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Distinguished the three synoptic Gospels
Distinguished the three synoptic Gospels
Similarities and differences between the gospels
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Why is it that Jesus is described in many different ways, in the books of the Bible? For example if the four canonical gospels are taken into consideration, it can be seen that Jesus is described and talked about differently in each one. If the other books of the Bible are also read, it can be seen that there is much difference in them also excluding the canonical gospels. I will be comparing the gospel of Mark and the book of Revelation, in how they portray Jesus. It seems that while one is focused more on miracles and Jesus’s human life, the Book of Revelation seems to be more focused on his divinity and his purpose.
The gospel of Mark is very focused on the life of Jesus; especially the years in which he was he was active in his discipleship. Mark was very focused on the deeds and the miracles that Jesus preformed during his lifetime, since he believed that they were what really showed who Jesus was. “Mark was concerned not with the character of Jesus as such, but with his status, with what his words and his deeds reveal about who he is” (Burkett p.15). It does not take long when reading the gospel of Mark to encounter the first miracle that Jesus does. Most of the Gospel itself is dedicated to the miracles that he performed.
In the gospel of Mark there is a great emphasis on the mysteriousness surrounding Jesus. Jesus according to Mark was very keen about keeping his identity a secret. There is a point in the gospel where Jesus cures a deaf man. The strange aspect of this is that he told the man to tell no one about what Jesus had done for him as it is stated in Mark 7. “Whoever reads the gospel is instantly struck by the aura of secrecy that surrounds the person and activity of the Markan Jesus: e.g., his puzzling ...
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...us actually holds. “John’s vision of the heavenly Christ which uses language that has elsewhere been shown to derive from the Jewish Anglophonic tradition (with the important qualification that Christ is portrayed as a divine being, not merely as an angel)” (Moyise p.44). Revelation portrays Christ as a divine being, especially when it talks about the second coming of Jesus.
The book of Revelations also states that the divinity of Jesus will be revealed to the point that everyone will know of his divine nature. “
Works Cited
Burkett, Delbert Royce. The Blackwell companion to Jesus. Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Print.
Labahn, Michael. Jesus, Mark, and Q the teaching of Jesus and its earliest records. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001. Print.
Moyise, Steve. Studies in the book of Revelation. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2001. Print.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the origin of nearly everything the Christian Church teaches about Jesus. The Gospels, in turn, serve as the scale or test of truth and authenticity of everything the church teaches about Jesus. It is said that the Gospels are the link between Jesus of Nazareth and the people of every age throughout history who have claimed to be his followers. Although the Gospels teach us about Jesus’ life they may not provide concrete evidence that what they speak of is true there are several other sources.
A majority of Mark deals with Christ’s travels throughout the area around the Sea of Galilee and the various miracles he performed during that time. Most of these involved healing those with leprosy or other plagues, exorcising demons, or curing the blind/deaf/dumb. The stories of Christ feeding thousands with but a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish are also told, as is the story of Jesus walking on water. All of the miracles are described well, without getting too wordy. The style of writing also makes them believable.
Stanton, Graham. Gospel Truth?: New Light on Jesus and the Gospels. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995. Paperback.
The Gospel of Matthew is an eyewitness story written for an audience of believers, under great stress, and persecution. Matthew develops a theological plot incorporating genealogy, speeches, parables, inter and intra textual references, common vocabulary, and fulfillment quotations, with a tension that builds as we are invited into the story. The crucifixion and resurrection bring us to a Christological climax that symbolically points beyond its conclusion to God’s Kingdom, bringing atonement, salvation and the ushering in the Eschaton. The extraordinary events surrounding the crucifixion act as commentary, adding important details concerning the death of Jesus.1
In the beginning of Mark, the author does not include Jesus’ genealogy or his birth story like Matthew and Luke do. Instead, the gospel begins with John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. Interestingly, unlike Matthew and Luke, Mark’s author also does not mention or allude to Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph. An example of the intentional omission of Joseph is when Jesus is rejected at Nazareth. In Matthew, Joseph is alluded to when people ask, “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” (English Standard Version, Matt. 13.55a). In contrast, in Mark people ask, “Is not this the carpenter…”(Mark 6.3a). When compared with Matthew, it’s
Mark’s portrait of Jesus as a servant originates from the middle of the first century, Mark wrote his gospel during this time of persecution because the people being oppressed lacked faith that God would provide for them. Mark gives them the model of Jesus as a man submissive to the Lord so that they can receive salvation if they remain faithful to the servant of God. Mark stresses that Jesus is a suffering Messiah with the passage concerning Jesus praying to God that “Abba(Father), all things are po...
Finally, revelation means revealing. It refers to the initiative of God in communicating with humans. Truth, scripture and revelation are all related because they are all forms of communication that allow us to know God’s message. They allow us to see stories and events of how people lived with God in history and set an example of how we should co-exist with God in our world today. The Hebrew scriptures play a vital role in the revelation of God.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Beale, G.K. The Book of Revelation. The New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999.
For example, John begins by introducing Jesus as the Word made flesh, who existed in heaven beside God until coming down to earth (John 1:1,14), immediately making this gospel stand aside from the synoptic gospels, which portray Jesus as a human figure who begins his life the moment he is born. The absence of the nativity scene in John supports the claim of Jesus being the divine Son of God who was sent down from heaven and transformed into the Word incarnate. Birth wouldn’t be important to someone who had previously existed (Harris, 253). The Gospel of Matthew does in fact include the nativity scene, because according to Matthew this is the very beginning of Jesus’ existence. Before the birth, Matthew maps out the genealogy of Jesus, all to support the claim that, “Jesus the Messiah, son of David, the son of Abraham,” (Matt. 1:1) is heir to the Davidic throne, and in fact the Jewish Messiah, King of the Jews. Right off the bat it is evident that John disregards the birth scene because it really isn’t relative to the divine being, and Matthew accentuates Jesus’ lineage, which would make Jesus appear to the audience very human, and rightful to the throne, something many Jews disagreed with during that time. Matthew does, however, also refer to Jesus as the Son of God multiple times similar to John. It is still true that John uses that title to express Jesus as being, “a father’s
A curious thing that Mark never mentions throughout the entirety of the gospel is Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father. The beginning of Mark continuously reiterates that Jesus is the Son of God, the gospel’s first verse is a clear example, “the beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.” Again towards the end of the gospel in verse 15:39 Jesus is clearly declared as the Son of God, “and when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, ‘Surely this man was the Son of God!’” The beginning of Mark does not have a nativity story and the end does not continue to the resurrection story, so in beginning and ending the gospels with the proclaiming of Jesus as the Son of God the author is saying that Jesus was the promised savior and he was perfect rather than being seen as a simply son of a
As defined by Migliore, Revelation means an “unveiling,” uncovering,” or “disclosure” of something previously hidden. Today, Community of Christ affirms the Living God is ever self-revealing to the world through the testimony of Israel and Jesus Christ. Revelation provides important decisions about who God is and how we are to understand the world and ourselves. In seeking to understand, as a member of Community of Christ, we must explore the historical and contextual response of the leaderships to revelation within the setting of the Restoration and the Reorganization era.
Mark was Peter's son (I Peter 5:13, possibly spiritual son), who wrote down what Peter said about who Jesus was, what He did, where He went and what happened; Mark's gospel is therefore Peter's account, an eye-witness account, written down by Mark.
Since Special Revelation is brought about by supernatural or miraculous events and is only revealed to the people God directs it to, this quote demonstrates Special Revelation in the Bible.
“Revelation” is from the Greek word apokalupsis which means, “A disclosure, an unveiling.” The book of Revelation is an unveiling of the Character and program of God.
In chapter 1: Divine Revelation Itself, it is discussed how God wants us to understand and know the love he has for us. Revelation does not only consist of words about God: but it also contains the living experience of God. God shows us how to live as he would want us to not just by telling us but also God reveals himself. When coming to grips with that God is truly like, we come to understand the reasoning for our existence. As we all now he died in order to save us, he also makes us aware of our connection to God. Jesus is known as a message and the messenger of God. Jesus tells us that God promises us that salvation will ultimately lead to eternal closeness. God sent his son so that he could educate us about the inner life of God and