Announcements

1. Announcements • Read-- Donald Senior, Jesus: A Gospel Potrait(Makati: St. Pauls, 1992) pp. 1-45 • The Lectures are in my website but they are not arranged according to number.

2. Passing on the Faith

3. The Focal Point of the Christian Message: Jesus Christ • We have come to believe in God's love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person (Jesus Christ), which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. DEUS CARITAS EST 1 Benedict XVI

4. The Focal Point of the Christian Message: Jesus Christ • We have come to believe in God's love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person (Jesus Christ), which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. DEUS CARITAS EST 1 Benedict XVI

5. The Focal Point of the Christian Message: Jesus Christ • We have come to believe in God's love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person (Jesus Christ), which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.DEUS CARITAS EST 1 Benedict XVI

6. Knowing Jesus

7. New outline for the next two weeks • Passing on the Faith: Scripture and Tradition • Knowing Jesus Christ • The Main Message: His life, death and resurrection • The main message in Scriptures • The Centrality of the Resurrection • The Extraordinary Success of Christianity • The Source of Our Stories: The Gospels   • Three Stages of Gospel Development • Jesus and his Disciples • Disciples and their Community • Evangelist (Gospel Writers) and their Community • What are the Gospels? • Not Biographies—Faith Testimonies • From Faith To Faith • A Privileged Source • First Source • Normative—Standard • Why do we trust these four Gospels and not the other gospels?: • Are the Gospels reliable even if they have internal inconsistencies? • Are the Gospels reliable even if they were written two thousand years ago?

8. Analyze and Think!! ..Sometimes it's hard to believe in it because there's no concrete proof.. How do we verify that religion and all this about Christianity isn't a fictional work made by some random person in the past? 

9. The Source of Our Stories: The Gospels Story The Source of the Story (the bible)

10. Class Debate: (Note: “I respectfully challenge you?”) • Mr. Roncal (together with some kind students) vs the whole class

11. Debate Statement The life , death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact!

12. Questions we are answering • What are the three stages of Gospel development? • Why do we trust these four Gospels and not the other gospels?: • Are the Gospels reliable even if they have internal inconsistencies? • Are the Gospels reliable even if they were written two thousand years ago?

13. What are the Gospels? • They are not Biographies. The Gospels are faith testimonies. • They are not just a result of divine dictation.

14. Faith Testimonies When modern Christians pick up a gospel and read it with a searching faith, they are duplicating the very process by which it came to be written. “From faith” in the sense that it was the faith of the church that maintained the genuine portrait of who Jesus was and what he was about. “To faith” in the sense that the gospels were written so that the belief of Christians might intensify as they came face to face with the words and actions of the risen Lord. Donald Senior, p.24

15. From Faith To Faith

16. Gospels: Privileged Source First Source • Normative—Standard To Faith

17. What are the Gospels: Faith Testimonies “To faith” in the sense that the gospels were written so that the belief of Christians might intensify as they came face to face with the words and actions of the risen Lord. Donald Senior, p.24

18. Knowing Jesus

19. Three stages of gospel development

20. Reliable Documetn Writings of Paul The Gospels Apocryphal Gospels 2000++ AD 30 48 -85 100++ 65-95

21. Time Line of the Gospels 90 AD John's Gospel Mathew's Gospel 70 AD Stage 3 Luke's Gospel 65 AD Mark's Gospel Stage 2 33AD Stage 1 Jesus' Death and Resurrection 30 AD Jesus Began his Ministry 0 AD Jesus was Born

22. Comparison: The Gospel of Mark and the Edsa Revolution • Mar 1:14-15 • (14) Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, • (15) and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." The Gospel of Mark Edsa Revolution

23. Pass the Message Problem • Written Written • Oral Oral

24. Pass the (written)Message Problem Copies Latin English Greek Oral Original

25. Reliability of the Written Message 200 AD 325AD 130 AD 65 AD Identical (w/minor differences) Original

26. Reliable(i.e. the copies we have now are accurate copies of the original documents) Document? • What to look for? • How many handwritten copies (manuscripts) of the source there are, • How close these are in time to the original work. • Signs of reliability • The more copies there are with little disagreement among them • The closer the manuscripts are in time to the original work

27. Reliable Documents (Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Historical Evidences for the Christian Faith, 39-64)

28. Reliable Document The manuscript evidence for the "New Testament" is also dramatic, with nearly 25,000 ancient manuscripts discovered and archived so far, at least 5,600 of which are copies and fragments in the original Greek. 4 Some manuscript texts date to the early second and third centuries, with the time between the original autographs and our earliest existing fragment being a remarkably short 40-60 years.  ( John Ryland's Gospel of John fragment, John Ryland's Library of Manchester, England. ) http://www.allaboutthejourney.org/bible-manuscripts.htm

29. Why certain books were retained and the others rejected?

30. Definition of Terms • Canon – the closed collection or list of sacred books acknowledged by the Church as the rule of faith and life

31. Sacred Scripture as the book of the Church: Rough History of Bible 1970 The New American Bible was written 1539-1610 The Bible was translated into English, 1546-Council of Trent, list of the Canon 382-418 AD Latin version of the Bible was written (by St. Jerome) 393-405 Council of Hippo, Carthage, Toulouse came out with a list of the NT books 100 AD All the New Testament books have been written 60 AD St. Paul writes his first letter and the Gospel of Mark was written, Note: 22-24 books of the Hebrew canon were in use 33 AD Death of Jesus Christ 0-4BC Jesus is Born 450 BC: The Five Books (Pentateuch) was written

32. Textbook Analogy

33. Story Personal witness Conformity to the story Popularity of the story

34. What were the criteria used by the early Christian leaders in determining which books to accept ? • Apostolic origin-meaning no more than that an apostle had a traditional connection with a given work. – • Conformity to the Rule of Faith—meaning the writings expressed what the early Christians believed in • Constant Use among the Communities—meaning the writings that were commonly used by all the Churches were eventually accepted as part of the canon

35. Personal Story: “Jomar’s remarkable ability to love”

36. Discussion (Knowing Jesus: Having a relationship with Jesus Christ)

37. Discussion • Is it possible to/Can you know (define first what you mean by “know”) Jesus today? • Two Groups: Yes and No • End Product: • Resolved Issues (Things everyone agreed with) • Unresolved Issues (Things not agreed on)

38. The End