Author Archives: mmaguire

Team 3 Question 1 05/24

Posted on by under luke

Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth is discussed in both Luke 4:16-30 and Mark 6:1-6. According to the Gospel of Luke, this story took place on the sabbath near the beginning of his Galilean ministry. Mark, on the other hand, positions this event in a way to express that Jesus is expanding his ministry beyond Galilee.

Being that Luke pulled from Mark, Q, and L, his Gospel is modified to all three. He has used these other sources to expand on Mark’s story, resulting in his depiction of the proclaimed messiah/reflection of the Holy Spirit. Added was the reading from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. This is a significant addition because in the teaching from the scroll, Jesus claims his identity as the anointed Lord, prophet, and deliverer of the Spirit for all men. 

The reaction of the crowd in Mark compared to Luke is significantly different. In Mark, the crowd is first astounded at Jesus’ knowledge and wisdom. It is stated that they soon became simply offended by him and rejected his ministry. In Luke, the crowd was also amazed at his words in the beginning. Although, once He proclaimed His ministry for all of man, including the Gentiles, the crowd was described as “filled with rage” as they proceed to drive him out of town. This reaction was not due to his claims of power, it was because he was offering his grace to the Gentiles as well.

Luke understands Jesus on more of the God end of the spectrum than the human end. In Luke 4:24-27, Jesus compares himself to prophets Elijah and Elisha in order to proclaim that he has the power to save the souls of all, heal all, and offer the Holy Spirit to all. It is clear that including the Gentiles in this offering is very offensive and rejected among the people of Nazareth, yet Jesus holds to his ministry. When the crowd reacted in rage, Luke once again hints at His prophetic power as he tells of Jesus passing through the midst of the now angry crowd and moving on. In contrast, Mark describes Jesus’ reaction as a bit more humanistic. He said that Jesus was amazed at their disbelief even after their witnessing of his power to heal. Here, he dwelled more on the emotion and realization instead of disappearing into the midst like a god.

Keeping in mind that Luke glorifies the power of Jesus, it becomes clear that the story of the rejection at Nazareth is placed at the beginning of his Galilean ministry to preface that his ministry will continue and not end with his hometown rejection. Instead of defeat, Luke emphasizes His inhuman power, love, calling, and understanding of the future. When it is all broken down, Luke’s goal is to prove Jesus’s prophecy as being the savior and healer of ALL.

Team 3 Question 1

Posted on by under birth narrative

a. Gospel stories of Jesus’s youth appear only in Matthew and Luke. In this, there is no underlying oral tradition behind it at all which makes each set functionally specific to each Gospel. In Matthew 1:1-17, he specifically discusses the genealogy of Jesus and formats it in 3 sets of fourteen. Many argue that this represents Jesus as the Messiah as a blood relative of David (which in Hebrew means 14). Other theories for this include the idea that this is a poetic approach symbolizing Joseph’s and Herod’s dreams which were sent from the Holy Spirit to tell of the process of the coming of the Messiah (White 242-243). Matthew’s genealogy section one of Jesus begins with Abraham and ends with King David of Israel (Matthew 1:1-6). The next section included fourteen generations between David and Jechoniah which is when the deportation to Babylon took place (Matthew 1:7-11). Last, after the deportation to Babylon, the generations between Jechoniah and Joseph were listed which would make Jesus the fourteenth generation of section three (Matthew 1:12-17). Matthew does this in a way to highlight Jesus’ deep roots and lineage with Israel and the Jews. Because this lineage exposes that Jesus is the son of both David the king and Abraham the patriarch, he is now shown to be royal and a true Israelite. As shown in ancient aretalogies, lineages become very important in validating and convincing a following that an individual, in this case Jesus, is divine if it can be tied back to a powerful historical figure(s) such as David and Abraham.

b. Verses 1:18-2:23 are all included by Matthew with the purpose of providing proof and reason of Jesus being the Messiah who has come to fulfill Jewish prophecy. Matthew explains the forthcoming of the holy spirit, the rising star which led to Jesus, and the Messiah’s extraordinary birth. All of  these serve as Matthew’s literary evidence of prophecy. Joseph’s, Mary’s and baby Jesus’s flight to Egypt is unique to the Gospel of Matthew, as is Herod’s slaughter of the children. Raymond Brown refers to this as verisimilitude, or a story that gives the appearance of being real when it is not, especially if it is based off of some other legend or event. In this case, he argues that Matthew’s story is based off of the story of Moses’s birth and the pharaoh’s attempt to kill all of the male children of the Israelites (White 240). The Matthew birth narrative also ties directly with the Moses-Joshua/Egypt-Exodus tradition, especially in Matt 2:15 when he says “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”. The parallel to this is shown in Exodus as it quotes “When Israel was a child I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son (II:I). Furthermore, it is stated that Matthew’s story of Jesus’s return from Egypt to Nazareth is based on the wording of Isaiah II:I. All of this points to the theory that Matthew is collecting Jewish scriptures and combining them to develop his literary story of Jesus’s birth and further prove that he is truly the Messiah, son of God.

Team 3 Question 2

Posted on by under emperor cult

a. According to the Romans, when an emperor dies, the process of apotheosis (to deify, or god away) occurs in which they become gods in the other realm. White brings this to attention when comparing the story of Jesus’s ascension into heaven to ancient Roman belief. He discusses several depictions of Roman characters such as Hadrian and Antoninus Pius ascending on some sort of angel figure into the heavens with the gods. 

b. In almost all of the history of the ancient Mediterranean world, kings, emperors, or who ever was in power was conceived to hold divine power. Though in different cultures, these beliefs varied slightly, they played a huge role in the depiction of the divine in ancient Rome. The notion of a unique birth became widely important in declaring divinity as shown in stories of Alexander. Especially after Alexander’s death, the development of the Roman imperial cult began and soon joined tradition.

c. On page 73, White says, “The worship of the emperor as divine did not sit quite so well with the old Roman aristocracy as it might have with Greek provincials.” In Rome, divinity was often challenged and believed with caution, especially after the claims of Antony and Cleopatra. In the history of the Greek world, Augustus is hailed as a god whose divinity is never brought into question. If you were emperor,  which one would you promote? It seems clear. With such conflicting views in religious practices in these two large empires, an empire in between would likely experience a lot of disagreement and conflict in belief.

d. If I were a first-century reader looking at this writing from Luke, I would start my checklist of how Jesus meets the definition of the divine. Luke accentuates the story of Jesus’s birth. As is being from a virgin birth isn’t unique enough, Luke details the poor conditions in which this proclaimed god was born. Would a god not be assumed/imagined to brought into the world in riches and health? Next, they were greeted by angels who spoke to the shepherds proclaiming Jesus to be the Messiah. With all of these factors, it is made clear that Luke is depicting a god. This story is a perfect fit to what the cult of the emperor would describe as divinity.

 

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