Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [132]
When several separate and differing biblical accounts are combined, the composite picture shows a Jesus who was miraculously born of a virgin and became a traveling teacher, healer, and wonder-worker who lived most of his life in the vicinity of the Sea of Galilee. Attracting a group of devoted followers who gave up their livelihoods and families to join him, Jesus was eventually viewed as a threat by certain Jewish authorities. They saw to it that he was arrested, tried, and executed by Roman officials on a crucifix, a Roman punishment usually reserved for runaway slaves and rebels. Following his death on the cross, Jesus was reported to appear alive and in the flesh to groups of his followers. To the devout Jews who accepted him, Jesus was the promised Savior who fulfilled the promise expressed in their scriptures of a coming “Messiah” or “anointed one” from the line of David who would deliver the Children of Israel and usher in a new age of peace and God’s rule. Though he was later called the “Christ,” that is not a name but a title bestowed upon Jesus. Christos comes from the Greek, the original language of the New Testament, and originally meant “oil” but was interpreted as “anointed one” or “Messiah.”
The twenty-seven books of the New Testament fall into two main sections: the first five books tell about the life of Jesus and the work of his followers in establishing the religion later called Christianity; the next twenty-one books are letters written by some of the leaders of the early Christian church, expanding or interpreting Jesus’ teachings and laying out a new set of rules for living and worship very much at odds with their Jewish traditions. The last of the twenty-seven books, Revelation, both letter and “apocalyptic” vision of the Last Days before Judgement Day, is totally different in style and tone from the other books.
Although probably not written first, the four books that are placed at the beginning of the New Testament are called the Gospels. While commonly understood today as the equivalent of “truth,” the English word “gospel” is derived from the AngloSaxon god-spell—for “good tidings” or “good news.” Named for their presumed authors, the four Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Scholars and theologians have traditionally named the first three the “synoptic Gospels” (“synoptic” is from the Greek for “viewing together”) because they “view” the story of Jesus’ life, death, and teachings in very similar fashion. While the three synoptic Gospels have much in common, they also have some key differences. They relate the same basic account of Jesus’ life and death but disagree on significant details and specifics of chronology and place. Some of these disagreements are quite startling. For instance, Matthew, the first of the synoptic Gospels, reports that when Jesus died, some of the dead of Jerusalem rose and walked—a miraculous event overlooked by the other Gospels as well as contemporary nonbiblical accounts of first-century Jerusalem. Both Matthew and Luke provide accounts of Jesus’ birth to a virgin, but Mark does not mention this rather extraordinary event at all.
John, the fourth Gospel, is very unlike the other three in biographical details and the author’s literary style. A gloriously poetic book, John recounts some of the same events in the life and death of Jesus as the others, but the book is more figurative and “spiritual” than the other three. It also contains critical differences, including variations