Matthew 1 - 2

Introduction

Who wrote this book?
Matthew, a tax collector who became one of Christ's twelve disciples

When and to whom was it written?
Possibly written around A.D. 70s (though some believe he may have written it in the 50s or 60s), primarily for Jewish readers.

Matthew 1

This chapter begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christs. What interesting about this is that it actually skips some of the generation and seems to be purposely skipped in order to achieve a multiple of seven (Jesus was written as the 14th generation since Abraham).

Then it continues with the chronology of the birth of Jesus where a virgin Mary was destined to deliver a baby Christ. Joseph was reluctant at first when he found out that Mary is already pregnant and thinking of divorcing her until an angel came to him in a dream to assure him to take her as his wife as what is conceived in her comes from Holy Spirit.

Why Joseph consider to divorce Mary?
His wife-to-be is pregnant from a child that is not his and this is a disgrace in any era.

Why Joseph consider to divorce Mary even though they have not gotten married yet?
It is a customary at the time for those who are engage to behave like husband and wife (except that they do not live together or have sex) and a divorce is the only way to break off such engagement.

Why a Virgin Birth?
Jesus, to be free of sin, needed to circumvent the natural method and be conceived in a supernatural way. A miraculous birth to a sexually pure young woman would underscore his supernatural beginning - a sign of His divinity.


Matthew 2

Chapter 6: Is Jesus of History = Jesus of Faith?

Jesus seminar and such

Example of their conclusion:
Of all sayings attributed to Jesus in NT -->
- 82% of it wasn't said by Jesus
- 18% of it is in doubt
- rest of it was said by Jesus

The Lord's Prayer?
Only one word of it can be attributed to Jesus: "Our Father".


Writings from the radical fringe

Jesus Seminar's folks *does not* represent the mainstream NT scholarship.
It is an ".. extremely small number of radical-fringe scholars who are on the far, far left wing of NT thinking.."


Discovering the 'real' Jesus

According to Jesus Seminar, Jesus is first of all, should be a naturalistic Jesus. They ruled out supernatural Jesus from the very start.


Giving evidence a fair hearing

Major assumptions of Jesus seminar:
- Gospel is not reliable
- Supernatural Jesus does not exiist

What will you get based on those above?


Critiquing the criteria

- Double dissimilarity
"We can believe Jesus said something if it doesn't look like something a rabbi or the later church would say"
... But Jesus is a jew and founder of the church!

- Multiple attestations
"We can only be sure Jesus said something if it's found in more than one source"
... But a lot of historical fact that deemed to be true is sourced from a single source.
... But they treat matthew, mark and luke as a single source.


But Jesus is not unique, there's a lot of wonder workers like him in history

... But the scale of the wonders is not matched.
... But the attributed authority is different


But the story of Jesus looks very much like the amazing apollonius

... But the story of apollonius has only a single source, written 150 years after his death, written by order (financial motive), the writing style is really different (it was said... etc).


But the gospel sounds alike to many other religion, death.. resurrection

But christianity has roots from jewish faith, which is zealously guarded by the jews the,selves.
There is no similarity between resurrection a la other religion with Christianity.


History vs Faith

Theological truth is based on historical truth, that's the way the new testament talks.