I'm taking a class on The Gospels. Jesus Christ and all that. I'm hitting them cold. Certainly I am familiar with Christianity but I never sat down and read them. About 25 people in the class, I'm the only access student, the other one bailed.
As I read Matthew, (and we have to read them in a hurry), one set of verses near the end of the Sermon on the Mount shouted out at me:
13"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go by it.. 14"Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it.
Since, much of the gospels were oral at the beginning, maybe performed at the Passover Seder. The Jesus movement started out as a Jewish sect. I thought, he's referring to Mitzrayim, the narrow place.
The seder features mitzrayim meaning the constrictions that we all feel. We have to overcome mitzrayim, the narrow difficult place, to come into the promised land. I have one of the books that compare the synoptic gospels. The narrow gate is not in Mark, and in Luke, it's used in a different context, that the gate is narrow so few are let in. Many try but few succeed. The Christian websites, talk about believing in Jesus as savior gets you in the narrow gate.
In the Jewish tradition, Moses had to go through mitzrayim, and so do we all have to struggle in the narrow place.
I brought it up in class. The professor, a senior scholar, likes it. His question, would this narrow gate, this narrow place, have been part of the Passover seder in First Century CE?
That's hard to figure out!!
In other news, I talked to J, widow of one of my people on the L.P. Weil line and she gave me a lot of information. Yay! Now I know more information about Elizabeth Reich aka Betty Schaeffer, but I can't find her either. It's just a step.
6 comments:
I happen to come across your comment and I had to wonder. What made you decide to want to know Gospels?
I happen to come across your comment by chance and I had to wonder what made you decide to want to know Gospels?
I'm sorry if this comment is showing up multiple times. I'm not getting any kind of conformation that it was posted.
from Roger?
When I started being an access student almost four years ago, I thought I would be taking History. But I started with the Jackson School of International Studies and never seem to leave. I've taken a lot of Jewish Studies classes. But I saw this class on the Gospels with the right time. I didn't know too much about the Gospels so I figured I would learn. Michael Williams is and excellent professor.
Hi Roger,
A long while ago, the beginning of last year, 2015, I had sent you a message about you wanting to study the Gospels. Well, I don't know if you still use this site but I wanted to know if you were still studying the Gospels and if so how is it coming but if not, what happened? As a Christian Bible student myself, I'm just curious.
Hi Roger,
Okay, here I go again! :-) I can never get the hang of the site. But a long while ago, the beginning of last year, 2015, I had post a comment to your post saying you were going to study the Gospels of the Bible. Well, I was wondering how was that going for you? Are you still studying? And if not, what happened? As a Christian Bible student myself, I was just curious. Hope all is well with you.
I was studying the Gospels because I was taking a UW class taught by Michael Williams. I didn't know hardly anything about those writings. However, I have not continued my Gospel studies. I took another one on Rabbinical Writings (talmud, etc) also very interesting. This quarter I hope to take Jewish Cultural History. Currently I'm involved in a large history project regarding the Old Sanctuary of Temple De Hirsch-Sinai centering on phenomenology or how people experience things.
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