Session 2 | Introduction
Principles of Interpretation
 This week, we will examine the principles of Biblical interpretation that
influence this course.
 Every person who reads the Bible (or anything else) always is wearing a set of
colored glasses that affects one’s reading. These colored lenses are one’s
intellectual values, cultural prejudices, and the ideas and ideals of one’s
primary sub-group.
 For example, “mainline” Christians may read the same passage in the Bible
differently than “fundamentalist” Christians.
 Roman Catholics may read certain passages of the New Testament differently
than Protestants.
 “Reformed Jews” may read the Old Testament differently than “Orthodox
Jews.”
 Modern Muslims will read their sacred Scriptures differently than radical
Muslims.
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Session 2 | Introduction
Principles of Interpretation
 Education, gender, age, income, life experiences, and other factors color our
reading of the Bible.
 Each one of us belongs to groups or sub-cultures, and these groups affect the
way that we study the Bible.
This class will have more power points than other classes, simply because we
need to articulate the primary values which influence our study of the four
gospels.
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Session 2 | Introduction
Values of the instructor that shape this course
It is important to know the core values and deeply held principles that guide an
instructor.
 I believe in Christ.
 I believe that Christ is the Son of God, the Incarnation, the Mind/Heart of
God.
 I believe in the divinity and humanity of Christ.
 I believe in the Bible as the Word of God.
 I believe that the Bible is the inspired and authoritative Word of God for
us.
 I believe in the virgin birth, teachings, miracles, parables, death, and
resurrection.
 I believe in the gifts of God’s forgiveness, new birth, life, and eternal life.
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Session 2 | Introduction
Values of the instructor that shape this course (Cont)
I believe in the reliability of the Bible.
I believe in the reliability of the faithful transmission of the text of the Bible.
I believe that we cannot prove God’s existence, Christ’s divinity, or eternal
life.
I believe that only God is the judge of each human heart and who is saved or
not.
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Session 2 | Introduction
Values of the instructor that shape this course (Cont)

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I believe that divine love always trumps human knowledge.
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Those groups may be of Jewish ancestry, people in interracial
marriages, people with HIV-AIDs, divorcees, scientists and scientific
positions, gays, lesbians, Arabs, Muslims, etc.
I am not a literalist.
I am not a fundamentalist.
I do not use the Bible to “politely” attack or clobber certain groups of
people.
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Session 2 | Introduction
Purposes of this course
 Encounter the living Christ, the living Message, the living Word of God.
 Encounter the intricacies and emphases of each individual gospel.
 Encounter one another during our class discussions.
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Session 2 | Introduction
Discussion Question:
What do you want to get out of this course?
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Session 2 | Introduction
What do you want to get out of this course? Some
answers from another class.
 A deeper walk with God/Christ.
 A deeper sense of personal spirituality.
 A deeper understanding and appreciation of the gospels.
 A greater self-confidence in my knowledge of the Scriptures.
 A greater discipline for daily reading of the gospels.
 A more effective way of applying the gospels to my daily life.
 A competent Bible teacher to help me with my study of the gospels.
 A greater knowledge of the differences of the four gospels.
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Session 2 | Introduction
A simple outline of the life of Christ
Introduction: The Birth, Baptism, Temptation, Call of the First Disciples
Galilee: Narratives, Teachings, Miracles, Parables
Jerusalem: Passion and Resurrection Narratives
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Session 2 | Introduction
Primary conclusions derived from the birth stories
Jesus was/is the Son of God
 John the Baptist was a true prophet.
 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was fully human and born in human poverty.
 We know that Jesus’ birth is reliably fixed in human history.
•
•
We know that King Herod died in the year 4 BCE.
•
We know that censuses were taken every fourteen years from 20 BCE270 CE.
•
•
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Censuses were taken for military reasons and taxation.
We know that Quirinius officially became governor of Syria in ruled
in 10-7 BCE.
There was an unusual conjunction of planets in the year 7 BCE
Many scholars determine the date of Jesus’ birth from 7-4 BCE.
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Session 2 | Introduction
Other conclusions derived from the birth stories
 True faith.
 “Filled with the Holy Spirit.”
 “Joy.”
 God is Lord; Jesus is Lord; God and Jesus are to be our Lord, the Ruler of
our lives.
 Memorable Bible verses.
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Session 2 | Introduction
Spiritual diary and page 363
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Session 2 | Introduction
Examination of The Prologue in The Synopsis (see
page #1)
Prologue
A.The Gospel According to Matthew
We know that the Gospel of Mathew is heavily dependent on the Gospel of
Mark and copies 90% of Mark’s Gospel.
Matthew is a Jewish gospel. It was written to and for Jewish people of that
era.
Matthew uses common Jewish words: Genealogy, Christ, David, Abraham.
As we study further chapters in the book of Matthew, we will discover other
common Jewish idioms and phrases.
Ireneas, Church Father, 180 CE, says that Matthew wrote in the “Hebrew
tongue.”
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Session 2 | Introduction
The Gospel According to Matthew Continued…
 Many Biblical scholars believe that Matthew was addressing a Jewish
community of Christians with their Jewish logic, their Jewish rationales,
their Jewish way of thinking.
 We will start building a contemporary analogy. That is, let us imagine that
this particular author is a Jewish rabbi/businessman who heard about Jesus
from eyewitnesses and then recorded his observations, conclusions for
Jewish people who are living in New York City.
 Both the uniqueness of the author and uniqueness of the audience will shape
how the message is heard and recorded.
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2| Introduction
B. The Gospel According to Mark
 Gospel = good news. Mark gives us the word, “gospel,” and that word
becomes the title of each book, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
 Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
 There are no infancy stories in Mark, nor in Paul nor John.
 Either Mark did not know of the infancy stories or they were not important
to him.
 Mark is the shortest of the gospels.
 It is reported to us by a Church Father that the Gospel of Mark was written
by John Mark, a traveling companion of the Apostle Paul.
 “As Peter had preached the Word publicly at Rome, and declared the Gospel
by the Spirit, many who were present requested that Mark, who had
followed him for a long time and remembered his sayings, should write
them out.” Clement of Alexandria,
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Session 2 | Introduction
B. The Gospel According to Mark Continued…
 The Gospel of Mark could be entitled, “The Gospel of Peter.” Before Simon
Peter was martyred in Rome, Peter told Jesus’ story to John Mark who
recorded it for posterity and us.
 The Gospel of Mark was written during the time of the persecutions under
Nero.
 In our contemporary analogy, this author is equivalent to a local fisherman,
perhaps from Ballard, Washington or other notable fishing village.
 Turn to page12 in The Synopsis and see that Mark continues with Mark 1:2.
In other words, Mark has no infancy stories about Jesus’ birth and
childhood.
Gradually, over time, you will learn how to use this basic textbook,
Synopsis of the Four Gospels.
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Ses21 | Introduction
C. The Gospel According to Luke
 Luke wanted to set his Jesus Story within
 Luke is also the author of the book of Acts. The two books compose 25% of
the New Testament.
 Luke was a traveling companion of Paul
 Scholars tell us that the book of Luke has the best Greek in the New
Testament.
 Luke was a physician.
 In Luke 1:1, Luke tells us that there were “many other narratives” about
Christ.
 The narrative that Luke created was based on “other apostle’s eyewitness”
accounts.
 These eyewitnesses were also “ministers of the word.”
 Luke had “followed all things closely for some time.”
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Session 2 | Introduction
C. The Gospel According to Luke
 Luke wanted to write “an orderly account.”
 Luke was writing “to Theophilus.” Theophilus is a Greek word and Luke
was writing to Greeks and not Jews.
 In the Greek language, “Theo” means “God” and “philos” means “lover.”
The Greek name, Theophilus, means “lover of God.”
 Luke wanted Theophilus to know the truth about which he had already
heard.
 In our contemporary analogy, Luke is to be compared to a physician/turned
historian/turned TV reporter, and he writes his commentary for CNN
International News.
 He is intending that these stories about Jesus reach a broad, world-wide
audience.
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Session 2 | Introduction
D. The Gospel According to John
 We will discover that the book of John is very different than the first three
gospels. One of the purposes of this class will be to explore the differences
between John and the first three gospels.
 We need to learn to accept the differences and contrasts between John and
the first three gospels (which are called “the Synoptics.”).
 We will discover that the Gospel of John is highly philosophical.
 We will discover that the Gospel of John uses extended, involved speeches.
 We will discover that the Gospel of John was written by an eyewitness who
actually “hung out” with Jesus and closely watched his every move.
 In our contemporary analogy, John is to be compared to a professor of
philosophy at the University of Chicago, and he is writing for deep thinkers,
university students and professors all over the world.
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Session 2 | Introduction
We need to create a contemporary analogy. Four
different authors are involved with the events. They
then report their stories to four different audiences.
The first and earliest reporter is a fisherman from Ballard, Washington, who
reports simply to other fishermen what he heard about Jesus. (Mark)
The second reporter is a Jewish rabbi/businessman who reports the story of Jesus
to his fellow Jews living in New York. (Matthew)
The third reporter is a physician and history buff who has become a TV
commentator who reports the story through CNN World News to the world-wide
community. (Luke)
The fourth reporter is a university professor who teaches philosophy at the
University of Chicago. He reports his observations to deep thinkers, students and
faculties of all colleges and universities around the globe. (John)
So we have different reports from four different people who addressed four
different audiences with different needs.
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Session 2 | Introduction
Discussion Question:
What is your favorite story from Jesus’ childhood and why do you like it so
much?
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Session 2 | Introduction
Abbreviations for dating events
For dating of events, we need useful abbreviations:
Scholars no longer use BC (before Christ) and AD (in the year of our Lord,
not After Death.)
Instead, scholars and commentators now use the following abbreviations:
BCE: Before Common Era or Before Christian Era
CE: Common Era or Christian Era
Instead of the “old” way of BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Dominei, the
Year of our Lord), now scholars are using the initials BCE and CE.
During the remainder of this course, we will use the BCE and CE when
discussing dates.
These initials are clearer than BC or AD, especially since there was so much
confusion about the initials AD. In numerous minds, many people translate the
initials AD as “after death.”
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Session 2 | Introduction
The following is a theoretical time sequence for
writing the gospels.
Q or Quella was the earliest New Testament source, written about 40-50 CE.
Then Paul’s letters were written in about 48-62 CE.
Then Mark or John Mark was written in about 65 CE.
Matthew and Luke were written in about 80 CE.
Matthew consists of three parts: Mark, Q and M.
Luke consists of three parts: Mark, Q and L.
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Session 2 | Introduction
The following is a theoretical time sequence for
writing the gospels. Continued…
As a general rule, Matthew follows Mark’s outline almost all the time. Luke
follows Mark’s outline of Jesus’ life but not as faithfully as Matthew.
John, an eyewitness, wrote in about the year 95 CE. John did not use Q,
Mark, Matthew or Luke. John seems to be an independent gospel. John’s
eyewitness accounts are filled with local flavor and juicy details.
The above comments are all theories and theological speculations. These
theories may be interesting and helpful. However, these speculations are part
of the minutia, part of the trivia, part of the unimportant theological details.
Yet such theories will be helpful as we study the four gospels.
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Session 2 | Introduction
Did secular, non-Biblical authors refer to Jesus in
their writings during the first century?
No.
Yes. There are four references to Jesus in non-Biblical literature during the
first century. The four references are from the writings of:
• Tacitus (56-120 CE). This Roman historian gives the first non-Biblical
reference to “Christ” and “Christians.”
• Suetonius (69-122) CE: “Chrestus.”
• Pliny the Younger (61-113 CE): “hymn to Christ as to a god.”
• Josephus (37-100 CE): “Jesus a wise man,” “tribe of Christians.”
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Session 2 | Introduction
Did secular, non-Biblical authors refer to Jesus in
their writings during the first century? Continued…
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man
for he was a doer of wonders,
He drew many after him
When Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had
condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake
him,
and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day
(Antiquities 18:63-64).”
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Session 2 | Introduction
Discussion Question:
What gets in your way of studying the Bible and/or reading the Bible
devotionally each day? What can you do to change this within yourself?
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