Gospels

Recent studies of ancient compositional practices and the Synoptic Problem have validated the Two-Source Hypothesis and challenged the “Augustinian,” Farrer–Goulder, and Griesbach Hypotheses. These studies conclude that, according to the Two-Source Hypothesis, subsequent evangelists would have adhered to the Greco-Roman conventions of working with one source at a time and not working backward through a text. The present essay adduces counterexamples such as the Greek Minor Prophets Scroll from Naḥal Ḥever, which predates the Gospels, and Tatian’s Diatessaron, which postdates the Gospels. Upon further examination, simultaneously accessing multiple sources and reordering those sources were established compositional practices in the first century. Moreover, every solution to the Synoptic Problem necessitates such scribal conventions. Therefore the lesser extent of these ancient compositional practices does not privilege the Two-Source Hypothesis over its rivals.

This paper presents a text-oriented survey of some ongoing experimentation in translating the Bible poetically in the Chichewa language of Malawi and Zambia. An initial overview features a summary of ten important stylistic characteristics of the ndakatulo popular lyric genre along with illustrations of their use and comments on their varied communicative function, all selected from the publications of a number of well-known local poets. Certain aspects of this ndakatulo style are then applied in a creative poetic rendition of the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) in Chichewa. This version is comparatively evaluated in relation to two existing translations of this same biblical text, one being very literal in nature, the other much more idiomatic. In conclusion, some wider implications and possible applications of this study are discussed, including several proposals for future research and testing in the field of translating sacred texts into the Bantu languages of south-central Africa.

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In his objective study of the texts, Maurice Bucaille clears' away many preconceived ideas about the Old Testament, the Gospels and the Quran. He tries, in this collection of Writings, to separate what belongs to Revelation from what is the product of error or human interpretation.

His study sheds new light on the Holy Scriptures. At the end of a gripping account, he places the Believer before a point of cardinal importance: the continuity of a Revelation emanating from the same God, with modes of expression that differ in the course of time. It leads us to meditate upon those factors which, in our day, should spiritually unite rather than divide-Jews, Christians and Muslims.

As a surgeon, Maurice Bucaille has often been in a situation where he was able to examine not only people's bodies, but their souls. This is how he was struck by the existence of Muslim piety and by aspects of Islam which remain unknown to the vast majority of non-Muslims. In his search for explanations which are otherwise difficult to obtain, he learnt Arabic and studied the Quran. In it, he was surprised to find statements on natural phenomena whose meaning can only be understood through modern scientific knowledge.

He then turned to the question of the authenticity of the writings that constitute the Holy Scriptures of the monotheistic religions. Finally, in the case of the Bible, he proceeded to a confrontation between these writings and scientific data.

The results of his research into the Judeo-Christian Revelation and the Quran are set out in this book.

The study of Jesus in the Qur'an might profitably begin with the fact that there he is called not the expected Arabic Yasu' but rather the unaccountable 'Isa. From there the reader of the Qur'an may wonder to what extent the writer of the materials on Jesus was familiar with the canonical Gospel accounts that had circulated widely and extensively in the Middle East during the six centuries preceding the emergence of Islam. The Qur'anic portrait of Jesus is full of mysteries, lacunae, and intriguing questions.

Convocation Address at Bethel University, August 29, 2016 about recent troubles in Minnesota, particularly the shooting of Philando Castille, and our responsibility as followers of the Gospel. There is an audio link also available. After you click the link, it's the first one in the queue; fast-forward to 15:00:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/2016-2017-chapel-college-arts/id1148681753?mt=10

Kenneth Hagin (1917-) represents and is widely accepted as the father of the Word of Faith Ministries1 though his mantle has largely
fallen to Kenneth and Gloria Copeland who, through the magazine “Believer’s Voice of Victory,” promulgate a similar message concerning
healing.2 Because of the impact of his teaching concerning healing,3
with its attendant reactions,4 it is appropriate to analyze his beliefs and practices. Despite his attempts to prove that Christians may emulate the
healing ministry of Jesus, he assumes major differences that undermine
such a link. These will now be explored.

Son una secuencia que abre una posibilidad de entender mejor y más claro cómo Jesús quiso describir el carácter de Dios. Jesús mostró un Dios diferente al que tenía en vista la mayoría del mundo antiguo y lo hace hoy al mundo actual también. La demostración está basada en las bienaventuranzas registradas en el conocido sermón del monte.  Es una exégesis contextual y explicativa del carácter de Dios.

Meditazione scritta in occasione della celebrazione liturgica della XXX domenica del ciclo A della Chiesa Cattolica: viene con brevità approfondito il comandamento dell'amore, di Dio e del prossimo, con particolare attenzione a quale dio e quale prossimo vanno amati.

Jesus’ teachings in the Gospel of Mark provide the marching orders for holistic ministry, i.e., discipling people to faith in Jesus Christ, and demonstrating our own faith through our actions and service among the needy. The purpose of this article is to establish that the transformational experience of salvation, the ethical actions of social concern, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, as they are seen primarily in the Gospel of Mark, are inextricably linked together in any expression of holistic ministry.

(Выставка и каталог "Евангелие Иеронима Наталиса. Первое издание" представляют экземпляр знаменитой старинной  иллюстрированной книги в собрании Музея имени Андрея Рублева. Книга включает два тома: сочинение испанского теолога-иезуита И. Наталиса "Замечания и размышления о Евангелии", которое иллюстрируют "Картины Евангельской истории" - 153 прекрасные гравюры работы фламандских мастеров братьев Вирикс по рисункам итальянского художника Бернардино Пассери. Экземпляр Музея имени Андрея Рублева происходит из первой публикации Bible Natalis в Антверпене  1593 (иллюстрации) и 1594 (текст).
В каталоге рассказана история создания  Евангелия Наталиса раскрывается её связь с религиозной борьбой в Европе XVI-XVII вв., когда столкнулись движения Реформации и Контрреформации. В подготовке издания к печати важнейшую роль сыграли Общество Иисуса (орден иезуитов) и великий издатель Кристоф Плантен. Подробно рассмотрен процесс изготовления гравюр и их авторы, проследило изменение состояний отпечатков в разных изданиях. Особое внимание в каталоге уделено выдающемуся значению, которое имели "Картины Евангельской истории"  Евангелия Наталиса в истории искусства Западной, Восточной Европы, России, Ирана и Китая в XVII в. Впервые представлены  вместе  произведения Питера Пауэла Рубенса, Филиппа де Шампеня,  испанских скульпторов, итальянских, голландских граверов, армянских, русских иконописцев, китайских мастеров ксилографии, которые восходят к композициям гравюр Bible Natalis.
В Каталоге полностью воспроизведены все гравюры "Картин Евангельской истории" (два титульных листа, 153 иллюстрации, декоративные гравюры) с переводом латинских комментариев под изображениями на русский язык.


The exhibition and the catalog «Gospel by Hierinymus Natalis (The «Biblia Natalis»). First edition» represent the copy of the famous ancient book with illustrations in the collection of the Andrey Rublev Museum. The book includes two volumes: an essay by the Spanish Jesuit theologian H. Natalis  «Annotations and meditation on the Gospel», which is illustrated by «Pictures of the Gospel History» – 153 beautiful engravings by the Flemish masters Wierix brothers made according to the drawings by Italian artist Bernardino Passeri. The copy of the Andrey Rublev Museum comes from the first publication the «Biblia Natalis» in Antwerp 1593 (illustration) and 1594 (text).
The story of the creation of «Biblia Natalis» had told in the catalog, its connection with the religious struggle in Europe XVI-XVII Century when the movements of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation collided also had revealed there. The Society of Jesus (Jesuit Order) and the great publisher Christophe Plantin played an important role in the preparation of publications for publication. The process of making engravings and their authors had reviewed in detail tracing the change in the state of prints in various publications. Particular attention is paid in the catalog to the outstanding importance that «Pictures of Gospel History» had in the history of art of Western, Eastern Europe, Russia, Iran and China in the XVII century. Works by Pieter Paul Rubens, Philippe de Champaigne, Spanish sculptors, Italian, Dutch engravers, Armenian, Russian icon-painters and Chinese woodcutters which go back to compositions by Biblia Natalis are presented together for the first time.
All the engravings of «Pictures of the Gospel History» (two title pages, 153 illustrations, decorative engravings) with translation of Latin comments under the images into Russian are reproduced in the Catalog.

niente di più organizzato di ciò che l'amore ordina e niente di più libero di ciò che l'amore unisce Ci sono 2 modi per organizzare le cose  il 1º modo per far sì che tutti seguano l'idea di un leader, rinunciando alla propria identità.  il 2º modo è che ognuno metta i suoi doni a servizio degli altri, amando i doni dell'altro come i propri, ognuno attento a tutti gli altri: in questo modo l'organizzazione sarà più perfetta e tutti si sentiranno liberi. ESERCIZI PER AUMENTARE L'AMORE RECIPROCO DARE TEMPO PER COMUNICARE Comunicare le proprie esperienze, le proprie scoperte e difficoltà. Solo quando comunico le mie esperienze a persone con cui c'è l'amore reciproco, ne scopro il senso, scopro il filo d'oro che lega gli avvenimenti. Scopro la provvidenza. Scopro l'azione di Dio nella mia vita. Ciò che metto in comunione con gli altri lo capisco. Ciò che non comunico lo perdo. DARE TEMPO AI RAPPORTI PRIMA DEL FARE Le cose fatte confrontandosi, ascoltandosi, mettendo alla base l'amore reciproco, hanno una grazia speciale: durano di più, sono più efficaci. Per questo è importante non aver fretta di fare le cose, di organizzare, se prima non ci si è veramente capiti ed ascoltati. Sembra di perdere tempo, invece si guadagna tempo. PARTECIPARE INSIEME ALL'EUCARESTIA L'amore reciproco tra noi non è mai perfetto. L'unità è imperfetta. L'eucarestia la perfeziona, la completa: è sacramento di unità. MAI L'EUCARESTIA SE NON CERCHI LA RICONCILIAZIONE Matteo 5,23: se presenti la tua offerta sull'altare e lì ti ricordi che tuo fratello ha qualche cosa contro di te, lascia lì il tuo dono davanti all'altare e và prima a riconciliarti con il tuo fratello e poi torna ad offrire il tuo dono. L'amore reciproco L'AMORE RECIPROCO È IL CENTRO DEL VANGELO Giovanni 13,34: vi do un comandamento nuovo: che vi amiate gli uni gli altri.

L'articolo  tenta di tracciare una pista di esegesi neotestamentaria e teologia biblica attraverso la ricerca di un nucleo di storicità del kerigma pasquale. La diverse figure profetico-regali e messianiche che fanno parte del background giudaico del I secolo hanno una rilevanza gesuana. Ogni evangelista compie una reinterpretazione kerigmatica e teologica delle stesse, che si può approfondire tramite la narratologia e lo studio dell'anagnorisis.

The Gospels contain divergent accounts of the resurrection of Jesus, which cannot easily be harmonized. Are these divergences a problem for people of faith? Or are they what is to be expected, given the diversity of human experience and memory?

Jésus était rassemblé avec ses disciples dans la chambre haute de Jérusalem pour célébrer la Pâque. Jésus était disposé à célébrer la fête avec ses disciples en privé. Il savait que son temps était venu, mais il avait encore quelques heures de calme. Jésus a investi toutes ces heures pour enseigner à ses disciples et les aider...

This paper (in Dutch) investigates the possibility that, for the first chapter(s) of his gospel, Luke reworked a source (either Hebrew or Aramaic) which had at its centre the birth of John the Baptist. It deals with questions as:
-was Zacharias, the father of John, murdered in the Temple?
-was Zacharias only mute or also deaf?
-was there an original annunciation to Elisabeth?
-why did Elisabeth hide herself and for whom?
-does the Visitatio go back to the story of an angel visiting Elisabeth?
-who sang the Magnificat: Mary or Elisabeth?
-can some details in the Protoevangelium of James (Infancy Gospel of James) be explained by the author being influenced by this hypothetical source about John the Baptist?

This is the syllabus for a Gospel of Mark course taught at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary during the Fall 2019 semester. The course itself was subdivided between four sections: Greek Exegesis Online, Greek Exegesis Residential, English Exegesis Online, and English Exegesis Residential.

Students in the class were predominately MDiv Students and many were taking the class not only to fulfill an exegesis course requirement but also in preparation for the exegesis portion of ordination exams for the PCUSA.

Para que se manifieste la fuerza interna del reino de Dios, es necesario que la comunidad cristiana, una minoría, se mantenga interiormente como tal; así resulta ser una verdadera minoría creativa. Sólo permaneciendo semilla, levadura, grano de mostaza, sal y luz es posible participar de la fecundidad y de la fuerza renovadora del Evangelio. Ello requiere, también, la atención por lo pequeño, por la persona (el pequeño rebaño, la oveja perdida) para poder construir algo grande. Las primeras comunidades cristianas atestiguan hasta qué punto el testimonio del evangelio sólo se hace significativo para los hombres de cada época si se sabe preservar esta diferencia. Porque esa diferencia pertenece a lo íntimo del misterio de Cristo, que con su acción invisible es la raíz de esa fuerza misteriosa y realísima.

In theological research of The Christian Community and in anthroposophical circles, there is a tendency to follow the chronology of John rather than the synoptics. Questioning this tendency initially, this paper follows research by Andrew Welburn, Emil Bock, Rudolf Steiner and others on Essenism and Gnosticism to understand the re-emergence of mystery initiations in Palestine before the christian era and the significance of initiation, death and resurrection for christianity, tracing the independent mystery traditions of each of the four gospels and ending cautiously in favour of the historical accuracy of the second half of John's gospel.

Objetivos: O texto aborda brevemente as principais teorias que procuram explicar os inúmeros solecismos e barbarismos encontrados no grego do Apocalipse. Metodologia: Depois de considerar essas teorias, seu objetivo é encontrar uma explicação satisfatória para esses desvios gramaticais com o recurso metodológico a textos informativos dos pais da igreja e às passagens do Novo Testamento que tecem comentários sobre a qualidade linguística da pregação do evangelho. Discussão: Para a análise aqui empreendida, as supostas deficiências linguísticas de João são categorizadas em três grupos: deficiências aparentes, deficiências oriundas das condições de escritura e do grau de instrução do autor e, finalmente, “deficiências” permitidas pelo desígnio de Deus.

Most scholars consider an eleventh-century Greek Gospel book in Paris
(Bibiothèque nationale de France, MS Grec 74) the direct model for the illustrations in a Slavonic Gospel book (London, British Library, Add. MS 39627) copied for the Bulgarian tsar John (Ivan) Alexander (r. 1331–1371). In a recent monograph (2005), the philologist Iliya Talev argues that some narrative miniatures in the Paris manuscript reverse the sequence of the illustrated events, while the corresponding miniatures of the London Gospel place these events in their correct order. This shows, in Talev’s view, that the Bulgarian illustrations do not directly copy the eleventh-century Byzantine ones. Talev assumes faithful copying by means of anthivola (stencils), which could be accidentally flipped over, thus reversing the sequence of some scenes. My analysis of the miniatures shows that the painters were very sensitive to the text-image correspondence and that reversed sequence was a way to better link pictures and words. In some cases, the artists used a boustrophedon pattern, so that text lines and pictorial content could be jointly read as a continuous, non-interrupted narrative.

十六世紀半ばから十七世初頭にかけ、日本イエズス会により、日本語の教理書が出版されたということは周知の通りだ。世俗のヨーロッパ文学である『イソップ物語』の和訳、そして天草版『平家物語』、『太平記抜書』の存在もよく知られている。しかし、日本語で書かれたオリジナルのキリスト教説話が現存するということは案外知られていない。近年、このテキスト群を「異文化接触」というレベルで取り上げた研究が現れているが、漢訳仏典や漢籍の影響を受けた『日本霊異記』『今昔物語集』などとは対照的に、室町末期にラテン語文脈から国語に翻案されたキリスト教文学は、残念ながらこれまで国文学として扱われてこなかった。その理由をここで詳しくは追究できないが、日本精神というものが（漢文脈との関連性ではある程度まで認められている一方で）キリスト教との関係性については根本的に異質で相容れないものと一般的には理解されていることが、その背景にあると考えられる。しかし、キリスト教説話を聞いた織豊期の日本人がこのように日本精神とキリスト教を両極的なものとして捉えていたということは、資料からは読み取れない。本稿では、キリスト教も日本精神も信仰していない筆者が日本中世キリスト教の代表的な説話集をバレト写本という資料の中から取り上げ、その原典が何であったかを明らかにし、さらに、同時代の日本文学との関係性を探る。その結果、この説話集は当時の武士階級によって評価された軍記・語り物文学、取り分け幸若舞と最も関連性が深いということを示す。

This article maintained that the historicity of Jesus’ baptism was intended to flesh out the righteousness of God that was well-documented in the Hebrew Scriptures. Furthermore, the historical event initiated the ontological emphasis on the relationship of baptism to righteousness. To support this proposal, this article focused on Matthew’s fulfilment statement in Matthew 3:15. Looking specifically at this verse within its context, the article examines what Matthew may have intended for his community to grasp regarding the Christian tradition of righteousness. The article is divided into four sections that are intended to examine Matthew’s intentions. Firstly, the immediate context is examined, showing the influences and setting for the fulfilment statement. The following section explores the fulfilment statement within this context. The third section uncovers some of the theological traditions in Paul and the church fathers. Finally, the baptismal statement of Matthew 3:15 will be tied directly to the relationship of the law and righteousness in Matthew’s ἦλθον statement of Matthew 5:17.

Jim Rayburn, the founder of Young Life, was an influential Christian leader during the twentieth century. His passion for teenagers to be introduced to Jesus has started a worldwide organization that exists in over 100 countries today. This paper analyzes the life of Rayburn and what made him an effective leader. This paper also views the life of Rayburn through the lens of practice-led research and discuses how Rayburn was an early pioneer of this method.

Good-natured discussions between well-informed individuals are in short supply.  For that reason, Peter Williams’ discussion of his most recent book (‘Can We Trust the Gospels?’) with NT scholar Bart Ehrman is a must-watch.  In what follows, I share a number of thoughts/reflections on it.