Theology teacher Ben Myers has a list of twelve ‘rules’ on how we speak of Christ:-
2. Not to speak of Jesus in any way that sidelines the divine depth beneath his human experience. Jesus Christ is truly God.
3. Not to divide Christ’s divinity and humanity, or to give the impression that he sometimes functions as God and sometimes as a human.
Text: Acts 4:32-5:16
It’s a shocking story. What is our gut reaction?
Disbelief? (a God of love wouldn’t do such a thing)
Dismay? (I’m no better than this pair. If only you knew what impure thoughts, what insincere prayers, what resentful attitudes I’m capable of…)
Collusion: they had hatched this plan together v2.
Deceit: their sin was not in keeping some of the money back. (Selling off houses and land was neither universal nor compulsory). …
I have written several posts that support the essential historicity of the events that are recorded in Mark’s Gospel (no less than those that are recorded in the other three Gospels).
I have found it interesting, however, to consider the views of Robert M. Price (one of the contributors to The Historical Jesus: Five Views), who takes the polar opposite view. For Price, the ‘events’ recorded in Mark’s Gospel (no less that the others) have virtually no basis in history, but were invented by the Christian community on the basis of their reading of (what we call) the Old Testament scriptures.…
Was the notion of a dying and rising Saviour, as recorded in the canonical Gospels, derived from pagan myths concerning the Canaanite god Baal, the Phoenician god Adonis, the Egyptian god Osiris, and others? This view was first popularised by J. G. Frazer in The Golden Bough: a Study in Magic and Religion (first published in 1890). Frazer thought that he had discovered a universal core in religion – a myth about a dying and rising fertility god, along with associated rituals – and this idea was taken up by some others, including Joseph Campbell.…
Richard Bauckham (Jesus and the Eyewitnesses) observes that in Mark’s Gospel the male disciples are represented as oscillating between understanding and misunderstanding, and between loyalty and apostasy.
‘In both cases,’ writes Bauckham, ‘the disciples oscillate between the possibilities, but the negative pole in each case (misunderstanding and apostasy) tends to predominate, resulting in the overall portrayal of them as fallible and failing disciples, whose inability to understand the necessity for Jesus’ suffering and death is connected with their failure to remain faithful to him when his passion begins.’…
Referring back to an old (1925) and neglected article by Cuthbert Taylor, Richard Bauckham (Jesus and the Eyewitnesses) notes that there are twenty-one instances of a narrative device in Mark’s Gospel that invite attention. This is a device in which switches, slightly awkwardly, from third-person plural to third-person singular. Here are some examples:-
Mk 5:1f – ‘They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had stepped out of the boat .…
At first glance, the lists of Jesus’ disciples (Matt 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:13-16; see also Acts 1:13) seem simply to introduce some of the key players in the story. But these lists probably serve a more specific purpose, especially given that about half of the characters named in the lists are never named again in the Gospels. So this more specific function of the lists of disciples is that they display continuity between Jesus and the early Christian community, and provide the latter with reassurance about the overall shape and content of Jesus ministry that could only come from those who had closely associated with him. …
There is a group of women who, according to the Synoptic Gospels, saw Jesus’ crucifixion (Matt 27:55; Mark 15:40; Luke 23:49), saw him being laid in his tomb (Matt 27:61; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55), and saw that the tomb was subsequently empty (Matt 28:1,6; Mark 16:4-6). ‘It could hardly be clearer,’ writes Richard Bauckham, ‘that the Gospels are appealing to their role as eyewitnesses.’
All the Gospels name some of these women, while implying that others were also present (Matt 27:55; 28:1, 5; Mark 15:41, 47; 16:6; Luke 24:10; John 20:2). …
Briefly, we may say that healing miracles
According to N.T. Wright (Jesus and the Victory of God) the healing miracles of Jesus went further than the relief of physical suffering, or even social acceptance. …
1. Why didn’t Jesus go straight to heaven when he rose from the dead?
2. In how many ways could the following sentence be completed:- ‘Because Jesus has ascended to heaven, we know that…’
3. If Christ’s followers are not supposed to be standing looking into the sky (Acts 1:11), what are we supposed to be doing, according to this passage? And why do we need power (verse 8) to do this?…
