Biblical Historians Archive
Even the most casual reader of the Bible senses vast differences in the types of materials included in the Old and New Testaments. One obvious example of differences that we encounter between the Old and New Testaments appears in common personal names. In the Old Testament, we become familiar with the names Jacob, Joshua, Miriam, Hannah, and Elijah. In the New Testament, we read regularly of James, Jesus, Mary, Anna, and Elias. In actuality, those New Testament names are the English equivalents of the Greek and Hebrew names in the Bible. The case is much like the names of Paul and Paulo. They are the same name, but one is English and the other is Italian.
The Old Testament has come down to us in Hebrew, with a few Aramaic sections, and the New Testament comes to us in Greek. Some New Testament names have no Old Testament equivalents, as Greek and Latin names had been introduced into Jewish nomenclature by the beginning of the first century. For example,... Read the rest of this entry »
Modern readers are usually familiar with the term Messiah both in its Hebrew form (transliterated into modern English as “Messiah”) and in its Greek form (Christ, a modernized spelling of Christos). Both terms mean “anointed” and can be used in a general sense, such as in a sacrifice that is anointed before being offered, and in a technical sense to refer to someone who will come and fulfill the role of the Messiah.
Typically, Christians in the modern era think of the Messiah as a distinct person, Jesus Christ, and speak of the Messiah as having already lived. This refined and specific definition of Messiah has encouraged Christian scholars to look back into the story of Jesus Christ and speak of what the Jews of the first century expected in their Messiah, as though their expectations were parallel to what modern Christians think about the Messiah. This process often causes modern readers to speak of the Jews as having missed... Read the rest of this entry »
The genealogy that opens Matthew’s Gospel begins with the formula, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). Beginning with Abraham, it ends with Joseph, “the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ” (Matthew 1:16). Although the subsequent text makes it clear that the infant Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, Joseph accepted full responsibility for Jesus Christ, as illustrated by his formal naming of the baby in Matthew 1:25. This act constituted legal recognition of Jesus as Joseph’s son and helps explain the prominence of Joseph in Matthew’s infancy narrative-as compared to Luke’s, where Mary takes the more central role.
The Matthean genealogy is broken into three sets of fourteen generations. These divisions stretch from Abraham to David, from David to the exile, and from the exile to Jesus Christ. The first... Read the rest of this entry »
A supposed letter of Clement of Alexandria (c. A.D. 150-c. 200) refers to a second edition of the Gospel of Mark, a private account, known today as the “Secret Gospel of Mark.” A medieval copy of the letter was purportedly discovered in the Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Saba in the Judean wilderness in 1958 and was published in 1973 (see The Secret Gospel of Mark, 15-17).
The letter provided a previously unknown tradition about Mark and his writing activities. “As for Mark, then, during Peter’s stay in Rome he wrote an account of the lord’s doings, not, however, declaring all of them, nor yet hinting at the secret ones, but selecting those he thought most useful for increasing the faith of those who were being instructed. But when Peter died a martyr, Mark came over to Alexandria, bringing both his own notes and those of Peter, from which he transferred to his former book the things suitable to whatever makes for progress... Read the rest of this entry »
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus Christ is identified as a tekt?n, often translated as “carpenter” in many New Testament versions (Mark 6:3). In Matthew, Joseph is also indentified as the same (Matthew 13:55). It was not uncommon for a son or dependent to follow in the trade of his father or guardian, so it is not surprising that Joseph and Jesus are identified with the same trade in the Gospels. Additionally people were some times identified with their trade (see Acts 10:5).
Tekt?n has been interpreted in various ways since New Testament times, including the generally accepted terms “carpenter” or “builder.” Joseph and Jesus may have built household furniture or homes working specifically with lintels and joists (the main wood components in a first-century house). Later traditions describe his employment as “making plows and yokes” for oxen (Didache 88:8). Another tradition prefers interpreting the word for... Read the rest of this entry »
The Synoptic Gospels-Matthew, Mark, and Luke-contain a significant number of similarities in wording and order of events as they relate the life of Jesus Christ. Some of those similarities are rather distant, but other parallels are so significant that it appears that the authors borrowed from one another when they wrote. The challenge that has faced scholars has been to unravel the direction of borrowing; and no easy solution exists that would explain which gospel was written first, second, or third.
Faced with this challenge, scholars have concluded that the Gospel of Mark was written first. That conclusion is based on the fact that Matthew and Luke often correct difficulties in Mark’s grammar and geography as well as reordering the events as he recorded them. Building on this conclusion, scholars then noticed that Matthew and Luke share a significant number of stories that are not found in Mark but that are shared only between them. To explain... Read the rest of this entry »
The New Testament contains the earliest sources for information about Jesus Christ– Jesus of Nazareth. Some of the material, such as Paul’s letters, was written as early as AD 48 or 49 and shortly thereafter (Galatians, 1-2 Thessalonians, and 1-2 Corinthians). The Gospels begin to circulate sometime in AD 60s. Virtually all scholars agree that the New Testament contains material that goes back directly to Jesus of Nazareth. A significant amount of scholarly activity is focused on isolating the sub-strata of material that forms the basis the Gospel narratives including eyewitness accounts, oral traditions and even written sources. No other sources from the first or second century AD provide material that can be used with confidence that the New Testament provides in reconstructing the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
“This means that if historians want to know what Jesus said and did they are more or less constrained to use the New... Read the rest of this entry »
The Dead Sea Scrolls, an unknown number of ancient Jewish texts discovered near the Dead Sea beginning in 1947, were preserved by a group of Jews who did not accept Jesus‘ call to “repent” and “believe” the “good news” (Mark 1:15). Despite sensational claims, the scrolls do not contain any references to Jesus Christ or his disciples. However, they are important for several reasons including the significant help they provide scholars in their effort to reconstruct the world of Jesus since they provide an important window into the world of Jewish-Palestine of the first century BC and first century AD.
“The Dead Sea Scrolls probably constitute the single most important biblically related literary discovery of the twentieth century. The Scrolls have contributed significantly to biblical scholarship in several fields: (1) the study of ancient writing and making of books/scrolls; (2) textual criticism of the... Read the rest of this entry »
The Gospels record very little about Jesus Christ‘s life between his birth and baptism. Matthew states that by the time the Wise Men appear in Bethlehem, following his birth, Jesus is no longer an infant but a child, suggesting that Joseph, Mary and Jesus lived in the town of his birth for sometime, maybe as long a two years: “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him” (Matthew 2:11, emphasis added). Matthew continues his story as Joseph took Mary and the “young child” to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-14). Both Matthew and Luke agree that at some point Joseph, Mary and Jesus eventually moved to Nazareth at an early age (Matthew 2:19-23; Luke 2:39-40). The only hint about the intervening years, until he began his ministry, is a brief story about Jesus Christ‘s journey to Jerusalem when he was twelve’s years of age. Luke notes: “Now his parents... Read the rest of this entry »
