown me that individuals today have different ideas of who Jesus was. With this in mind, I could make more sense of the differences seen in the gospels of the types of characteristics Jesus of Nazareth carried (i.e. his more humanistic tones in Mark 9:19 and the more divine ones in John
To begin with, I would like to discuss some of the new knowledge I was exposed to throughout the course. At the most basic level, I had no idea that each gospel …show more content…
The first major one pertains to how closely tied Jesus was to Judaism during his life. I have always separated Jesus and Judaism and in retrospect I can see that this has been detrimental to my overall understanding of Jesus of Nazareth. Reading The Misunderstood Jew by Amy-Jill Levine and discussing the “New Moses” theme that appeared in Matthew, which describes the similarities between Jesus and Moses (i.e. going on top of a mountain to get/give the Law), have helped a great deal in making this conceptual connection. The second conceptual topic, which I found to be the most compelling and interesting, would be the Synoptic Gospels/Problem. Analyzing the connections between the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke have made it apparent to me that they are all using roughly the same information/stories with different themes to support the author’s motives and ideas on who Jesus of Nazareth should be. It should be noted that I did not support the Q hypothesis we discussed in class. From what I can tell, Luke more than likely copied from Matthew, and there is not a hypothetical document we have yet to discover. The final concept that is slowly becoming more pertinent to me is that interpretations of Jesus of Nazareth vary and will continue to do so. While this comes off as extremely abstract, watching and analyzing the films “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “Jesus of Montreal” have shown me that individuals today have different ideas of who Jesus was. With this in mind, I could make more sense of the differences seen in the gospels of the types of characteristics Jesus of Nazareth carried (i.e. his more humanistic tones in Mark 9:19 and the more divine ones in John