The Book Of Kells

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.

Let’s talk about the world about 2,000 years ago. It was a world where the mass of people were illiterate, taxes were extremely high, and the leaders would cheat and kill to feed their ever growing need for power. We all can relate to having a good storyteller in our lives, most were read to at night by their parents or are parents themselves that read to their children. What is the purpose of storytelling? It’s simple, comfort. A good story can ease your psychological unrest as well as offer a moral purpose. Sometimes you can even relate a story to your own life and offer an explanation to something you may be experiencing. This is exactly what the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were. They told their stories of Jesus to offer comfort to their people in a time when people could not pick up a story and read it themselves. It is part of human nature to have the desire for a good story. This paper will describe several events that were written by great storytellers in the bible.

The theories of the process and order of writing of the Gospels, the authors of the textbook conclude that “Q” is not a reliable source. The authors believe that relying on “Q” is dangerous; believing that the gospel that has not been found can be a reliable source for the description of Jesus.

The inscriptions of Bible verses in Low German in Christ Blessing, Surrounded by a Donor Family are also indicative of the influence on Protestant beliefs on the painting. Prior to the Reformation, the Bible (like all Catholic liturgy) was always read in Latin. However, Latin was a language that was only comprehensible to the clergy and to a small class of very well educated and wealthy individuals. The vast majority of Europeans did not comprehend Latin and, therefore, they had to rely on the clergy to interpret the Bible’s teachings. Moreover, prior to the invention of the printing press Bibles, like all other books, had to be copied by hand. Since this was a time consuming and expensive process, Bibles were not widely dispersed. At the start of the Reformation, Gutenberg designed the printing press. The revolutionary invention of the printing press enabled the mass production of books and a reduction in their cost, which allowed a much larger audience to own Bibles.5 Furthermore, the translation of the Bible into the vernacular allowed a much wider audience to read and interpret it for themselves.6 The wide dissemination of relatively inexpensive Bibles in the vernacular served as a powerful catalyst for the spread of Protestantism. The inscriptions on the painting are indicative of the Protestant desire to disseminate the Bible broadly. Moreover, they derive from a copy of Johannes Bugenhagen’s translation of the bible

Beginning with the conversion of the Irish Celts around the fifth century, Christianity began to spread across the British Isles. Around 630, an envoy of monks was sent from a monastery on the Scottish Isle of Iona to a small Northumbrian island (only about 4 square kilometers at high tide) situated in the North Sea of the Atlantic. An Irish monk, Saint Aidan, established a monastery on that small spit of land that would come to be called Lindisfarne, or simply Holy Island. Together with the monastery at Iona, Lindisfarne became an integral part of artistic creation in early medieval northern Europe (Kleiner 288), and from it’s workshop would emerge a new style of artwork that wove elements of pre-existing artistic styles of the British Isles, such as those of the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons, with unfamiliar Christian imagery imported from Near East to create the Hiberno-Saxon, or Insular style. This style would be employed by the monks at Lindisfarne to create one of the most splendid texts of early medieval Brittania, the eponymous Lindisfarne Gospels. A wondrous illuminated manuscript worthy of its acclaim, these Gospels are a quintessential example of Hiberno-Saxon style, and its pages and iconography we can glean a look at the historical context of the book, as well as the

Compare and contrast the St. Matthew page from the Gospel Book of Durrow with the St. Matthew page from the Coronation Gospels.  What does this comparison demonstrate about the cultural and artistic influences exchanged in Europe?  Do these images reveal ties to earlier cultures?  Provide both context and formal analysis in the course of your answer while considering the production techniques required to create illuminated manuscripts.

The Dunham Bible Museum possesses many unique and rare artifacts that are not only important to our nation’s history but also vital to the history of Christianity. One artifact that touched my heart the most and is the most exclusive item in the museum was the Francis Bailey New Testament, which is the only known complete copy of the earliest English Testament printed in the United States of America. Although this artifact may hold a huge amount of significance to historians, Americans, and most importantly Christians, many people are unaware of the facts and stories behind the book that I will explain through this paper such as the artifact as a physical object, its historical context, and why it should be kept in a museum.

Bartlett’s book revolves around William Cragh, who was hanged for his crimes in the late 1200s. Shortly after his hanging, Cragh came back to life and was proclaimed to be a miracle. The sources that Bartlett uses to construct his historical narrative are not records of the trial or the crime. But rather, Bartlett uses records from the canonization process of Thomas de Cantilupe. This is because the miracle of Cragh’s resurrection was done through the intervention of Thomas de Cantilupe. While the story of William Cragh is extremely interesting by itself,

Sacred texts which form the cornerstone of religion, instilling law, character and spirituality in its people are often depicted in contemporary expressions such as art, poetry and film. A prime example is the film The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which demonstrates Christian parallels with Luke’s gospel. The contemporary expression, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the Gospel of Luke share similar central messages of self-sacrifice, forgiveness and mercy whilst they have diverging genre and forms and textual purposes.

Christian art has never been decorative nor has it been publicized instead it was only represented throughout funerals and devotionals. The bible was a way of picturing the word and how reading it opened the word for the people. Christianity relied solely on imagination and contradicted what art work is considered today which now relies heavily on visual images. In the roman empire the people saw things through mosaics, wall paintings, portraits etc. That is how they pictured their art. They were trying to set up the way art work they believed should be viewed. They had decorations on various monuments, churches, tombs etc. which represented the pagan aspect. They wanted more visual art work whereas with Christianity they visualized through their own mind and instead lived by

This manuscript is believed to have been produced in the 8th century, and was a “sacred work of art” placed on the high altar during special ceremonies (Brown 7). It follows the traditional Gospel book arrangement, as each Gospel is introduced by symbols representing the four Evangelists, a portrait of the corresponding Evangelist, and a decorative opening page (Brown 83). Symbols play a vital role throughout the book – most prominently “the Man for Matthew, the Lion for Mark, the Calf for Luke and the Eagle for John” (Brown 84), all which are shown as winged creatures. Recognized in the Book of Ezekiel as the four beings that guard God’s throne, the four evangelists are typically depicted in this manner to convey the theme of their Gospels (Saunders). Matthew’s Gospel focuses on Christ’s birth, and hence his depiction as a man reminds us of Christ’s humanity (Saunders). Lions are often associated with royalty and courage, and therefore Mark’s lion appearance represents Christ as such (Saunders). Luke as the ox relates to his Gospel’s theme of sacrifice – suggesting the ceremonial sacrifice of oxen as well as Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to gain salvation (Saunders). Finally, John’s Gospel focuses on Christ’s death and resurrection, with the soaring eagle symbolizing Christ’s miraculous “rise” from the dead (Saunders). It is also notable that animals like fish, snakes, and birds appear recurrently to add life to the text (Brown 90). The book also features pages filled entirely with illustration to highlight important events such as Christ’s birth, crucifixion, temptation and resurrection (Brown 90). In fact, the Chi-Rho page in Matthew’s gospel is often referred to as the “single most famous page in medieval art” (The Book of Kells). Here, we see the Greek letters X and P intertwined to symbolize the

Macdonald, (2010) suggested that the bible is a cultural work of art because it is used in storytelling, preaching, drama and visual posters. The bible tells God’s story in how he created the world, the fall, redemption and the new creation. The bible has a sequence of events, songs, proverbs, prophetic books, writing of wisdom and letters. In the bible there is a comparison between connecting scripture and constructing culture. It is able to change one’s life and one’s culture because

The Lindisfarne gospel is an illuminated manuscript that contains the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, also containing a detailed depiction of each evangelist represented in artistic bright coloring. There are intertwining patterns that twist together forming a beautiful cross to represent the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, a prominent symbol in the Christian faith. It was made and kept at a monastery on Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island, a Christian community that safeguarded a shrine of the highly respected Bishop St. Cuthbert. The monks read the gospels during rituals and ceremonies that took place on the holy island to assist them in prayer. The monks who so carefully copied this book from Latin to their native language

Douglas, J. D., and N. Hillyer. The Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity, 1980. Print.

The word "gospel" is a translation of the Greek word "euangelion" which means "good news. The first three books in the New Testament (Mark, Matthew, and Luke) are often referred to as the Synoptic Gospels (from Greek synoptikos, "seen together") They bear greater similarity to each other than any of the other gospels in the New Testament. Along with these similarities come some differences among the gospels, suggesting that each gospel was written for a specific audience and for a specific purpose. This paper will examine the resurrection of Jesus, while identifying the significant differences between Mark, Matthew and Luke. This paper will also analyze the differences to suggest the prominent theological perspective each gospel author