Biblical HERMENEUTICS ASSIGNMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Biblical HERMENEUTICS ASSIGNMENT - Essay Example This focus leads into the fact that followers must recognize that Jesus is a divine messenger or intermediary between people and God, and not God himself; this emphasis is particularly strong in the Gospel of John, in which John continues to assert that Jesus is the dutiful son of the father, and not the father himself. Finally, reading the Gospels requires an understanding of salvation and the kingdom of heaven which, through Jesus’ sacrifice, is granted to all those followers who live in faith and love of Jesus’ words, as embodied through the Gospels.4 Recognizing these strategies for reading the Gospels will enable the follower to fully internalize the truthful words of Jesus in a fashion that Jesus intended, rather than through a skewed understanding of his message. Although it is difficult to pinpoint the exact date when the Gospels were written, New Testament scholars argue that the literature in the Book were written at the end of the first and the beginning of t he second century, during the Hellinistic period, when the Christian church was under persecution.5 At this time, three central events affected the writing and compilation of the New Testament, which included the following: the spread of Christianity, the effect of the fall of Jerusalem on Christianity, and the obsessive focus on the destruction of the world (that never came).6 Therefore, this period was characterized by brutal conquests and social turmoil, which is evident in the apocalyptic tone of the writing in the books in the New Testament. In addition, speaking authoritatively on the authorship of the works is particularly difficult because these contributions were not written by eyewitnesses in Jesus’ ministry; â€Å"it has to be understood that in the ancient world it was quite common to attach important names to anonymous works, or to write in the name of some teacher or famous person from the past†.7 However, there is a higher level of certainty that these w riters were, in fact, known by Jesus directly, or known by men who were close to Jesus; for example, Peter, Matthew, and John were recognized as being among the original group of Jesus’ followers. Although the apostles were in close proximity to Jesus, there is a great range of diversity between the synoptic Gospels and the fourth Gospel, as well as between the Acts and letters because the Book â€Å"contains a variety of books, written in a variety of lengths and styles, and attributed to a variety of authors†¦ [coming] from diverse times and places.†8 In this regard, the vast majority of the literature spoke of and about Jesus Christ, but did so in a varied fashion that reflects different circumstances, concerns and purposes, and