•The Principle Truths of Natural Religion

•Religion that was not revelaed, but had figured out on their own

•Religion through Reason and Logic

•In this text miracles and supernatural revelation were rejected…there has to be science and the laws of people

•Miracles cannot happen!!

REIMARUS

•Using Science and Knowledge to figure out God!

Didnt Publish the Book

Daughter Elise gave it to Lessing (Librarian)

Lessing Published it as Fragments of an Unknown

Religion without Revelation

Absurdity of the Supernatural

•It was the Apostles and the Early desciples who perverted Jesus’s teachings

•They made up a new story after Jesus didn’t start up a new Kingdom

oThey wanted Money and they wanted Political Growth!

Set up a Worldly Kingdom of Humility, Gentility, Denial of Self, Love of God and other folks

•Jesus thought God would help him deal with the Romans

•God didn’t help him “Why have you Forsaken Me???”

•Jesus felt that God Disappointed Him

Seperate Historal Jesus from Christ of Faith

Very Different!

•Lies at the bottom of many scholars conclusions

•Leading scholars of the enlightenment either denied the supernatural or that we could get any direct confirmation of them.

•This seperates Enlightenment from that of the past

•No that doesn’t help the Religion

•But if the Apostles were the bad Guys…still doesn’t help the Church

•People blame it on the people after the apostles

you can only accept the miracle if you see it

oor feel it…the Holy Spirit 

Geneaology of Christ 

Abraham to Jesus

-Gives Jesus a Good family

Names are Different

Matthew 52 names, Luke 70

1. One was Mary (divine), and One was Joseph (profane, Joseph was a stepdad)

2. Jesus was the son, as was thought of Joseph

• study the new testament like you would any other ddocument

critical does not mean negative, it means someone who evaluates with care!

•Since a lot of scholars cannot prove what happened, their analysis trends negative

1. Eliminate the Life of Jesus

•cant perform them is they don’t really happen!

•Then you also eliminate the Resurrection

•So what about the Apostles???

oIn on the Hoax?

2. Perceived inconsistencies in the Biblical Texts

•So you really cannot trust any of these documents

•but people who actually would have been with Jesus could have written more safe texts!

•So the Gospels weren’t actually written by apostles or they would agree better

•We have to go through and sort through to find what is trustworthy and not

•We know very little about the Man Jesus Christ

•Most of what we know comes from the Early Church claims about Jesus

•We know very little about the historical Jesus?

•but confidence leads to excess…leading to unfounded assertions about Jesus

•Lots of Questions we’d like to know the answers to, but we simply do not still know

•Obscure Passage – If there is no resurrection, what will those due who are baptized for the dead?? (what the fuck does that mean?)

oWe gotta Time warp Paul Here!

•Sanders says that we know a lot of Jesus

oVastly more than we do about other important characters from his time!

•Starts with “the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”

•The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah??”

oWhat is the Messiah?

Starts being used in the Hebrew Bible (OT)

First Book is Genesis

•The beginning of Judaism and Israelite Religion

•Starting with Abraham!

•Lived in a city called UR of the Chaldees (Mesopotamia, Modern Iraq)

•God Appeared to Abraham, he is to leave his country and his home and go to a land that god would Show him

1. Give him a Land, The Land that god promised to Abraham

2. He would have Descendants (more than the stars in the sky)

Ur

75

Sarah

Sarah gives Hagar, leads to Ishmael

Hostility between the two women

God says Ishmael is not the one bringing descendents

•Because you laughed you bear a child name He Laughs

•Isaac (He Laughs)

Who will be the son that Brings Descendents?

name change?

Jacob

The One of wrestles with God, Israel

•All twelve of the sons are included within the people of Promise

•They become the forefathers of the 12 tribes of Israel

•Reuben down to Benjamin

oLevi and Judah are also tribes!

•So he travels down to Egypt where he can find food!

•He find’s his son Joseph who helps them

•They wind up in Egypt for over 430 yrs

At the end of their time in Egypt, a new Pharaoh rises in Egypt that does not know of Joseph

•So the Egyptians enslave the Israelites.

Tribe of Levi

Brother named Aaron

frees the Israelites from Egypt

•Threatens Angel of Death to kill the first born of every man and beast (Blood of the Lamb, will pass over the house)

oFestival of Passover!

Led by Moses 

o1446 BC/1290 BC

oOn their way to the Promised Land

oThey had already become a great Multititude 

God tells the Israelites how to Live

•Moses goes upon Mount. Sinai, gets the Law

•Moral Commandments, Rules about how to Eat, Rules about the Sabbath, Instructions about how to Worship, Set up Priests

oThe first Priest is Aaron, and future priests will be his descendents

oSacrifice Animals and Offering of Grains

oThis is done in the Tabernacle

•Rectangle featuring the holy place and the holy of holies

•surrounded by a courtyard

•Outside they had an altar that they offered the sacrifice upon

•Only the Priests could go in the temple, only the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies…on Yom Kippur

Already people living in it, Too Big and Strong

All but two Spies say they cannot conquer it!

Angers God, Wander for another 40 Years

Young Lt. of Moses (one of the good spies)

•He will lead the People into the Land of Promise

•Yeshua is actually the Name is Jesus

•In Greek Yeshua becomes Jesus

•Jesus is the name Joshua

•Each tribe gets a portion of the land

•They have priests, but at the moment they have no Kings

•The bible says they keep forsakening God, and they fall into the hands of their enemies

•Judges=great military leader

•Eventually they think they need a King!

•God says to Samuel that they are rejecting God

•God will give them a King, but he tells them they will not like it

Saul

Benjamin (Tall)

War with Israel

Saul will not Fight Goliath

David (small boy) kills Goliath with Slingshot and Knife

People want David to be King

Kings = Judah

Priests = Levi

David

Establishes Dynasty

Line of Kings

Priests Levi!

•They were involved with Sacrifices, no one else was

•anyone else who intruded into this realm was punished by the Lord!

•Priests were established in the law of Moses, the earliest part of the Hebrew Bible (Torah or the Pentateuch)

•Aaron was the first Priest, his sons and descendents were next

David rules from 1010-970 BC

•Either 450 or 300 yrs after Priests come the Kings of David!

1. Establish a dynasty

2. Chose Jerusalem as his capital

•One particular group known as the Jebusites

•David lays siege to this city and makes it his capital!

Solomon

God tells David that his son, Solomon, will actually build the temple

Solomon rules from 970-940 BC)

•Follows through his fathers plan to build the Temple

•Basic structure was the same as that of the tabernacle

•In some ways Solomons reign was greater than David

•Asked God for a wise heart to govern his people

•Because he didn’t ask for it, he also got great wealth and power

•The Kingdom prospered under the reign of Solomon

•Solomon married an Egyptian Princess, Solomon allowed her to keep her own religious tradition

•Solomon’s foreign wives began to stray his attention away from the lord, women…am I right

•Wealth and riches can turn one away from God

Rehoboam

Issues and Results of those Issues

•Because of Internal division within the country

•The People wanted Tax relief, Rehoboam said NO!

•The tribes of Israel were divided in two!

•Two tribes of the South (Judah and Benjamin) and ten tribes of the North

Period of Divided Monarch

Jeroboam in the North

North - Israel

South - Judah

•The Temple was in the Southern Kingdom (Jerusalem)

•But Jeroboam did not want all his people going south!

•So Jeroboam set up two cities to worship in his Kingdom

oBethel in the South

oDan in the North

oHe built Shrines in both, and also established priests

Bull God

Canan influences

Jerobiam set up statues

ofrom the time of Jeroboam on, the Northern Kingdom of Israel are willing to worship Foreign Gods (Piety Pays, Perversity Punishes)

Plenty of Dynasties in the Northern Kingdom

•In the south they are always following the Line of David

•Prophesy – someone who speaks for God

•Plenty of Books written by Prophets in the Hebrew Bible

oIsaac, Zecheriah, Jonah

oThus Sayith the Lord!

•Someone who has been spoken to by God, the message of the Prophets…

1. No Religious Syncretism, no mixing!!! (Fuck Ba’al)

2. Morality! (Piety pays, Perversity Punishes)

3. You cannot bribe the Lord with Sacrifice

4. Predicted the coming King, in the line of David

1. Utopian

2. Restorative

722 – The Assyrians conquered the northern Kingdom!

•The Assyrians had a policy, one of deportation

•If they deported the people, then they would have to resettle

•So they deported many from the northern Kingdom, and put others in their place

•This Led to a mixing of the people! The Samarians

•Israelites and Samarians begin to Intermarry, we have the creation of the Samaritans!

586 BC – Babylonians conquered S. Kingdom

•The King of the Babylonians was Nebuchadnezzar

•Nebuchadnezzar was one of the great conquerors of the Ancient Times

oBuilt the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Nebuchadnezzar also took some of the promising young people of the southern Kingdom, and brought them to Babylon

•make them officials in his Kingdom

•This is the period of the Babylonian Exile

•The Northern Tribes of Israel were lost in the Assyrian Conquest (10)

oMost likely just intermarried and merged into the other population

•But the people in the southern Kingdom were able to hang on 

oThis is how Judaism actually began…

Persians!

Eventually the Persians take over and allow the Jews to return

•King Cyrus institutes this

•Overturns the unpopular practices of his predecessors

•Many of the Jewish people do this, but there are some that choose to stay in Babylon

This is the beginning of the Diaspora within the community of Israel

•Abraham promised a people and a land(not lands!!!)

obc of their sinfulness, God removed his hand of protection

oDiaspora comes from a greek word that means scattering

•This is anyone who lives outside of the land of Judaism

•Some Jews ended up in Egypt or Mesopotamia, Greece, and Italy as well

•New contract that has to be written

•They cannot go back to the old days when the Jews had kings

oStill have to recognize Cyrus as Kings, and be citizens of the Persian Empire

oCultural difference negotiation was normal, didn’t try to enforce one way for one people

•stay peaceful and pay your taxes, and you can live how you choose to live

•they worshipped only one God!

•This is new! Writings before the exile, willingness of the jews to worship only one diety

•After they return from captivity, there are few examples of those Jews who choose to worship other Gods

•Jews are the monotheists among the world of Polytheists

In Persian times, the southern Kingdom is referred to as Yehud

•If you live in the province of Yehud, you are a Yehudi

othe “YU” sound in Yehud is where we get the term Jew

oIn its earliest sense it is a Geographical Designation

Monotheists still stick out like a sour thumb within this empire

Not only did they worship only one god, they have distinct customs

•1 day out of seven, no work

•Circumcision

•Strict Dietary Practices (no pork, no cheeseburgers, no shellfish)

•Eventually even those who practiced these practices not living in Yehud.

oYou are a Yehudi!!

oStarted geographical, but started to become ethnic as well

oJew and Jewish are abbreviations of Yehudi (Judah)

ALEXANDER

•The Persians had conquered everyone except Greece

•Greece eventually takes over and defeats the Persians under Alexander

•5th Century is seen as the greek century

•334 BC – Alexander the Great attacks Persia

•Alexander’s father was Philip (who had conquered all of Greece)

oUnited (or took over violently all of Greece)

oAlexander had fight to take over the throne!

•Alexander smashes all the Persian armies that are thrown against him by Dorias

onever lost a major engagement, and also fought from the frontlines

•Alexander continues on towards Afganistan

oHis men force him to return to the city of Babylon

oin 323 BC there he dies

The biographies we have from Alexander come from a much later time period

•so we do not have a ton of real information

Some people believe that Alexander changed during his time of Conquest

•He turned out to be very respectful of the people he had conquered

•Alexander killed the people who killed Dorias 

•this son would have been ready for the Throne

•but his infant son and Roxanne were murdered

oFighting then broke out among his generals (2 important)

1. Ptolomy – took control of Egypt

•all of these kings were named Ptolomy

2. Seleucus – Took control of Syria

•All of these kings were named Seleucus or Antiochus

The land of Yehud was between the Ptolomies and the Seleucus

•first they were ruled by the Ptolomies, allowed them to keep their customs

•198 the Seleucids took over, gave the same kind of deal to the Judeans…until

High Priest in Jerusalem Named Onias

•Since the Persians didn’t allow them a king, the High priest was the highest ranking official (spiritual leader and the foreign power representative)

•Semi Political Figure as well

Onias had a brother named Jason (who wants to be High Priest)

•Jasons says that he will pay Antiochus to become High Priest over his brother

•Also will convert Jerusalem into a Greek Styled City, Antioch

•This is known as Hellenism, adoption of Greek Ways

1. Linguistic Hellenism – speaking Greek

•very beneficial, the whole world was opened up to those who spoke the language.

2. Cultural Hellenism

•The Adoption of Greek Culture

•Architecture, Art, Sport and Athletics, Greek Literature

3. Political Hellenism

•Greece being the birthplace of Democracy

•If you put all the people together, you will come with a better decision

•The Greek Polis (city), plural is Poleis

4. Religious!

•Jason wants to build a Gymnasium

•Functioned as a education center for the young people, mental and physical

5. Philosophical Hellenism

•Plato, Socrates, Aristotle

Antiochus makes Jason High Priest (progressive)

Not done by God

However then comes Menelaus, from a prominent family in Jerusalem

•He was from the tribe of Benjamin (not a levite)

•He makes an even bigger offer to Menelaus, exit Jason (who is pisssssssssed)

•but then a Roman Ship comes up with an ambassador named Popillius Laenas (the growing power of Rome)

•The Romans had started to conquer the Western Mesopotamian area

oThe Romans did not want a united East to have to fight

•Popillius Laenas brings a message from Rome

oWithdraw from Egypt or suffer its displeasure

oAntiochus says he will take it under advisement

oPolillius Laenas draws a circle around Antiochus, has to make a decision before he leaves the circle

oAntiochus has to withdraw from Egypt 

•Jason is still around, and is able to banish Menelaus

•Antiochus goes to Jerusalem, takes the city

•Reinstalls Menelaus, and chooses to make Judaism illegal in the city

•Your religion is the problem, get rid of it!

•Issues a ban on Judaism

oThe bans and death sentances on Jewish Customs are listed in the grad section

oNo Jewish Texts, burn them!

oNo more Jehovah, the temple will now be dedicated to Zeus

•worship will be done according to the Greek Practices

•Feel free to eat and sacrifice your pigs!

•Aged priest named Mattathias interacts with a rep of Antiochus

•From a lower priestly family

•Come and worship the greek gods! Mattathias refuses!

•Turns to a younger guy, tells him to sacrifice to the Greek Gods

oThe younger man is about to do it

oMattathias Kills the Jew who is about to sacrifice, and then kills the rep of Mattathias

•Starts a rebellion against Antiochus

Judah retakes Jerusalem

Redidicates Temple

Hanukkah

Judah Killed in Battle

Simon takes over, forming the Maccabean Dynasty

Jonathan High Priest (Levite!)

•At the end of the Period there is a queen named Salome

•She dies and her two sons fight for the throne

Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II are the sons

•at the time the last ruler of the Ptolomies was Cleopatra

•Both brothers appeal to the romans to be recognized as King of the Jews

•Famous Roman general named Pompey was in the area at the time

oboth brothers wanted his recognition

oRoman soldiers are let into the city, and take it over

oPompey thought Aristobulus was better, so he chose Hyrcanus II (weaker and easier to control)

•However it is clear that the Romans are calling the shots in Jerusalem

41 BC – New Power rises in the East known as the Parthians

•New Persian Dynasty, Drove the Romans out for a period of Time

•Hyrcanus is overthrown during this period of Time

1. Pompey

2. Crassus –Rich!

3. Julias Cesar – Up and Comer

These three gained control of the Roman Government

•The First Triumvirant (rule of the three men)

However crassus is defeated and killed by the Parthians

•Leaving Pompey and Cesar

•Cesar could be bear no Superior, Pompey no equal

oalways fighting each other

Crossing the Rubican – point of no return

•Cesar is in Gaul, Pompey is in control in Rome

•Cesar knows that Pompey is going to take over if he leaves

•Cesar brings his army, reaches the River Rubican in Italy

oOnce cesar passes this point civil war begins

oCesar wins

49 CE Cesar is the one Ruler in Rome

41 CE Cesar is assassinated!

•They didn’t want to create an empire

•Roman attitude was that they were always fighting a series of Defensive wars

•Make sure that the city of Rome is never Attacked

Cesar is Assasinated, 44 BC (Eu Te Brute, Beware the Idea of March!)

•Cesar had gained too much power, Kill him!

1. Marc Antony

2. Octavian (Cesars adopted Nephew)

3. Lepidus

•However eventually Lepidus fell out of the Picture

•Insert Power struggle between Antony and Octavian

Battle of Actium (Antony vs. Octavian) 31 BC

•Octavian defeats Antony

•Antony flees to Cleopatra (they commit suicide)

•Octavian is now the main power in Rome!

Octavian is given the title Augustus

•He winds up ruling from 27 BC to AD 14

41 BC – The Parthians invade Judea!

•They are able to sweep away the Hasmonean dynasty (Maccabeas!)

•Hyrcanus II had been chosen by Pompey to rule over Judea

ohe had an effective second in command named Antipater

oIdumea(Edom)

•Samaratins believed Mt. Gerizim was the holy place, not Jerusalem

•The Maccabees had destroyed a the holy place on Mt. Gerizim

oalso forced them to follow Jewish Customs

onot a lot of friendly thoughts between the two Groups

John Hyrcanus also conquered the Idumeans

•Gave the Idumeans a choice…convert to Judaism or leave the territory (or we will kill you)

•Unusual and rare phenomenon in Jewish History

•Most of the Idumeans ended up Converting the Judaism

•Proselyte, those who want people to convert

•The Idumeans were very strong Jewish patriots later on

Son of Antipater

•Herod flees when the Parthians attack, Flees to Rome

oHerod had good ties to Rome before, good place to be safe for the herod the Builder

oHerod also knows Marc Antony

In the 40’s BC, Antony is the Guy in Rome

•Another good friendship for Herod

•Herod gets Antony to back him

•If he can drive out the Parthians, the Romans will make Herod the king!

However the Romans do not have the troops Herod needs

•However he is still able to drive the Parthians out of the territory

This makes Herod the king of the Jews!

•Uh oh says the Jews, He is from Idumea?

•How Jewish is he???

•Herod has some problems

•Remember that Idumeans are from the Line of Essau(Isaac’s older brother)

•He finds a beautiful princess from the Maccabean Line

oHe marries Mariamne

oMariamne had a brother (He is named the High Priest)

oHerod’s kids will now have Royal Jewish Heritage

•Supposed Good times for Herod, what a guy!

•People were chatting about Herod’s High Priest

•What a Guy! Lets make him the high Priest and King (Boo Herod!!!)

•Herod had a streak of Paranoia, He had to get rid of the Brother in Law

The Town of Jericho in the Jordan Valley (in the past the walls had been tumbling down!)

•Jericho is always Lush and Warm

•The Maccabeas and Herod had built winter palaces in Jericho

•Herod and the Brother in Law are in this area

oBrother in Law is playing hold ones head under the water

oHerod had ordered for this man to be killed

Mariamne's Brother and High Priest

Two Sons by Mariamne

Important People before He dies (people will cry)

•Herods great friend was Antony (didn’t like Cleopatra but bro before…)

•Herod is King for six yrs, then the side he backed in the battle of Actium

•Herod goes to Octavian, wants an audience with him

•Herod goes in dressed in his Royal Garb

oYou know that in Recent Trials I favored Antony

oI would’ve fought with him if I could have

oAsk not whose friend I was, but what kind of Friend I was

•Octavian was impressed, kept him king, and enlarged his territory

•Used his great wealth to build Great all over his territory

•Built a library in Beirut

•In Antioch, Herod paid for Street Lights to be built

In his own territory (Judea, Samaria, and Galilea)

•Built a port known as Cesaria

•Herod built an artifical Harbor, you can still visit the ruins

•Built up a Great theatre in Cesaria

•The Second temple had been a modest structure

•Herod wanted to magnify the temple!

•Covered the whole thing with Marble (instead of limestone)

•He also guilded the temple with Gold!

•The temple was beautified and adorned

olooked like a mountain covered with Snow

oThe top of which was covered with Fire(sunshine on the Gold)

This Beautifying was a common process in the Ancient World

•Cesar: When I came to Rome it was a city of Brick, When I left it was a city of Marble

•You would reface the buildings with Marble (classy!)

Herod greatly enlarged the courtyard of the Temple

•Largest platform made in Antiquity

•30 Football fields worth of Space (huuuuuge)

•You entered the temple by the South

•The dark walkway, and then you enter and see the White Temple on Fire (holy hell, I’m in a different world!!!)

•Nothing remains of the temple, but the western wall, but we have plenty of written evidence

•3 different Courtyards

•The First was the Court of women

•The Second was the court of the Israelites (no women)

•The Third was the court of the Priests (only Priests!)

•The closer you got in the closer you got to the presence of God

The furthest area out was the Court of the Gentiles

•For visiting non Jews

•Also put up signs in Greek, If you pass this point you will bring upon yourself your own death! (but enjoy the courtyard!)

•Paul is accused of bringing Gentiles into the temple

The above Fellow started the AD System

•AD means Anno Domini, the year of the lord (Christs birth yr)

•He came up with the calender we came up with today

•We know Jesus had to be born some time around Herods death…giving us 6-4 BC

•Antipas (Galilee)

•Archelaus (Samaria and Judea)

•Philip (Eastern Territory, Trans Jordan)

Archelaus was a bad ruler, after ten yrs the Romans removed him in 6 AD

•So for the first time the Romans had direct rule of this part of Judea

•This area is ruled by a Prefect/Procurators, lower grade Roman official

•When Jesus is accused he is tried by Pontius Pilate

obut Herod Antipas is in Galilee, so he gets Jesus

oAntipas sends him back to Pontius Pilate

oNo one wants to deal with Jesus

Antipas rules to about 40 AD

•Rules Galilee during the life of Jesus

•Antipas was also called Herod in the Bible

Evangelion in Greek

The Good Message, Good News

4 Acounts of Jesus's Life

Biographies of Christ?

Writers trying to get you to Believe in Teachings of Jesus (son of God)

Proclamations (Propaganda)

All four have Jesus’s baptism

•all four have the feeding of the 5 thousand

In 1774 J.J. Griesbach organized the similarities of the Gospels in Columns

•Show how much they agreed or differed

•He called this book a Gospel Synopsis

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are the Synoptic Gospels

•The Gospel of John contains very different Material

Explicit Evidence

Gospel of Luke

•The Gospel of Luke, he is the only author who tells us how he came to write the book and his procedure

•Luke is telling us that he is writing his Gospel for someone named Theophilus (someone who loves God)

oMaybe Theophilus was an imaginary audience (anyone interested in spiritual matters)

obut it was a common name in the first century, making most believe it was a real person

•Luke is writing to show this man the certainty of the things he is being instructed

•Luke says the material was delivered to those who know by the eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus

oEyewitnesses and Ministers

•This is a reference to the Apostles

oThen you have the earlier accounts

oThen you have Luke! (luke also wrote ACTS)

•Luke does not distinguish whether he is in the 2nd or 3rd generation

•doesn’t even say that the eyewitnesses have passed away

•But Luke knows the Eyewitness accounts first hand, giving him credibility to say what he says

Papius (AD110)

•Tells us that Matthew composed his Gospel in Hebrew

•He compiled a collection of Logia, the sayings and the deeds of Christ

•The author of the Gospel of Mark got his information from Peter

oHe published his gospel after Peter left Rome

•Papius was the first man to actually put names to the Gospels

•So the Gospels were originally formally Anonymous

oThey don’t tell you at the beginning who is doing the writing

Justin Martyr (150 CE)

•He talks about Memoirs of the apostles

•Gives a Quote that combines

oMatthew 10:28 and Luke 12:4-5

More Explicit Evidence

Ireneus

Irenaeus (180 AD)

•First one to Quote and ascribe authors to the four Gospels

•Matthew originally wrote in Hebrew, while Peter and Paul were in Rome

•After Peter and Paul died, Mark wrote down what they said

•Luke was a companion of them

•Jon as well

More Explicit Evidence

Gospel Titles

Gospel Titles

•We find that by the yr 200, the Gospels had their modern Titles

•According to John, Matthew, Mark, Luke

•One of the earliest Manuscipts (written on Papyrus) 

•Earliest of John is Papayrus 66, P66

oBought by Bodmer, it is in Switzerland

oThis is dated to the yr 200

oP75 –Bodmer 14 and 15 has Luke and John (3rd century)

Matthew was written for Jews

Mark was written for Romans

Luke was written for Greeks

John was written for all!

Richard Bauckham – The Gospels for all Christians

•there were big networks for Christians

•All the of the Gospels were circulating through the different communities 

•All of the Gospels wrote what they thought was important, but they were not simply writing for one audience

•Wrote a story for as many as possible

•The Gospel titles must have come very early on

•If there is more than one, then there has to be titles to make things clear

•If there was one, no need for a descriptive name

As the bible was being translated into Greek, it had to be translating it into Greek

•This is in the 3rd Century

•A King wanted a Greek Bible

•72, The Septuagent

oThe story of the new testament was passed down by Jews

oanyways…

Given the Abbreviation LXX (ancient Jewish Translation of the Bible into Greek)

•part of the process of Hellenization

•When Jews Quoted the Bible in Greek, they would say According to the 70…then they would give a quotation of the scripture

oThey didn’t write it, they simply recorded it in Greek

•So if they said According to the Gospel of John

opeople will know it was actually the Gospel of Jesus, recorded by John