Brendan Everton

4/13/15

REL 223

Intro to the Bible

Blog Post

Matthew starts his gospel much differently than the other gospels. He receives extra information about the character of Jesus which he ads to his picture of Jesus to give him more of a heroic image. Back in the day of ancient Rome heroes were personified as more than human. There were many different aspects to these stories that were usually included in these heroic characters. Each story more often then not contained a miraculous birth; express the early promise of the hero, such as superior intelligence strength or knowledge. On top of these the heroes would then use these superior skills to do great things during their like finally culminating in a miraculous death. Many of the stories that Matthew adds from this M source that no other gospel is had knowledge of at this time. This history starts with the genealogy of Jesus tracing him back to the king of David. Jesus who was said to be the king of the Jews is given legitimacy to this claim through this genealogy. He is a rightful heir to the thrown and will bring this to the Promised Land, or so the Jew has hopped. This fact along with the introduction of a special, or miraculous birth during Matthew adds to this sense that Jesus was special from birth.

Many of these stories that were added to the beginning of Jesus life do not appear in the other gospels. This can be explained by the different sources were their information was gathered. On the other hand these disparities could be pointed to something else completely. They were added as sort of a propaganda campaign by the early followers of Jesus trying to make him look as great as they all truly believe he is. The stories were added so that he could compare to the stories circulating at the same time that had very similar aspects and were supposedly were able to complete the same miracles that Jesus the son of god could promote.

The basic story of Christianity is the change from the feeling of a Nation-State or tribe of people that belonged to a certain area, and a move toward universal happiness were everyone was treated equal and no group was made up of gods chosen people. By comparing many of the stories to the Jewish stories in the past the writer of mark is trying to point out the similarities between this new order and the old but at the same time trying to point out the major difference between the two religions. This strategy attempted to get Jews of ancient Rome to accept Jesus and his teaching by putting him in the same light as the traditional Jewish traditions. Jesus’s birth story in Matthew explains that just like Moses; The Pharaoh in both Moses and Jesus’s story demands that every first-born Jew be killed and just as Moses had he escaped from the hands of the Pharaoh.