bible quiz #4

Apocrypha

• means to conceal

• these were books left out of some bibles (catholic yes protestant and jewish no)

• they were considered less sacred (time period, author, controversial messages)

• The Council of Jamnia was a meeting of jewish leaders to decide the OT canon, thdy declared only books originally written in hebrew were canonical

Maccabees

• an example of an apocrypha book

• tells the story about how antiochus IV was overthrown by the jewish people

• after caputring the temple back judas maccabees ordered that it must be ritually cleansed, this cleansing for 8 days became a holiday (Hanukkah)

• messages: suffering of the righteous/theodicy issue, god will intervene of behalf of the suffering of the rightoeus but patience is required, promises afterlife and resurrection to the rightoeus

4 guiding criteria for researching jesus

1. antiquity - the older the book the better

2. independant attestation - multiple independent sources saying the same thing is better than just one

3. dissimilarity - info that goes against the general tradition of Christianity is likely to be true, such as unfavorable info like Jesus grwoing up in Nazareth

4. contextual credibility - does this fit into Jesus’ historical context

Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet

• expected god to soon intervene in the world

• destruction of evil israels enemies, downfall or corrupt jewish leaders

• establishment of a kingdom of peace and justice

important locations for jesus

1. nazareth - where he grew up

2. jerusalem - sit of crucifixion

3. galilee - where jesus did most of his ministry

4. bethlehem - birthplace

Overiew of the New Testament

• 4 Gospels

• 1 historical book

• 21 letters

• 1 apocalpytic text’

• timeframe is 130-200 years

• the order of the new testament does not reflect the chronologry of events they are instead ordered y genre (gospels, history, letters, apocalypse)

4 major religious sects

1. Pharisees

   • most opular group (6000 members)

   • main concern was obeying torah

   • some people thought they were too legalistic

   • did not associate with rule breakers

   • most famous was Apostle Paul

2. Sadducees

   • most politically powerful group

   • main concern was temple worship

   • ran the Sanhredin - the local Jewish council

3. Essene

   • second most popular (4000 members)

   • associated sith the dead sea scrolls - found in caves in Qumran, 800+ documents

   • strongly apocalyptic

   • they separated themselves from the rest of Isreal, they thought it was too corrupt and impure

4. Zealots

   • advocated for armed rebellions and assassinations to remove foreign rulers from israel

Judaism in the 1st Century CE

2. Continued temple worship

3. use of synagogues for weekly worship

4. ministry of religious workers - wonder workers who healed, excorcisms, rain making

5. 4 major sects

Gospel of Mark

• written earliest, slightly after 70 CE

• Christology: Jesus and Messiah, Son of God, and Son of Man - but in very unexpected ways

• he is an unexpected Messiah because he is not a military leader or kind, he is a healer and teacher (he cured many who were sick with diseases)

• being called son of god was political at the time because this is what many roman emperors called themselves so jesus was rivaling them

• son of man implies a higher status than son of god because son of god refers to an unusually exalted HUMAN but son of man implied full divinity

• marks jesus was very concerned about keeping his identity a secret

synoptic gospels

• matthew mark and luke are very similar

• synoptic problem - because these texts are so similar how can we make sense of their relationship

• there are two hypotheses about why they are so similar

  • Markan priority: Mark was composed first and matthew and luke used it as a guide

  • the four source hypothesis - Matthew comes from m-source, q-source and mark, luke comes from mark q-source and l-source

Gospel of Matthew

• Jesus is the JEWISH messiah

  • son of david, son of abraham

• jesus and moses have many similarities, jesus is seen as the new moses

Basic outline:

1. intro - his miracuslous birth story

2. body - his teaching, 5 discourses given by jesus, his teaching of faith does not replace the law

3. crucifixion and resurrection

4. great commission - jesus send his followers out to make disciples of all nations

Gospel of Luke

• Jesus is a prophet who saves

• emphasis is on social justice and he saves ALL people not just Jews (emphasizess connection to Adam as “father” of all humanity)

• written 85 CE by a doctor/well educated writer

• Jesus family - mary, joseph, cousin is john the baptist(baptized people who wanted to change their life, trailblazer for jesus, baptrized jesus as well)

• he had special care for the marginalized, poor and despised (tax collectors, samaritans neighbors who were despised for their religion

• jesus died for a different reason in Luke - it is portrayed as an innocent prophet wrongfully killed, it is supposed to be a wakeup call for people to feel guilty and repent/change their lives

Gospel of John

• latest of the 4 gospels, written around 100 CE

• jesus is described as the one who brings life abundantly and eternally

• jesus has a very high christology in john (I AM statements align jesus with God, john focus is on jesus himself)

  • sometimes he has lower christology such as when he is the lamb of god who takes away sin from the world (sacrifical lamb)

• certain stories are found only in John such as jesus turning water into wine and raising lazarus from the dead

• in the synoptic gospels jesus is crucified the day after his last supper but in john Jesus is crucified the day of last supper at the same time the lambs were ritually slaughtered for passover dinner (this shows that jesus is the ultimate lamb of god whose sacrifice allows god to passover all of his followers, granting them life instead of death

• on sunday morning jesus emerges from his tomb and he appears to mary who he tells to tell his followers that he is returning to god

• it is the most anti-jewish gospel

infancy gospel of thomas

• non canonical

• portrayed jesus ‘early years

• he was very naughty

• kills a boy who bumps his shoulder and blinds his parents - shows that jesus developed over time d=he didnt always use his power for good

• outsmarting his teachers

Gospel of Thomas

• written in coptic as opposed to other gospels written in greek

• a list of sayings

• thomas is known for gnocticism - teaching of secret knowledge

• Gnostic christianty flourished in the first few centuries after christ

  • jesus was the teacher of gnosis = secret knowledge

  • influence from greek and indian philosophies