Bible Exam II Review

Bible Exam II Review

• Gospel of Mark

• Powell 7

  • https://quizlet.com/94487382/bible-powell-chapter-6-flash-cards/

• Gospel of Matthew

• Powell 6!!

  • https://quizlet.com/24104592/introducing-the-new-testament-chapter-5-flash-cards/

• Theories of Atonement

Gospel of Mark - Powell 7

Characteristics

• “Intercalation”: literary sandwich

• Fast-paced

• Past and present terms

• Missing stories/ending

• Jesus is human

Emphasis

• Focuses on death/cross

  • Christ came to die

• Messianic secret

  • Jesus wanted to be kept secret until his death

• The kingdom

  • Holiness is contagious

  • Rules

  • Look forward

• Bad disciples

• The disciples are awful

• They don’t deserve Jesus but he stays with them

Why?

• Empathetic hope

• Call to action

• To show that the disciples failed too

Gospel of Mark - McCracken’s Notes

• Likely the earliest gospel

• Choppy language

• Focused on what Jesus does, not says

• Emphasizes the conflicted nature of Jesus’ relationship

• Uses keywords, images, and parallel incidents to highlight connections between stories

• Frequently uses double stories “Markan Sandwich”

  • The middle story often sheds light on surrounding stories

Theological Themes

• The kingdom of God is good news for the world

• The identity of Jesus – the roaring lion

• The messianic secret

• Discipleship and Kingdom Life

• The openness of God’s future kingdom and the invitation to follow

Apocalypticism

• Mark 13: “The Little Apocalypse”

  • Hint of crisis

  • Scholars believe the gospel was written during the first Jewish war

    • Large groups of brigands fought against the Roman army, protesting taxation and Roman impiety

    • Vespasian leads 60,000 soldiers into Judea to squelch the rebellion

    • Titus besieges Jerusalem for six months, leading to mass starvation

    • Roman army breaks into the city and destroys the temple

    • The fall of Masada signals the end of the first Jewish war

Gospel of Matthew - Powell 6

Historical Background

• Not thought to have been the first Gospel written

  • Believed to have been written after Mark because 90% of Mark is found in Matthew

  • Read Matthew alongside Mark

• The author seems to favor material that appeals to people who live in more urban and prosperous settings

  • Might have been written in the city of Antioch

• Best guess: written by an unknown Jewish Christian in Antioch or some similar Roman city sometime after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, most likely mid-80s

Distinctive Features

• “The church”

• Many stories that include Peter

• Matthew takes more of a “just the facts” approach

  • Less concerned with telling stories in a lively or colorful manner than he is in simplifying material and organizing it to establish certain key points

• Work choices seem intended to make the book appealing to Jewish readers or those in an urban environment

• Jesus exhibits less human frailty

  • Statements that imply a lack of knowledge on his part are missing

• “Fulfillment citation”

  • Indicate that something in the story of Jesus fulfilled the prophecies

  • May be said to occur 12 times

• Five great speeches

  • Followed by a formulaic transitional phrase

  • Parallel to the Torah – “five books of Moses”

• Preference for triads

  • Organizes material into sets of three

Major Themes

• The Abiding Presence of God

  • Jesus is present in the church

• Jesus as the Son of God

• The Teaching of Jesus

  • The sermon on the mount – on discipleship, trust in God, moral behavior

  • The missionary discourse – on mission, persecution, radical faithfulness

  • The parables discourse – on mysteries of the kingdom of heaven

  • The community discourse – on life in the church, forgiveness, and discipline

  • The eschatological discourse – on the end times, the second coming, and the final judgment

• Discipleship

  • Jesus wants his followers to be perfect

• Interpretation of Scripture

  • The revelation of God in Christ sheds light on the scriptures and reveals their true meaning and intent

• Binding and Loosing

  • Rabbis bound the law when they determined a commandment applied to a situation

  • They loosened the law when they determined that a word of scripture was not applicable

• Worship and Doubt, Faith and Understanding

  • The disciples fail but are still destined to become apostles

  • Jesus’ pet name for his disciples – “oligopistoi” people of little faith

  • The disciples' doubt and fear are accompanied by worship

  • Despite their doubt, they are growing in understanding

• Hostility Toward Jewish Leaders

  • Uses the term “evil” when referring to Jewish leaders

  • Says the Pharisees are not God’s people and will be sentenced to hell

  • Jesus does not summon religious leaders to repentance

  • Matthew portrays the religious leaders as a personification of all that is opposed to God so that he can present the victory of CHrist as a conquest of evil

  • Matthew is said to foster anti-semitism (rejects the Jews)

Gospel of Matthew - McCracken’s Notes

Why are the gospels different?

• Matthew likely used Mark as a source adapting the material to make it more relevant to his audience

• Matthew may have been written at a different time

Characteristics

• The most popular gospel in the NT

  • Likely because authorship was attributed to Matthew (apostle)

• Two source theory: Mark + Q = Matthew

• Follows Mark’s order

  • Shortens the stories

  • Matthew redacts Mark (adds to)

• Adds genealogy, birth story, and stories of Jesus’ resurrection appearances

• Includes many sayings of Jesus that are found in Luke but not in Mark

Structural Elements

• Frequently uses summary statements to show transitions from Jesus’ sayings to narrative

• Temporal transitions – mark important shifts in Jesus’ message

• Stereotyped formulae – fulfillment of prophecies

• Inclusio – writer places similar material at the beginning and end of a work or section of a work

Outline

• Narrative of beginnings (1-4)

• Messianic Words and Wonders (8-9)

• Growing opposition (11-12)

• Miracles and Predictions (14-17)

• Judean Ministry (19-23)

• Passion, Death, and Resurrection

Background Themes

• Two principle purposes

  • Catechesis: early church needed books to teach the Christian story

  • Liturgy: language in the gospel suggests the book was used in early Christian worship

• Jewish influence

  • Genealogy – establishing Jesus’ identity as the son of David and Abraham

  • Echoes of Moses and Exodus

  • Typological associations of Jesus’ ministry with OT texts

  • One possibility: written to vindicate the early church’s identity as God’s people in the face of Jewish opposition

    • The story meant to contrast Christianity with Pharisaic Judaism

    • Context – Jewish hostility to Jewish Christianity

    • Gospel establishes Jesus as a “new Moses” – the fulfillment of Jewish hope

Theological Themes

• Torah – “law,” first five books of the Hebrew Bible

  • Jewish identity is defined by faithfulness to the Torah

  • The Pharisee sect was deeply concerned with Torah observance after the destruction of the Temple

  • Matthew includes polemic against interpreters of Torah

• Jesus cast as — of Torah …

  • Teacher

  • Fulfillment

  • Personification

• Ekklesia – “church”

  • It is the only gospel to use this term

  • Concern for life in the Messianic community

Jesus and the Church

• How do we reconcile the Jewish message with the growing gentile presence?

• Matthew treats disciples more positively

  • Peter plays a special role

  • Disciples are responsible for passing Jesus’ word, they understand, see, and hear

• Matthew draws attention to the inner life of the Christian community

Gospel of Matthew - Sermon on the Mount

Outline

• The Beatitudes

• Disciples in the World

• “Be perfect”—Jesus and Torah

• Interpreting Torah

• Applying Torah

• Religious Practices and the Kingdom

• The heart of Kingdom ethics

• Concluding exhortation and warning

Christian Virtue

• Arete – “excellence,” character qualities that define what it means to be “good”

• Beatitudes suggest a vision of kingdom life that elevates some values over others

• Aristotle – the answer to becoming good is to practice

Sermon on the Mount and Christian Moral Life

• Exposition of Christian virtues and habits

• Accentuated virtues:

  • Meekness

  • Mercy

  • Purity

  • Peacemaking

• Vices:

  • Anger

  • Lust

  • Infidelity

  • Dishonesty

  • Vengefulness

View 1 – The Way of Jesus as an Interim Ethic

• Jesus believed final judgment was near

• Called his disciples to a rigorous way of life in preparation for this end

• Jesus was wrong: the end of age did not occur

• Therefore one cannot apply the Sermon on the Mount in the modern world, we don’t see our time as the world is about to end

View 2 – The Way of Jesus as an “Impossible Possibility”

• Jesus is the embodiment of defined love and calls his disciples to embody this

• Jesus calls humans to do the impossible – sin leads humans to fall short

• is the standard of human life

• Turning the other cheek only applies to private relations

• Christians aspire to love our enemies – but we cease to do so fully

• Jesus does not offer love as a norm for public life

  • Doesn’t work in a modern judicial system

  • Can not expect nation-states to love enemies

View 3 – The Way of Jesus as The Way of Love

• All of Christ’s teaching is defined by his call to love God and neighbor

• Asserts that Jesus expected his followers to love all things

• Love is not an impossibility

• Love friends, neighbors, and enemies

• Love sometimes requires the sacrifice of one’s interests

• Love applies to public life too

View 4 – The Way of Jesus as The Way of the New Age

• God’s kingdom is different than the kingdoms of this world

• Jesus proclaimed the arrival of this kingdom

• Jesus offered a way of life for the church

• The church has a mission: Christians are to reveal the reality of this new age

• Reject returning violence for violence in all its forms

• Loving the enemy

Application – the problem of war

• View 1: Jesus’ teaching does not apply

• View 2: Jesus teaches us to love, and war falls short of love, but we always fall short so just make certain that justice is your aim in war

• View 3: Jesus teaches us to love. Love compels the Christian to fight the just war while constraining violence.

• View 4: Jesus teaches us to forsake returning violence for violence. War is inconsistent with the new age that Christ proclaimed.

Key terms/themes

Apocalypticism

• Apocalyptic literature

  • Literature of crisis – born in contexts of tension between the religious community and the prevailing culture

  • Common features…

    • Symbolic language and imagery

    • Cosmic scope – narrative of conflict between good and evil

    • Connection between this world and other-worldly realities

    • Warnings to the faithful: be ready!

    • A telescopic vision of history: past, present, and future drew close together

Theories of Atonement

Ransom Theory

• We are slaves to satan

• God makes a deal with satan to pay a price to release his people from captivity

• Gives Jesus to Satan, releasing up from captivity

• However, Jesus conquers death and escapes satan

• God wins

• Prominent view in early Christianity

• Weakness

  • It makes God and satan equal

Christus Victor

• Cosmic battle between God and the forces of evil

• satan thought he won with the cross

• The cross is when God triumphs over the power of satan by raising Jesus from the grave

• Olen writes a book in the twentieth century making it more relevant

Penal Substitution

• Jesus was being substituted and bearing a punishment in our place

• Prominent view

• Protestant reformation

Governmental Theory

• God publicly demonstrated against sin while maintaining his divinity

• Zalusus – eye

• God is a just God

Moral Influence Theory

• Jesus died to turn man back to God

• Sanctification

• Jesus set an example for us to reshape our lives and the way we live in the world

• Weakness

  • Incomplete

  • Leaves out the cross