Reading about Jesus with the perspective asked of us was an interesting thought experiment. Jesus’ story certainly had a fantastical beginning, middle, and end. Yet the author’s of Mark, Luke, and Matthew took very distinct narratives that varied from story to story. Starting with the words of Mark, I’m not at all impressed by Jesus. Yes, he his prophesied as coming, but his attitude does not seem to meet my expectations of purity that I would expect out of such a mythical figure. According to Lynch, the writers of Luke and Matthew step in to add depth to the story that the writer of Mark wrote. I would need this depth to be thoroughly convinced that Jesus was a great man, as the bar for my own belief was set by the stories of Apollonius.

In particular, Matthew’s writer takes great care to dictate Jesus’ ancestry and birth, showing how God sent messages to Mary and Joseph to explain what would happen. In this story we also read of the tactics used to keep Jesus alive, by moving from different areas and waiting for rulers who were suspicious of the child to die off before returning back to where that ruler had commanded. This section was exciting! Amazing events happened to every day people before the birth of this mythical person had even  happened. This passage certainly improves the image of Jesus’ pedigree, and certainly meets the criteria set by Apollonius.

Luke goes into great detail over Jesus’ death and resurrection, showing both God and Jesus prophesying miracles that were to happen. With giant stones being moved, bodies removed from tombs without a trace, Luke paints an amazing story around the death and rebirth of Jesus that makes him out to be the amazing figure he was. The treachery of Judas is also highlighted, showing how a great figure was brought down by those he considered his closest friends and students. In the end, Jesus is only executed due to the fervor of the crowd demanding that, even though they had no proof of his guilt, that he be put to death. His judge even tried to lower his sentence down to a lashing, but the crowd would not be sated by such a judgement: death by crucifixion must be the answer. Yet through all of this, Jesus took his punishment without anger. When he died, many in the crowd realized their mistake and wept. Lynch also mentions that a story such as this may have been spread by spoken word at first. This I would understand, as it makes for a great story. Only until those who had the verbal accounts were near death was it finally written down.

The differences between the gospel of Mark and those of Matthew and Luke are clear. Mark seemed occupied with insuring that the prophesy of Jesus was well documented. It wasn’t until those who saw the first hand account of his birth and death were unable to continue giving sermons did the writings of Matthew and Luke be needed. These writings had much more depth then that of Mark, adding a lot more content to the story of Jesus. Without it, my First Century self would be left unimpressed.