Jesus’ Mortal Life Archive
The apocryphal letters that purportedly gave a physical description of Jesus Christ have long since been recognized as inauthentic. Post-New Testament authors often let their imaginations roam on issues that were either not clear or totally absent from the New Testament itself, providing for their readers information that the New Testament authors did not provide. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John most likely never imagined that readers in the twenty-first century would be interested in Jesus‘ height, the length of his hair, the color of his eyes, or the color of his beard-if he had one.
Often a subtle tension exists between the idea of Jesus as a model of mental and physical perfection and the idea expressed in Isaiah that “when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2). This passage raises some intriguing questions. What does Isaiah mean when he says that the mortal Messiah would have “no beauty”?... Read the rest of this entry »
Mark, more than any other writer, preserves a view of Jesus Christ‘s humanity in the Passion Narratives. His prayer in Gethsemane may be the best example: “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee: take away this cup from me” (Mark 14:36). Throughout his narrative, Mark informs those hearing the story that Jesus needed to sleep, eat, be alone, and, of course, pray-to do these things is human.
If Mark’s telling of the story is based on Peter’s memoirs, we may be seeing a word-picture based on Peter’s own recollections. If so, we can appreciate the frank portrayal presented here, which is particularly critical of Peter himself. It should be remembered that Peter’s real name was Simon. Jesus Christ renamed him as Peter (from Greek or Latin) or Cephas (from Hebrew or Aramaic), which means “rock or stone.” In Mark, Peter is always referred to by this new name Jesus gave to him until this point, where... 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 »
