The Servants Song, Interpretation of the Book of Jonah by the Early Christians - Essay Example

College The Servants Song The Servant’s Song comprises of the message of the Lords servant who is the Servant of God to come in the future and rescue the people of God. The Servant will turn the Jews back to ways of the covenant of God and bring the Gentiles to a covenant with God “I will keep You and appoint You to be a covenant for the people and a light for the nations.” He is the Chosen One to lead back the people of Israel and the rest of the world to justice and righteousness. 6-7. The Servant will be strong and determined to accomplish the mission of salvation and nothing will deter Him from bringing salvation to the nations 2. Interpretation of the book of Jonah by the early Christians. The story of Jonah is prophetic, the book of Jonah by itself is prophetic. Jonah was rescued from the belly of a large fish where he had stayed for three days until the fish spew him out. The New Testament illustrates the story of Jonah as symbolic to the death and resurrection of Christ. The sign was elaborated by Jesus in Matthew 12. As the greatest sign the world is given. The story of Jonah is therefore a testimony to the death and rising of Christ from the dead and that He conquered the grave and came out alive, the hope for which the early Christians lived for. 3. The story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 and the prophecy of the Christ. The promise of God to Abraham was made to bless all the nations of the earth through the Seed of Abraham. Gal 3:15 indicates that the Seed was one and not many and that the Seed is the Son of God through who all nations will be saved from sin and reconciled to God by His death and resurrection. The Seed of Abraham was therefore a Chosen One and a Christ. The New Testament points out as well that the Christ was a son of Abraham. Gal 3:29 “if you belong to Christ, then you are Abrahams seed 4. The distinctive features of the gospel. The gospels of Matthew and Luke begin the story of Jesus from His birth. The book of Matthew provides with the lineage of Jesus from the time of creation down to His birth as was among the Jewish people. Luke however begins his account with the events surrounding the birth of Jesus from the prophecy of John’s birth to Zechariah. The book of Mark accounts from the coming of John the Baptist. The three synoptic gospels are characterized by parables and speeches of Jesus along with the miracles and exorcism. The book of John on the other hand reflects discussions and reasoning where John himself imparts what he learnt to his audience. The book begins with the logos of the Word before creation and is characterized by involvement of the Holy Spirit directly (Kruse, 2004). 5. Mathematical truth and historical truth, trust in the historical knowledge of the past. Mathematical truth accounts for events using scientific evidence and experimental procedures. These kind of analysis involves the use of present day knowledge and evidence to calculate the events of the past. Historical truth is based on chronological occurrence of events and the oral and written forms of passing such information down. The historical knowledge of the Bible is in written form that has been passed down generations and circulated around the world, the events of the Bible are also in part the political and social history of the Jewish people and their culture. The Bible is therefore a representation of a people’s actual existence and can be confirmed with other artefacts and historical pieces of the events in the Middle East. 6. Historical reasons to believe that Jesus rose from the grave on Easter Sunday. The historical evidences consist of the Jewish cultures of the people in Israel and outside, the tombs and rituals and the sites of burial. The Disciples of Christ and the women with them were among the witnesses as well as the roman guards to the tomb. Jesus appeared several times to the disciples and other people after the resurrection. 7. Sayings and teachings from the gospels indicating that Jesus would be killed. Jesus began to tell His disciples of His death toward the end of His mission, He told them in order to prepare them for what was to come upon Himself and for them because He would be gone and so that they do not panic but know it is Gods will that He dies and rises to save people. Matthew 16:21 “He began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things…” John 2:21 refers to the time when Jesus spoke to the Pharisees saying He would destroy the temple and build it in three days again.” But He was speaking of the temple of His body.” Matthew 26:61. Jesus also speaks to the soldiers and arresters at the betrayal saying, “…if I wished to pray my Father would indeed give me 12 legions of angels to fight for Me, How then shall the scriptures happen, it shall be fulfilled since” Matthew 26:54. 8. St. Anathasius understanding of the human condition. The definition of the human condition is a hopeless state of sin but which man could be delivered from to being God like or divine. Anathasius used the word theopie to mean to make divine, the word was made man so that man would be made God implies that there was a divine conversion of man from his sinful nature to the likeness of God and that the two through the sovereignty and power of God to make His word human through Jesus. Anathasius also impresses that Jesus is indeed God by the way other saints are made God like so He was elevated higher in sovereignty because God wished to elevate His Son above all others. Jesus was also elevated after the death and resurrection with all that believed in Him that the Father sent Him (Kruse 11). 9. How did God become man and the purpose it serves, St. Anselm? Anselm depicts the power and authority of God by countering that we were sinful and owed the debt to Satan and Jesus came to pay the ransom for us. Instead it is to God that we owed our debt and Jesus came to appease God for us to redeem us back to Himself because Jesus Himself is God the Son. Jesus died for us because the debt of sin was too big for us to pay God and He was the only worthy One who could redeem us simply because He is God and is therefore worthy to God. So God became man to save man by being born into the human society and living like them so as to die like them and defeat death the consequence of sin. 10. How the crucifixion accomplishes redemption, Peter Abelard According to Abelard the crucifixion and redemption is not a matter of justice rather it is also shadowed with God’s love for man. He argues that God could forgive sin without Christ having to die on the cross as He pardoned Mary Magdalene. He also says that forgiveness of sin is on the basis of God’s own will and however He pleases to do it, it is between a repentant heart and God’s own mercy and long suffering self. The crucifixion is an expression of love and how far God would go to atone for man’s fall Himself. The passion of Christ is therefore just a sign of God’s immeasurable love for man so that by the crucifixion man sees exactly what God is like and come to repentance to redemption. 11. How the crucifixion brings salvation, John Calvin. The arguments of Calvin on the sinfulness are based on the first stain on Adam that did not cease even after the flood. He insists that only the blood of Jesus could redeem man from the kind of oppression sin inflicts on him. The sodomites for example came after the flood and were extremely wicked so that God was very angered by them. He insists that Jesus by the crucifixion came to do away with the first stain that human efforts to reform could not completely sort. The crucifixion however by the blood of a righteous man and the Son of God at that would solve the stain because God understood its origin. 12. Differences the early and later depictions of the crucifixion of Christ. Theological differences reveals. The crucifixion was of Christ caused a lot of confusion among the people of the time who were trying to comprehend the new doctrine and the meaning of the cross. The scholars of the age developed means to understand the cross and at times misunderstood it since it was a new concept that mystified those who’s revolved around worship of many gods. Until the witnesses of Christ from among the disciples spread the word, it was a complete mystery. The understanding has however grown and revolutionized with greater studies and improved means of communication and studies. Work cited Kruse, Colin G. The Gospel According to John: An Introduction and Commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub, 2004. Print. Read More