Theories of the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Matthew - Assignment Example

1. The Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of John each make different arguments about who Jesus is, and what he accomplished. What is the main claim about Jesus each of them makes? How does each gospel support its claims? To whom were they making their claims, and to what values among their readers do they each appeal? The Gospel of Matthew claims that Jesus is the Messiah while that of John’s makes it clear that Jesus is God. These two gospels may turn out contradictory at some point, but their actual point of views have one essential goal set in it and that is to proclaim God’s abounding love for His people and how He placed Himself at the center point of Israelites’ struggles to bring them to deliverance. The Gospel of John supports its claim by showcasing Jesus’ relation with David and the actual prophesies of the prophets from the past, telling that the coming Messiah is the one who belongs in the house of David. In the scripture, God promised to David that He would never break his covenant with Him. Thus, the human existence of Jesus as God is the fulfillment of this eternal promise. The Gospel of Matthew is making its claim to the Jews, who are people who believe the idea that there is only one God, the one Who delivered them from the hands of their enemies like the Philistines. Just like David, Jesus is the appointed Messiah who will comfort and bring deliverance to the Israelites from the Roman Empire. Although the battle would not include weapons just as how David did it from the past, Jesus’ way of fighting against the oppression was through his teachings about God’s enduring values and principles, which are supposed to bring the people to their victory. Absolute power and authority are what John is trying to put in the name of Jesus in his writings. This is to justify his claim that Jesus is God. John is trying to emphasize that one should have a strong doctrine of believing that God’s ultimate characteristics and Jesus’ are one. John is appealing his claim to those believers who strongly placed absolute power and authority in the word of God, as John himself claims that God and His Word are one and the Word is Jesus made flesh and dwelt among us. However, just like Matthew, John’s ultimate purpose of sharing the Gospel is to proclaim that Jesus is to deliver us from our sins for us to receive eternal life. Nowadays, because of the sins those describe in the Bible, many people are unable to experience the joy or the life God wants His people to experience. Just like the Israelites from Egypt who received promise from God of a ‘land flowing with milk and honey,’ John is trying to emphasize the abundance that Jesus freely gives to those who receive him. Therefore, it is the same promise in principle that John would want to convey to his reader that God is consistently giving to the people, the promise of deliverance and obtaining life to the full. 2. How did different factions of 1st century Judaism understand the meaning of the term Messiah? How did the life of Jesus conform to these expectations, and in what ways did Jesus’ followers redefine the term? Israelites were oppressed and their ultimate hope of way out from such oppression is to rely on God’s deliverance. Due to their disobedience, God allowed them to experience troubles associated with their actual defiance. However, prophets believe that the Messiah would come to give them the deliverance. Generally, the different tribes of Israel received this prophecy and have the basic idea that the Messiah would be their mighty deliverer. Placing the story of Jesus in here however would make some substantial issues as not all of those who adhere in the 1st century Judaism believe he is the Messiah. The followers of Jesus on the other hand have remarkably created ways to justify their claims about Jesus as the Messiah predicted in the Old Testament. One essential proof is the establishment of churches from Israel to Rome believing that Jesus is the Messiah. First, the essential background of the life of Jesus is evident in the Gospel of Matthew, Luke and John. The prophecies concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament are revealed in these three essential Gospels in the New Testament. These Gospels include the strong points of the believers of Jesus to assert that he is indeed the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament. However, Jesus’ followers eventually redefine the term by considering that the battle that the Messiah had faced was not the kind of battle David encountered from the past. The kind of deliverance that the Messiah would want to give to the people is more likely the deliverance from the sins which have become the ultimate reason of Israel’s defeat and bondage to its enemies. The followers of Jesus are therefore trying to adhere to the prediction in the Old Testament but there is strong adherence to the acceptance of principles rather than the actual expectation on how the Israelites are supposed to win over their battle. Jesus’ followers believe that the actual battle is not literally the same as how Moses, Joshua or David defeated their enemies, but in principle it is. Jesus as the Messiah was facing more than the physical battle from the past based on his followers’ belief because they also believe that he is above any prophets and he eventually fulfilled God’s law. By spreading this across every church in the world, Jesus’ believers are strongly convinced that Jesus is the Messiah and his ultimate goal for everyone’s life is to win every personal battle. 3. Unlike most other religions of the ancient Mediterranean, Christianity placed an enormous emphasis upon belief. Why? What did it gain from this innovation, and what problems did this cause? In some cases this was believing in, and in others it became believing that. Please discuss the importance and the relationship between each type of believing and the function of each in the development of Christian communities and institutions. It is only through placing emphasis upon belief that Christians would be able to identify the value of accepting or receiving Jesus in their individual life. In this case, faith has become the center point of the Christian life, but it is also at this point in which the development of Church politics surfaces facing variants of problems associated with the Christian belief. Let us take the case of each type of believing, which simply include ‘believing in’ and ‘believing that.’ ‘Believing in’ sounds very personal and for instance, it could center to asserting trust and commitment to Jesus and his full authority. This potentially includes one’s subjective state of mind because not all would have the same level of trust and commitment to Jesus and his full authority in the first place. This kind of believing is tantamount to subjective perspective of the person on how he exactly experiences Jesus in a way that he would want it to happen in his life. Since this would include subjective point of view of the individual, then the presence of imagination which all boils down to the mind would have a very important implication on the person’s actual belief in Jesus. ‘Believing that’ on the other hand tries to justify the truth of the claim and it could sound highly political as this could represent the doctrine of the church or anyone else’s with high level of authority. At this point, one believes because there is an actual affirmation of the truth behind the actual belief. Therefore, the two types of believing are essential for the development of the church. The church could not be established without a certain level of belief. One may engage himself in a Christian congregation because of his personal experience how Jesus transforms his life. On the other hand, such confirmation would also potentially lead others to be ignited to experience the same experience. In other words, there is a strong influenced involved in believing which is a very critical component in the development of the church. At some point the two types of believing try to establish the crucial stand of an individual and even the kind of doctrine he would potentially hold in his entire life. However, because of the presence of subjectivity in one’s belief, various ideas surfaces concerning the Christian life, leading to the actual politics involved in the church, which at some point has primarily become the source of various conflicts involved within the Christian church. Faith has also become highly intellectualized as one’s experience with Jesus may potentially vary from the other due to the presence of the subjective state of mind of every individual and varying personal experience. Read More