April 6th

Posted on April 4, 2006

We are covering the Gospel of Mark--without question, the most important single piece of writing from the early Christian era--this week. For Christians, this Sunday is Palm Sunday, an event recounted in chapter 11 of Mark (and that account is probably based on Zechariah 9: 9).

I will show in class a couple of sections from Episode 3 of the documentary, From Jesus to Christ: the First Christians; I'll show the sections on the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and, time permitting, John (we'll come back to Luke when we do the Acts of the Apostles). We'll also be discussing Crossan's chapter, "In the beginning is the body." I think this is the most important chapter in Crossan's book in terms of getting his reader to understand that we must learn how to read the gospels--they should not be taken as historical or biographical accounts (they are, just as they say, "good news"). So as you are reading that chapter, think both about the specifics of the stories as Crossan analyzes them AND about what you are learning more generally concerning what it requires to understand the gospels in terms of historical context. We'll move fairly quickly, but I think we will cover at least the following: Mark 5, Mark 6: 6-13, and John 11 (because Crossan spends some time on this story). As always, you will have the opportunity (especially at the beginning of class) to make whatever comments or ask whatever questions
you want.

Also, please remember that the topics for the second essay are listed under "assignments" (scroll down to the PDF file).