The Bible: A Critical Analysis Of The Four Gospels

Since 1991 the Westboro Baptist Church has preached their hatred towards Jews, Catholics, and Homosexuals. Over the years the Westboro Baptist Church has formed into a hate group rather than a religious organization. The church has less than forty members, mainly consisting of the founder Fred Phelps children and his grandchildren. The church started off as a normal southern baptist church back when it was founded in the 1950’s. But as time went on, Fred Phelps forced his own opinions onto God’s message.The church began to follow Fred's lead and picketed numerous public events including a ceremony for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, Arlington National Cemetery’s Memorial Day Service, and

Before beer was revealed, Humans were known as nomads. Beer prejudiced the evolution of a hunting and gathering lifestyle to an agricultural based one; as they previously considered for new species to hunt, migrating to different territories. However, when beer was discovered it became moderately prevalent and a necessity to some degree. It was used in religious formalities as it was thought to be a gift from the Gods. It was used for social collaborations as well. In order to keep up with its high request, hunter-gatherers had to deliberately farm. One of the key reasons for its popularity was its ability to be stored which was Unlike anything they’ve ever seen before as the ability of previous food sources were not up to that level of technologies for the storage of the grain. The quality of stability encouraged the society to stay in one place and settle down rather than to continue a hunter and gatherer lifestyle; and as more people reunited in one territory and practiced agriculture and made beer, the first civilizations emerged.

A Christ Figure is a literary character whose actions are homogeneous with that of Jesus Christ. A Separate Peace, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Cool Hand Luke are all works that incorporate a Christ Figure as one of their characters. Some of the actions exhibited by these characters include the performing of miracles, a last supper, a death and resurrection, and the betterment of their fellow peers.

Though social media is prevalent in expressing the users ' views, it cannot be ignored that literature influences its readers greatly by the writers ' opinion. Even if many of these attempt to write an unbiased account, it is nearly impossible to completely render their work from personal beliefs. Many ideas and values come forth subtly through the characters words or the way an idea is portrayed. Religions and politics fall mostly in this category, including the question of man’s way to salvation. An adequate example of this is the Ramsay Scallop, centering on one village’s quest for atonement. By viewing the author’s beliefs on forgiveness by works, her persuasiveness in making her case, and the values expressed by various characters in the book, the idea that atonement by works for sin heals the spirit, can be

Freedom of poverty and individual rights ultimately what Mexican-American cultures strive to obtain in earlier times, according to Viramontes. Although this contains accuracy to an extent, today’s Hispanic American culture fight against stereotypes and hidden oppression of full individual rights. Remedification of potential and hard work is dismissed in this novel, due to Mexican-American’s job status and minimal education. This oppression often leaves Mexican-Americans to keep living in this lifestyle, obvlious to keep working and hopefully achieve grounds to move out of poverty. In the novel, Under the Feet of Jesus, Helena Maria Viramontes emphasizes the physical labor Estrella and her family go through, and how this work reshapes their

Tobias Wolff’s “Bible” explores the nature of a woman whose life is in “danger” and the personality of her abductor.

The parallels the story of Jesus feeding Five Thousand from all four Gospels indicate a strong and significant Biblical allusion that, because it is a story about Jesus, carries more weight than the other two allusions. This story reveals that, while out preaching, Jesus, rather than sending a hungry crowd away to starve in their barren, unfruitful city, performed a miracle and fed them all with fish and bread. O’Malley uses this allusion to show that even those still learning can begin to receive the fruits of

Some scholars counter Eusebius’ text on the basis that, as a surviving source depicting the history and development of Christianity, the arguments may be unreliable and inaccurate because of the bias of a Christian author and pagan symbolism that the Emperor used in his

In one of his best-selling book, Misquoting Jesus, Dr. Bart Ehrman, a well-known and respected New Testament professor and critic, seeks to show that the New Testament is a corrupt document changed through evolutionary processes of scribal adjustment, early Christian theological apologetics, as well as poor scholarship. Ehrman is able to make textual criticism an argument because the study of the text has shaped his life into the person he is today. In the introductory section of the book, he explains his story. After his transformation as a young man, he studied at the Moody Bible Institute, Wheaton College as well as Princeton Theological Seminary. Today Ehrman is a teacher of religious studies at the University of North

The author used various devices to convey his view that Jesus had to be misunderstood for him to fulfill God’s plan. For starters, Mark’s use of apocalyptic devices was used in the beginning and ending of his Gospel. Other than condemning the Temple’s sacrificial system and the priest who controlled it, Mark had used other devices to indicate Jesus ministry is fundamentally an adverse judgement on the

Bart D. Ehrman. The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. New York: Oxford University Press, Fifth edition, 2012

Elaine Pagels uses The Gnostic Gospels to consider the relation between gnostic teachings and what would become orthodox teaching. Pagels uses both texts to analyze the theological differences in terms of issues of religious authority. The orthodox and the Gnostics had very different ways of understanding what constituted truth, as they had incongruous ideas about who was entitled to preserve and teach that truth. The theological meaning of Jesus ' death and resurrection, the importance of apostolic succession, the position of women vis-a-vis men in the early Church, the question of whether Jesus and the apostles after him had passed on a secret teaching in addition to the teachings known from the New Testament--these are some of the thorny

When it comes to knowing and learning the religions of the world one must approach them with a critical mind. One cannot simply just believe every religion and know have their own view points. David Van Biema presents his ideas about Christianity and Jesus in “The Gospel Truth?”. Van Biema’s main point is about how “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John… is notoriously unreliable,” . Van Biema writes about how one cannot be completely sure about whether to believe if Jesus actually said what is written in the bible, he continues to say that Jesus may even be an “imaginative theological construct” . Van Biema presents several ideas that to him prove that those four gospels are unreliable and cannot be trusted. Van Biema presents a critical view point

There seems to be a desire by more liberal scholars of the New Testament to date the gospels into the second century and say that they were written by 2nd century writers who were not eyewitnesses to the events of Jesus. Luke acknowledges in the prologue to his gospel that he was not an eyewitness to Jesus but states that he at least interviewed eyewitnesses when he writes:

2 Peter and Jude are books found near the end of the New Testament. The authors of these books are Simon Peter, the apostle, and Jude, the brother of James and the half-brother of Jesus. Jude was written in about A.D. 65, and 2 Peter around A.D. 67, both during the reign of Emperor Nero. They are often simple “grazed through” by believers because of their shortness in nature. However, an intricate study of these works beneath their surface reveals many hidden gems. The two books are often said to be complementary, working hand in hand to bring a specific message to the Christian audience. This essay will be a discussion into the similarities between 2 Peter and Jude.