Jose Saramago, in his novel, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, is purposely misrepresenting the story of Jesus Christ, to teach us about the violence and danger inherent in religion. His message that religion is inherently a force for evil, is discerned through careful analysis in one of the last scenes of the novel.
The scene begins when Jesus meets God face to face for the first time in the novel. He finds God to be “a big man, elderly, a great flowing beard over His chest, head uncovered, hair hanging loose, [with] a broad and powerful face”.(Saramago, 609 iBooks) The astonishing part about this scene is that God and Satan look identical apart from the beard. This suggests that the distinction between God (religion) as a force for good and the Devil ( a force for evil) is negligible.
Then, Jesus receives prophecy about the coming of Christianity. With that prophecy comes the history of death and destruction that accompanied it. He saw the coming of the crusades, the “necessary evil’ of the inquisition, and the endless bloodshed. (Saramago, 656) In vivid imagery God describes to him the bloodshed that is to come in particular “corpses will blot out the sun, human flesh will sizzle over live coals, the stench will be nauseating.” (Saramago, 658) Jesus astonished and somber responds, “And all this is my fault.” God replies “You are not to blame, your cause demands it”. (Saramago, 658)
Jesus upon hearing this prophecy, comes to the understanding that inherent in religion
Many people do not know that loving your enemy is the heart of the gospel. Although loving and praying for your enemy may seem impossible at times, it is written in the gospel of Matthew that loving your enemy is loving God. In Matthew 5:43, Jesus teaches about loving your enemy, praying for your enemy, and shows examples of loving your enemy.
The Gospels are narratives about the life and time of Jesus. They describe not only Jesus' life but also what was taking place at that time. This helps to give us a better perception of why some things happened the way they did and what it was possibly like for Jesus. We are able to better understand some of the social and political aspects of life during Jesus' time period, which can help us to overall understand the meaning behind the Gospels better. (Bible Dictionary)
The novel “Under the Feet of Jesus” is written by Helena Maria Viramontes. The excerpt that was read mainly focus on the protagonist Estrella. When analyzing the excerpt, some of the information that the reader received was that Estrella loathe not knowing things and she continued to ask about the chest that everyone was harvesting for and no one ever answered her. Also that Estrella is in school and some of the teachers had a problem with her hygiene. The author used literacy devices so the novel could be understood better. The three literacy devices that were used were selection of details, figurative language, and tone.
The Gospel of John, the last of the four gospels in the Bible, is a radical departure from the simple style of the synoptic gospels. It is the only one that does not use parables as a way of showing how Jesus taught, and is the only account of several events, including the raising of Lazarus and Jesus turning water into wine. While essentially the gospel is written anonymously, many scholars believe that it was written by the apostle John sometime between the years 85 and 95 CE in Ephesus. The basic story is that of a testimonial of one of the Apostles and his version of Jesus' ministry. It begins by telling of the divine origins of the birth of Jesus, then goes on to prove that He is the Son of
“The Gospel According to Larry” was published by Janet Tashjian. “Larry” thinks he can change the world at just seventeen-years-old by starting a fan club talking about his sermons. Sermon number ninety seven is the one I relate to the best. Josh, also known as Larry, gives his own opinion about the sermons he writes himself. In sermon ninety seven, Larry is asking the fan club if the people who they are around every day, are they worth keep forever? Are they going to be there when you are in the toughest times? You want the friends that can listen to you talk and give you advice, not sit there and just listen.
The Synoptic Gospels are composed of the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. These three gospels covered many of the same stories; yet, they disagree with each other on various details within certain stories. Also, numerous events that are in Mark, is not in Matthew or Luke and vice versa. Many historians have concluded that Mark was the first of the three gospels written and that Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source to their own gospels. The Synoptic Gospels were first written in Greek, which would suggest to some ambiguity within Mark, Matthew, and Luke due to certain perceptions and translations within the Greek language. One ambiguity that is shown within the Synoptic Gospels dealt with Jesus’s view on marriage and divorce. Using
Who is this man Jesus? Where was he from? What did he do for others and us? A great source of reference to answer this question would be someone who had direct contact with him in everyday life. Someone who saw the daily wonders he created would be the best source for information. Matthew, the apostle, is believed to have written the gospel of Matthew. He was able to experience firsthand all of the amazing miracles that Jesus performed. God inspired his words, and his gospel relates to the other three gospels in overall context. They were written in different formats and styles, but the overall message and story remains constant throughout all four gospels. This creates a strong
Summary: In the story The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight, the author Scot McKnight took us as the readers step by step through his very own theological beliefs. Mr. McKnight focus through this reading was the questioning of what is the gospel and what are the major differences between Gospel culture and Salvation culture. Within this reading Scot McKnight’s thinking will have all that Christians rethinking what Christianity really is. This reading speaks on how we as people compare the word gospel with the word salvation but, both are two different terms that are expressed differently, and Scot McKnight goes through and explains why both are different. I believe this is a very controversial book because not all will agree with the author. One of the authors biggest arguments was that when many answer the question, “what the gospel is” they typically aren’t answering the question of what is the gospel but are more like presenting the plan of salvation. The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight is a reading that will have you refocusing your mindset when it comes to Christianity. This book speaks on how we as people sometimes forget that life, death, and resurrection, and the assignation of Jesus Christ will always outweigh our personal salvation. This book covers how we as the Christian community have taken the gospel and made it into a plan of salvation as well as a method of persuasion but doing so with understanding a small portion of the gospel but not the full portion
The new testament contains four (4) accounts of the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as presented by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The 3 accounts are similar, while Johns bible presents Jesus in a unique way. These differences exist because Matthew and Luke got their information from Mark and John got his information from another source, maybe John did not have access to the other gospels or he chose not to use them. No one really knows the source of John’s gospel and we don’t know for sure who wrote the gospels. Scholars refer to the authors as Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, this may not even be their real names. The Gospel were not first hand accounts except for Mark. John did not seem to have known the existence of the other
Jesus Christ, God incarnate came to earth to save everyone from eternal damnation in hell. As humans, with Adam and Eve as our representatives in the Garden of Eden, they broke God’s one commandment, therefore allowing sin to come into the world. Because of this fall, we all deserve damnation, and because of the sin nature inside of us, everyone deserves to die and be eternally punished. However, because of the loving and gracious nature of God, He sent his only son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross to be our representative for sin. When he took the cross, not only did he bear the physical pain of the lashes, the dehydration, and the cross itself, but he also drank God’s cup of wrath for us. Everyone on earth deserves to be on that cross, but Jesus, through his great love for us, paid the ultimate price of his own life to save us.
Matthew Distefano’s From the Blood of Abel is a provocative examination of the problem of human violence through the lenses of mimetic theory and Christian theology. Distefano marshals theology, sociology, psychology, anthropology, philosophy and history to lead readers through humanity’s horrifically violent past and present, and challenges us to look more closely at the ultimate hope Christianity can provide. Distilling insights from René Girard, Ernest Becker and Michael Hardin, Distefano offers a vibrant and astute assessment of humanity’s seemingly implacable violent tendencies and skillfully shows how the Bible effectively—and often surprisingly—addresses our most fundamental problem.
This research assignment aims to analyse and interpret an influential part of the New Testament – Mark’s Gospel. An analysis of Mark and his community will be discussed as well as interpreting Jesus’ teachings and his significant theme of Discipleship as it was then and in present society.
The Gospel According to Matthew is the first book of the New Testament in the Bible, and is a Gospel narrative. The narratives provided by the Gospels in the New Testament are here to provide us with descriptions of the life, death, and resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ, as well as to share His teachings. Like any other narrative, it is important to understand the historical and literary contexts surrounding the Gospel of Matthew, as well as the importance and significance of Matthew itself. As a Gospel, Matthew is here to present us with the narrative of Jesus Christ as our Messiah, as promised in the Old Testament Prophesy. While it is important to evaluate the extensive context surrounding the narrative of Matthew, the meaning behind the narrative can be found through relating it to the various events that are described in the other Gospels. By comparing the Gospels, it is easy to evaluate the underlying meaning and significance, within the context of the Gospels. Because the Gospels were written as narratives to provide us with information on the life and death of Jesus Christ, and all that happened in between, it is important to compare the different accounts described in the Gospels whenever possible. In doing so, it is possible to examine the Gospels within the appropriate context. With 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), it is important to compare them with one another in order to further evaluate the importance of Jesus Christ, as he is the
This is a summary of a No Travel Seminar on a Study of the Gospel of Matthew. The seminar was lead by Dr. John Dunaway who is a professor at NTS and has served as a pastor for over 50 years. After his brief self-introduction, he began his presentation with an overview of the Gospel of Matthew, followed by a more elaborated narrative summarizing the gospel, and he finished with brief closing remarks. Throughout this enthusiastic presentation, Dr. Dunaway made reference to remarks by multiple prominent commentators, which added substance to his narrative, even though none were explicitly stated upfront.
Religion was a controversial topic during the era Jesus had came down from heaven and proclaimed that he was the messiah and king of the people, who wanted to teach his people the way to salvation. Jesus’s teachings were transcribed into 4 different gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, in the bible that was the basis for answering the question, “Who is Jesus?” all underlining major themes the believers were to intertwine into their daily lives to not only bring peace to oneself but to neighbors around them. When looking at sections within the gospels such as walking on water and feeding the multitudes of followers, the reader can see the theme depth of who Jesus was. Starting with the gospel of Matthew, the theme that was emphasized was to prove that Jesus was the messiah or the anointed one, meaning savior or leader. Within Matthew 14:13 the reader can view how Jesus carried out the role of being a savior by saving the followers that were in dire need of his grace, “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed the sick.” And in 14:30 when his disciples more specifically Peter asked to come onto the water only to be saved by Jesus himself, “…Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me! Immediately Jesus reached and caught him.”