During Jesus’s Life, the Religion was a central issue. Between the civic Religion, the emperor cult and other voluntary cults, some figures (Philosophers, itinerant Technicians) tried to preach their own viewpoints of God. Jesus was just one of these figures, he was not more important than the others. As a first century reader, I would… Continue reading →

Thinking as a first century reader, I would find Jesus’ ancestry, birth, and childhood to be that of someone important, but at the same time I would be a little skeptical. I would be skeptical because Jesus’ ancestry, birth, and childhood is not mentioned in the first gospel written, Mark. Also, at that time there… Continue reading →

In the immediate years following his death, Jesus was an enormously controversial figure for both Jews and Christians alike. While a plethora of both Christian and non-Christian written sources provided information about Jesus, many of the stories about him were transmitted orally. Not surprisingly, the stories told about Jesus almost always portrayed him in a… Continue reading →

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.… Continue reading →