Prof. Christine M. Thomas
HSSB Tower 3067 * thomas@religion.ucsb.edu
Lecture Review Points
1. Marcion, ca. 140, made first
Christian canon: Gospel of Luke and letters of Paul.
2. The process began with the collection of Jesus' sayings and Paul's letters
in the first century and ended with the council of Hippo in 393, which mentioned
all 27 books.
3. Canon formation was also a political move to unify a church that was diverse
over a wide geographic area.
1. Mark structures his presentation
around the Messianic secret: Jesus hides his identity until after his death.
2. Mark is contradicting the usual tendency of miracle stories, which are used
as propaganda to advertize divine power.
3. In Mark, the disciples do not understand Jesus' divine identity, or his mission,
which is to suffer and die.
1. The Messianic Secret is
that Jesus, the suffering Son of Man, is the Son of God.
2. Mark has four separate endings in the various manuscripts. The best explanation
of the evidence is that the text ends at 16:8, "for they were afraid."
3. Mark is apocalyptic, believing that he is living at the end of history: Jesus
will return very soon, and the disciples are to await his parousia in Galilee.
1. The Gospel of Thomas, despite
its title, is a collection of the words of Jesus, and is most like the collections
of wise sayings known from the HB, such as Proverbs.
2. It contains aphorisms and parables, and differs from the gospels in that
it does not allegorize the parables.
3. In it, Jesus is presented as a teacher who gives eternal life through the
interpretation of his sayings. No trial, death, nor resurrection.
1. Two-source hypothesis: Mark
is source for triple tradition, Q for double tradition. Q (means Quelle) is
a reconstructed source from overlaps in Matthew and Luke.
2. Q and Thomas encourage an ethic of itinerant preaching without regard to
family or possessions; are concerned with a more spiritual understanding of
Jewish piety; and expect persecution. Q is prophetic, and expects the coming
of the kingdom and the son of man soon.
1. The repeated destructions
of the temple led to a diaspora existence for the Jews.
2. Temple cult was replaced by book religion; a spatial, geographic conception
of the holy became ritual and portable.
3. The Sadducees were priestly, in power, religiously conservative, pro- Roman.
1. Pharisees were non-priestly,
emphasized Torah and daily ritual, not temple cult. Kept the Oral Torah, a tradition
of Torah interpretations.
2. Essenes were priestly, Zadokite, forced out of temple service. Lived in desert
of Jordan in apocalyptic community waiting for God to purify temple and land.
3. Apocalypticism: history has hidden meaning known only to the elect. Dualistic:
good vs. evil people, present evil age vs. good age to come.
4. Apocalyptic beliefs held by elites who fall out of power, expresses opposition
to dominant society, and hope for a new order where they achieve the place they
deserve.
1. God's love for every individual, even the worst. Reversal of expectations: his undiscriminating compassion. High moral standards with compassion for the repentant weak. Kingdom of God: twelve tribes at final banquet.
1. Gentiles can be included
in "Israel" without convenant of Torah. "Christ brings a righteousness apart
from the Law."
2. Israel's rejection leads to reconciliation of world, then jealousy of Israel
(Paul's ministry), then full salvation of Israel.
3. Corinthians: many different types of missionaries: Paul and his associates;
opponents from Jerusalem, both the people of James and those more conservative.
Some preached the gospel by means of an esoteric wisdom teaching for the spiritual
elite, with a resurrection that already happened.
1. Matt is concerned with observance
of the Torah and protecting the "little ones" whom some are making to stumble
by teaching not to observe the commandments.
2. Matthew's position within Judaism disagrees sharply with that of Paul: Jesus
came to fulfill the Law; Christians are to keep even the least of the commandments.
3. Jesus appears as the new Moses in the gospel of Matthew.
1. Jesus in John is a divine
being whose origin is in another realm. G-d would be unknowable without JesusÕ
revelation.
2. Miracles in John are symbolic and give information about the nature of Jesus.
3. John is not completely Gnostic, but is in dialog with it. John was shared
by both gnostics and orthodox in the second century.
1. LukeÕs two volumes position
the life of Jesus as the "middle of time," a time free of Satan. Before him
were the Law and the Prophets, represented by the Hebrew Bible, after him the
age of the church, represented by his Acts of the Apostles.
2. Luke emphasizes the absence of Jesus ("absentee Christology"). Jesus is "taken
up" into heaven at the end of the Gospel.
3. The Acts of the Apostles is parallel to the life of Jesus: the Holy Spirit
comes down from heaven, the apostles preach and heal, Paul travels, and undergoes
a trial just as Jesus did. Because of this parallelism, one could describe Jesus
as the first Christian.
1. Programmatic geography in
Acts 1:8: the church is a witness in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and
to the ends of the earth.
2. Paul is not a letter writer in Acts, and his mission is to the Jews. He goes
to synagogue, is rejected, has success among the Gentiles, and then gets into
trouble with the Jews.
1. The book of Revelations
was probably written in the age of Domitian. He was probably viewed as "Nero
returned," "Nero redivivus."
2. The book of Revelations is like apocalyptic in that it is revealed through
dreams, visions, and auditions, it is revealed through a mediator figure, is
written in a time of political oppression, and expects the intervention of God
himself to reverse current power relations. The book is also filled with symbols
from Jewish apocalyptic, and the typical dualistic framework. 3. It is unlike
traditional apocalyptic in that the person writing is not an ancient person,
but someone who is contemporary, who offers a preview of events soon to come,
but without an overview of all of history.
1. Pauline authorship is questioned
for deutero-Paulines because of differences in style and concepts, and quotations
of other Pauline letters
2. Pauline authorship is questioned for Pastorals for the same reasons, but
also for external attestation: not in P46, not in Marcion, first quoted in 180
CE by Irenaeus.
3. Colossians 1-2 use specific Gnostic terms to attack some of the major beliefs
of Gnosticism.