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I found this section of class to be particularly interesting. I knew that there were many shared parts of the Bible but never knew they were almost exact copies. I found the reading about Q to be helpful in explaining how information was shared. I really liked the science/theory behind how scholars figure out which book was written first and how Luke and Matthew “copied” information from Mark. It amazes me how much research and work is put into figuring out which gospel was written first. I wouldn’t even know where to start when trying to figure out the order of gospels.

I thought the class discussion about the differences in the Gospels was interesting. I didn’t realize how much scholarly research and content there was about the differences and similarities between the Gospels. I think it’s very interesting the ways like discussed in class, guessing which one came first using context. I never would have thought that I would have to think about how to figure out what writing came first. It is also interesting how some small differences in single words could possibly even change the meaning of the Gospels. It seems kind of similar to the idea of how the Bible should be interpreted, whether it should be literal or in context.

The Gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke overlap in some of their stories and John is different from these. The stories that do overlap have some sort of connection between all of them. It is assumed that the authors wrote the Gospels separate from each other. The big question posed is why does it matter that we compare these Gospels? By putting these in conversation with one another, it allows us to see what the author valued and how they saw some events as opposed to the other disciples. This is parallels to the comparison between the story of a victim and the story of the perpetrator. On one hand the victim sees the event as a big deal, and they remember the details vividly. The perpetrator does not see the importance of the event and will downplay it to try and normalize their actions. How they present their story shows what they want to highlight and what they want the audience to understand about the event. The authors of the Gospels write in the same way. They have their own theme that they want to highlight so the audience understands what the big takeaways from Jesus’ time on Earth propagates the will of God.

The Synoptic Gospels are the three books of the New Testament. These tell the story of Jesus from his life, death and eventual resurrection. These three Gospels are Mark, Luke and Matthew. These are considered synoptic because they include similar if not the same stories. When comparing them in class we put them into columns and picked apart their similarities and differences. When it came to parts of the Gospel that are nit synoptic John was mentioned.  John came up as it does not line up with the other three Gospels in the same way.

In The Blackwell Companion to the New Testament, David Aune talks about the “synoptic problem”. This is the idea that the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are all connected in some way. There are similarities in the books that have led to this conclusion. Scholars have tried to dissect this idea and determine if the books were written by the same author, or which book was written first. In The New Testament: A Literary History, Gerd Theissen also discusses this idea. He talks about how there is a source “Q” which connects Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This source is explained in detail and by a drawing as well. All the books are connected when “Q” is included.

The Synoptic Gospels are the three Gospels that tell similar or even overlapping stories. These three Gospels are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These are synoptic because they involve many of the same stories and could even be put into columns and picked apart with similarities and differences. John, however, is not a Synoptic Gospel due to the fact that most of this Gospel does not line up with the other three Gospels.

With the Synoptic Gospels there are a couple of questions that come about. Which one came first? Which stories are taken from other stories? Let’s just say that if the three Gospels were turned in for a writing assignment in a class, then the teacher would suspect some form of plagiarism. Each of the Gospels tell very similar stories. It would be like if you read an essay online and wanted to copy it, you would change a couple of words and sum up a few statements to avoid copying the essay. The Gospels each have similar stories, but with different details. But this makes sense. If three people were to see a car crash happen, each of them might have similar stories, but none of them would tell the exact same story. That’s how the Gospels work, they give us different views on the same story, like when interviewing witnesses at a car crash. However, the stories have too many details that are similar. That is why it is believed that the authors were dependent of each other. Certain details were most likely borrowed and taken from others, but sometimes that is necessary to tell a full story.

When we talked about Jesus’s birth and the differences in the gospels telling of it, I thought about the difference in nativity scenes all around the world. It may seem silly but the conversation makes me think about how many nativity scenes follow each gospels telling of the story and how many are completely wrong or blur different gospels together.

I also enjoyed learning about the possibility that Jesus was born in a cave, merely because it is a funny scene to imagine. When we talked about the fact of the roman calendars incorrectness in identifying the year Jesus was born brought me back to an idea I’ve had the whole semester, what year did Mary and Joseph think it was when he was born and were they on the Roman 12 month calendar. Further down the rabbit hole when was that calendar accepted worldwide and what did the process look like.

The infancy story of Jesus is one that I am very family with. In Catholic school we always had an Advent program, where we acted out the Christmas story of Jesus’ birth. I think the story is incredible, how he was born by the Virgin Mary in a stable. While reading the other blogs, I found what someone said very interesting: that the birth of Jesus is why they believe in the power of him, because why would a powerful king be so determined to kill a baby and to go as far as to kill all male babies under two years old? I really like that reasoning, because it shows just how important that little baby was.

Mark Allan Powell describes how historians evaluate the life of Jesus apart from religious interpretation. They do this by putting the Gospel’s through the same analysis as any other ancient writings about historical people. They also look at other ancient writings that are not from the Bible in order to gain new information. I think it is very good that historians do this, in order to show what can be deemed as reliable about Jesus in the Gospels.

Most of what we talked about in class I was familiar with. A few years back during a Christmas Eve service, our Pastor discussed what most people recall of the birth of Jesus Christ. It was interesting hearing what the story is in our head in comparison to the actual Scripture. He even spoke about how our nativity/manger scenes that are put up during Christmas are biblically wrong. It was interesting to go over this in class. When people ask me why I believe that Jesus Christ is the savior, I always tell them the birth of Jesus. Why would a powerful king want to kill a baby? What would cause a ruler to be feared over a two year old? He went as far as to kill any two year old. I think this really puts things into perspective when people try to tell me Jesus was just a normal person. What normal person., well a baby in this case, scares a leader that much?

In class we discussed the book of Psalms. As an individual that grew up going to church, Sunday school, etc. I never fully realized that these were actually songs. I’m not sure if I wasn’t paying attention during Sunday school (I tend to space off during church or fall asleep) or why I never picked up on it. You can easily read the passages as just passages. As mentioned in class and by a few other blog posts, it would be a very cool experience to see how these passages were sang or how they were chanted. I was also very surprised with how many Psalms are in popular music. It never occurred to me that these lyrics were actually Biblical and some of these songs I know! I never knew how much the Bible even influences music.