1. Prayer:
Incline my heart, O God, to your decrees; and favor me with your law. Ps. 119
Lord, our souls yearn and pine for your courts and your love. Help our family to remember that your decrees and laws provide us with the perfect path to you and your eternal joy. Amen.

2. Journal:
Read the PDF posted on the class website. Your journal is a 500 word (maximum) summary of the article.

3. written information about Jesus.
The Gospels and
the Historical Jesus
It is from the
writings of the
Four Evangelists
that we receive
the most useful
written information about Jesus.

4. Son of God to convey that the Kingdom of God is active in the world.
The word gospel means “good news,” and the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote the four versions of the story of Jesus that we have in the New Testament.
While not strict biographies, the Gospels present biographical information about Jesus combined with the authors’ beliefs about the
Son of God to convey that the Kingdom of God is active in the world.

5. Following the style of ancient biographies, the Gospels present brief accounts of Jesus’ life, without the exhaustive detail we see in modern biographies.
Like other ancient biographies, the Gospels do not tell us much about Jesus’ youth or physical appearance. They all focus on key events that tell us about the true character of Jesus Christ. One aspect of a person’s life that ancient biographies usually pay attention to is how a person died—and this is certainly what we see in the Gospels.

6. Certain aspects of the Gospels, however, are unique
Certain aspects of the Gospels, however, are unique. Jesus himself, is in the Gospels—Because the Good News proclaimed by the Evangelists IS Jesus Christ.

7. The process that brought about the written Gospels took place in three stages:
The Historical Jesus
(4-6 BC – AD 30-33)
2. Oral Tradition
(AD 30-50)
3. New Testament Writings
(AD 50 – ca. 120)

8. Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus the Carpenter
Jesus, son of Joseph
The Jesus proclaimed in the Gospels is identified by a few different “surnames.” In the ancient world, people with the same first name were identified by things like where they came from, who their father was, or what they did for a living.

9. During the historical life of Jesus, his actions formed the basis for his disciples’ later proclamation about him.
Recognition that Jesus is at the center of human history, caused Christians to use the abbreviation A.D., for Anno Domini, meaning “In the Year of Our Lord,” to designate years from the time of Christ’s birth onward.
B.C., meaning “Before Christ,” came to refer to any year thought to be before the birth of Christ.
Jesus’ early life was spent in Galilee as the son of a humble carpenter.
During his public ministry, he traveled the countryside teaching, healing, and proclaiming God’s Kingdom.
At the end of his public life, Jesus was arrested and crucified—only to rise again after three days.

10. The final stage in the development of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ was the actual writing of the New Testament.
Three things caused the early Christians to finally commit the Good News to writing:
The End of the World did not come as soon as they had first expected it to.
Distortions to the apostles’ message needed to be addressed and clarified.
Early Christians realized that people needed to be instructed about the faith, and written Gospels provided a good teaching tool.

11. Open the Peter Kreeft and NT Wright articles
Answer the following questions:
1. What happens to the value of the Church’s teachings on Christ if we can prove he was not divine?
2. Why is it impossible to assume the Jesus we have learned about was simply a good man, while not being God?
3. What are the three possibilities for a man making the claims Jesus made (What could he be?)
4. What was the central claim Christ Jesus made about himself? If it wasn’t true, what does that say about the kind of man he really was?
5. If the early Church leaders and writers of the gospel story are unreliable or mere inventions, who is it that makes the most sense as the fabricator of the lie? Why?
6. Kreeft says the Apostles were rewarded for their efforts if they were just spreading a hoax. Give four examples of things the Apostles got for their hoax?
7. What does it mean to say some people will “Orientalize” Jesus in order to avoid thinking of him as God?
8. How should we view the person who hears the word of God, listens and contemplates what he is told, but is not ready to make accept the word through an act of faith?