Author Archives: dreww

Blog Post Team 4

Posted on by under thomas

Drew Williams

5/31/2016

REL 317

Gospel of Thomas

In the Gospel of Thomas, the image of Jesus is shifted from a suffering servant taught is machinated by Mark, to a philosophic Prophet. Jesus is seen professing teachings and wisdom that “what has not arisen in the human heart.” These teachings go along with a older and more original motif that the earliest communities of messianic Jews most likely adhered to. The Teachings and sayings of Jesus are for the most part, significantly different from those created in Mark and the later gospels. This along with the fact that Q and Thomas overlap significantly,  tells us that the Gospel of Thomas is a old and quite authentic source. The composition of this gospel and of q  shows us that the sayings of Jesus were the central part of devotional life for early Christians.The fact that Jesus is quoted multiple times in both of these sources stating the importance of the knowledge and sayings he is professing to his disciples, shows us that the early community of  Jesus’s followers were more concerned with right action and teachings rather that sacrificial redemption.

 

Throughout the Gospel, Jesus is stating the importance of his teachings and how through the understanding and adhering to those teachings, one will attain sovereignty over oneself and the life that they are provided. Jesus continually states that his teachings will uncover the true logic and reason of his father’s commandments. He then continually extols his disciples to head his words and take action in this life. The statements in 80 and 87 show the intent  and reassurance of Jesus to his disciples that to follow his words, man will attain mastery over himself. After one attains mastery of himself he can inherit the kingdom. This deep rooted instruction to attain mastery over oneself is inherently a sign of the early messianic movements theology. The early movement must relied on the self discipline and religious adherence to the laws and commandments of God. Through this they were seeking to submit their will to God as Jesus taught. The Importance of internal knowledge leading to worldly sovereignty is a teaching throughout the Gospel that leads the reader to understand the importance of adhering to God’s commandments as presented through Jesus. The earthly world is one of little sustenance and Jesus sought to guide us to the understanding that would bring eternal life. The worldly attainments one could possess in this life were considered to have no value at all in the eyes of God and through his teachings Jesus sought to bring to light the importance of God’s commandments.
The teachings Jesus is professing would most likely be attractive to the lower classes of Jewish society. The oppressed and subjugated peoples of Palestine as well as poor Gentiles may have been compelled to seek understanding and salvation through righteous deeds. The multiple references to good works and  knowledge as the catalyst for salvation would most attract those average Jewish citizens who were left on the fringes of temple Judaism and under the yoke of oppressive roman rule. The lowest classes would see these teachings as the pathway to divine retribution, something temple Judaism would not allow. The pharisees were seen as corrupt and unholy inheritors of the Jewish faith and  did little for the wider Jewish community in the eyes of most Jews. Jesus’ teachings about divine guidance that’s found in knowledge professed by him through his prophet, is something anyone would surely adhere to. The pharisaic classes were surely opposed to this rhetoric as it undermined their authority altogether. The teachings about the power of intellectual understanding of God’s path by the individual is something that removes the need for suddusaic Temple priests or pharisees. One can attain salvation through understanding. This was a theology that would attract those who were unable to attain justice in this life and wish to inherit  eternal Justice in the Kingdom of God.

Attributes of true disciples in Mark

Posted on by under mark

Drew Williams

5/12/2016

REL 317

Throughout the gospel of Mark, the disciples are depicted time and time again not understanding Jesus’ message. The story continually relates the ignorance of his disciples about the true ideas surrounding the teachings of Jesus. In multiple parts of the Gospel, the disciples are told by Jesus that there are receiving special knowledge from Jesus about the Kingdom of Heaven. Even though they were receiving what Jesus called “secret” knowledge in the gospel, they still are depicted as not understanding. This lack of understanding seems ultimately contrary to how an author would want to portray the disciples. Compared to the other gospels, one can argue that the depiction of the disciples is significantly lower in the fact that they are shown as almost incompetent at times. The Gospel writer of Mark must have wanted to depict the disciples as unworthy in some ways of the message that Jesus was providing to them. However, another idea for this depiction of the disciples in Mark that is put forward by White on page 279 is that Mark wished to criticize the Jewish beliefs about what the messiah is. White suggests that the author of Mark uses the disciples as the embodiment of Jewish thought at the time about the Messiah to have Jesus criticize as not understanding the true nature of the messiah’s attributes. White states this when he writes, “The simple answer is that, because he believed Jesus to be the Messiah, Peter did not understand that Jesus must die.” (White 278). He states the point again when he writes, “It means that Peter, like Judas and most other characters in the story, assumes that the Messiah is a primarily Davidic royal figure who will bring about a new kingdom.” (White 278). Here White states that in Mark that the disciples are wrong for holding the mainstream Jewish belief about the Messiah and that the true nature of the Messiah is unalike what they previously thought.

 

The stories of Bartimaeus and the unnamed woman relate to mark’s depiction of Jesus by showing the attributes of true disciples and how the should act and believe. The Blind man Bartimaeus is used as an example of one of the attributes of a disciple because he had fervent faith in the Messiah-ship of Jesus and did not need any logical justification for his belief. He truly believed in Jesus’s identity and through this he was healed. Likewise the unnamed woman started to prepare Jesus for his burial by anointing him with oil. She was scolded by the other disciples but they were told that she has true faith because she already believes in the death and resurrection of Jesus, something the other disciples do not fully understand and accept. These two individuals can be seen as models for the attributes of true disciples. They embody the  thoughts and actions of what mark’s Jesus would refer to as true disciples. The Parable of the sower is important in understanding of where mark’s Jesus sees his disciples. After analyzing the early stories of the disciples and what mark’s Jesus sees as the attributes of true disciples, it would seem that the disciples of Jesus were analogous to the second placement of the seeds. The second placement of the seeds is on the rocky soil where the seeds are denied good soil and cannot take root and because of this grow, wither and blow away. The reason I see the disciples as analogous to these seeds is the fact that they are shown as having a shallow understanding of the messiah and do not have solid “Roots” in Jesus’ teachings. However, Bartimaeus and the unnamed woman are the seeds that fall on good soil and have strong roots in the understanding of the attributes of the Messiah and the teachings of Jesus altogether.
I would say that a true disciple to Mark is someone who like Bartimaeus and the unnamed woman have faith without need of justification or logical  reasoning. However, they have have a solid understanding  of the teachings of Jesus and the true attributes of the Messiah and his mission altogether. The twelve disciples may be analogous to the contemporary audience of Mark’s community who may have lacked faith and true understanding of Jesus’ message. They could have been still too entrenched in  the mainstream Jewish idea of the messiah and needed convincing and logical explanation of Jesus’ message and the Messiah in order to truly have faith, something Mark would seemingly condemn altogether.

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Passion Aretologies

Posted on by under narrative expansion

In the Passion Story of Jesus, the writers of the gospels focused on specific areas of the story that they wished to elaborate on and redact in order to achieve a specific goal they saw necessary to achieve at that time. In the gospels however certain “nodes” are elaborated on more thoroughly in all of the gospels than others for specific reasons. Some of these nodes are surrounding the crucifixion,empty tomb after Jesus resurrection and the last supper. These two nodes are important to the early gospel writers because they are part of the larger tradition of aretologies created orally and in written texts to enhance the image of Jesus in the eyes of the wider Jewish and Greco-Roman world. The crucifixion was truly important for the gospel writers to redact as to align the story of Jesus with those of the old testament prophecies. This was important for convincing Jews of Jesus’s messianic traits. Also they wished to improve the view of Jesus in the Greco-Roman world from a criminal to a honorable and supernatural being similar to that of Apollonius of Tyana. These traditions were truly important in the eyes of the gospel writers as they were trying to create a Jesus’ story that was aligned with the Jewish prophecies and respected in the eyes of gentiles altogether.

As stated above, the gospel writers saw it ultimately necessary to tie the story of Jesus to the old testament prophecies about the messiah. This was something the gospel writers tasked themselves with  in the earliest stages of the christian tradition. They wished to convince their Jewish counterparts of the messianic nature of Jesus by connecting his story directly to old testament, specifically prophecies in Isaiah and psalms. This can be seen throughout whites chapter and specifically on page 136-141. These charts point out where specifically the gospel writers sought to include old testament ideas into the gospels. Specifically  Mark 11:1-10, When they were approaching Jerusalem … near the Mount of Olives compared to 14:4  On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives in  Zechariah. Also, Luke 23:6-11 shows the author’s specific literary goals showing Jesus trial in a dignified manner with Jesus stoically facing persecution in the face of the king by also by showing his behavior as being in line with that of the messiah prophesied in the old testament. The reason why Luke left out Jesus’s flogging was likely due to the fact that flogging was a punishment given to a non roman criminals used to humiliate him and any of his possible associates. This was something Luke likely wanted to avoid as by his time he was writing to a large gentile audience. The description of the flogging of a supposed great person went against the aretological nature of the gospels and would have certainly added to the overall mockery of Jesus that already present in the Greco-roman world. Although John includes the flogging, he may have been writing to a well establish christian community in the roman empire by his time altogether.

Overall, the gospel writers tactics  and  techniques in writing the gospels show the overall goal of the early christian community. They wished to change the view of Jesus in the eyes of their contemporaries, both Jews and the wider Greco-Roman world. The gospel writers aretological goals sought to change the image of Jesus in the early years after his death. The views of him were humiliating and unapologetic and the gospel writers wished to counter this in the gospels altogether. This goal of the writers becomes more and more lucid  as the later gospels were produced and Jesus continually elevated to a supernatural level that was severely removed from the historical Jesus altogether.

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