13/05/2015 Teaching of Jesus - 00 1 Message/Ministry and/or Teaching of Jesus.

23-04-18 Teaching of Jesus - 00 1

Message/Ministry and/or Teaching of Jesus


Introduction to Jesus

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Consider it carefully

Sources for the Life and Teaching of Jesus

The four canonical gospels3 Synoptics

Fourth Gospel

References in Acts and letters

Josephus

Roman historians

Rabbinic materials

Non-canonical gospels



What are the gospels? The gospel genre

Memoirs (apomnëmoneumata)Acts (praxeis)Lives (bioi)Foundation Narrative

Euaggelia Foundational events of the Christian faithKerygmatic perspectiveA term coined by Mark for written form


What are the gospels? Four gospels

Three gospels, not one gospelThe rejection of the harmonistic approachThe reason for the gospels

The need of the Christian communities

The need to proclaim the gospel


What are the synoptic gospels? How gospels arose

The rise of the gospels (AD 50-80)The data

Similarities in order between Mark, Matthew and LukeClose verbal similarities between Mark and parts of Matthew and LukeLess close verbal similarities between teaching sections in Matthew and LukeMaterial in Matthew and Luke with no parallel in any other gospel


What are the synoptic gospels?

What Jesus said and did was remembered and retoldA collection of teaching was put together (= Q)A bit later Mark was written collecting mostly narrativeFinally Matthew and Luke combined Mark and Q and their own traditions


Alternative Hypothesis

What Jesus said and did was remembered and retold

The telling became standardized into the basic story plus the teaching

The basic story was written as Mark

The story (expanded) plus the teaching was written as Matthew and Luke


The role of Jesus for the early church

Jesus as foundation storyJesus as interpreter of Jewish traditionJesus as model of Christian life

The teaching of JesusThe life-style of Jesus

Jesus as model of Christian ministryJesus' teaching on ministryJesus' example of ministry


The Virgin Birth

Redactionally this truth is variously expressed


Luke expresses it precisely

Dialogue between Mary and the angel (1:34-38)

Mary protests that she has not had sexual intercourse

The angels responds: God can work the impossible

Luke's account revolves around God's visiting his people and reversing their fortunes


Matthew is more indirect

He explores the legal nuances of the event

Mary is discovered to be pregnant before the wedding night

This required a divorceDeut 22, especially 22:23ff was likely not enforced

m. Gittin divorce; m. Sotah the adulteress

A divorce required two witnesses• Not to divorce his "wife" would be to cover sin and thus

partake in it, and Joseph was a "righteous" man


Matthew’s indirect story

Only a direct command of God prevents Joseph from actingThe virginity of Mary is further stressed by the remark in 1:25Matthew's account revolves around the "fulfillment" of Isa 7:14Matthew also concerns himself with the question of legitimacy and legality


The Matthean birth narrative

There is no birth narrative as such in Matthew, but a series of incidents surrounding the birth of Jesus

The arrangement of the incidents may be linked to a chain of testamonia

Fact which ties all together is that Herod the Great is king


The GenealogyMatt 1:1 consciously formulated to imitate the formulae of GenesisThe genealogy is an edited form of 1 Chron 1-3 (LXX)

Four women are mentioned, preparing the way for MaryNames are omittedThe last division has 13 names, either because Mary was counted or because a name was dropped in transmissionMatt 1:16 is carefully worded to protect both Davidic descent and the virgin birth


The schematic form (14 x 3) may have a meaning

Waxing and waning moon = rise and fall of Israel's fortunes (Fenton)Gain, loss, regaining of royalty (Plummer, Allen)David repeated 3 times (Hill)The genealogy varies from the Lucan genealogy

One or both are creations of the evangelist for theological purposesOne is a descent via Mary and the other via JosephOne is the royal line and the other Joseph's actual line


Luke’s theme = the inclusion of the outcasts and the poor

The baby is born in poor circumstances

Hired shepherds were “Jews who had made themselves gentiles”

Only shepherds receive the visitation

The content of the visitation is peace


In Matthew the theme of the birth is the coming of the Magi

Herodotus claims they were a Median clan which became a priestly class under the Persians

They are clearly pagans, for they refer to "the King of the Jews"

Point = pagans come from a distance to worship the baby Jesus

They come from the east


The StarThe presence of the star is often traced history-of-religions motifs

Num 24:17Stories of astronomical phenomena in connection with the birth of pagan greatsJewish new Moses theme

The nature of the starThe star is seen "at its rising" and then it apparently is not seen again until after the Magi leave JerusalemThe nature of the star is unknown


Responses to the birth: Matthew

In Matthew the Jews respond with unbeliefHerod is troubled (Cf. 14:26)The whole Sanhedrin is gatheredThe quotation cited is from neither the MT or the LXX

In Matthew the response of the gentiles is worship

The meaning of the gifts• The giving of gifts = allegiance and submission• Were the gifts symbolic?


The Flight into EgyptDream motif (Cf. 1:20; 2:12, 13, 22 and Cf. 2:19)The flight itself does not use supernatural means

The verb anachoresin is used of Moses' flight in Exod 2:15 = new Exodus motif

Massacre of the InnocentsReminds one of Egypt in Exod 1-2Only 20 or 30 children would have been involvedJer 31:15 + Gen 35:19


The Return to Israel

Further use of the dream motif

Joseph withdraws from a place of unbelief to a place of safety with the gentiles (Galilee of the gentiles)

The scripture citation does not exist in the OT

13/05/2015 Teaching of Jesus - 00 1 Message/Ministry and/or Teaching of Jesus.

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