It has long been recognised that in the Synoptic Gospels (Mark especially) Jesus is frequently recorded as commanding people not to speak about certain aspects of his identity and activity.
For example:
‘The role of the apostles as witnesses to the fact that the crucified and buried Jesus rose from the dead is central for Luke. This role is emphasized in the commissioning of the apostles (Lk 24:48; Acts 1:8), and it is central both in the description of the criteria of apostleship when the need arose to replace Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:21–22) and in Peter’s preaching and teaching (Acts 2:32; 3:15; 4:2, 10, 33; 5:32; 10:41). The apostles are “distinctive in their role as Jesus’ authorized delegates, witnesses to the reality of his resurrection and expounders of its significance” (Clark, 178).…
The first two chapters of Luke’s Gospel contain many allusions to the story of Abraham (Genesis 11-21). In addition to the two explicit references to Abraham Lk 1:55; 1:79, S. Young (DJG [2nd ed.], art. ‘Birth of Jesus’ mentions:-
J.…
Tim Chester has written a short piece on ‘What to look out for in Mark’s Gospel’. What follows is a précis.
The big question in Mark’s Gospel is ‘Who is this?’ (Mk 4:41). Who is Jesus and what has he come to do?
1. The King who must die
Right at the beginning, Mark introduces us to Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God (Mk 1:1). Messiah (Christ) means ‘anointed one’, and this reminds us that the kings of Israel were anointed with oil. …
Marcus J. Borg describes himself as ‘moderate to liberal’ scholar. In setting out his ‘appreciative disagreement’ with Tom Wright (in response to the latter’s Jesus and the Victory of God), Borg homes in on the question of miracle. He sees the Gospels as a combination of ‘history remembered’ and ‘history metaphorized’. The first of these terms refers to those events that are recorded in the Gospels simply because they actually happened. The second term refers to other things that are related in the Gospels. …
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A book by Philip Pullman : ‘The good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ’. This reflects the popular distinction between ‘the Jesus of history’ and ‘the Christ of faith’; the simple Galilean teacher, as depicted in the Gospels, and the exalted object of the church’s worship, as found in the Epistles.
How is Jesus actually presented in this, the earliest and shortest of the Gospels; the one that most emphasises his humanness? Let’s call four witnesses.…
Until recently (writes N.T. Wright in Jesus and the Victory of God), it was generally assumed that ‘repentance’ was a major theme in the teaching of Jesus, and that this meant more or less the negative side of personal conversion. His message was one of divine grace, in contrast to the prevailing legalism of Judaism. It is now ‘widely recognised’, says Wright, that this involved a ‘complete caricature’, both of Judaism and of the teaching of Jesus. …
With reference to the rabbinic writings, the term ‘midrash’ refers to both a type of scriptural interpretation (‘midrashic’) and for a body of scriptural interpretation (‘midrashim’).
It has become increasingly clear to scholars that parts of the NT reflect a midrashic approach.
In rabbinic practice, midrash assumes the existence of a fixed and holy text that can be used in multiple and diverse ways to answers various religious questions. ‘Midrash assumes that the biblical text has an inexhaustible fund of meaning that is relevant to and adequate for every question and situation.’…
I have referred, on several occasions, to the work of Richard Bauckham on Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. In that book Bauckham sets out a range of evidence in support of his view that the four Gospels are based very largely on the testimony of eyewitnesses, and therefore should be regarded as having a high index of historical reliability.
Writing in the 2nd edition of the Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (art. ‘Historicisms and Historiography’), J.…
