The Historical Jesus and the people who got it all wrong!!

The historical Jesus has been a very fascinating subject for me. To look at Jesus in the historical context has been something I never even had thought about or even existed. I had thought of the ideas but just vaguely never really has a study. To look at Jesus in this way has opened my eyes to many new ideas and thoughts within my own mind. But, in reading The Real Jesus and studying the Jesus seminar I can't help but to wonder about why people can't just read the bible and know its the truth. Instead they have to find ways around it, maybe because they can't take what itt says or maybe its just because they have a personal vendetta against it. Instead they have to come up with ridiculous storiess and try to get people to believe them when in reality there theories have no bases, they think they do when they really do not. What if the Jesus Seminar took the Bible for what it is really worth and really came to understand it, will probably never happen, what would happen then are they to hjard headed to see it or are would they change. The historical Jesus is a subject that may never truly be answered other than we knew he existed, I love thinking about though and find an amazing subject and hope to get more out of it in the future as well as I am right now.

Where do these ideas come from?

In reading the book for the in class book review and what we have been studying in class groups such as the Jesus Seminar have seemed to come up with some pretty crazy ideas. The belief that only about 15 % of what Jesus in the bible is what Jesus really said , and things such as how Jesus never really died on the cross. I just can not wrap my mind around those ideas it seems that they draw alot of their ideas and assumptions from thin air sometimes. Either I am not smart enough to come up with ideas or study enough to think or I actually put my faith in what the Bible says and what God meant it to be. I just can't figure out some of these things that they have come up with in their studies they just seem so crazy.

Luke Luke Luke

Luke is such an interesting book to lookat in its structure. I have found through studying Mark and through looking at the other gospels the differences in the gospels that I have never noticed before. Two years ago if i were to read the gospels i would have just read their stories and never looked at the differences that each writer incorporated into their texts, and thats why I find Luke interesting in the aspects of the way he writes and puts more of an emphasis on women playing a role in Jesus ministry. It appears that each writer wanted to bring out different aspects of Jesus' ministry so that the readers would not just see certain aspects of Jesus' ministry but instead all of the aspects such as showing women in the roles they played.

TRAITOR!

I've often wondered and thought alot about Judas, asking questions such as Did Jesus know that when he caleed Judas that he would be the one to betray him and if so it had to of have been hard knowing throughout his ministry that this man would be the one to become the traitor. Is it possible that Jesus might have hinted at anytime before the last few moments of his death to Judas that he would be the one to betray him and what grew to make Judas finally make the final decision to say i am going to betray this man even though he has seen all of the miraculous things he has done. The whole idea of how Judas betrayed Jesus brings alot of questions to my mind and leads me to really think even though, if would have been there, would I have been the one to betray, what really pushed Judas to that final breaking point and would we break as well?

PARTY!!!!!!!! or NOT

The closer I look at the entry into Jerusalem by Jesus and the disciples before his death the more i come to realize how crazy and unbelieveable it probably was there at this time. What really makes me think about there being so many people in Jerusalem and the people just having a huge party is this, this was Jesus last stop as he would be crucified here. Was it planned all along for him to be crucified while there were so many people in Jerusalem or did it just happen that way. I seem to feel like it was meant to happen, either for the fact of more people being there and witnessing it or whatever it might be but, that has just been something that has been running through my mind. The people in a matter of hours went from party time to kill Jesus, was it meant to b e during this crazy time??????

Andy Miller

JESUS THE EXORCIST

In working on my paper for Life of Christ there has been alot I learned and alot that has really made me think about the things Jesus in dealing with exorcism. Jesus did so many things that made exorcist of his day just wonder what could possibly going on with this man that he can do such things as get demons to give their names to him without him having to even ask for them. What comes to my mind is what would we think if we were seeing this happen. People in our day would freak out but, even people who had seen exorcism in their days were jumping through themselves when Jesus would do this work. In my opinon I believe the things he did would have made a skeptic like most people had become of his day. It would be hard for me to see theses things and not wonder what was going on, and it scares me to think that I would think that. Because in the end the people that seen these miracles nailes him to the cross.

Andy Miller

Seminar

The seminar really opened my eyes about alot of things in my life and in reading the Bible that i really had never thought about or even attempted before. One being as Dr. Foster had old how much i really don't know about the gospels and what Jesus said. It really hit me when my group was trying to remmember the beatitudes and we could not remmember all of them. You would think a person studying christian ministrys would be able to remmember the beatitudes but in no way shape or form coul i get my mind to produce every one of them. AS a christian it really challenged me and put a new goal in my life to actually be able to remmember what i read other than reading understanding but not being able to reproduce the actual text.

The other point which i think the whole class came to realize is how sometimes we as christians have to work as a team to accomplish a goal. If the whole class would not have worked together as a whole we would have never have completeed the project. Yes there intense moments that it seemed that everyone might get into knock down drag out brawl but, we worked out our differences and used everyones knowledge of the bible to get the most of this project that we possibly could. WE could have done better in my belief, I think we got under pressure and missed some simple stuff but that is expected no one is perfect. It was a great experience and i enjoyed working with every person in our class and at the same time i am glad it is over even though i had a good time.

People Suprise me sometimes

In studying the gospels and the exorcisms Jesus has been apart of i have learned alot about demons and exorcism as a whole. But, what blows my mind even more is how people in our day and age seem to not understand about demons. All the time people are wondering if demons are real or if they still exist, its almost like demons evaporated into thin after a certain point. I just dont understand why people can't grasp the concept of demons sometimes it absolutley blows my mind. While looking at exorcism books and papers for the class paper I have found out so much more abotu exorcism and demons than i had ever known, and i just hope i can use these things ot help people better understand about demons and exorcism.

What were they thinking?

What could the disciple have been thinking when they seen Jesus walking on water. The text says they thought he was a ghost which is understandable. They were in the middle of a lake and they something walking on the water, how unbelievable would that be. Then Jesus walks up to the boat and is tells them to not be afraid its is just me. To me after Jesus had walked on water, not to mention he had just fed five thousand people with almost nothing, how could the disciples not venture to guess at who he was. I just try to imagine what i would think if i was in a boat in a pretty good wind storm and all of a sudden I look out and see ahuman figure walking over waves on the water toward the boat. I believe i would have ran and hid or started throwing things in the boat at him. It just blows my mind that Jesus just walked on the water to get to the boat and what could possibly runing through the disciples minds.

Andy

THREE?!

Does Mark form groups of three in his book on purpose, or is this something that was went to be done for a reason. Scenes such as three boat scenes with disciples, three passion predictions, three commands to stay up and watch to the disciples, and three times they sleep. As Burridge says it appears Mark seems to just want to get the point across, which I believe is what he is doing since it is possible that more things such as the disciples in the boat could have taken place but just weren't recorded. I just find it interesting that Mark choose a three fold theme throughout some of the stories he is telling. Why didn't he choose 2 or 4 he went with three though its almost like he wants us to see this and wants it hammered in to minds as it is a very important thing we need to know.

Andy

How Powerful?

After reading the section in the dictionary about power and authority, one can only wonder and speculate how powerful and how much authority Jesus actually had. He had enough power to tell the disciples to go out and through his power perform mircles and other actions as well to the public. It would be amazing to have seen these miracles in action, and we see miracles today but i still see it as amazing that Jesus had so much power and authority that he could just tell people to go out and perform miracles and through those actions they were able to, but as well as performing just as miraculous of works elsewhere to on his own.

Andy Miller

Bwasts of the Wilderness! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

When Jesus went into the wilderness for fourty days, it says that he was there with beasts and as well with satan. What I find interesting is the look at the beasts, or animals whatever you may wish to call, that were there with Jesus. When looking at this since the word beast is udsed it would appear that these were not nice tamed animals that jesus was with but instead mean and untamed animals that most people would be scared to be near. In a way this shows the power Jesus has, because while he was with these so called beast, nothing happened that we know of, other than the fact that Jesus was victorious over satan and these beast while he was there, as he will be again later on. Its just interesting to see that Jesus even had power over the animals while he was on this earth as he also shows he has control of the weather as well. Showing us that there is nothing Jesus can not handle.

.....you thought we were technological

I never had really thought about the tools and metals that the Isrealites would have to be using in their day. I just thought of metal and figured they used what they had, I never really thought about them having copper which would be a poor type of metal to use. As well as their very genious idea involving the well and grain silo which were blocked and made to appear to be apart of the hill so that the enemies would not be able to enter through the cave. Its amazing what a person like myself just never ealized about their culture and how advanced the Isrealites really were for their day. It seems we just go through the bible and forget sometimes about how these people really lived and how amazing it really was for them when they acquired things such as steel, and it was no idiot who thought of up the plan for building such a huge design to get their water. Over all I found the ideas and technology of these people really interesting.

Andy Miller