The Disciple Thomas

Jesus and the Disinherited begins the first chapter with the interpretation of Jesus. Dr. Thurman explained that Jesus was a poor Jew and was a minority in the midst of a dominate society. Dr. Thurman gives his analysis on the worldviews Jesus. People around the world have their own interpretation of Jesus; yet, people have an orthodox view of him being fully God and fully man. In chapter one, the author references the nonviolent resistance approach, which is a tactic Dr. Martin Luther King Jr used in the civil rights movements. He interprets Jesus as a black man who lived his life as an outsider in the world. Jesus was the disinherited and oppressed like African Americans.

But he ends up giving in and having faith in God. Peter, one of Jesus’s most devoted and faithful apostles, denied Jesus by responding “I do not know what you are talking about” when someone asked him if he was one of Christ’s followers (Ranieri, 149). Peter denies his association to Christ three times until he remembered the prophesy of the crow cawing three times, and then he had unquestionable faith in

We [the disciples] did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told [the people] about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (New International Version, 2 Peter

In chapter one, Thurman began by revealing that Jesus was a religious subject, not a religious object. Through this claim, it allows readers to see Jesus on a more personal level. Of course, we look up to God as an influential teacher, but we also are able to have a much more intimate relationship with him. In order to understand Jesus' teachings, we must also understand where he came from. This is expressed when Thurman states, "It is necessary to examine the religion of Jesus against the background of his own age and people, and to inquire into the content of his teaching with reference to the disinherited and the underprivileged" (5). Jesus lived his life as a typical Jew, but what made him so important was how he differed from his counterparts.

Water has always been a great issue for Dallas, considering the fact that the population has grown exponentially since the late 1850s, growing from merely 678 people in 1860 to well over one million in population currently. Furthermore, as population grew, Dallas also spatially grew due to their power to keep acquiring more land and water resources as demand for both increased. Although Dallas no longer uses groundwater due to inefficient supply, the city did rely on groundwater in the beginning of its history. In the late 1850s, Browder Springs was privately owned by the Browder family, providing clean water to those living near, however, when it became clear that the increasing population needed an organization to effectively

But what the followers of Jesus chose to do was shocking. Rather than isolate themselves, they went out and started giving proper burials to those who had died. They also began caring for the sick and allowing those who were dying to at least do so with dignity. These Jesus followers gave help not only to their own, but to their pagan contemporaries as well. Many considered them reckless for exposing themselves to the (at the time) unknown illness, and indeed, many of them did contract the sickness and died. Despite this, many people saw this indiscriminate compassion from the outside and became followers of Jesus themselves.

Jeffery L. Sheler says in the article, Who was Jesus, “Some followed him, believing he was God's anointed one, while others dismissed him as a pretender and a troublemaker”(6). This shows that some followed him trying to be a child of god just like Jesus but some people did not. Jesus was trying to make people believe in what he was preaching, but some people did not want to believe him. Evidence from Jeffery L. Sheler in the article, Who was Jesus says, “It was said that he was a healer and a gifted teacher who challenged conventional wisdom and spoke with authority and wit”(2). Jesus was trying to teach people about God to influence them to his beliefs. He challenged conventional wisdom to convince what he was saying was true. A quote by Robert M. Price in the article, Myth and Men: Are the religious founders unfounded? says, “Instead of hammering out laws he issues, teaching parables, and prophecies, which are later taken by legal force by his followers” (8). Jesus was a teacher more than he just made laws. Even though he did not give out laws and punishments, he still was a strict preacher. Although some people did not like what Jesus was teaching, he still kept on teaching because he knew that it meant a lot to

John nine verses one through seven is the being of the grace giving and truth telling of Jesus in this section. When Jesus spoke with the man that was blind I believe he ministered to him and gave him a brief explanation of who he was. The disciples asked him if this man sinned from birth or did his parents sin? Jesus used the truth telling when he answered the disciples by saying this man didn't sin at birth and neither has his parents sinned. It also gives truth-telling by letting the disciples know that it was to give God the glory. Now for the grace-giving part of Jesus, is him giving the Blind man back his sight. The reason why this was grace-giving was because this man had been blind his whole life, but when he came in contact with Jesus, he showed him grace by healing him.

The third criticism is about Thomas title as a slave master. Almost all slave masters’ commands are firm and direct, but for Thomas, he sometime lacks control of situations and even with his slaves including Douglass. Although Thomas can be vicious, he can also appears to be awkward and inconsistence with control that fails to control them.

Yet Jesus said “not to fear, but only to believe.” He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. This is the first time in the Jesus

To understand the way Jesus, the disciples, and most of the Jewish community lived, 7-2 B.C. to 30-33 A.D., one must look into further detail at the surrounding communities. One of the surrounding nations to the Jewish were the Samaritans - ‘…an offshoot the Jewish religion, from which they split over the question of the location of the temple as week as other matter; the descendants of settlers who were transplanted into palestine in 722 B.C. by the Assyrian king Sargon…’. It is possible to summarize their alienation and and their main differences saying that it was a process that began with the Kindgom of Israel being divided, and with promoted antagonism it continued through successive incidents, including the foreign tribes sent into Samaria by Assyria, rejection of this new Samaritan community by Jewish people, the building of a temple on Mount Gerazim instead of Jerusalem, the political and religious opportunism of the Samaritans, and the destruction of both the Samaritan temple and their capital of Shechem by John Hyrcanus during the 2nd century B.C. The Samaritan religion at the time of Jesus had become strongly anti-Jewish, but was also Mosaic and quasi-Sadducean. Jesus recognized their pagan origins and the falsity of their religious claims. To fully understand how this knowledge aids are interpretation of the people living in Jesus’ time and the Gospels, one must analyze the Samaritans origins, their beliefs and writings, and their relationship with the Jewish

•“I’ve come from above to rescue those below and call them to higher things, just as the One who sent me to you commanded me.” (Infancy Gospel of Thomas 8:2)

Thomas wrote The Imitation of Christ as a reference guide for monks on how to become Christ-like both in one’s life and in one’s spirit. The Imitation of Christ has been touted as the most inspiring work second only to the Bible, translated into more than 50 languages (the original language of the text was medieval Latin), and has been “deeply influential and highly revered for more than 500 years” (www.virtualsalt.com).

In Chapter 16, Jesus asked His disciples who people said He was, and who they, His disciples, think He was. This comes at a point of time where the disciples have been witness to the Pharisees and Sadducees wanting to test Jesus (Matt 16:1) and Jesus refusal to do so and when Jesus told them to beware of the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matt 16:12).

Each of the four Gospels contains points in ecclesiology. In the Great Commission, Jesus’ last instruction to the Apostles is to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching people (Matthew 28:19-20). For Jesus’ mission to continue and for his Church to grow, discipleship is necessary. Discipleship is a prominent theme in all four Gospels, for purposes of this essay, only the Gospels of John and Luke-Acts will be analyzed. The similarities regarding discipleship in these Gospels include images of the net and fishing, and the sheep/shepherd/sheepfold. The differences include the preparing of the Twelve to carry on Jesus' ministry in Luke, and service to the community and passing of authority in John's Gospel.