Jesus: Galilean Ministry

The Shadow of the Galilean sheds light on the historical context of Jesus by showing how people of ancient Palestine received his message; then he shows how this illuminates the actions and sayings of Jesus by revealing that his most important teaching was that he was the son of God, and that while some aspects of his teachings were permissible or even attractive to members of both Roman and Jewish authority, the baggage of this claim was too much to carry.

Throughout the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, it is apparent that there are similarities as well as differences when it comes to portraying the life and times of Jesus the Christ, the general descriptions of who Jesus was, and the sayings and deeds of Jesus during his short stay on this earth. Scripture scholars highlight that each Gospel writer viewed Jesus from a different perspective.

The juxtaposition of any two writings is a formidable task. The content of each, even if they seem alike, is a small part in determining similarities and differences. One must also look at the styles, authors, themes, supposed audiences and authorial intent. This front becomes even more difficult while exegeting and deciphering ancient texts because of how far removed the writings are from modern understanding and scholarship. It is also further complicated when one lacks the factual knowledge of which piece was written first and/or if both texts were using a third source at the time of their creation. These difficulties find their apex at the study of Christian history and all of its subsequent writings. In particular, the gospels according to Thomas and Luke, while they have similarities and at times identical phraseology are vastly different when one considers their theological understandings, themes, format and style.

“God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son and Holy Spirit “- Matthew 28:18-20 (The Message)

The Shadow of the Galilean: The Quest of the Historical Jesus in Narrative Form. By Gerd Theissen. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007, 212 pp., $15.50.

Logically it would make sense to start off with the introduction of each book. Notice how in Matthew the first event mentioned is the birth of Jesus and his genealogy while John begins with the creation of the world. The first sentence, “An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (M 1:1) ultimately gives Jesus credibility. This credibility is something Matthew views as important because

In the beginning Gospel of Mark, it states the coming of John the Baptist to make way for Jesus Christ. In John the Baptist's message he states while he baptizes with water the one to come will baptizes with the Holy Spirit. When Jesus came from Nazareth to be baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River the sky opened and the Holy Spirit came upon him like a dove as he was being baptized. God spoke audibly stating that he was pleased with his son. Right after this, the Holy Spirit guided Jesus to be in the desert for forty days, in that time he was tempted by Satan. After John was put in prison. Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news. As he walked along the sea of Galilee he approached Simon and Andrew who he told to follow him.

John Dominic Crossan is a well-renowned scholar of the historical Jesus, so one would expect his book to be full of some of the best scholarship on the topic. He provides a way to humanize Jesus and explain whom he was, and what his world looked like at the time. However, despite his ability to bring Jesus to life on the page, he skips over several large ideas, thus leaving much to be desired. While his book, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, does a good job as an introduction to the historical Jesus, it leaves the reader wanting more out of it than what he provided. This book review functions with two parts. In the first part, I discuss how Crossan seems to provide a shallow investigation on women and what they meant to Jesus and his followers.

The foundation of the Christian faith is cradled within truth of the virgin birth, life, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As diverse as the world-wide Christian culture is, the truth in the birth and life of Jesus stands without border and language limitations. Just as each individual life story can be adapted to be relevant for a variety of audiences, the birth story of the Messiah was also. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are an example of the well-rounded and diverse narration of the birth story of Jesus—Matthew’s narration spoke to the history of the Jewish people and Luke presented to the citizen of Rome.

It is possible to write on the life of Jesus from the information gathered from the bible. I will be dividing my essay into three parts. In the first part of the paper, I will talk about the nature of the gospels, John’s views vs. the Synoptic, discuss if the authors of the gospels are eyewitnesses and how they used written sources. Also I will talk about the Q source. Then I will elaborate on the topic of how Matthew and Luke were similar. Then I will continue on by discussing how the Old Testament uses Moses, Samuel and Elijah to interpret Jesus, and finally whether or not the Sermon on the Mount happened. In the second part of my paper, I will talk about Jesus’s birth and childhood, his miracles, his resurrection, and what Jesus did to cure people, spirits and how they are interpreted to the prophet, magician and the mad man compared to Saul and Elijah. The final part of the paper I will talk about what Jesus talked about as regards to the Kingdom of God vs. the Kingdom of the Romans and what he intended by speaking of the end of the world. I will also speak of the reasons behind the Romans executing him. My sources for this paper will be the New Jerusalem Bible Readers edition as my primary source and lecture notes from Professor Trumbach.

These words are displaying Jesus as a marytor who is accepting his fate willingly. Luke s portrays Jesus as a scholar

The majority of the information that we have today, describing the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, is contained in the four Gospels.

In the first comparison that I will look review, the story of Jesus walking on water both in Matthew 14:22-33 and Mark 6:45-52. Starting with the verses in Mark, the story of Jesus walking on water, was rather anti-climactic (Martin, 2012). In both versions Jesus dismissed the disciples, to go to the other side of the sea, while he cleared the crowd out and then goes to the mountain to pray alone. The first difference between the two versions is that Mark has him standing on the shore looking out at the boat that was far out to sea. In Matthew’s version, there is no mention of Jesus watching the boat, just coming to it. The second difference is the type of trouble that the disciples are having. In Mark, there is a heavy wind that they are struggling to row against. In Matthew, there is a bit more danger, his is a heavy wind that is battering the boat while they are far from

The ministry of Jesus began when Jesus was 30 years old, after his baptism in the river Jordan. Within three and a half years of his ministry Jesus did more miracles than any man in the world could have accomplished. He preached about the ways of changing lives and often gave parables to educate people. Even though he was rejected Jesus continued to spread the gospel in different cities around Israel, including Capernaum and Bethsaida.

It can be argued that the similarities and differences of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke can cause the reader to either see both of these accounts to complement one another with their different perspectives or that they contradict one another by certain events being mentioned in one birth narrative but not the other. Different aspects of both of these birth narratives such as the way Matthew and Luke treat Mary, the extent to which they use the Old Testament and the audience to whom they are writing to reveals the authors’ agenda as they allow their culture and own personal beliefs to influence what they write. These factors could be argued to have an effect on the historical authenticity of these texts as it could be possible that they could have caused the authors to twist the truth to fit in with their own beliefs.