The New Testament

DeConstructed

John and Mark contain different versions of the first part of Jesus’ Passion. Jesus has more to say in John’s gospel. He says, “My kingdom is not of this world,” declaring that Pilate has no power over him except what is given to him by God. These extended dialogs are typical of John’s Gospel, where Jesus develops his ideas in long protracted speeches, as opposed to the synoptic Gospels, where series of aphorisms and one-liners are found. These short aphorisms might come from Quelle, containing the sayings of Jesus, another source for Matthew and Luke. Quelle is from the German and means ‘source.’ Arguments for the existence of “Quelle” are *The Synoptic Gospels were written after 70 AD, **so they were not eye witness to the events in Jesus’ life and had to use different sources***And, as I said, Matthew and Luke copied Mark and****utilized other sources *****and this source, Q, was likely a collection of the sayings of Jesus, similar to the noncannonical gospel of Thomas. (I found this information on Microsoft Bing because Google didn’t have a clue. Google also told me “Duck, Duck, Go” didn’t exist, but I found it through Microsoft and had it on my phone for a long time. It’s good for getting rid of sites that won’t go away by conventional means.) The title of the website I found is “Got Questions.” This source says there is not a shred of evidence for the existence of Q. Not even a tiny scrap of a manuscript…The writer of “Got Questions” says the use of the Q source is not the problem. The problem is the reason why most Q gospel advocates believe a Q was used, namely, a denial of the inspiration of scripture.

I tend to think that parts of scripture were inspired, although a lot of it is copied from the Hebrew scriptures. Also, the NT was written in Greek and the Enlish translation does not give us the word play of the original. However, there are many other literary devices we can relate to. Think Shakespeare. You just have to work at it. Added to that, the historical-critical method ignores the many literary techniques in the Gospels. They were written in Greek by sophisticated theologians who knew both Greek and Hebrew literature, and their skill can be compared to Shakespeare. There are several frame narratives, where Act A takes place, interrupted by Act B, and the Act A returns. Jesus was on his way to heal or revive a sick girl A, he was interrupted by a centurion whose father needed immediate attention, Jesus healed him remotely B and then he continued along to Jarius’ daughter A. There are several frame narrations in the Gospels. The Gospels are stuffed with symbolism and pagan motifs. Turning water into wine is one such symbol. Jesus will take the blah water of our souls and turn them into the deep, rich red of the wine. It also foreshadows his Passion, in which he will sacrifice his body and blood for the sins of Humankind. This is also a pagan motif, because there were cyclical celebrations when gods were put to death by crucifixion only to rise with the harvest. Some of them even had 12 disciples. But that’s where the similarity ended because they weren’t treated like Jesus. The way Jesus was treated is a riddle, especially how the crowds turned against him and could be so easily manipulated into doing so.

After the supper, Jesus takes his disciples up to Gethsemene. athough one Gospel says Mt. of Olives. It might be the same place because they are sitting on an olive press in the Garden of Gethsemene. Jesus goes off to pray, taking Peter and the Zebedee twins, James and John with him. After Jesus prays for a while, he checks on the 3 and found them sleeping. He says to Peter, who is his favorite and keeper of the keys of the kingdom, “Couldn’t you keep the watch with me for just one hour?” Jesus then goes back to praying. He finds them sleeping the second and third time he checks them. He said to them,”Pray that you do not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” As Jesus was being arrested, Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of a soldier. Jesus severely rebuked him and said he could have 12 legions of angels here. He started a long speech but the disciples had fled.

Next blog will be a look at Matthew’s version of events.