The Good News
God is definitely trying to teach me some things about the story of Jesus.
This semester in Greek Readings we are translating the Gospel of Matthew, in Advanced Greek we are now translating the Gospel of Mark, and in church we are making our way through Luke. And in one of my classes last semester, we spent about 10 weeks studying John...
It's a good thing, because I'm far less familiar with the Gospels than the rest of the New Testament (and it's slowly dawning on me that I am pretty unfamiliar with the Bible in general, if I'm honest with myself). And the Lord knows that sometimes I don't pay attention to subtleties and need a huge neon sign to recognize what he's showing me. Hence, randomly studying all four Gospels at the same time.
It's really amazing to realize the urgency with which all four of these writers told their story. They weren't writing a novel in their spare time, and they weren't taking on a new project after retiring from their 9-5:00 job. They weren't even just recording some cool things they had seen, or writing a memoir of Jesus' life. They really had this sense that they were talking about something extraordinary, that this Jesus was someone really special, and that what they had to say was about to change history forever.
The writer of Matthew knew he was writing about the Jewish Messiah. He starts off his Gospel with a genealogy, which really just means generations, or beginnings. And his first sentence directly mirrors the wording Genesis 2:4 and 5:1 in the Septuagint - the "genealogies," or generations, or beginnings, of the creation of the earth and the creation of the human race. Matthew's Jewish readers immediately knew when they read his first sentence that he was putting the events of his story in the same category as creation. It's that big of a deal. There's the beginning of the world, the creation of man, and Jesus. How's that for an outline of history?
In the first verses of Mark there is no genealogy, but there is still a nod to the Old Testament in some quotes referring to the promised Christ. And another thing about the writer of Mark is that he's obsessed with the phrase και ευθυς - "and immediately." Things are always happening immediately. I can sense his urgency, because the important events of almost every paragraph are set up by and immediately...he rose from the water and the spirit descended on him like a dove...he was driven out into the wilderness, etc. I get the impression that this guy was super excited about Jesus, super determined to let me know about him.
And Doctor Luke made it clear in his first verses that his intent was to "write an orderly account for you...that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught (Luke 1:3-4)."
Don't even get me started on the beginning of John :)
I guess the attitudes of the writers of these Gospels are just contagious to me. God is showing me a lot of new things about Jesus' story as I work my way through it, not the least of which is simply that Jesus was/is a bigger deal than I regularly give him credit for.
So anyway, these are just the musings of a slightly language-obsessed religion student. Dr. Byrd gets the credit for a lot of these thoughts. Fellow Greek students, feel free to add yours!
This semester in Greek Readings we are translating the Gospel of Matthew, in Advanced Greek we are now translating the Gospel of Mark, and in church we are making our way through Luke. And in one of my classes last semester, we spent about 10 weeks studying John...
It's a good thing, because I'm far less familiar with the Gospels than the rest of the New Testament (and it's slowly dawning on me that I am pretty unfamiliar with the Bible in general, if I'm honest with myself). And the Lord knows that sometimes I don't pay attention to subtleties and need a huge neon sign to recognize what he's showing me. Hence, randomly studying all four Gospels at the same time.
It's really amazing to realize the urgency with which all four of these writers told their story. They weren't writing a novel in their spare time, and they weren't taking on a new project after retiring from their 9-5:00 job. They weren't even just recording some cool things they had seen, or writing a memoir of Jesus' life. They really had this sense that they were talking about something extraordinary, that this Jesus was someone really special, and that what they had to say was about to change history forever.
The writer of Matthew knew he was writing about the Jewish Messiah. He starts off his Gospel with a genealogy, which really just means generations, or beginnings. And his first sentence directly mirrors the wording Genesis 2:4 and 5:1 in the Septuagint - the "genealogies," or generations, or beginnings, of the creation of the earth and the creation of the human race. Matthew's Jewish readers immediately knew when they read his first sentence that he was putting the events of his story in the same category as creation. It's that big of a deal. There's the beginning of the world, the creation of man, and Jesus. How's that for an outline of history?
In the first verses of Mark there is no genealogy, but there is still a nod to the Old Testament in some quotes referring to the promised Christ. And another thing about the writer of Mark is that he's obsessed with the phrase και ευθυς - "and immediately." Things are always happening immediately. I can sense his urgency, because the important events of almost every paragraph are set up by and immediately...he rose from the water and the spirit descended on him like a dove...he was driven out into the wilderness, etc. I get the impression that this guy was super excited about Jesus, super determined to let me know about him.
And Doctor Luke made it clear in his first verses that his intent was to "write an orderly account for you...that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught (Luke 1:3-4)."
Don't even get me started on the beginning of John :)
I guess the attitudes of the writers of these Gospels are just contagious to me. God is showing me a lot of new things about Jesus' story as I work my way through it, not the least of which is simply that Jesus was/is a bigger deal than I regularly give him credit for.
So anyway, these are just the musings of a slightly language-obsessed religion student. Dr. Byrd gets the credit for a lot of these thoughts. Fellow Greek students, feel free to add yours!
The fact that you are learning Advanced Greek is amazing and you can translate the Bible!? WHAT.
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