The Study of the Bible as a Historical Document

Who Was Jesus?

A Humanities Essay That Teaches

The Study of The Bible As

A Historical Document

I felt a very positive impression of who Jesus was after finishing

the Book of Matthew. I had a new image of someone who was a down-to-

earth, caring individual. I did not find quotes of Jesus that claimed

being superior to the common man, of whom sinners could not look upon

(a view that most people had of their Gods for centuries before).

Matthew 12:49-50, Jesus announces to multitudes that they are his

mother and brothers. In that way, he puts himself at an equal level to

the people, rather than claiming to be a God above them. This reflects

the whole attitude of the book.

Chapters 6-7 of Matthew quote Jesus as he is presenting

rules to live by to the multitudes. To me, all of these sounded like

hints to leading a happy life for yourself. Jesus reflects a God that

does not expect virgins or animals to be sacrificed in His name; but, a

God that is pleased by followers that love not only God, but each other

also. These seem like simple, logical rules to live by. But, they

reflected a time in history where that kind of love for one another was

hard to find because of the hardships inflicted upon the people.

I find some conflict in Jesus' actions, however. Jesus never (as

far as I know) says to ignore to commandments of God in the Hebrew

Scriptures; however, constantly breaks the Sabbath (Matt 12:13 and

others), and gives VERY flimsy and unconvincing explanations for it. I

am not sure what his message was in those actions. Perhaps he didn't

care?

In general, Matthew was a good, entertaining story to read, with a

very dramatic ending, and great character development (a little

sarcastic humor here)!

I was very surprised to find much of the Book of Mark a repeat of

what was written in Matthew, but with a little less detail, and a few

stories omitted.

Jesus goes a little overboard on the parables! Most of the

parables needed to be explained to his disciples, and some of them I

wasn't able to understand either! Although many parables have a good,

inspiring morals to them, I would question Jesus as to if they were an

effective way to witness to common people. Even today, too many people

read parables as TRUTH, rather than "just a story." Plus, they are

misinterpreted.

But, I have to tell you that an amazing coincidence happened to me

after I finished reading the Parable of "The Pearl of Great Price." A

couple of hours later, I was watching an old episode of Star Trek on

TV, and 'Scotty' had actually quoted the same, exact parable at the end

of the show! Funny that the writers of Star Trek predict the future to

still hold the same religion as now, and 2000 years ago.

Both Matthew and Mark write about the part of Pilate in His

crucifixion. It seems to me that Pilate was a "good-guy", and did not

really want to have Jesus killed because he did not see anything that

He did wrong (as compared to Barabbas, the