Gospel writers have developed blocks and eye witness accounts into narratives of Jesus life. White explains the practice of selecting passages from the Jewish scriptures that have already been translated into Greek and creating an interpretive narrative of Jesus’s life. Elaborations upon these Passion narratives we’re simply stories to fill in the gaps between the Last Supper and Resurrection. White adds how the play of each scene varies with the efforts to create the characterization and provide a more fitting ending. One of the sources used to create the gospels, mostly in Paul’s case, was oral tradition. Several examples of story nodes in Paul used in the development of the passion narrative include phrases like “took bread/cup” “dinner/evening” quoted in 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 elaborating on those clues to develop the Last Supper or Passover Meal. Referring to post Passover in 1 Corinthians 11:23 when Paul says “delivered up” to death referring to the gospel story of Jesus’s arrest and the story of Judas’s betrayal. The narratives regarding the death and resurrection of Jesus vary from book to book based off the time frame; more and more details were added on as time went on. Paul took “crucified” and “death on a cross” (1 Thessalonians 4:14, Philippines 2:8) elaborating and emphasizing that this was the plan all along by saying “according to the scriptures”, creating more of a messianic figure of Jesus. “None of the gospels give any details of the actual procedure or the specific sequence of actions in placing Jesus on the cross” (White p.132). In 1 Corinthians 15:4 “buried” in extended by Paul into the story of his preparations and burial in the tomb, including the two guards at the tomb depicted in Matthew and how the women observed the tomb in Mark. More nodes used by Paul come up when Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to several groups of people. The phrase “appeared to” reoccurs practically begging Paul to carry out further details to create more of a narrative.

Going from loosely connected “moments” to a glowing narrative is where the art of storytelling comes into play. New components, such as the Judas story or the “ascension” scene fill gaps in the narrative to resolve differences between earlier versions of the oral tradition (White p.124). The Hebrew scriptures play a role in this storytelling by giving the gospel writers a sense of divine guidance to the events elaborated on (White p.125). In the Gospel of Luke there is an added scene portraying a trial Herod Antipas, which occurs as an interlude in the trial of Jesus before Pilate (White p.125). Pilate seeks to avoid dealing with Jesus’s case by sending him to Antipas where he was further mocked and abused just to be sent back to Pilate again. This part of the narrative was added in Luke to give off the idea that Pilate did not think that Jesus was guilty of any crime punishable by death. The Lukan trial fits the formal Roman judicial procedure more accurately compared to the other versions.

When you picture the Passion narratives, the fact that Jesus was beat and whipped by the Romans seems to be something that sticks out to most believers, feeling emotion and sadness for their savior in suffering. Luke in contrast to the other gospels claims Pilate never flogged Jesus. Luke even adds the comment that after this exchange Pilate and Antipas became friends following the course of these events. Based off the way the additional trial was written (in favor of accurate Roman tradition and procedure) it could be that Luke was simply trying to give off a better, less guilty, more positive image of the Romans than what was given in other narratives.

Early Christian story tellers used the Hebrew scriptures as an outline to write the gospels, using numerous parallels from Psalm. Their goal was to fulfill the “prophetic” words of these scriptures through creating flowing narrative that the Greek-Romans could relate, understand and abide to. As mentioned in class, many of the early Christian authors felt superior to those of the Jewish religion that struggled to understand their scriptures. Able to interpret these nodes, the Gospel writers used oral tradition, storytelling and quotes from Jesus’s life on earth to develop a full narrative of his existence.

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.