Study Questions on Introduction to the New Testament Essay Example

Study Questions on Introduction to the New Testament Essay The Jewish man who was born in the province of Galilee, who was the son of Joseph and Mary, who had several brothers and sisters, and who was some rot of carpenter of builder. The New Testament focuses mainly on the last years Of Jesus life, and presents him as a Jewish peasant who assumes the roles of rabbi and prophet on behalf of other Jewish peasants in Galilee during the rule of Hero Antipasti; the most prominent phase of his ministry (Powell, 2009). What the earthly Jesus means to me is the idea or the encompassing of everything that it means to be human or earthly. In other words, it is to recognize that Jesus was an actually person who, like you and I, did many regular earthly things. The exalted Jesus, on the other hand, is the dead that Jesus is active in human lives even though he is not physically alive. Mark Powell explains that when a believer has found Christ it means that who is part of the corporate entity that now makes up Christi body on earth (Powell, 2009), and is in reference to the exalted Jesus. We will write a custom essay sample on Study Questions on Introduction to the New Testament specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Study Questions on Introduction to the New Testament specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Study Questions on Introduction to the New Testament specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The exalted Jesus can be identified as the bridegroom of the church or as a great high priest who serves God in a heavenly sanctuary, who communicates with people through visions and prophecies, who answers prayers and also offers prayers for his followers (Powell, 2009). The exalted Jesus is also expected to return to earth t the end of time to preside at the final judgment. The way these two are tied together is how they are viewed in the writings and Jesus as living entity, in the past and how he is living in the daily lives of Christians in the present. Historians are interested in studying all forms of Jesus, but they need to sufficient evidence to back up their findings, hence the study of historical Jesus. They use the New Testament as a primary sources to be analyses in order to extract information pertinent to a credible reconstruction of who Jesus was and what happened in the world because of him (Powell, 2009). Historians seek the historical Jesus, that is, the person who emerges from an analysis of sources in accord with generally accepted principles of historical science (Powell, 2009). Historical science is skeptical by nature, thus, from a historians point of view, the New Testament can be classified as religious propaganda. However, they strive to keep the distance between historical facts and religious assertions. 2. How is a Gospel different from a biography? What is the purpose of an ancient biography, and how do these differ from contemporary biographies? A modern biography is a detailed description of a arsons life and entails more basic information like education, work, relationships and death. A modern biography also portrays the persons life story and includes the highlights and intimate details of his or her experiences. However, during the time that the Gospels were written they can closely be classified as ancient biographies. The word gospel was first used to describe not a type of book but the content of Christian preaching and are only a short step removed from preaching (Powell, 2009). Gospels may be identified as biographies but unlike modern biographies there iterative makes no offering of objective or balanced perspectives on Jesus life, in other words, they offer little to no insight into Jesus personality, motivations, his childhood or his physical appearance. Also the gospels included genealogies, miracle stories, speeches, and pronouncement stories. The purpose of ancient biographies was to relate accounts that portrayed the essential character of the person who was the subject of the work, (Powell, 2009) in this case, Jesus. Nonetheless, the biographies were to define that persons character in a manner that would invite emulation. Lastly, events thin the Gospels Were not always reported in chronological order, instead, they were recounted In a sequence likely to have a particular rhetorical effect on the reader. As stated above, modern biographies are based on the facts of that persons lifer and (normally) set into chronological order so the reader can understand the events as they occur and what led to that particular event. In modern non-fiction biographies you must be able to back up the events with facts. However, ancient biographies were written in a supernatural sense. They were intended to report the extraordinary lives of people with the intention of inspiring the reader to change their lives. The authors of the Gospels tell the story of Jesus in a way that may motivate people to accept his teaching or practice his way of life (Powell, 2009). 3. What are two specific things you learned about Jesus that you did not know before? I must admit I know little about Jesus, excluding the general things most non- Christians know, for instance, he turned water into wine, he walked on water, and he died for humanities sins. Nevertheless the stories have learned about Jesus are extremely fascinating and very enjoyable to read about. The two specific things learned about Jesus were more specific examples of his miracles, such as how he heals ten lepers (Luke 1 7: 11-19) and how he cures a boy who is possessed (Matthew 17: 14-8). On his way to Jerusalem Jesus entered a village where he was approached, at a distance, by ten lepers. The lepers cried out for his help, Jesus tell the lepers to go show yourselves to the priest, and as they went they were made clean. However, what I found most interesting about this story is that only one of the lepers comes back to thank him and he happened to be a foreigner. Jesus did ask why the others id not come back and praise God, but he sends the foreigner on his way and tells him get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well. Find this story very fascinating because it reminds me of doctors today. A doctor can give a man who is suffering from severe kidney damage due to heavy drinking and statistically the man will continue drinking once he is well. In this story all ten lepers had faith but once they were healed they continued doing whatever else they were doing instead of embracing God and the miracle that was just preformed upon them. The second miracle is wh en Jesus is in a crowd of people and a man comes to ask for help curing his son of epilepsy. The father had previously tried to get a cure for him through Jesus disciples but had no luck. However, Jesus was able to cure him instantly. When the disciples asked Jesus why they were unable to cure the boy he replies because of your little faith. This story especially fascinates me because when I read the title I was expecting a boy to be possessed by a demon, such as a demon from hell, however, it was referring to epilepsy, which we now know is a brain disorder in which nerve activity in the brain is disrupted, causing seizures. Currently there is no medical treatment for epilepsy, nevertheless, the story shows how anything that is not construed as normal back in these times may have been considered demon possessions. 4. How does Luke analyses and present social class, poverty, and riches in his Gospel? How is Lakes view of poverty and riches similar or different from your own contemporary view of class and money? How might Luke look at our society today compared with his idealized view of class and financial status? Specifically, who are the poor, marginalia, or disadvantaged in Lakes Gospel? During this time over 90% of the population was considered or. Unable to feed themselves and their families, poor. So it is to be expected that the poor was an overwhelming percentage of Jesus followers. This had to have a direct impact on him. They would travel from town to town seeing poverty, injustice and sickness to his people, while the rich ruled the communities and ate banquets of food. Lakes gospel specifically shows concern for the poor and oppressed. While Lakes concern is for the poor, he is not necessarily speaking about those who are economically deprived. Luke also explains that the normalization of poor people can mean people f all economic situations who might be lacking honor, symbolically poor, or just generally disadvantaged. To Luke, the poor and oppressed are one in the same, for in this Gospel poverty is viewed as a consequence of injustice: the poor have too little because others have too much (Powell, 2009). Which shows in Lakes concern for the poor and resentment towards the rich. My view on current poverty is similar in many ways to Lakes view and it also differs in many ways. For instance, I am a true believer of not having things handed to you and working hard to acquire the things you want in life. This fifers from Luaus perspectives because in his eyes most are poor because of someone else, not because of their selves. However, the social structure is so extremely different it is hard to compare the two. There is unlimited amount of resources in America to help you better your economic situation, such as school grants, government funded day-care vouchers so parents can work and pay for day care, help with finding jobs, assistance paying your bills, and the list can go on. In these ancient times, you were most definitely subjected to the family and town you were born in and the idea of bettering your tuition was far and few between. I believe Luke would most definitely approve of our current social standings. There will inevitable be rich and poor people, but because of national closeness with each other we have been able to close the gaps between the classes and provide opportunity to those looking to better their situation, which would undoubtedly please Luke. 5. Powell opens the chapter on John with a few quotes from important readers of this Gospel living in the second to the sixteenth centuries. Many of them refer to John as a spiritual Gospel. What does this mean? What evidence for spiritual understanding of Jesus and community do you see in the Gospel itself? Are there also passages that portray a material portrait of Jesus or material concerns of the author and first-century community (e. G. , dealing with concrete, physical, and bodily realities)? How might these two aspects of the Gospel fit together in early Christian understanding of Jesus? When many scholars refer to John as a spiritual Gospel it is referring to the abundant amount of symbolism he includes in his Gospel. The previous Gospels focus on the facts of Jesus life, however John does discuss these things but his Gospel has a distinctive style that shows it to be the result of overwhelming theological contemplation. In this Gospel the symbols of spiritual realities are clearly present. For instance, ordinary items become symbols of spiritual truths, a loaf of bread bread of life becomes the symbol of the spiritual food given by God, and water becomes the spirit given to Jesus. Such as in John 6: 35, Jesus says to them, l am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John does discus Jesus earthly manor, for instance, Johns Gospel is congruent with hat of all the essential points in other Gospels, such as, Jesus in the Messiah and son of God his life and teachings reveal Gods character and will for humanity (Powell, 2009).