Who jesus was 2014

JesusWho was he?

Jesus

• Was a real person

• Was a Jew

• Was probably born during the reign of Herod

around 6 BCE

• Was brought up in the Judaic faith

• Was baptised by John

• Gathered disciples

• His ministry included preaching, teaching, healing

• Welcomed outcasts from the community

• Was crucified by Pontius Pilate

• His followers believed he had risen from the dead.

Jesus said…

• That he was the ‘Son of Man’, a special title Jews knew from the writings of the prophet Daniel. Spoke of having a unique relationship with God .

• Reinterpreted the Law and scriptures.

• Reminded the people of the spirit of the Law rather than being legalistic about it. E.g. healed the sick on Shabbat (Sabbath).

People thought….• That Jesus was a kind person

who loved to mix with the social out-castes e.g. poor, sick, prostitutes, disabled.• That Jesus was a troublemaker

who stirred up divisions in the Jewish faith.• That Jesus was a menacing but

powerful political force.• That Jesus was crazy and his

following would eventually diminish

Who liked Jesus?• His first and most committed followers

were fellow Jews – possibly disciples of

John the Baptist

• He appealed to the sick (healing)

• He appealed to the poor (blessed are the poor)

• He appealed to the socially unacceptable (spoke to prostitutes and did not judge)

Who didn’t like Jesus?

• People who saw him as an

extreme (but likable) cult

figure.

• Political leaders (Romans)

who didn’t want a trouble

maker amongst the people.

• Religious leaders who found Jesus’ teachings undermined the basics of Judaism.

Teachings

• Jesus often used stories called parables to teach

• A parable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that illustrates a moral or religious lesson.

Parable of the mustard seed Matthew 13: 31-32

The prodigal sonIn “The prodigal son”, found in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells

the story of a man who has two sons. The younger demands his share of his inheritance while

his father is still living, and goes off to a distant country where he “squandered his property in dissolute living”and eventually has to take work as a swine herder. There he comes to his senses, and determines to return home and throw himself on his father's mercy. But when he returns home, his father greets him with open arms, and hardly gives him a chance to express his repentance; he kills a "fatted calf" to celebrate his return.

The older brother becomes jealous at the favoured treatment of his faithless brother and upset at the lack of reward for his own faithfulness.

But the father responds:“Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” Luke 15:31-32,

The good SamaritanThe Parable of the Good Samaritan is

a famous parable appearing only in the gospel of Luke (10: 25 – 37).

This parable is told by Jesus in order to illustrate that compassion should be for all people, and that fulfilling the spirit of the law is just as important as fulfilling the letter of the Law.

Jesus puts the definition of neighbour into an enlarged context, beyond what people usually thought of as a neighbour

THE GOOD SAMARITAN – video clip

What happened to Jesus?• He was executed by the Roman government after

being arrested by the Jewish authorities and found guilty of blasphemy. He was crucified on a wooden cross, a very common way to execute criminals those days.

• He was in his early 30s.•Many of his followers deserted him in the end but a number of women followers stayed with him to the end.•Soon after, his followers began to preach that Jesus had risen from the dead.

The Outcome• Some Roman officials and Jewish leaders were glad to be rid of him

• Many of his Jewish followers were distraught at his death

• They began to preach that Jesus

was the Christ, the Messiah.

• Other Jews did not accept that Jesus was their Messiah and continue to await the Messiah today.

How do we know about these events today?

• The ‘canonical’ Gospels – known as Matthew, Mark (the earliest Gospel), Luke and John.

• The Gospels were written anonymously and were given their titles later by the writers’ communities.

• Their accounts were written 70 to 100 years after Jesus’ death

• In the Gospels are things which

Jesus said and did.

• In the Gospels we can learn

something of the writers’ own community

• Gospels were written in light of the Easter event (Christ’s death and appearances)

GOSPELS

Good news• Gospel is a particular literary genre. It means "Good News" and is

not history as we know it but rather the writers put together the stories they knew in a particular way to tell the story of Jesus, and to portray Jesus in a particular way for a particular audience. All the stories were written in light of Jesus death and resurrection.

• For example: Matthew wrote for a predominantly Jewish audience so there are many more references to the Hebrew Scriptures, and his genealogy has strong links to Abraham.

• Luke, on the other hand, writes for a Gentile (non-Jewish) audience so he makes reference to a variety of ethnic and socio-economic groups e.g. Samaritans. His genealogy goes back to the ‘beginning of time' emphasising his inclusion of the ‘whole world’.

• These writers wrote with purpose and intention

The Quest for the Historical Jesus

• Movement which tried to look behind the Gospels; behind the Easter event to discover what Jesus actually said and did.

• Found that we can “know” very little.

• Is this more truthful?

Paul• Had been a Rabbi

• Wrote heaps of letters to different established church groups giving them advice on theological matters

e.g. Philippians, Corinthians, Ephesians etc.1 and 2 Thessalonians earliest writings in NT

• Was a missionary - traveled around preaching the gospel - the good news of Jesus

• Believed that his mission was to be to non-Jews but often began his preaching in the synagogues.

After that…• 400 CE the council of

churches puts all the New Testament gospels and letters together and includes the ancient Jewish scriptures.

• The Bible as we know it is formed!

• This was called the

Canonisation of the Bible.

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Jesus outside the Christian Scriptures

• Gnostic/non-canonical gospels e.g. Gospel of Thomas, gospel of Mary, gospel of Judas

• Greco/Roman literature e.g. Pliny,

• Jewish historian Josephus