For HW: Read p 272-79 “The Life and Teachings of Jesus”. Mark up your text – I will be checking on Tuesday. Pay particular attention to the events that the Gospels agree on – making notes in the side margins of your text or in your notebook. You should also be able to make notes in the margins relating new material to old material, such as in Judaism or Political Ideologies –> “this reminds me of….”
Then, post a comment on the blog:
1) Define a new term encountered in the reading; be sure to include the page number or context of its use so I can find it, please.
2) Highlight a salient point from the reading – and make a connection to something outside of the reading, that would probably get you the whole 10 points.
3) Generate a question about the reading that CANNOT be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. You can give some background if you choose – that would probably get you the whole 10 points.
4) Period 4 post by Tuesday 2/14 at 9:30; period 5 post by Tuesday 2/14 at 10:30.
(Don’t worry about the questions from today, we’ll continue with them in class tomorrow.)
1. My word is on page 273, along the side of the picture. Ancestral: pertaining to ancestors; descending or claimed from ancestors, serving as a forerunner, prototype, or inspiration. This word is refering to how Jesus was born in a home from his ancestors or decendents.
2.Also on page 273, at the top of the page beside the picture, the author states that Gospels provide the best information we have of Jesus. I find that interesting because one would think that the bible would be more informing. Just how Gospels provide the best information abput Jesus, people in our day, can relate to music better than other things. Personaly, when I hear a song, that I can relate to, I am able to understand the lyrics and emotions of that song. This may be why Gospels have the best information about Jesus, because we may be able to relate to the melody and lyrics.
3.On page 275, in the last paragraph, it states that Jesus is remembered for his use of teaching called the parable. Why? Why isnt he remembered for miracles or his crusifiction?
1. My word is prodigal which is found on page 275 to the left of the picture. Prodigal means: Spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant.
2. The salient point that I think was happing during this reading is the life of a Christian and what Christianity really means. The costumes and the background information such as the Gospels. Also another thing that I think that is salient about this reading is about Jesus and I found an interesting quote which I think relates to a lot of things ” Jesus spent his time teaching and healing” (274). I connected this to how past generations try to teach us and when we are older we are going to teach generations after and that was a connection I made to the reading.
3. A question that I thought of as I was reading this was why is it that even up till today why do we still interpret readings differently and were they meant to do that?
1) Parable: a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson. Pg. 275, bottom.
2) I thought it was interesting that in the text the author uses the name YHWH for God. I thought that Christians called him God and Jews called him YHWH. On pg. 279 I found it interesting and enlightening that the reason that the Christians were so hostile towards the Jews was because they believed that Jewish leaders were responsible for Jesus’s death.
3) On page 277 it says that Jesus’s thought that Christianity could be a good thing but could also lead to oppression, didn’t they repress the Jews? Why didn’t his followers listen to him, or was the oppression only for Christians?
1) page 274, Charismatic, I have herd this word before but never found what it meant. Charismatic: Exercising a compelling charm that inspires devotion in others (Dictionary.com).
2) I thought it was interesting how they talk about all the different stories about Jesus. Like how his name was supposed to be Immanuel. And how they talk about how they don’t really know when Jesus was born. I thought it very interesting how Jesus had 12 main decibels but had as little as four and as many as thousands at a time.
3) My question comes off of part two. How did they come up with writing the bible if there are so many different plots of one story? who’s plot did the people who wrote the bible use?
1. My word was found on page 275 and it is Samaritan-A native or inhabitant of Samaria.
2. I think that it is interesting how the author looks at christianty as only being part of the way true and how we only have evidence supporting that Jesus was alive later on in his life. The aouthor states that Jesus lived in the village of Nazareth in the provence of Galilee. They found more evidence when luke stated that at twelve years of age Jesus moved to Jerusalem. I can connect to this because in sunday school we afften learned about Jesus when he was older and not so much when we was younger.
3. On page 276 the author states that it is difficult to find one theme in all of the teaching of Jesus and based off of this my question is, Could it be possible that because there are so many morals that Jesus teaches that there is no such thing as a perfect human?
1) I came across the word repentance which means to feel or regret sincere about ones doing wrong or sin.
2) A salient point that I found is that they did not include Jesus in any other text, only in the Christians books, and because of that non-Christians believed that he was not historical figure.
3) A question I had was why did the Christians only allow Jesus to mentioned in their text and not in other texts.
1) In the second paragraph on page 274 I read over a word and that word was charismatic, charismatic is the act of exercising a compelling charm that inspires devotion in others.
2) When I was reading on page 275 I was reading about the parable, and I just found it interesting. “The parable is a short, easily recognized story very human characters and events” (Hopfe 275).
3) On page 272 the author Lewis M, Hopfe states that, “The only truly objective facts we have about the life Jesus are that a group of people called Christianity began to be recognized” (272). Why is it just Christianity the only religion with facts about the life of Jesus?
1. A word I found was Brevity on page 275. It means either concise and exact use of words in writing or speech or shortness of time.
2. I found it interesting that the teachings of Jesus are similar to rabbis and the Mishnah. Although Christianity is derived from Judaism, it is interesting that they are not all that different.
3. On page, 279, it suggests that Jesus dies because of Jewish leaders, which is apparently why Jews were prosecuted for the next 2,000 years. Are Christians the only ones to blame for this? Why/why not?
1) My word is on the top of page 276, “Pacifistic”. It is the belief that disputes between nations should and can be settled peacefully.
2)I thought a salient point from the reading was on page 274 how it talked about Jesus quotes the Hibrew Bible, and how Jews also see him as a important figure. It is weird how many religions started from the same point and they all made sense of the information differently.
3)Were do the disagreements come from between different religions when the starting point was the same, although they make sense of the information differently how is it extremely different when it started off the same way?
1) revile: to criticize in an abusive or angrily insulting manner.
“Blessed are you when men ‘revile’ you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” (Hopfe 275).
2) In this reading I was extremely interested in the part about Jesus’ parables. The textbook says that Jesus’ parables are the most remembered religious teachings in the world. If telling parables worked for Jesus, I think it would work for teachers today. Using a parable (which is like an analogy) is a very effective way to teach, as Jesus demonstrated.
3) Jesus was a faithful Jew who quoted the Hebrew Scriptures and fulfilled the promises of the Hebrew Bible. My question is if he was all this, then why don’t the Jews believe he was the messiah?
1)Pg 273. Nazareth: A town in lower Galilee, in present-day northern Israel; pop. 39,000.
2)I thought it was really interesting how the life of jesus might not have been documented correctly. It was kept by biased christians 40 + years after his death. And all four gospels all have different descriptions of Jesus.
3)I was wondering if early christians would be happy with what has happened with modern Christians and how they interpret Jesus and the BIble.
1) Crucified: To put someone to death by binding them to a cross. Page 279, bottom paragraph.
2) If Jesus was thought to be a Pharisee, then why was most of the responsibility for his death come from the Pharisees, they were mostly made up of common people and were liberal and progressive on their theological outlook. I made this connection to all those different kinds of Judaism we learned about a little while ago.
3) What did Jesus want to happen instead of his Crucifixion.
1) Zealots-A person who is fanatical and uncomprimising in pursuit of their religious, political, or other beliefs.
2) My question and interesting part of the reading are linked together. I found it very interesting that Jesus was a Jew. He followed many Jewish laws and considered himself a Jew. However, my question is, did Jesus consider himself, or how did he consider himself the messiah, if he was a Jew
1)I found my word on page 274. Synoptic: something relating to the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
2) A salient point in the reading I found was at the bottom of page 273, and 274 It mentions how Jesus was hardly ever recorded in his early life. It was when he became thirty that people started mentioning him. I thought this was really interesting because it shows why some people have doubt if many things were not recorded. It seems as if child hood would be an important part of a story, or a life, but in this case it’s not. It strikes me at awe how so many stories in life are missing pieces that were never recorded, yet they can be really important.
3)How come people tend to leave out parts of stories that if they were there, would probably be very important?
1. Prodigal- wastefully or recklessly extravagant. Page 275 middle paragraph last line.
2. A salient point from the reading would be that Jesus life is very controversial and what he was trying to do in the view of ours is also very controversial. On page 276 it states, “The central message of Jesus was people superiority over the jewish law.” Some might disagree and some might agree, just like the drinking of the blood and body, some might think that it is becoming Jesus’ body and blood to drink and eat, others may not may think that it does not transform into Jesus. This plays a role in my life because I am around the controversies of Jesus everyday, and the truth is that we will all believe what we want to and that will be the truth to us.
3. How did the text of Jesus make it all the way to our generation if there were so many people that did not want his teaching to live on?
1) reverent-feeling or showing deep and solemn respect : a reverent silence.
2) I thought it was very interesting that none of his early life was recording in the texts. This was interesting because it does not seam as if anyone questioned his early life. It seams that the early life of a person would be very important because the way someone grows up can change what kind of person they become when they grow up. It is like when a child is raised by a loving family that gives them lots of attention they are less likely to get in trouble and they have a greater chance of going to collage and finishing high school.
3) How did the people who wrote the texts know every detail of jesus’ life.
1)pg. 274 last sentence — Beatitudes:any of the declarations of blessedness pronounced by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
2) I thought it was interesting that the Christians, according to the book were hostile to many different religions. This was interesting because Jesus is portrayed as a man who accepted many different people. It seems that the Christians did not necessarily follow Jesus’s preachings.
3) Why were all the Gospels written so long after Jesus died?
please ignore my last comment I thought that this was the HW so just ignore it!
Thanks
alena
1) On page 276 I found the word eschatology, which is defined as: the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.
2) I found it interesting how many believe jesus was a pacifist or had a heavy emphasis on eschatology. These are supposedly from his teachings, but as we know, he didn’t write the Bible. His followers did just starting nearly 40 years later. Many of his teachings may be passed down through generations, and when finally put in the bible, have the bias from those who carried on the stories and from those who wrote them down. How is it to say an author may not have perhaps just fabricated a story that supported something he believed in? I connect this to how the majority a doctor suess book was actually written by someone else. It may have been based upon Dr. Suess and his ideas but ultimately it was not his book.
3) Should the Gospels be determined a historically reliable and accurate source? Or are they a work of (realistic) fiction?