...Problem The Gospels according to Matthew, Mark and Luke are so similar to each other that, in a sense, they view Jesus "with the same eye", in contrast to the very different picture of Jesus presented in the Fourth Gospel of John. Yet there are also many significant differences among the three Synoptic Gospels. The Synoptic Problem, in the normal sense is not really a problem, it refer to questions and possible explanation on the relationships between Matthew, Mark and Luke. The similarities between these three writers are so numerous and close, in the order of the materials they presented, the stories told, the sayings of Jesus, even using the exact wording of long stretches of text, that it is not sufficient to explain these similarities on the basis of oral traditions alone. There must be some literary dependence of one or more gospels upon another, meaning that someone copied from another person. Common material presented is not always in the same order, in the three gospels; and thus leaving the question of who wrote first and who copied from whom? There are three theories which have tried to explain the literary relationships between the synoptic gospels. These theories will be briefly looked at. The first theory held that the apostles had written down brief memorabilia which were later collected and arranged according to their particular type of genre. The problem with this view is that it fails to explain the overall arrangement of the synoptic gospels. [Schleiermacher...
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...1. The Gospels are called synoptic gospels because they all have something in common. Although I will compare and contrast John and Luke. The first event mentioned in Luke is Jesus’ birth while in John it is the creation of the world. Statements of Jesus being born of a virgin are mentioned in Luke but in John it seems to be denying the virgin birth. From His birth he is known as the Son of God in Luke. In John He is known as Son of God from the creation of earth. Jesus’ baptism is described in Luke and in John it is not mentioned. In Luke a main function was exorcism in his ministry with many exorcisms performed though in John there is none performed. The themes of Jesus’ teaching is the Kingdom of God while in John it is Jesus himself with the Kingdom of God as a background. Jesus’ main focus of ministry in Luke is his involvement with the poor and the suffering and this is barely mentioned in John along with many references to scribes that are confused by Jesus’ teachings but in John there are no scribes mentioned. Jesus is mentioned of having performed miracles, natural miracles, healings, and exorcisms but in John there is hardly any exorcisms, healings, with all of them being natural healings. Luke says that Jesus’ ministry lasted one year and was mainly in Galilee while John says his ministry was three years and was mainly in Judea. In Luke it speaks of the Last Supper being on Passover Eve and that the ceremonial event was the meal. It also says that Simon was the one...
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...Topic: Compare and contrast the customs and laws of TWO world religions on ONE of the following topics: A sacred text is used by a religion to understand their worldview and their religion better. A sacred text is what a religion believes is holy and authoritative. Religious texts help its followers to worship and pray. Both Christianity and Judaism are monotheistic and as such there are similarities but also differences within each religion. The sacred text for Judaism is the Tanach while Christianity has the Bible. The essay will explore the structure of each sacred text, what type of literature is in each canon, authorship of the text and how it is used in practice. Structure of each canon Christians believe the Bible is their sacred text. The Bible is a library of 66 books and is made of two parts, Old Testament (39 books) and New Testament (27 books). The Old Testament...
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...Compare and Contrast of Jesus’ three agonizing prayer in Gethsemane: Matthew 26:30, 36-46, Mark 14:26, 32-42, Luke 22:39-46, John 18:1. There were many differences in the way each author reported on this prayer. It was important because Jesus was praying right before He was betrayed by Judas and subsequently arrested. The only thing that all four gospels report the same was that Jesus went to Mount Olive, a usual place for Him, and prayed. Matthew, Mark, and Luke describe Jesus as being troubled and deeply saddened before He prayed. They all say that Jesus took men with Him to the garden. Matthew and Mark give names or description of the men that were with Jesus while Luke just says His disciples were with Him. Matthew calls the two men “sons of Zebedee” and Mark says they were “James and John.” He asked them to stand watch while He prayed a few feet away. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all report that His prayer was that God take away the “cup” that had been handed to Him but that Jesus was willing to submit to God’s will willingly. Jesus said this prayer three times according to Matthew and Mark. Luke adds that Jesus started His prayer by acknowledging that all things are possible with God. This book also says that an angel appeared after the first prayer to strengthen Jesus. He then prayed more earnestly, to the point that He was sweating and it was “like drops of blood hitting the ground.” Matthew and Mark also say that He found Peter, James, and John sleeping...
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...involved in interpreting a passage from the New Testament? The process of reading a passage is more than just simply opening the Bible, this is history this is our guide for life. It helps us to live our lives in the way God would want us too. I believe the knowledge of the historical and cultural background of the Greco Roman world influenced the interpretation of the New Testament because of the history context, the way they lived and the heinous and pleasant things they did I think all things in that frame played a part in the interpretation of the New Testament. I believe a measure of trust faith and belief is involved when interpreting a passage. Week Two The four Gospels give us four unique portraits of Jesus. Does this diverse witness to Jesus enrich our understanding of Jesus or do the four Gospels cause confusion? What aspect of Jesus’ life has been your biggest surprise in your readings in this course? In a way it does cause confusion but with them telling everything that happened back then it guides you to better understand everything that took place. Fir me the biggest surprise is still when they crucify him even though I know it happened it bring tears to my eyes every time of how they scourged and mocked him and then places the crown of thorns on his head. I would say another one being the temptations that was experienced in the wilderness....
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...There has been no greater influence and impact on mankind than in the lives and teachings of Jesus and Muhammad. These two significant leaders were instrumental in establishing the foundations and belief system of two powerful religions, Christianity and Islam, which continue to this day. Christians comprise of 2.1 billion people and Islam has 1.5 billion followers and are the top two religions in the world, about half of the population. (www.adherents.com) Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. (Fisher, 2008, p.419) In looking to compare these two powerful men and the religions they helped form one can see some similarities as well as some major differences. When we look at Muhammad’s upbringing we see a boy born in 570AD, orphaned at six years old, and raised by his uncle in poverty who put him to work as a merchant in the caravan trade. As a teen Muhammad, on a trip with his uncle, was identified by a Christian monk to have certain markings on his body indicating he was a prophet. Muhammad went on in his younger years to marry a wealthy woman fifteen years his senior and they had a daughter, Fatima. (Fisher, 2008) Mohammad made many spiritual retreats and it was on one that through God the angel Gabriel came to him and had him recite what would become the first words of the Qur’an. (Fisher, 2008) The core of the message he recited was that there is no God but Allah. This was the only reported miracle that happened to Muhammad. After receiving the revelations...
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...The Power of Prayer How Must We Pray So God Will Answer? Does God really answer prayer? If so, why are prayers sometimes not answered? What should we pray about: praise, thanks, petition, worship, requests, intercession for others? When and how often should we pray? What conditions must we meet for our prayers to be heard and answered? What power does prayer have? Click here to listen to this material as a free MP3 audio Bible study message. Introduction: In Luke 11:1 Jesus' disciples asked, "Lord, teach us to pray." Christians today also need to learn to pray. The purpose of this study is to help Christians improve in prayer. People who are new in the faith may have never studied about how to pray. Some members do not pray properly so their prayers are not even answered. All of us can improve in this aspect of worship. We need to learn what to pray about. Should we make requests, be thankful, offer praise, intercede on behalf of others, offer petition? And what power does prayer have? Does God really answer prayer? If so, how should we pray and what conditions must prayer meet in order for God to hear and answer? These and other questions will be considered in this study. What is prayer? Note Acts 4:24,31. Prayer is simply man talking to God, expressing his thoughts to God (Rom. 10:1; Matt. 6:9ff). Hence, it is a form of communication similar in may ways to simply talking to our earthly father, except that we must remember whom we are addressing and must meet conditions...
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...APOCALYPSE (MARK 13 PAR): A DOCUMENT FROM THE TIME OF BAR KOCHBA Hermann Detering* he thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark belongs to those texts of the New Testament which have been examined particularly often in recent times. Despite many differences in detail, a certain consensus is apparent between exegeses in so far as they all assume that the text in question, the so-called “Synoptic Apocalypse” (hereafter abbreviated as the SynApoc), arose either in the first or the second half of the first century. This investigation, however, will show that there are a number of factors which exclude such a dating and that numerous of clues indicate rather an origin in the time of the Bar Kochba uprising (132-135 CE). To be sure, the possibility of assigning such a date, which diverges considerably from what is usually taken for granted, does not even occure to most scholars, since the conclusion of their investigation is clearly determined by a prior methodological assumption: since the common assumption is that both Mark and Matthew were written in the second half of the first century, the SynApoc must also belong to this period or even precede it. In my opinion, however, for various reasons, it is highly questionable whether the customary and generally accepted dating of Mark's gospel around 70 CE is correct. Whoever concerns himself with the question of when the Synoptic Gospels arose quickly notices that he has hit upon a genuine weak point in the scholarly study of the New Testament...
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...communities cope with racial discrimination. Caught between the contradicting preachings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, a peculiar young theology student from Union Theological Seminary of New York City, James H. Cone, published his proposal for a Black Theology of Liberation titled Black Theology and Black Power (1969). This first scholarly work served as an introduction to his following work A Black Theology of Liberation (1970), which earned him the title of the founder or chief architect of Black Theology of Liberation in America. Cone, who was born and raised in the segregated South of the United States, not only developed this avenue through which the African-American community could assimilate their experiences with the gospel of...
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...SCHOOL OF DIVINITY A RESEARCH ON REVELATION 3:1-6 A RESEARCH PAPER SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE REQUIREMENT IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS IN DIVNITY BY STEPHEN GEDDAM LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA October 22, 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS: INTRODUCTION 1 CONTEXT 1 HISTORICAL CONTEXT 2 LITERARY CONTEXT 3 ANALYSIS OF TEXT 4 APPLICATION 13 CONCLUSION 17 BIBLIOGRAPHY 20 INTRODUCTION Often we see in many churches that, they appear to be very much alive and spiritually in active in the way they act in those churches. But in reality they are spiritually dead by the circumstance when we get to know more about those churches. This is the same situation that we see with the church in Sardis. Sardis was a wealthy city full of gold taken from the nearby Pactolus River. The city was located on a high hill at the intersection of the five roads. Like the other cities addressed in revelation 2-3, the church of Sardis was probably founded through Paul’s ministry in Ephesus.Revelation 3:1-6 deals with the writings to the angel of the church in Sardis. Well we can see how amazing the writings to the letters of John are for the churches today and for the past 20 centuries and it seems like the problem still exists even now. To welcome at an understanding of this passage briefly, this paper will offer an exegetical...
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...Two very important religious men in history were Jesus Christ and the prophet Muhammed Al Amin. Both men have qualities and history to compare and contrast throughout their lives connected with their respective religions and followers. The lives of these two men took place at different times in history yet the impact they had in history is monumental. The comparisons between the two are few in relation to the men themselves but the similarities in their beliefs are closer than might appear. Jesus' life is recalled in the New Testament. According to Gospels, his mother Mary was visited by an angel announcing that Mary will give birth to the Son of God. Jesus was born in 4 CE at Galilee. His mother Mary is said to have been "A virgin when she conceived him by the Holy Spirit; her husband was Joseph, a carpenter from Bethlehem" (Fisher, 2005, p. 288). Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph by immaculate conception and from a very young age Jesus claimed to have a very different relationship with God, whom he called his Father. Jesus, which means "God Saves" (Fisher, 2005, p.288) made mention of his relationship with God at a young age. He made a journey with his parents to Jerusalem for Passover when he was a young boy of twelve years old and discussed the Torah with the rabbi's there showing his above average capacity for knowledge as a youngster and when leaving, Jesus stated aloud "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" (Fisher, 2005, p.289). This statement would...
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...Evangelism in the Early Church [Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, November 14, 1985] by Joel L. Pless The primary mission of the Christian Church is to preach the gospel to all nations, it is to win souls for Christ. The fact that there are approximately one billion at least nominal Christians in the world indicates that Christ’s Great Commission has been at least partially carried out. This monograph will research how and by whom was the Great Commission enacted in the “early days” of the Christian church, during its first four centuries (100-500 A.D.) This research paper will not contribute creatively to the study of theology or methods of evangelism, but it will rather compile from a representative bibliography facts concerning evangelism in the early Church. Granted, research on this topic has been undertaken before by individuals with far greater academic credentials than the writer of these lines. But this monograph will attempt to condense the vast amount of material written on this topic into a monograph on evangelism in the early Church which is long enough to adequately cover the subject but still short enough to be interesting. This essay will approach the topic by asking the basic questions, why?, what?, who?, to whom?, and how?( William C. Weinrich, “Evangelism in the Early Church,” in Concordia Theological Quarterly, vol. XLV, (January-April 1981), pp. 61-74.) When possible, primary sources from the early Church fathers will be quoted in translation. The ultimate...
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...Bible Study Notes and Comments by David E. Pratte Commentary on the Gospel of John Available in print at www.lighttomypath.net/sales Other Bible Study Materials by the Author Printed books, booklets, and tracts available at www.lighttomypath.net/sales Free Bible study articles online at www.gospelway.com Free Bible courses online at www.biblestudylessons.com Free class books at www.biblestudylessons.com/classbooks Free commentaries on Bible books at www.gospelway.com/commentary Contact the author at www.gospelway.com/comments Commentary on the Gospel of John: Bible Study Notes and Comments © Copyright David E. Pratte, 2010, 2013 All rights reserved ISBN-13: 978-1492190547 ISBN-10: 1492190543 Note carefully: No teaching in any of our materials is intended or should ever be construed to justify or to in any way incite or encourage personal vengeance or physical violence against any person. “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” – 1 Corinthians 1:31 Study Notes on John Page #2 Comments on the Book of John Table of Contents Introduction............................4 John 1......................................8 John 2...................................39 John 3................................... 53 John 4...................................69 John 5...................................88 John 6................................. 109 John 7..................................134 John 8..................................153 John 9.........................
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...view on abortion, some religious laws allow it while others condemn the act. Abortion in the eyes of religion is a major conflict that is closely related to God and his sole ability to create and destroy life. In this paper I will compare and contrast the positions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on abortion the methods of approaching abortion and each religions position and also my position with abortion. Abortion and Religion When religious positions on abortion...
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...Institute for Christian Teaching THE BIBLE: REVELATION AND AUTHORITY Richard M. Davidson 402-00 Institute for Christian Teaching 12501 Old Columbia Pike Silver Spring, MD 20904 USA Symposium on the Bible and Adventist Scholarship Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic March 19-26, 2000 Page 1 of 33THE BIBLE: REVELATION AND AUTHORITY 3/2/2014http://fae.adventist.org/essays/26Bcc_017 -055.htm Introduction I have not always held the view of Scriptural revelation and authority that I now maintain. Having journeyed through a different perspective on the revelation/authority of Scripture and then returning to the position that I now hold, I am convinced that this issue is basic to all other issues in the church. The destiny of our church depends on how its members regard the revelation and authority of the Bible. In the following pages I have summarized the biblical self-testimony on its revelation and authority. The major focus of the paper is biblical authority, but a short statement concerning revelation-inspiration-illumination introduces the subject, and other biblical testimony on the nature of revelation is subsumed under the discussion of biblical authority. The paper also includes a brief historical treatment of the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment understandings of biblical revelation/authority and an analysis and critique of their basic presuppositions in light of Scripture. Following the conclusion, a selected bibliography of sources cited and other...
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