ECON 101 1st Edition Lecture 5 Outline of Last Lecture I Review from the reading a Critical dates Jesus and the Gospels b Critical events The spread of Christianity c Critical results The fate of the traditions d Critical questions possible objections II Other issues to consider a The authorship of the Gospels b The availability of eyewitnesses c The nature of oral traditions III Questions of Evidence a What kind of evidence to look for b The evidence that s available c Shows the Prevalence of oral tradition today Outline of Current Lecture II A brief overview of scholarship III The Gospels as Biography IV History and tradition in the Gospels Current Lecture I A brief overview of scholarship The gospels as supernatural history pre enlightenment o Enlightenment intellectual movement that swiped thru Europe in which scholars started thinking about the world These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute o Before this how did they understand the Gospels Understand it the same way most people do today o Understand that they recorded supernatural history there are miracles all over supernatural accounts but they are historical because they actually happened if you would have been there you would have seen it happen o Examples of stories from the gospels Jesus is teaching the crowds and told there are five thousand men there not including women and children 13 000 Disciples come up and say people are hungry and to send them home Jesus says for them to feed them have 5 loafs of bread and 2 fish Jesus starts dividing them and giving them to disciples and they start passing them around This is a miracle but preenlightment scholars would say that it actually happened After he feeds the multiples tells them to go to the sea of Galilee on their boat He s going to stay on land and pray A storm comes and the disciples are rolling against the wind in the middle of the lake and makes no progress Jesus starts walking on the water to go to them they see him and they are frightened Jesus says do not be afraid it is i Jesus s reserection biggest miracle of them all Jesus is crucified and he is dead Take his body off the cross and puts his body in a tomb and puts a stone in front of a tomb Women go to the tomb on the third day and the tomb is empty it actually happened o We can understand the world and don t need to base it on some kind of revelation from god we can figure out the world through science there are scientific explanations for things that were previously assigned to miracles and gods Philosiphcial view known as rationalism scholars of the enlightenment that approached the gospels from a rationalistic point of view The gospels as natural history Heinrich Paulus o Rationalists said that the gospels contain natural historyrecord events that happened but the disciples that wrote these accounts misinterpreted what had happened as miraculous when in fact what happened wasn t miraculous it was a natural event o 1828 Heinrich Paulus went through the entire gospels and showed that these super natural events and explained them as natural events re explained the story of the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish actually shared all of their food with one another re explained the water have made no progress rowing against the wind and Jesus walks to them and thinks he is walking on water but he is really on the shore re explains resurrection jesus historian josephus tells an incident from his own life in which a bunch of people were getting crucified and asked the roman leader to take three of his associates off there crosses Three were taken down and one survived to tell the story applies this to jesus Wasn t raised from the dead because he didn t die The gospels as myth david friedrich Strauss o 1834 35 major break through happened with a book written by David Friedrich Strauss another German scholar The life of Jesus critically examined showed that both views prominent in his day were wrong the problem with both views for him was that the Gospels are not history in any sense they do not contain history they contain myth doesn t mean by myth what we think a myth is very important book 800 pages small print and no margins this book ruined his life fired from his job book translated into English by George Elliot a myth is a true story that didn t happen There are stories that convey truths that are true although the story itself didn t happen George Washington and the cherry tree Reality is that we know that George Washington and the cherry tree didn t happen is given a hatchet and chops down dads cherry tree and he says that I cant tell a lie I did it Guy who made up the story said later that he made it up Tell the story for several reasons serves as a useful bit of natural propaganda Conveys an important story in ethics on how to behave Thinks that the gospel is filled with true stories that didn t happen Story of Jesus is walking on water Supernatural history says he actually walked on water humans weigh more than water so you are going to sink Humans have specific gravity sink on water does Jesus not have this Natural history problem is that it simply doesn t work What they are explaining says that that s not what the text says True story that didn t happen points out that in early Christianity the life we life is understood to be a stormy sea The trials and tribulations are like going over a stormy see who can rise above the sea that we must pass through who can walk on the water Jesus can And if you have faith in him you can also raise above it all and your sufferings But you need to keep you eyes on Jesus because once you see how parlous life is you will begin to sink again This story is something that takes places in peoples lives This story happens for people who have faith in Jesus One things scholars agree with Strauss on that there are stories in the gospels that didn t happen the way they are narrated that are intended to convey truths lessons Fundamentalists say that everything happened the way it was narrated agree they are supernatural histories Fundamentalists no fun too much damn not enough mental II The Gospels as Biography Differences from modern biographies Sources Characteristics Emphases III History and Tradition in the Gospels Examples already seen o Jesus as the Lamb of God in John o Jesus as the Messiah Born in Bethlehem in Luke Mathew s account 1 and 2 Luke s account and 2