- The Gospels was written to show moral and catechetical instruction. For new Christians this is guidance and it shows them how to be a Christian for example the attitude of a Christian towards marriage and does Jesus have anything to say about the matter?
4. Liturgical and Cultic Activities – This is a detail description as to how rituals should be performed for example Jesus Baptism is narrated.
The main purpose of the Gospels, which was recorded, was to preserve the words and the acts of Jesus. Overall they were no abundant account of this, they were used to guide the Christians community and to preach to other societies and the other illustrations used of Jesus work were adapted to suit the needs of the preacher.
The main way the Gospels was summarised is in one phrase ‘sitz im leben’. It is translated to as situation in life. It was also written according to the climate the preacher’s lived in.
The Bible has been criticised over several of centuries. But it is not the word ‘criticism’ which is used in everyday English. The word criticism here means to make a careful analysis leading to an informal judgement. Source, Textual and Form these are the criticism. These need to be approached.
Source criticism. This was used in the first five Hebrew Scriptures in the 18th century and then was applied to the Gospels. The acts of Jesus were passed on by the word of mouth and some was written down. The authors of the New Testament used a variety of sources oral and written but none lasted.
Textual was an activity designed to establish what the authors wrote to the Biblical text and was it actually written to their scrolls. Here critics work with the earliest scriptures available to them.
Pundits now rose two questions:
- Was there a document now containing the saying of Jesus?
- Was there a relation between the three synoptic Gospels?
It was thought that Mark shortened Mathews Gospels. But at the present time is it believed that Mathew and Luke drew on Marks Gospels. There is a sense of confusion as to ‘which came first’? But this question the authority of the Gospels as to if they are strong in evidence.
Form criticism is considered with the miracles and saying of Jesus. Form criticism is also in the fourth Gospels, why does Luke include material removed by Mark? Three are many reasons why this happened.
- Both of them had access to different information regarding Jesus
- Had different interest which links with ‘sitz im leben’.
The Form criticism flourished in Germany. Some fundamentalist critics said that the early Christian Church would attribute things to Jesus, which was clearly invented.
From this criticism, it is learned that it could be possible that the information of Jesus could not be correct because the information was delivered orally. This could have leaded to people over saying and also people forgetting parts. Also the written information had been lost. The different Gospels have different things, some have more information and others have totally different information, which is to do with ‘sitz im leben’. This can been changed to a liberal way of thinking that you can interpret things in the way you want.
The Catholic believes that the Gospels are Gods words and only the Church has the right to interpret it. As technology and science began to evolve and investigate in religion to prove the existence of God there has been literary criticism of the Gospels. Literalists believe that the Bible does simply contain history but contains poetry and allegory as shown in Daniel: the monsters of Daniels are symbolic because the book of Daniel says that ‘they are symbolic’.
According to this section Adam and Eve do exist. But if shown that they in reality did not exist then the literalist position of authority of the Bible strictly is compromised. The view of the Bible in this way is unsafe and very weak and could cause damage to a whole community. The liberal way of thinking is that of ‘sitz im leben’. Experience has been recorded in the Bible of people who have experience God. Therefore the word is of a human spirit and not inspired. A liberal is free from making judgements and criticise the practice and attitude portrayed in the Bible.
The beliefs of this group of people believe that there is no need to look for a total community as believed by the other two sects. What is important to a person and what is relevant in their life. What suits their needs and desires? This way of thinking only requires individual response. A sense of spirituality is lost in thinking this way. It is a pick and choose situation. In this way of thinking the Bible may be regarded as myths conveying moral truths rather then actual history. The Gospels are eyewitness accounts and were by early preachers who used the Bible for ‘sitz im leben’. The Gospels were changed to suit their needs of the preacher. It was also to strengthen and illuminate the faith of the converts.
The first scriptures were lost. Most of the work was passed on orally which could have resulted in people adding, deleting and forgetting things. This was not an accurate way of recording things. It is hard to prove then authenticity of the sources because there is also of confusion. The confusion is that which is the first Gospels and why does it say things different things. One Gospel might say something and the other don’t even come near to the topic. Science plays a role in the Gospels. It tries to prove the existence of God and Adam and Eve which until the present date not happened. This is a risk to some Christian groups like literalists.
So the Gospels should be regarded as myths that convey moral and truths rather then records of facts. As professor Ford said “you either trust the people who wrote this Gospels or not, we cannot re-run historical events.”
