new testament

matthew

fulfilment of certain old testament / jewish words.
does not say old jewish laws should be done away with. what about for gentiles? well, are gentiles even mentioned?

mark

constant theme of jesus not wanting people to tell others that he is god or doing miracles. (note: but they tell anyway)
jesus declares all food clean. (but the parallel story in Matthew does not say this, and Mark is a source from which Matthew and Luke is written)

luke/acts

good jewish people do good jewish things
starting (verse 5+) parallels abraham and sarah.
end times: inserts "time of the gentiles" which is not in Mark.
a lot of parallels to old testament. mary's prayer and hannah's in 1 Samuel.
idea is that luke/acts seems to be written to emulate the old testament.
a lot of emphasis on the gentiles. (anti-jew sentiment)
theme: "prophet is rejected by his own people". gospel to be rejected by jews. then for the gentiles. see ending of Acts.
tradition, if true, says that Paul was beheaded in Rome by the Romans. But luke/acts did not include it, why? because the theme is supposed to be rejection by jews and going to (hence acceptance by?) gentiles.
also, stephen. rejected by jews. martyred. theme: prophets get martyred.
jews still have to keep their laws. gentiles don't have to keep the jewish laws. acts 15.
has no mention of jesus' death being a ransom or sins. more like a martyred prophet.

john/letters of john (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
not necessarily written by the same person, but seems to be by the same kind of persons, according to scholars.
the only gospel that has Jesus in Jerusalem more than just before his death. 3 Passovers are mentioned in John and not the other gospels. How do we derive that Jesus started ministry at 30 and died at 33? the 3 years is from John's writing of 3 passovers. the 30 comes from Luke i think, where exactly?
in john, there is no Eucharist (last supper with bread, wine, and "do this in remembrance of me"), although there is jesus dipping the bread and talking to judas. also, there is foot-washing.
crucified before Passover (the time when lambs for the Passover were being slaughtered). other gospels say on the day of Passover. Literary parallel because John also refers to Jesus as the "lamb of God" (1:29) and writes of Jesus dying when lambs for the Passover were being killed.
lots of themes of "see" and "know".
and then chapter 9, a blind man made to see, but in verse 12, he says "i don't know"
symbolic meaning? or just a literal description of an event?
verse 22 is anachronic according to scholars who claim that at the time of jesus, there was no movement like that described in "...already the Jews had decided that anone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue". such a movement may have been established later (when John was written), but not during the event being told.
Chapter 5 verse 19+ talks about the Father and Son. prior verse 18 says "the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he...but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God." But, since when was being the son the same as being the father, or being the son of God equal to being God? was that already a Jewish notion? was that a commonly accepted religious idea? It seems that the author of John added these details because this was what he believed, not necessarily what the Jews were thinking.
chapter 3, verse 3. the only (practically only maybe?) place with the "born again" notion. however, the Greek word used can be also translated to "from above". likewise in verse 7. (Note: the text was in Greek, and although Jesus spoke Aramaic, this conversation might not have ever happened at all. The Greek is all we have). if "from above" was the original intention, then from where does modern "born again" movements derive meaning? but verse 4 has the reply as if verse 3 meant "born again". So that seems settled. Also, in the following verses, there is "Spirit" and "wind", but the Greek word used is the same (pneuma). So, what do we do? Is it meant to be a pun, or was one meaning intended?
Jesus doesn't seem to give straight direct answers in John. Always speaking in riddles. Chapter 8 verse 31. Jews who believe in him are with Jesus, and Jesus "argues" with them. He accuses them of wanting to kill him and of belonging to the devil (v44). Finally, he claims to be God (v58) with "...I am" probably in reference to God's (YHWH) talking to Moses at the burning bush.
lens to view John through: sectarian christology. (believing only they are the correct ones and the rest are all wrong and is unacceptable, or will be damned.)

1 John. Love God, love brothers/one another (c4,v7,v21), do not love the world (c1,v15). Also, John 3:16 "God so loved the world that..." has the same Greek verb for "love" and same Greek noun for "world". so is there a contradiction in loving the world (cosmos?) and one another? one interpretation is that one another refers to within the sect, and the world outside.
seeing from a sectarian perspective, chapter 2 verse 18+ makes new sense. chapter 4 verse 2+. chapter 5 v 8. so this sect believes in jesus being God, not just a holy man, and not just promoted to divine. argues against other christologies, such as Docetism (jesus' body not really flesh...*seemed* only to be a body and *seemed* to die at crucifixion) in 2 John verse 7+.
see relationship between 2John and 3John, noticing "Diotrephes" in verse 9. Possible that the letter in 2John did not work and so 3John needed to be written. Also, argued that 2John is metaphorically written to a lady and children, but that it means a/the church. Previous splits in christologies due to doctrinal differences, but is one in 3John coming up due to politics?



lingo
Christology(-ies): any doctrine of Jesus, divine or human.

Mark: Jesus is the son of God (not necessarily God; such a relationship might not have been established then). Messiah who has to suffer to ransom sinners.

Mathew: quite similar to Mark. Jesus is son of God, the Messiah, and the "ransom". Also important that Jesus is a teacher and lawgiver, somewhat like a new Moses. The emphasis of Jesus as son of God is weaker.

Luke: "Ransom" idea is not included. Notions of martyred prophet.

Thomas: Jesus comes across as the revealer of hidden knowledge. He always acted like he was God or something. Included are episodes of him using his power to strike people when he was a child...etc.

John: eventually gives rise to Orthodox sect which includes the Nicean creed. And this Nicean creed believes that Jesus was always divine, not a good person who was promoted to divine status.