Lord of the Gospels: The 1990 Sperry Symposium on the New Testament

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Lord of the Gospels: The 1990 Sperry Symposium on the New Testament

The Lord of the Gospels: The 19th Annual Sidney B. Top Editor , Bruce A. Van Orden Editor Other authors: Bailey Contributor , Donald Q. Cannon Contributor , Richard D. Draper Contributor , James E. Faust Contributor , Kenneth W. Madsen Contributor , Byron R. Merrill Contributor , J. Philip Schaelling Contributor , Jonathan H.

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As just noted, accounts of the same event show commonality and also individuality, both of which can be explained in terms of the writer, his skills, his sources, his personal style. Many aim for the one original account by peeling off its later developments. But that is a historical version of the either-or fallacy. Each Gospel may have had independent access to some original details, even when there is literary interdependence in the synoptic trio. The norm in this reconstructive system is illustrated in a survey of scholarship on Jesus by Aramaic expert Joseph A.

Fitzmyer is used here because of his positive stance, and my evaluation is given with respect for his lifetime devotion to religious learning.

Although he views the Gospels as fictionalizing the life of Jesus, he also thinks that they carry far more authentic information than do their apocryphal imitations, some of which are now touted as having equal validity to the four biblical records: Crossan , these apocryphal gospels are scarcely a source of real information about Jesus of Nazareth. He reviews this wisdom as the fruit of the twentieth century, which started with form criticism and then advanced to redaction-composition criticism and other types of literary analysis.

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With other New Testament scholars, Fitzmyer speaks of three stages: Jesus teaching, traditions expanding, and gospel authors freely adapting. Basically the first century is trisected, with story development in the middle third and editorial creativity in the final third. The system breeds a puzzling certainty. But the New Testament contains a different information model about Christ, and Paul is the first one known to state it. In 1 Corinthians, Paul reviews the conversion of southern Greeks as he carefully argues for the Resurrection.

He makes a sharp distinction between his vision and the first appearances of Christ to the Galilean Apostles and their associates, naming five occasions when the resurrected Lord was seen by them see 1 Corinthians Here Paul is really defining his mentors for the earthly Christ, as he stresses the Atonement and Resurrection: Although Paul is an intermediary, he insists he has accurately relayed firsthand testimony on the Resurrection appearances see 1 Corinthians So Paul corrects current form critics: To remove his name from the Gospel that has his byline in the earliest manuscripts is equivalent to erasing authorship from the best Roman and Greek histories.

Because later apocryphal writings falsely claimed to have been written by leading Christians, the traditional authors of many New Testament books are widely questioned today. But second-century papyrus copies exist of large sections of Matthew, Luke, and John with their names in head notes or endnotes. This list sought to clarify which books were historically authentic: Indeed, the apocryphal Gospels have obvious agendas or contents that do not integrate with events, topography, geography, and culture in the New Testament world.

The four Gospels are impressive for their factual framework accompanying the life and teachings of Christ. That preface contradicts redactional theory by subtracting the evolutionary second stage in forming the Gospels. In my view, Luke penned this preface no later than AD 63, less than a decade after 1 Corinthians. Prominent Apostles and brothers of the Lord mingled with converts during the middle third of the founding century.

Besides those documented Apostles, other leading Christians, including relatives of the Lord and prominent women, lived to see some or all of the synoptic Gospels written. Yet the question of sources for the Gospels continues to be discussed in a vacuum. Paul would not have written such depressing lines. History from those who saw and heard is being preserved before our eyes in the Corinthian correspondence. At a minimum, the Apostle is in contact with other Apostles and writing bits of their oral history. In my judgment, Hebrews is from Paul and was definitely written before the destruction of the temple in AD Further, the Apostle merely refers to events rather than explaining them, expecting his readers to understand incidental references to the career of the Savior.

This point is pivotal in understanding why the Apostle does not more often name Jesus as his source. A common body of knowledge makes powerful allusions possible without the clumsy ritual of naming the Lord and designating a given teaching. Romans, 1 Corinthians, and 1 Thessalonians. My approach, however, is documentary, relying on second-century manuscript evidence and second- and third-century acceptance of books that were later challenged.

This external evidence favors Paul as author of the traditional fourteen letters.

Lord of the Gospels: The Sperry Symposium on the New Testament - Deseret Book

This appeal to firsthand evidence indicates reliable oral history, though Paul might have possessed early lists of Resurrection appearances. Between these two directives there is a caution about remarriage not necessarily from Jesus, because Paul jots ideas within ideas. As he does in the passage on the sacrament, the Apostle gives an early form of synoptic teachings. Only Matthew gives a permitted divorce initiative for males in cases of adultery, and only Mark gives a generalized rule against divorce for men and also women see Mark This practice suggests that the Apostle designed his Church messages to remind Christians of a fairly defined body of information about the Lord.

The New Testament contains several equivalent command terms. Paul uses one of them in a long answer to faultfinding Corinthians as he insists that he has the right to be supported as a missionary but does not demand it: Paul first quoted Old Testament scripture on support of the priests and then evidently added the directions of Jesus about missionaries.

These words broadly summarize the charge to the Seventy to rely on the people for food see Luke So Paul wrote again to clarify prior events. A broad pattern links Matthew 24 to the Thessalonian letters. Paul uses this as the essential message: Though Luke has this comparison elsewhere It seems the basic Olivet discourse was available to Paul and his converts, probably in written form because of the duplicated detail and order, together with several striking words. Removing some important misconceptions will highlight the parallels.

As Paul explains what must precede the Second Coming, the parallels are striking, especially in Matthew. So Paul follows the substance and timetable of the Olivet prophecy. This does not exhaust the interplay of words and ideas between Matthew 24 and the Thessalonian correspondence.

These earliest known letters of the Apostle were sent about twenty years after Jesus outlined the stages between the first and the second comings. And Paul quite certainly used a full record of the prophecy corresponding to the present Matthew Paul could be brief on this sensitive subject only if it was well known that the Lord took a strong stand on overdone purification. For this purpose, restatements would be necessary for waves of converts.

This arrangement leads some to assume that Matthew assembled scattered sayings of Jesus. Yet Luke is a skilled writer by ancient standards that stressed logical as much as chronological order. For the interest of the reader, he perhaps reported a concise version of this important sermon and placed some sections elsewhere by topic. Or did the Master Teacher use repetition so regularly that both views are true—an original broad manifesto of principles followed by systematic segments in various teaching moments?

A unified image of the Sermon on the Mount emerges through the lens of the letters, particularly Romans: In particular, an impressive list of parallels can be drawn up between Romans While none of our canonical Gospels existed at this time, the teaching of Christ recorded in them was current among the churches—certainly in oral form, and perhaps also in the form of written summaries. Paul closes his epistle to the Romans with several chapters of personal instruction instead of the briefer admonitions found in other church letters. But Romans is the one epistle sent to an important area where Paul had not preached.

That explains his obvious drive to review authoritative standards with Saints who had not heard him. The last part of Romans 12 corresponds to the last part of Matthew 5 with a series of admonitions on the subject of nonretaliation.

Paul opens the subject with: In the longer traditional text of Matthew, the parallel is: In a word, repay those doing you evil, not with evil, but with good. Matthew has the close model for the above negative command: This subtle coloring supplements the correlations to a well-defined section of the Sermon on the Mount. As already discussed, these questions are embedded in a long correction about being overcritical because of Jewish dietary rules, with Jesus cited on nothing being unclean of itself see Romans Here the Sermon on the Mount parallel is strongly felt: And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: Though Paul does not name Christ in this passage, he reasons from the teachings of Jesus that love is the overarching precept. Then Paul backs up this main concept with two silent citations of Jesus. In full form, Romans Nor did he need to mention Christ behind his second supporting saying: The story of the redemption from Egypt remained a powerful image to later Old Testament prophets.

Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. The comfort of past redemption and the promise of future deliverance are combined in Isaiah To demonstrate the goodness and mercy of the Lord for the house of Israel, Isaiah refers to the redemption out of Egypt: As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest: Isaiah specifically refers to this act of the Lord as a redemption rather than simply a deliverance.

More likely, however, Isaiah refers to the angel in the promise the Lord made to Israel as they left Egypt: Beware of him, and obey his voice. The distinctive Israelite concept of a redeemer as a close family member is seen in the Book of Mormon as well as in the Old Testament. The concept of redemption in the Book of Mormon fits the ancient Near Eastern practice of buying someone out of slavery and bondage.

Just as the writers of the Book of Mormon saw captivity in spiritual terms, so they also saw redemption as a spiritual matter and sought to persuade people that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer see Alma One clear and concise textual example of the connection between covenant and redemption is found in Mosiah 18, in which Alma talks to the subjects of King Noah who have come into the wilderness to hear him teach the words of Abinadi. When they were ready to enter into a covenant with the Lord, Alma addressed them in a famous discussion of the duties of the Saints associated with the baptismal covenant.

It is through covenants and the reception of a new name that individuals are adopted into the family of the Lord and are eligible to be redeemed. The concept of adoptive redemption explains the importance of making covenants to qualify for redemption through the Atonement of Christ. This understanding is crucial for Latter-day Saints as a modern covenant people. Eerdmans, , — Bromiley Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, , 4: Eerdmans Publishing, , —31, s. An interesting discussion of these different root meanings is found in Michael S.

Porter and Stephen D. Deseret Book, , —5. McCarthy, Treaty and Covenant: Biblical Institute Press, , His Life and Testimony, ed. Hoskisson Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, , 80— Send us a message and we'll get back to you right away. Lane Lane, Jennifer C. Redemption in the Old Testament: