In the Gospels, Jesus’ childhood was barely mentioned. The evangelists concentrated more on Jesus’ last three years of adult life. They focus more on his teaching, healing, death and resurrection.
It’s important to remember that although there are four Gospels, there is only one Jesus. The evangelists show us different sides of Jesus:
- Mark shows us his suffering side.
- Matthew shows us his teaching side.
- Luke shows us his caring side.
- John shows us his holy side.
Three Gospel Stages
The Evangelists knew about Jesus, believed in Him, and wrote about Him in their gospels, but they never met Him while He was alive. In fact the evangelists wrote the Gospels more that forty years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.
To understand where the evangelists got their information from, the sources that they used, etc… we note that the gospels of Jesus came together in three separate stages:
- Jesus teaches and heals people in the last three years of His life.
- He is crucified and dies on the cross.
- Jesus is raised from the dead after three days, and appears to His disciples.
- The apostles believe that Jesus is God.
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They travel and wide TELL the Good News.
- Stage 3 – The Written Stage
- The apostles, the main witnesses of all Jesus said and did, were getting old.
- Jesus’ story must be written down before it’s too late.
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The evangelists, Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, WRITE the story of Jesus in the four Gospels.
Documents of Faith
A gospel is a particular type of writing, a document of faith.
It’s not a history book since there are no dates and the names of people and places are often left out and the events in Jesus’ life are not written down in the correct order. The events are often grouped up by topics.
A gospel is not a biography of Jesus either. The gospels focus on the last three years of Jesus life, when he was a travelling teacher in Palestine; they barely talk about his childhood (as mentioned before).
A gospel can be said to be a document since it provides evidence that Jesus is God, therefore:
- Tells the facts about Jesus.
- Explain the meaning of the facts.
- Invites the reader to believe in Jesus.
The Kingdom of God
One day, Jesus went to the River Jordan, where his cousin, John the Baptist, was telling a crowd to get ready since the Messiah was coming.
Jesus asked to be baptised like everyone else because he understood that baptism was a sign of something important. When Jesus got baptised, and came out of the water something special happened. He felt peace of God spread all over him. Then, God said to him: “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.” So, he realised that he had to perform a special mission, to tell people about God and his great love for the world.
Jesus became a travelling teacher and taught about the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is not a place, this kingdom is found in people. It is found in the goodness of people’s hearts. It is a way of life. It is living the way God wants us to live.
Parables
A parable is a special and simple kind of story with a hidden meaning. Jesus told parables to teach people about the Kingdom of God.
Miracles
Jesus performed thirty-five miracles, which appeared in the gospels. The evangelists saw the miracles as a sign that Jesus is the Messiah.
Christians believed that a miracle was caused by the power of God. Jesus used his power to help people in need. He worked three types of miracles:
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Healing miracles. He healed people who were sick or disabled.
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Nature miracles. He changed something in nature, like calming a storm, or turning water into wine.
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Expelling miracles. He got rid of evil spirits from people’s lives.
These miracles were signs.
The Disciples
After Jesus travelled all over Palestine teaching about the Kingdom of God and working his miracles, he decided he needed help to continue with his mission.
One day, Jesus went to the Lake Galilee where he called up to fishermen, Simon and his brother Andrew. Further up, he called two more fishermen, James and his brother John. These four fishermen followed Jesus because he needed their help in order to bring more people into the Kingdom of God.
Soon, Jesus had a large number of followers. He picked out twelve. They all became his disciples. A disciple is a person who learns from a teacher. Jesus taught his disciples the meaning of the Kingdom of God. The disciples were twelve ordinary people. They were: Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, Thaddaeus, Simon and Judas.
Jesus called them to follow him. At the beginning, the disciples saw Jesus as a very holy man. Later on, they began to see him as a possible Messiah. After his death and resurrection, they realised that he was God’s son.
The Last Supper
Jesus and his disciples gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of Passover. Jesus made the arrangements in secret.
That evening, while they were all eating, Jesus picked up the bread, and said a prayer to thanks God. Then, he broke the bread and gave a piece to each disciple and said, “This is my body”.
After, Jesus took a cup of wine and again thanked God with a prayer. He passed the cup to each one of them and said, “This is my blood”. Jesus said to his disciples to do this in his memory. So, he gave the bread and the wine a new meaning. The bread would be his body and the wine his blood. In this way, Jesus related the Passover meal with his own death. Also, Jesus said that one of the present would betray him.
The disciples didn’t understand the meaning of his actions. They did not realise that Jesus was about to die for them. They thought that he had come to Jerusalem to become king, because, since they thought that he was the Messiah, he would free the people from their foreign rulers, the Romans. Later on, Jesus took his disciples to the Mount of Olives outside of the city.
Arrest and trial of Jesus
On Thursday evening, as usual, Jesus and some of his disciples met at the Mount of Olives, where it was safer. After, Jesus left on his own and bent on his knees and prayed. He was ready if God wanted him.
Suddenly, Judas arrived and gave Jesus a kiss. That was a signal. Jesus got arrested and the disciples where going to fight but Jesus told them not to. Jesus was put to trial. He was brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court of law. Jesus was accused of blasphemy. They said he would be put to death. So, they took him to Pilate, the Roman Governor.
Early on Friday morning, Pilate accused Jesus of treason and was sentenced to death. Roman soldiers took him away to be crucified.
Death of Jesus
On Friday morning, Roman soldiers led Jesus out to be crucified. He was forced to carry his crucify through the streets of Jerusalem. When he got to Golgotha, place of execution, the soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross. He suffered almost six hours, but his spirit gave up and died. When his body was taken down, his friends put his body in a tomb. For Christians the martyrdom of Jesus was about love for humanity.
The Resurrection
Early, on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Salome and Mary the mother of James arrived at Jesus’ tomb, but it was rolled back. They were shock. A messenger of God told them, “Jesus is not here, he is risen from the dead. Do not be afraid.” They ran to tell the disciples. They didn’t believe the women. But Peter was unsure and ran to the tomb. It was empty.
Some time later, Mary Magdalene went back to the tomb alone and began to cry. Jesus appeared beside her. He had changed. Mary’s sadness turned to joy. Mary Magdalene was the first person that spoke to Jesus after he had risen from the dead. It changed her life. Jesus asked her to go and tell the Good News of the resurrection.
Pentecost
Pentecost is the birthday of the Christian Church. It was the first day the disciples had the courage to go in public and teach the Good News. From then on the disciples were referred as apostles. An apostle is someone who is sent on a mission to do a special work.
JUDAISM
The Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent was the location or the place where the religion of Judaism began. It was an area of good land in between the mountains and the desert. It stretched like a crescent from the river Nile in Egypt all the way to the city of Ur. Two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, flowed through this great valley. There was enough water and the land was fertile.
Abraham became a nomad in later life. He travelled with his wife Sarah, etc… and set off from the city of Ur and travelled to Haran. Then, they went to Canaan. Later, they visited Egypt before going once more to Canaan. They travelled throughout numerous years. Their journey took them through the Fertile Crescent.
Abraham
Abraham and Moses are the founders of Judaism. Abraham lived about 4.000 years ago. He grew up in the city of Ur. Like everyone, which surrounded him, he worshiped gods such as the sun, moon and the stars. Then he changed. He began to question himself about the belief of different gods.
Around this time, Abraham and his family moved from Ur to Canaan. After a long journey, they reached Haran and settled there. When Abraham’s father died, he became the head of the family.
The Visions
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God calls Abraham: As Abraham grew up he believed in many gods. When he grew up, he had a vision of God, which told him to leave Ur and grab his belongings. He changed his belief, and began to believe in only one God. He left with his family.
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The Covenant: God said to Abraham to promise to worship one God and do what he said, therefore, he would become God’s descendent and would receive the land of Canaan. When they made this covenant, Abraham took some animals and cut them in half to say thank you.
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Sign of the Covenant: To sign the covenant, Abraham had to change his name and his wife’s name. They didn’t have children and his wife was 90 years old. So, God promised a child. Sarah got pregnant and named his son Isaac. The second sign of the covenant was circumcision.
Moses
Moses was a founder of Judaism. Abraham’s descendents left Canaan and lived in Egypt for 400 years. When a new king came to power he said that the people from Canaan were not to be trusted. The king was worried because of the Jewish people taking over, so he did two things:
- He made the Jews slaves.
- He killed the first-born sons.
A couple had a baby which name was Moses. Since it was a boy they were afraid for it to get killed, so, they put him into a basket and let him in the river Nile. The princess of Egypt found him and kept him. He became a fit prince and realised that he was really a Jew (he was circumcised). He felt sorry for the Jews. Moses, one day, saw a guard hitting a slave and stopped him by hitting him and killed him by accident. So, he ran into the desert. When he was in the desert, he found a burning bush, it was God, he said to go and rescue the Jewish people. Moses returned to Egypt and said to the king to let the Jews go, but he refused. Moses said that if he won’t let them go bad things would happen. So, ten plagues occurred:
- River turned into blood.
- Frogs.
- Lice.
- Flies.
- Death of the Cattle.
- Boils.
- Rain Hails.
- Locusts.
- Darkness.
- Death of the first-born.
After all this, the Jews became free.
To celebrate the Jewish freedom, they celebrated Passover. They ate: eggs, bitter herbs, lamb, and bread with no yeast.
As all the Jews were on their journey to the desert, the Egyptian army came and they were located in front of the Red Sea, where the Jews started to pray. The sea opened and the Jews went through. Since the middle was to wet, the carriages (of the Egyptian army) couldn’t go through. The Jews were finally free.
When the Jews got to Mount Sinai, Moses said, “I will be your God, you shall be my people”, only if they followed the Ten Commandments (in the Torah). This was a covenant agreed between Moses and God. To seal the covenant with the people, animal blood was spread on the people.
The Tenakh
Is the sacred text in Judaism. It’s the main source of information about the beginning of Judaism.
The Tenakh provides evidence about:
- The way Judaism began.
- The things that are important in Judaism.
It is divided in three parts:
- The Torah.
- The Prophets.
- The Writings.
Each part is divided into books. There are 39 books in total.
The Torah
It is the most important part of the Tenakh. It contains five books:
- Genesis.
- Exodus.
- Leviticus.
- Numbers.
- Deuteronomy.
The word Torah means “teaching”. The Torah begins with the creation of the world and continues with Abraham and Moses, the founders of Judaism. It also tells the Jews how they must live their lives. It contains 613 different rules or laws. The best known are the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God.
The Prophets
The Prophets contains 21 books, which are about the history of the Jewish people after the death of Moses. The Jews believed the prophets were men and women with special powers given by God.
The Writings
The Writings contain 13 books, which tell us more about the Jewish history but in a creative way. There are books of poetry, proverbs, short stories, songs and chronicles.
The Talmud
The Talmud is another sacred text. It is a collection of teachings about the way Jewish people are to live. The Talmud is based on the Torah. The Talmud explains the laws in the Torah in more detail. It helps people to see how the laws can be applied to all aspects of their daily lives.
Oral and Written Tradition
From 1850-900 BCE we have the oral stage in which the history of Jewish people was passed on by word of mouth.
From 900 BCE to 90 CE we have the written stage in which the history of God’s action in the life of the Chosen people was eventually written down.
The Tenakh was published in 90 CE. The Talmud was published in 500 CE.
NOTE: The Dead Sea Scrolls could also be mentioned in Judaism.
COMPARISON
- Both religions are monotheistic, the only believe in one God, who is holy, righteous, just and loving, which created the world.
- They both have the same origin.
- The same desire to have a relationship with God and worship him.
- The same awareness of sin in mankind and its consequences for a correct judgment by God.
- The same belief in the Messiah to rescue God’s people and restore his kingdom.
- In Judaism no human must die for the sins of others but in Christianity Jesus died for the sins of mankind.
- In Judaism God is referred as only one, indivisible, which cannot be separated into three aspects or incarnations but Christianity says the opposite, God can be reincarnated into the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
- The two religions believe in helping others and doing what is right.
- The clergies for Christianity are called priests, ministers, pastors and bishops and the clergy for Judaism in called rabbis.
- Christians’ houses of worship are church, chapel and cathedral and their main day of worship are Sundays. Jews’ house of worship is called synagogue and their main day of worship occurs on Saturdays.
- Both religions have Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) as a Word of God.
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Christians believe that Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies and he is the Savior. But, Judaism recognizes Jesus as a good preacher and a prophet of God; it does not accept that Jesus is the Messiah or Savior.
- Christianity believes that God in the form of human was Jesus Christ and sacrificed himself in order to pay for our sins, but Judaism disagrees that Jesus was God and he died for human beings sins.
- Christians read both the New and Old Testament but Jews only read the Old Testament.
Bibliography
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DUFFY, CONNIE: Religion for Living. Alpha Press Ltd. Ireland. 2005.
- Notes.
