IN FRATERNAM MEAM: TRYING TO UNDERSTAND MY RELIGION AND THE SCRIPTURES

IN FRATERNAM MEAM

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

TRYING TO UNDERSTAND MY RELIGION AND THE SCRIPTURES

When I was in the seminary for the formation to the priesthood, we were studying the bible and the history behind it. We live by what was in the Good Book, we learn from it and practised what was written on it, for the Good Book is the food for the soul and God is speaking thru the very words that is written in the Bible.

Now that I have left the seminary prior to my ordination, I still do practice the regimen and the practices that we have inside. It was good for me, there was a system in my life and I still do lots of readings, plus I have come to build a library of my own at home, collecting all the books that I have read and liked reading.

Here's my latest reading:

THE COMPLETE GOSPELS by Robert Miller

This book has the New Translations of the Bible's four Gospels plus the Gospels of Thomas and Mary Magdalene, the Sayings Gospel Q, the Secret Gospel of Mark and twelve other Gospels from the first three centuries.

**Narrative Gospels:
Gospel of Mark
Gospel of Matthew
Gospel of Luke
Gospel of John

** Additional Gospel that is not in the present Bible:

GOSPEL OF THOMAS - reveals that Jesus, contrary to the popular image of him as an apocalyptic preacher of damnation and salvation, was actually a widsom teacher who taught about the true origins of humankind.

GOSPEL OF MARY MAGDALENE - suggest that women held prominent roles in the early church, and provides a startling look at what may have been the first attempts to suppress their leadership.

SAYING GOSPEL Q - the controversial reconstruction of the first gospel used by Jesus' original followers, contains only Jesus' saying and none of the dramatic stories about his life later told in the New Testament.

SIGNS GOSPEL - is almost entirely a catalog of Jesus' miracles, intended to demonstrate that he was the Jewish Messiah, the Anointed.

SECRET BOOK OF JAMES - relates that immediately prior to his ascension, Jesus imparted a private revelation ot James and Peter, which James presents as a letter.

GOSPEL OF PETER - contains what may have been the original passion narrative later adapted in the New Testament synoptic gospels accounts.

WHAT IS A GOSPEL?

The word "gospel" translates the Greek evangelion, which literally means "good news". The term first appears in Christian literature in the letters of Paul, where it already has a technical sense, referring to the message about the death, resurrection and return of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:1-5). While two of the New Testament gospels use the word "gospel" (it is missing in Luke and John), they use it to indicate not the written works themselves, but rather the message preached either by Jesus (in Matthew) or about him (in Mark). Not until the middle of the 2nd century are documents about the words and deeds of Jesus called GOSPELS.

The New Testament gospels are complex works of literature that draw on a variety of oral and written sources of tradition, some from Jesus and some about him, such as miracle stories, collections of his parables and sayings, traditions about hisbirth and childhood, and stories about his death and resurrection. These different formals for preserving and transmitting Jesus traditions influenced the shape of the New Testament narrative gospels. But in addition, they each crystallized into distinct literary words in their own right called GOSPELS.

(abstracted from the book: COMPLETE GOSPELS an Annotated Scholars Version by: Robert J. Miller)

posted by infraternam meam @ 1:57 PM

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