Reading Log 1

[This paper was written for the Synoptic Gospels class at Capital University, where I am currently seeking a minor degree in religion.]

Jesse Harmon

RELIG 330

September 16, 2013

Reading Log #1: Styles

            I’ve noticed the writing styles of the three synoptic gospels are very different from each other.  I’ve seen Matthew as being a persuasive letter to the Jewish people.  Mark always seemed like a news article, while Luke was an informal informational letter.  I will be exploring why I think each Gospel has these tendencies by looking at the scripture, not as a bits and pieces, but as a whole.  I will be using the New International Version of the Bible for this experiment.  It would be interesting to compare word-for-word and thought-for-thought versions of the Bible.

            Matthew started off his gospel with a genealogy of Jesus.  This, to me, gives Matthew credibility.  Someone who goes through the time to research, recall, and write down Jesus’ many ancestors should be considered credible in my eyes.  What better researcher than someone who knows the most, if not all, of the paternal genealogy of someone? 

Matthew stated several times that Jesus came to fulfill the scriptures, with those from Isaiah catching my eye.  For this reading experiment, I tried concentrating on when these took place in the gospel.  The first time Matthew mentioned Jesus fulfilling the scripture is in 1:22.  “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet…” Matthew cited his sources.  Although not quite like today’s MLA or APA formats, he still cited them, like he did in 13:14 when Jesus was speaking about the parable of the sower.  Jesus is explaining why he uses parables, “This is why I speak in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; through hearing, they do not hear or understand.  In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be…’”

            Jesus addressed this directly in 5:17-7:29.  Jesus first mentioned that he came to fulfill the law when he said this in the Murder section in verse 21, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago…” Jesus passively stated that what he is about to say came from Exodus.  He then stated it again just a few verses later in verse 27, “You have heard that it was said…” Once again, he said it in verse 31: “It has been said…” Jesus says this again in verse 38: “You have heard that it was said…” 

            A blind man even addressed Jesus as the Son of David in 9:27: “As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, ‘Have mercy on us, Son of David!’”  As if Jesus didn’t have enough credibility already, Matthew left this short clause in the verse.

A man with authority even asked Jesus for help in a sincere way.  In 8:5-11, a centurion, a professional officer in the Roman army, came to ask Jesus for help.  Jesus states to the centurion that he is the most faithful person he’s seen in Israel.  Matthew probably included this to show that even though as a man of civil authority, the centurion in no way had more earthly or heavenly authority than Jesus did.

Matthew’s gospel is very concise and organized, much like a tax collector or someone who works in the financial industry must be.   Without being organized, a banker (or tax collector) would possibly lose money.  Lots of time and research were put into Matthew’s gospel.  I believe every fact that was presented in the gospel was thoroughly researched and presented in a way that would attract and convince a reader.  Not once did I question the credibility of Matthew’s gospel, since he consistently backed up what Jesus said with Old Testament law. 

I counted about fifty-three references to the Old Testament in Matthew, and I’m sure there are a lot more that I didn’t notice.  When looking at the gospel of Mark, however, I saw a pattern unrelated to Old Testament references.  I noticed how quickly Mark got to the most important stuff in Jesus’ life.  The pace at which Mark transitioned stories at the beginning of his gospel tells me that he wanted to get things done quickly with no horsing around.  I noticed several “scene changes” within the first few chapters of Mark.  The first scene change I noticed was from 1:8 and 1:9.  The next change happened at 1:14.  The next was at 1:23.  In fact, Mark writes a whole story within four verses (1:23-27).  Verses 29-31 include an even shorter story. 

            Here is a list of scene changes all within three chapters: 2:13, 2:15, 2:18, 2:23, 3:1, 3:7, 3:13, 3:20, 4:1, and so on.  By the time we hit chapter 4, the pace has slowed down immensely.  It tells me that, although Mark found this previous stuff important, the stuff after chapter 4 is even more important, and worth the slowing down of the storyline.  After chapter 4, I didn’t notice the scenes change as quickly.  Mark wanted to get the information out, and he wanted to get it out FAST.

            Mark’s gospel, to me, is easy to read, but it’s also easy to make a mistake and miss something.  One of these things I missed reading Mark were two short verses in chapter 14.  Mark wrote in 14:51-52 after Jesus’ arrest, “A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.”  I never caught this when reading Mark until I read it for this reading log.  I was blindsided by how little information Mark gave us on this young man.  If Mark felt compelled to write about this young man fleeing, why didn’t he put more information about him?  Why did Mark even include such a seemingly insignificant aspect of Jesus’ story?  It could have been just as easy for Mark to write, “Jesus was arrested, and then a young man fled the scene.”  Then I realized that this is probably another example of Mark’s simple, quick style of writing.  I mentioned earlier about Mark’s speedy pace when it comes to writing, and this was the perfect example. He must have somehow felt compelled to write about this man in just a few short verses, nothing more, and nothing less.  This young man must be important to Jesus’ story somehow.  I don’t have the answer to it, though. 

            Luke’s gospel stretches his stories considerably, compared to Mark.  This gospel reads like an informational letter, (which he clearly stated in 1:1-4 to his friend Theophilus).  For example, Luke’s account of Jesus’ temptation is thirteen verses long, compared to Matthew’s account (eleven verses), and Mark’s (two verses). 

            I found a humorous line in 4:30.  The people were mad at Jesus, and were planning on taking him and throwing him off a cliff.  4:30 simply says that Jesus, “…walked right through the crowd and went on his way,” as if it were absolutely nothing.  This tells me that Luke wrote this not as a textbook, but as an informal, yet informational, letter, with a little humor thrown in for good measure. 

            I did notice something seemingly insignificant in the very first verse of the gospel.  Luke writes, “Many have undertaken…” with keyword here being many.   How many is “many?”  Luke’s use of the word “many” tells me that more than one person has written about Jesus’ life.  Of course, we have access to four highly printed and highly regarded works that tell the story of Jesus.  There are others out there, but the four that are found in today’s Bible are definitive.  I couldn’t seem to get this fact out of my head as I was reading the gospel of Luke, and I kept questioning, “What did the other writers say about this?”  “Did a gnostic gospel mention this?”  I also found it interesting that Luke wrote about the time before Jesus was born, like when the angel appeared to Mary and Joseph to announce the birth to a virgin, and when the angel appeared to announce the birth of John the Baptist.  The other two synoptic gospels don’t have this much detail of an account in their story of Jesus.

            After reading each of the synoptic gospels, I have made plans to go through them again and look for different aspects including how each gospel portrayed Jesus (man, divine, servant, friend, brother, etc.) as well as how each gospel portrays other characters, like Judas.