Why Did the Persona of Jesus Change During the Bible Period



There are four "gospels" in the New Testament, Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. The first three were believed to have been written between 30 and 60 years after the time Jesus was supposed to have lived. The fourth, John, was written over 100 years after the alleged Jesus years. In churches, it is my impression John is read more often than the first three. Some say it was developed after many decades of reading to people out loud and was changed to read more easily as spoken.

These days with a small army of scholars combing over the Bible as literary critics arguments break out about how different the four books are in the way they portray their main character, Jesus. The book of John, the one written over 100 years later, portrays a much different Jesus character than the stories in the first three.

Writers or rewriters of the first three portray Jesus as being somewhat secret about his religious significance. They include his story of a virgin mother and humble birth. He speaks in the round about technique of parables. He does miracles but they are mostly private. He only reveals his religious importance on a mountain with his disciples. There is the last supper and arrest by official. There are only a few quotes.

In the Book of John there is no Bethlehem, no virgin birth, no wilderness, no temptation by the Devil and no last supper. There are some rewrites of events in the first three and some events not in them. In the first three he heals a girl in private. In John, he makes a public show of healing her. All the miracles and healings in John are spectacular crowd pleases. Gone are the parables and in their place I-am-your-guy quotes. In the first three gospels it is Jesus the humble guy. In John it is Jesus the showman.

There must have been some reason a new Jesus was needed after 100 years. Maybe the previous model was getting long in the tooth.

(Jesus analysis from the Bart Ehrman Blog)

Comments

  1. little helperMarch 28, 2020 at 6:13 PM

    Yes yes, people do have a problem with the two natures of Christ. The before, during and after. And this before Paul.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ardy BMarch 29, 2020 at 7:14 PM

    little helper March 28, 2020 at 6:13 PM

    I’m not sure what we are discussing. Two persona i.e. humble and showman, or two natures i.e. human and divine. I ran into a lot of ism’s digging around in the two nature thingy; Apollinarianism, Nestorianism, and Eutychianism, Monophysitism, Miaphysitism, and Dyophysitism. That’s more problem than I can unpack. No need to reply.

    ReplyDelete
  3. little helperMarch 30, 2020 at 7:50 PM

    Let's try this again, and see if it will be approved. Ardy. "Cute" isn't becoming. I did not say; "Two persona", nor did I say a word of your "isms". I did say "the two natures of Christ". In Latin, it is "De Duabus Naturis in Christo. Perhaps a short course in reading may help.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ardy BMarch 31, 2020 at 4:24 AM

      little helper March 30, 2020 at 7:30 PM

      Let’s try this again. If stating “I’m not sure what we are discussing.” is being cute, your moniker “little helper” is a good choice. Jon discussed a variation in the depictions of Jesus by the authors of the four gospels namely humble vs showman. You chimed in about “the two natures of Christ”. I thought you were referring to divine vs human. If humble / showman and divine / human in reference to your Jesus / Christ are equivalent I missed the point. I did not say anything about you saying a word about two persona or mentioning -isms. The -isms I listed came from articles I found trying to sort out the divine vs human natures of a rabbi. For lack of a better word to describe Jon’s discussion of the humble vs showman depictions in his blog I chose “persona”. Maybe a better choice would have been “personality aspects” or “features” thereof. You wrote, “Perhaps a short course in reading may help.” Perhaps you are baiting me. This stuff is not always about you and your sensibilities.

      Delete
    2. little helperMarch 31, 2020 at 7:45 AM

      No sensibilities. Just the term / subject of; "Two natures of / in Christ". Nothing more, nothing less. ( Which as I said; "Yes, people do have a problem with the two natures of Christ"). Which has been shown to be an accurate observation here.

      Delete
    3. little helperMarch 31, 2020 at 8:00 AM

      I would never claim to be the Big Helper, as that would be presume more than what is deserved. Is that so bad?

      Delete

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