BibleProject - The Gospel is More Than You Think - Gospel E2

Episode Date: September 16, 2019

In part 1 (0-19:00), Tim and Jon give a brief historical overview of Israel at the time Jesus was born. Israel had been under hundreds of years of military occupation by different empires. At the time of Jesus, that empire is Rome. Tim notes that the entire Jewish people would have had a sense of expectation. The Hebrew Scriptures taught them that the glory of the Jewish kingdom would return and a messiah would rescue them. This mindset—though difficult for us to imagine—was that of an ancient Jew under Roman rule at the time when the gospels were written.In part 2 (19:00-25:00), Tim notes that for one to declare or be declared as “messiah” while under Roman rule would have been viewed as an act of politcal insurrrection and revolution.In part 3 (25:00-38:45), Tim outlines the history of the word gospel, which comes from the old English word “godspel” or *good tidings*. This word in Greek is εὐαγγέλιον and Tim notes that “the euangelion” is what Jesus is said to proclaim in the beginning of Mark. Mark 1:1 *The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.* Tim then notes how Paul uses the same word at the start of Romans. Romans 1:2-4 *the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.* Tim also shared 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. *Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas,and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.* Tim notes that Paul doesn’t have a stock phrase or answer for “what is the gospel.” Instead he tweaks the message in both of these books and offers two complimentary answers. This example from Paul should make us cautious of trying to boil down the gospel to a simple formula. If Paul didn’t really do it that way, why should we? Instead we should try to learn how to articulate the whole story of the Jewish Scriptures and distill the gospel through that lens.In part 4 (38:45-44:45), Tim also brings up Paul’s speech to the Athenians in Acts 17: Acts 17:22-34 *Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.* *“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’* *“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”* *When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.* Tim notes that also in this presentation, Paul does not bring up Christ’s atoning death explictly. The atoning death of Christ is part of the gospel, but it is not the whole. The larger story of the gospel is portrayed in the four books known as the Gospels. What is the larger story? It is about Jesus inaugurating the kingdom of God.In part 5 (44:45-end), Tim gives his own definitions of the four books known as "the Gospels." "The gospels are carefully designed theological biographies of Jesus of Nazareth. They focus on his announcement of the euangelion. They are not merely historical records. They are designed to advance a claim that will challenge the readers thinking and behavior, and you are going to be forced to make a decision about Jesus after reading the book. And what is the claim? That the crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of Israel and true Lord of the world." Tim closes with an insight from scholars Loveday Alexander and Richard Burridge, as well as a book called *Reading the Gospels Wisely* by Jonathan Pennington. Show Resources:* Richard Burridge: [*What are the Gospels? A Comparison with Graeco Roman Biography*](https://amzn.to/32DhKWK).* Loveday Alexander: [*The Preface to Luke’s Gospel*](https://amzn.to/2Lz4lcI).* Jonathan Pennington: [*Reading the Gospels Wisely*](http://amzn.to/2wOuw9n).* [A brief overview of Jewish history pre-Christ and during Roman rule.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_history#The_Hasmonean_Kingdom_(110%E2%80%9363_BCE)) Show Music:* Defender Instrumental by Tents* Hello from Portland by Beautiful Euology* For When It’s Warmer by Sleepy Fish* Instrumentals of Mercy by Beautiful Eulogy* Chilldrone: Copyright free Show Produced by: Dan Gummel Powered and distributed by Simplecast.  

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode. Hey, this is John at the Bible Project.

If you've been around Christians or you are one yourself, chances are you've heard the word the gospel. Like, do you believe the gospel? So what does the gospel mean? The gospel is a Greek word that means good news. And that raises the question, good news about what? Jesus goes on to the public scene announcing that God's kingdom has come here, has arrived, and that he is its anointed herald.

The good news is that God's kingdom has come near and Jesus is bringing it. But here's the thing, many of us have grown up in Christian culture, and we're taught that the gospel was something more specific than that. The gospel was about how I personally become saved. That is how I can make sure I go to heaven when I die. In the mid 20th century, the word gospel, because of some really influential and positive movements,

I think, the word gospel kind of got narrowed down to refer specifically to the moment of the cross as a substitutionary death for my sin so that I can go to heaven. That became a gospel. Help someone understand that they are a sinner, that they need Jesus to die for them, so that they can go to heaven after they die.

That was what the word gospel meant to me when I first became a follower of Jesus in my 20s. And let's just stop and just say, what a strange thing that that word came to mean that when we're reading a New Testament that has this word and it refers always to the story of Jesus launching the kingdom of God, dying being raised to bring the kingdom of God. That's what the word gospel means in the New Testament.

The good news is about the reign of a new king, and this has implications for us. But first, we have to understand who this king is, why he thinks he's king, and that's what the first four books of the New Testament are all about. Ancient biographies of Jesus. The historic way the church has talked about these four texts is to use one singular noun

to describe all of them. These four works are together with the gospel. They are about the gospel, and then each one is the gospel according to. So it's one basic claim being announced here from four different points of view. So what does this mean that the kingdom of God is near? That's a head on today's show.

Thanks for joining us. Here we go. We are having a conversation, beginning a conversation right now. Here we are about a new video. Yes. That's a Bible project. We are into the New Testament in the How to Read the Bible Series. Yes. It's been an ongoing series.

There's been 14 videos. Yeah, this is video 15. Video 15. Yeah. We've been talking about how to read biblical narrative, the setting, the characters, the plot. Design patterns. Design patterns. How to read poetry.

It's use of metaphor and symbolism, how he propote works. Then we've looked at just how to read certain collections. Certain sections, many sections within the Bible. The Psalms as a collection of books, which is many sections within the Bible. Yeah, the Psalms. Yep. As a collection of, uh, which is one book in our Bible. Yep. Yeah, a lot of just books. The law. The law. Oh, yeah. The laws in which are peppered throughout. Yep. Peppered throughout the first five, well, the second through fifth books. And then the prophets. And then the prophets, then the books of Solomon. Oh yeah. And we are moving on to, we're going to have five videos about different sections and

literary genres in the New Testament. The New Testament. Yeah. We're going to do how to read the Gospels. That's this conversation. That's this conversation. And then we'll do how to read letters. How to read the letters. Oh no, how to read the parables. Oh the parables. It, an episode on. That would be great. It's just so famous. Yeah. Their big part of juice is teaching, and they have puzzled readers for a long time.

It's an acquired skill learning how to read them wisely. I'm excited about that. Then how to read the letters, and then the last will be how to read apocalyptic literature. At the dumb. So good. And is that going to be just looking at Revelation? Or are we going to pull in? No, we'll pull in the earliest Messianic Jewish followers

of Jesus. They had already grown up in an environment with Jewish apocalyptic literature. Literature written that sounds and reads like the Book of Revelation. So the Book of Revelation was written assuming that readers know how to follow the signals and make sense of the symbols.

So it'll be about the precedence of that in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism and then, so there you go, that's where it's the home stretch. Home stretch. The series will be done. It'll have been over three years in the making. Yeah, it'll be a great library videos. Yeah.

20, right? In total? 19. Forget. Yeah. So we're talking about how to read four books of the New Testament. Yep. So this conversation is on Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

John. Four reports of Jesus's life and death in resurrection. These four texts have been referred to throughout the history of the Jesus movement as Gospels. Well, actually, the Gospel. The oldest titles for these works, which go back to manuscripts from the third and second century. Hey D, is actually the phrase, according to Matthew, according to Mark, according to Luke, according to John.

Just that right there, according to, like that's a strange way to title a book. Yeah. Right. Because it presumes what according to. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of started in the middle of essence.

So this sounds odd in English, but it makes sense once you understand the idea. The historic way the church has talked about these four texts is to use one singular noun to describe all of them. These four works are together the gospel. They are about the gospel. And then each one is the gospel according to. So it's one basic claim being announced here from four different points of view. That's what the title means, the gospel according to Matthew, the gospel according to Mark. But there's no way to refer to all four and not put an ass on that. I know, I know.

Well, that's true. So they, you know, they're often referred to as the gospels. Where is there way? Well, the gospel, the gospel, according to Matthew, the gospel, according to Matthew. But how would you refer to the collection? Oh, the gospel collection.

That's a, the fourfold. That's the gospel collection. The fourfold gospel, I don't know. That's gotta be right. No, normal English would just be to say these are the gospels. And that's fine to say that. But we should recognize that the most ancient perception of these four works is that they are a unified statement from four different points of view. This is the basic narrative of a figure named Jesus of Nazareth from his arrival onto the public scene. What he did up in Galilee, he's going to Jerusalem for a mega confrontation with the power brokers there, his execution, the amplitude and the resurrection. Yeah. It's all for.

That's the basic outline. Yeah. And that is called the gospel. Cool. Is it okay if we talk a little bit about the setting of like second temple, when this all takes place? I mean, we spent so much time going through the storyline of the Hebrew scriptures.

Yeah. And it just would be nice to just situate our minds and where we're at as that story has been unfolding. Yeah, got it. Well, yeah. So when Jesus appears on to the scene, the people of Israel live in a melting pot of provinces that have all been sliced up by Roman power brokers. So Caesar Augustus is on the

throne and he appointed... How long has Rome been in charge at this point in humanism? Since the Fort Well of Jerusalem. They've been around for a while but they took Jerusalem in 40 BC. In the 40 BC. Yeah. It's so complex. It's taking me years to sort all this out. Yeah. You got Babylon. Babylon takes out Jerusalem. We're back in it.

We're, I'm sorry, I'm backing up right now. All right. So Israel is its own kingdom. Mm-hmm. Monarchy. Yeah. Split kingdoms in the North and in the South. Okay.

They've got their own little. Yep. So other tribes are all taken out by asyria, 700 BC. Southern Kingdom and Jerusalem called Judah. They get another hundred plus years and then Babylon takes them out. Babylon takes the Syria out too. Babylon. Yeah, for a number of different reasons, a Syria crumbles as a world power and Babylon's right there to step into the shoes. Okay. Babylon doesn't last very long, and in the mid-500s, the Meads and the Persians joined forces, and a guy named Cyrus storms the ancient world, and he steps into the shoes of Babylon. And the Persians are on the scene for a couple centuries.

The 500s, the 400s, like esters, where story of ester takes place, zirxes, art zirxes and all this. And then Alexander the Great storms, the ancient world in the late 300s BC, spreading the good news of Greek culture, language, and religion. I mean, he went from Greece, I mean, his famous storm of his, like, imperial march all the way

to India. That's where he died. So that's in the 300s. And then he dies. And at that time, the Hebrew scriptures were most, were formed. They're being formed in their final collection. They're being formed in their final collection. Yeah, that's right.

And there's still writings during this time of other of their works, right? Like this is... Oh yeah, Jewish culture is, I don't know if you'd say they're flourishing, but yeah, they're existing and producing a lot of the literature that is now called the apocrypha or pseudopicrophic. But the works at the center of the, what we call the Hebrew Bible were like the main, where they were a main focus, and the source of inspiration and hope. So, the whole point is, for the people living in Jerusalem, they're just one powered after another.

One imperial oppressor after another. Not all Jews, then you get a diversity of responses to all of this change of leadership. You got lots of Jews that are like, yeah, you all do the Greek thing, that sounds awesome. We get a gymnasium in Jerusalem, where all the men hang out naked, that's what that means, and like do sports and sit in the baths and talk about play-doh and debate politics and so on. And so, you know, Jews are under pressure since men are naked in the public square a lot in Greek culture.

The circumcision becomes an embarrassment if you want to be like the powerful in crowd. Yep, so yeah, Jerusalem Judaism becomes a diverse movement with diverse responses to the cultural change like any religious movement. So once Alexander the Great dies, his massive empire from Greece to all the way to India gets divided up into dozens of smaller blocks.

And then that begins about a century and a half of just human nature. Just like humans. It's just everyone trying to carve out their totally. Yep. Power niche. So, and it becomes a back and forth between the rulers over the land of Egypt after Alexander and the rulers over the land of Syria, north of Israel-Palestine. They're constantly traveling up and down through the land of Israel-Palestine, taking Israel-Palestine back from each other. Just changes hands back and forth. Lots of battles, lots of bloodshed, Jerusalem gets taken over many times. One Syrian king, name Antiochus Epiphanies, comes in to Jerusalem after being humiliated and unable to defeat the Egyptians and he takes it out on the Jews in Jerusalem.

This is that famous. Yeah. See the little horn? He is a primary figure in the portrait of the little horn. But the whole point actually is you're referring to the book of Daniel. But the book of Daniel portrays the actions of Antiochus by mapping them onto the actions of Nebuchadnezzar Abablon and of the kings of Assyria. They all become... It comes as meta.

Yeah, it's just foreign rulers who are power power hungry and oppressive and violent. Yeah, yeah It just can just all of them right so then Rome comes in well No, so then you have the successful Jewish revolt first successful Jewish revolt the Maccabees and So this is in the 150s and they found the first independent Jewish state since Since Babylon. Yeah since Babylon came to town. 400 years earlier. And they found a renewed Jewish state, they rededicate the temple. You've got Jewish priests, kings in their own land for at last about a century until the 50s BC. And that century, it descends into madness. You can read, the main account is,

comes to us from Josephus, and it was a Jewish historian from, from a later time period, but it's just one assassination blood bath after another. People are buying the high priesthood, selling it to the highest bidder. Okay, so that Jewish state becomes so internally divided in week that when...

It's right for the pickin'. That's right. And then the next right after, then Rome rises to power over the ancient world and Rome comes and easily scoops up this province and incorporates it into the empire. And then they appoint a semi-Jewish royal figure over the land, and his name is Herod, the great. So Herod is, he's part Jewish, and he's appointed by Rome.

Yep, this would be Caesar, the first Caesar. In the late 40s BC. And so he is decades into his reign when Jesus is born. Okay. So this is the Herod that we meet in the birth 40s BC. And so he is decades into his reign when Jesus is born. So this is the herod that we meet in the birth stories of Jesus in Matthew and Luke. So he's decades into his reign. Extremely wealthy, extremely corrupt. Like he's assassinated his own family members

because he suspected them of treason. And there have been, by the time Jesus is born, we have had multiple revolts and rebellions. So he's constantly dealing with all these Jewish rebellions? Yep. Ah, we're also in the time period where Daniel, the seven times 70 years, yeah, it should be coming up.

Until the restoration in Daniel chapter nine, we're in the century, the basic, you know, people debated exactly. So if you were counting that down as like this is when we get our freedom again. Correct. You're like, it's something's gonna happen. Something's gonna happen.

It's in the air. And so, the billions in the air. That's right. And so you can, you can mark it like right around the time period, the attentive readers of the scriptures would be expecting Daniel's prayer of the restoration of Jerusalem to come about. You start to see in the historical record all these rebel movements pop up.

And some of them are mentioned in the book of Acts. Wait, are you that Egyptian led a few thousand people out of here to... When Paul goes back to Jerusalem. Yeah. And that's just one. So, it's... You think, okay, we just have to imagine ourselves. I am living on my own, Sestro-Homeland.

Okay. For the last half millennium, we have not been able to rule ourselves, except for a blip of a century that turned into a infighting bloodbath. Okay. The scriptures tell me that the glory days of David and Solomon are going to come again and that we're going to, as a whole, people, become a light to the nations by being faithful to our God as God wanted from the beginning

for the Abraham and Moses. I live in a militarized zone occupied by Roman legionaries, the marching through. There are, if let's say I just grew up in the same period Jesus did, I would have seen Roman soldiers marching through. I probably would have seen multiple crucifixions, mass crucifixions as I drew in from a bellius. Yep, yep, Jews being crucified by my uncle. crucifixions, mass crucifixions as I drew him from a billion. Yep. Yep. Jews being crucified by my uncle.

You know what I mean? My cousin. He said the wrong thing. Are he inside of the building? Yeah, or I've got to use, you know, I've almost certainly got a cousin or a second cousin who went to join some guerrilla war group up in the hills of Galilee. Yeah. They perform raids down on the Romans and.

What was the term again for people who lived out in the hills of Galilee. Yeah, well they perform raids down on the Romans. What was the term again for people who lived out in the hills? Oh, later on, there were a couple groups. One is the zealots. Yeah, oh. And then the other is the sikari, or the sikari, which is the word for dagger. I'm thinking of the word where, one of the disciples.

Oh, the lace dice, the rebel, the brigand. Yeah. It gets translated criminal or robber, but it's rebel. Yeah, one of the people out in the hills inciting rebellion. Correct. Yeah, the lace days, Jesus is crucified between two lace days, as a lace days, and that Greek word refers to these Jewish guerrilla groups that were resisting Roman occupation.

So just try to imagine living. There are lots of people right now who live in militarized zones, who live under a foreign occupier. Just imagine, yeah, let's try and imagine ourselves in there. And it's into that setting that the Jesus story is born. Yeah, it's not a carefree setting. No.

There's a lot of potential problems of I mean it's this is helpful and when you start when we start thinking about the things that Jesus said and did Like you have to be really careful. Yeah. Yeah, you're just gonna get killed right away. Yeah Yeah, death is like a ever present thing from your earliest memories. Okay, so that's just the political scene. Down in Jerusalem is the temple, but the priests who work there are in full, their friends with the Roman governor, well at least they have an uneasy alliance. They're the ones who... The reason why they can still do their priesthood things because the Romans are letting them.

That's right. The Romans established a big fortress down in Jerusalem that overlooks the temple courtyard. So the Sadducees are the power brokers there. And they... Sadducees, this is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word Zadokit from the priests of Zadok, who's one of the grand sons of Aaron. So, the Zato Kites, the word Sadduce is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew word Zato Kite, which was the lineage of priests.

But the temples now really controversial place because of the people who run it, some people think they're compromised and defiled and that they're doing it all wrong. Is this the sadducees that run it? Mm-hmm. Yep, and so they're a controversial group. Mm-hmm. People want to be at the temple and go worship the God of Israel there, but also some are fine with it, some begrudgingly. There's a bunch of really extremists who went out to the Dead Sea, because they think Jerusalem is just corrupt as like a big bag of seafood.

It's like a brown community kind of thing. Yeah, like the community that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls thinks that Jerusalem is an utterly defiled place now. So they withdrew out there to the same region as John the Baptist withdrew and did do that thing. Yep, yep, and they almost certainly knew about each other. So it's just, it's a very turbulent time into which Jesus is born.

And Jesus is born outside of Jerusalem. So we even talk about Jerusalem, but there's other regions that are predominantly Jewish. Yeah, most of it's Rapalstein at this point is melting pot. It's a melting pot. Yeah, it's Israel's ancestral homeland. But ever since the Babylonian exile, people have been moving to and from. Right.

Shipped out, brought back. Yep. Other people have been in. That's right. Yeah. There's full on new Roman cities that are designed to look like Rome up in Galilee and Jerusalem is under a lot of construction During Jesus' life making it look like yeah making it look like Rome I mean he's trying to make it look like a Roman city. Yeah, so that's that's the basic historical setting

And yes into this setting a messianic movement begins out of the ministry of John the Baptist with a certain figure It named Jesus who was from Nazareth or the Nazarene. When you say messianic movement. Ah, yeah That's a good point. Well the word messianic means an anointed one So the reason I say that is Jesus goes on to the public scene announcing that God's kingdom has come near, has arrived, and that he is its anointed herald. He's its Messianic herald, and there you go, now we're off to the races. To say that in that setting, it's a very dangerous thing to say. It's a very dangerous thing to say.

That's right. You guys, the priesthood, and the Roman power structure, all of that, like I'm the rightful heir to this place. From here, God is going to bring blessing to the whole world through my rule. Yeah, that's right. That's what people would hear when you say you're the annoyed to do it. Yeah, that's right. And there are other people who have a similar message on the surface. They corral up in the hills and hide in the caves and perform raids on. Yeah.

In terms of bringing the reign of God, restoring God's reign over Israel by destroying the pagans and getting them out of our land. Those are also Kingdom of God movements, but Jesus is Kingdom of God movement. It's different. It's very different. And it's this movement and message that the four gospel accounts are rendering for us. That something happened in the story of this man that isn't just of historical interest or of interest for one people group in one place in time. The reason these four gospel accounts exist

is because of the conviction that what happened with Jesus matters for all humanity and for the future of the cosmos itself. Yeah, it's really grand. And all of this is packed into this word gospel. So first, I just want to have a point of conversation about that word. And why are these four works called the gospel? Because it's a way more fascinating topic than I ever realized until I opened it up. ... Gospel.

Yep. Evangelion. Yeah. Yep. Evangelion. Yeah. Okay. So our English word, gospel. Hey, I even did a little, I look this up in Oxford English for you. Nice. Because it comes from the old English word, good spell.

Good spell. Good spell. God spell. Yeah. Yeah. Well, good spell. But good. For good. Yeah. for good, not God. Yeah, you would look at it and say God spell,

but it's the word good just with 1-0. Good, good spell. Good tidings, good message. A spell is a tiding. A spell, yeah, tidying or a message. I think of spells as like magic. Correct, but a spell. Yeah.

Spell means story or message. Here's what's interesting is the word gospel comes from, it's a compound word. Good spell. Good story. Good story. Good message. Good message. That precisely maps on to the Greek word that it's derived from, which is you on Gaelion.

And you on Gaelion as a compound word, on Gaelion, which means message, and you, which means good. So both words mean good message or good news. I mean good news is a great translation. Yeah. I actually have come to prefer it to the word gospel. Good news.

Yeah. I think a lot of people use that. Yeah. And that Greek word comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible That comes from that turbulent period before Jesus and called deceptive agent. Yeah, and that so you on Gaelion is rendering a Hebrew word Bessar be a S.A.R. is a transliterate Bessar which means to herald good good news Okay, so here's what's fascinating. If you go to Mark chapter one, when Jesus is introduced to you,

it says Mark chapter one verse 14, this is in the notes. Maybe, oh yeah. Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the Eughongalian of God, saying, the time has come, the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe the Eughongelian. So Jesus is marked as he's coming proclaiming the Eughongelian, notice that the only thing to describe it is that it's about what is the good news? The kingdom of God has come near. The only thing in the sentence that explains what it means.

So there's some story that that assumes that you would assume as good news. Jesus' first announcement is about the gospel, the good news. If you go up to the opening sentence of the gospel according to Mark, the opening sentence is the beginning of the Yuangeleon about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. So just think about that. The first sentence of Mark, it says, the beginning of the Eungelian, about Jesus. But then you start reading a story. And he says it's about the end.

It introduces that says, Jesus proclaimed the Eungelian of God, saying, God's kingdom has come near. So somehow the message that Jesus announced about the kingdom of God saying God's kingdom has come near. So somehow the message that Jesus announced about the kingdom of God has been put together in a book. And now that book can be called the Good News about Jesus. Yeah. That makes sense.

Jesus is good news about the kingdom of God. Because the kingdom is coming through. Yes. Jesus. Yes, that's right. So they become kind of synonymous. They become, yeah. But it's just important that the word good news

first in this Jesus movement refers to Jesus' message about the kingdom of God. Yeah. And it's only at a second stage that the good news can refer to not just Jesus' announcement about the kingdom of God, but Jesus himself. Just the story about Jesus himself is now the gospel.

And you can see this in the use of the word gospel in the New Testament. So I have another example here. Paul does a great favor by in two passages in his letters unpacking what he means by the word you on Gaelion. One is in Romans chapter 1, verses 2 through 4, where he says, the Ewan Gaelion, he says, I've been appointed as a herald of the Ewan Gaelion, regarding God's son, who descended from David in his physical lineage and who was appointed by the Holy Spirit to be the son of God in power through his resurrection from the dead.

Jesus, the Messiah, are Lord. This is really interesting. What's running in my mind in the background right now is we often get asked to make a video about the gospel. Can you just summarize the gospel? Yeah. Yeah. And typically I think what people mean is like the salvation code or

like the, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure. So like, how do you make sure you're going to heaven? Can you summarize that? But that becomes what we mean when we say the gospel. Yes. And Paul, here when he kind of summarizes the gospel, it's kind of a cool summary.

It's a great summary. Yeah. Yeah, it's about the Son of God who is... He was a human from a lot of David. Who is Israel's Messiah. And he was appointed by the Holy Spirit to be the Son of God in power. In power through his resurrection of the dead. Yeah, the good news is that the crucified...

Well, he doesn't mention the point is he doesn't draw attention to the death. Jesus's death here. Right. He assumes that by mentioning the resurrection. Yeah. So hold on. This is one passage where Paul defines what he means by the word John Galeon. So we just read it. There's one other passage where he explicitly defines what he means by the word John Galeon. So let's look at that. It's 1 Corinthians 15. He says, now I make

known to you, brothers and sisters, he's writing to the followers of Jesus and Corinth says, I make known to you all the you on Gaelion, which I preached to you, which you also received in which you stand and by which you are saved. That is, if you hold fast to the word that I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as a first importance, what I received. Okay,

slit. Let's pause real quick here. So he says, listen, he's about to go into a whole thing about the resurrection because there's a whole bunch of people in Corinth who don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus or of anybody for that matter. So he wants to make a crystal clear. Here's a good news and notice what he says, I passed it on to you, but I didn't make this up. He says, I, it was passed on to me. I received it. Yeah. And then I passed it on to you, but I didn't make this up. He says, it was passed on to me. I received it. And then I passed it on to you.

And here's what I received. This isn't my unique deal. Yeah. This is like the Jesus movement. It's not something I came up with. Yeah, correct. This is point. So here's Paul's explanation of the Yvangalyan.

He says that the Messiah died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried. He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Then he appeared and he goes on through a long list of appearances. He appeared to Kephas, Peter, then to the 12. After that, he appeared to 500 of the brothers that once, many of whom are alive right now. You can go talk to them. Some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and then last of all to me. So notice here, he defines you on Gleon

as the Messiah dying for our sins, according to scriptures, buried, raised on the third day, according to the scriptures. Yeah, it's a tight summary. It is. So let's just notice just the sheer fact that the two times in all Paul's letters where he, and actually he has a couple others, his point is to explain the meaning of the word you on Galeon. Yeah. And they're not identical. Yeah, he doesn't have

like his stock phrase that he's just pulling out. He, he will focus, he'll shape the good news differently in different contexts for different audiences. But notice in both cases what it does include Jesus and the resurrection. Yeah. Now, the resurrection assumes his death, but notice in Romans 1, he doesn't explicitly mention the death. And in Romans 1, he doesn't talk about any sort of toning sacrifice. He doesn't talk about dying for sins. That's right. Now, he will later in Romans 1, he doesn't talk about any sort of toning sacrifice. He doesn't talk about dying for a sins.

Right. That's right. Now, he will later in Romans. Yeah. He will. And my point isn't that these exclude each other. Sure. My point is just simply this, that there's some sort of core underlying story, but that

can be molded and differently represented by the apostles for different audiences in different contexts. Right. Which should make us wary of thinking that there must be one specific way of. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to, you're going to summarize, you're going to try to tightly summarize the good news, even jelly on it. Yes.

That you're, you're going to have to decide what to put in and leave out. Not only is it a story about a person, which obviously you can't tell a story about a human being really tightly, but it's connected to all of the Hebrew scriptures and the hopes and. Yeah, that's right. He makes that explicit in 1 Corinthians 15. According to scripture.

Yeah, in other words, it's not just somebody dying for another person. It's all connected to this. It's somebody dying for another person sins, you know, like what the whole story of the Hebrew Bible is about. Yeah. So what I'm, what, when I say Messiah died for a sins, what I mean is interpreting that through the storyline of the Hebrew Bible.

And when I say that he raised again, both her day, and topper that through the storyline of the entire Bible. And so, yeah, how do you do that tightly? And that's kind of been art, like, continual. Yeah. Well, in a way, every one of our theme videos, is the gospel. It's a statement of the gospel.

Right. Yeah. You can do it from different angles and different ways, emphasizing different things depending on the audience and the focus. But at its base, it's a story about Jesus, about the Kingdom of God, about his life, death, and resurrection, launching the Kingdom of God, in the context of the whole storyline of the Bible.

And if you have that skeleton outline, you are telling the gospel. Which all of a sudden it makes sense that why these four works are called the gospel. Yeah. I think we're into a bit of a shift and maybe in some many forms of Western Protestantism, I don't know.

Like you said, in the mid 20th century, the word gospel, because of some really influential and positive movements, I think, the word gospel kind of got narrowed down to refer specifically to the moment of the cross as a substitutionary death for my sins so that I can go to heaven. That became the gospel. Help someone understand that they are a sinner, that they need Jesus to die for them, so that they can go to heaven after they die. That was what the word gospel meant to me when I first became a follower of Jesus in my 20s. Yeah, me too. And let's just stop and just say what a strange thing that that word came to mean that when we're reading a New Testament

that has this word over a hundred times in it. And it refers always to the story of Jesus launching the Kingdom of God, dying, being raised to bring the Kingdom of God. That's what the word gospel means in the New Testament. Right. But somehow a very narrow abstracted definition became the common usage in the 20th century.

Part of the gospel is... Yes, exactly. Jesus' death was in a toning sacrifice. That it was, yes, it was four hours in. You can look through the story of Jesus through the lens of a toning sacrifice and see that part just shimmer. Yes, it is a part. It is a part.

It is a part. And a really critical part, and see that part just shimmer. Yes, it is a part. It is a part. It is a part. And a really, really critical part, which became the most critical part in this stream of 20th century evangelical, or just modern. At least the traditions that you and I, you were raised in that I was introduced to the faith in.

And so now we should just stop and say, and then the second part, so you can go to heaven when you die, that is less. Yeah, that's not really talked about in the New Testament. Yeah. Yeah, like not even once. But the atoning sacrifice thing. Yes, it's central.

And again, as Paul says, the Messiah died for our sins according to the scriptures. It's also the one dying on behalf of the many. The suffering. So that they may escape death. This is from Genesis 3.15 through the whole of Hebrew Bible. It's like one of its core main ideas. So it's very core, but Paul goes on to talk about the burial and the resurrection,

and then when he unpacks Gospel in Romans 1, it's about the exaltation of the resurrected one to become Lord of the world. Yes, which is. And the kingdom of God. Critically important too. And that is also as important to the meaning of the word Gospel as the atoning death. So that's what we're saying. The word gospel is unpacked with a larger definition than what you and I were first introduced to.

Yeah. 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1%, 1 %, 1%, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1%, 1%, 1 %, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1 I guess kind of depending on who you're talking to, it's wise to step back and think, okay, I've got the whole, let's say you have the whole of the Hebrew scriptures in your mind. Yeah. And the life and death and resurrection of Jesus and how that's a fulfillment of story. And you've got a few minutes to like communicate that to someone. How are you gonna do that? Yeah, that's...

And it really depends on who you're talking to and their circumstances, what they know. Yeah. And you have to make a decision. Yes. To have to summarize the gospel. Yes. Usually you're gonna have to leave stuff out. Yep. You're gonna have to make a decision how to summarize the gospel. Yes. You're gonna have to leave stuff out.

Yep. You're gonna have to focus on certain things. I mean, even when like in stores of acts in the book of Acts when there's sermons essentially where is it Peter gets up and he gives a sermon and it's things. It's like he tells the gospel, but in a very specific way for some civic crowd.

Yeah, I remember still being a new follower of Jesus, reading through the speeches and acts. And the one that threw me the most for a long time was his speech to the philosophers and Athens in Acts chapter 17. Because he kind of, he's retelling kind of the story of creation about like, you know, you look around, you know, God's given us all of these great gifts, we live and move and have our being in him. But when he gets to the Jesus part of the story, all he says is, and that God has appointed the Lord of the world by raising him from the dead.

That's the Jesus part. Cuts to the chase. And then that's when, you know, that many people bark at him because of the dead. That's the Jesus part. Cuts to the chase. And then that's when many people bark at him because of the resurrection. But he doesn't mention the atoning death. Right. At least not in that speech. What he mentions is he's appointed

a Lord of the world by raising him from the dead. Now if he's raised from the dead, that means he got killed. Yeah. But the point is that here's even a context where Paul didn't focus on the atoning death. Right. What he focused on is Jesus' exaltation is Lord Power. Yeah.

So again, what we're not saying is Jesus' death isn't a part of the Gospel. We're saying is the Gospel is a larger, it's the story of the Gospels. The four Gospels are the Gospel. Like the story that I just tell should be about Jesus, about something to do with how he brought the realm of heaven or God's kingdom here. And that he launched it through his death and resurrection, that he's now the Lord of the world. And all of that only makes sense when you understand what Paul means by according to the scripture. Correct. That's right. It will be a story that's the fitting culmination of a longer pre-story That will help you understand the Jesus story. Yeah. That's right. So there you go. That's what the four gospels are trying to do So in this video what I'm hoping is we can

In this video, what I'm hoping is we can introduce people to maybe, I mean, many people when they're first learning to read the Bible, they're first following Jesus or their whole lives, I hope, are reading and rereading the four gospels. Yeah. Some of the easiest parts of the Bible to read. Yeah, they're narrative, they're amazing. Yeah. Jesus is amazing. Yeah. He's incredible.

Yeah, but there are also a lot puzzling stuff that he says and does right. Yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah, it leaves you scratching your head off Yeah, and you're like, well, I think I get this part. Yeah, I don't know why he said that thing about a fig tree Yeah, or cursing the cursing a fig tree or yeah, right? There's some weird stuff like why do you have to? Why would he so mean to that guy? Yeah, so why did he call that woman a dog yeah yeah and well or you know compare her to a dog and why do you have to heal that guy's eyes two time twice like to get him fully healed and just you know why is it I was talking about the son of man figure and all this. But those oddities don't overshadow just the sheer beauty of who he is

and how he treats outsiders and his wisdom and his insight into the human heart. That's what anybody can walk away with. Yeah, and then you get his teachings and his parables. Yes, those are equally intriguing and perplexing as the story is about him. Yeah. That's right.

So what I'm hoping the video can do is take the viewer to kind of the next level of seeing like, oh, there's more going on here than I realized. And I could begin to read these texts with even more understanding and a little more Wisdom if I put a couple if I began asking a few questions and noticing. Yeah a few things It's kind of like the next level gospels for the next level reader is what I'm hoping to know

It's a second like a second pass. Yeah, or I just the point is I want to assume that the viewers kind of basically know what the gospels are and that they've tried to read them. And what I want to do is make them aware that there's multiple more layers of depth here that make it worth picking up the gospels another time. And asking some new questions. Okay, so let's think through. We've talked about the word gospel, what it meant for Jesus, which was the arrival of God's kingdom. That's what he meant by the word good news. And he meant by that the arrival of the thing that the prophets of the Hebrew Bible were anticipating.

We're anticipating. And actually, that word primarily comes from the book of Isaiah. When Paul and Jesus are using it, they're tapping into the announcement of the prophets of God's kingdom arriving, heralded by a priest-king prophet figure, and a new covenant community to be born. So that's Isaiah. Okay. We'll talk more about that. But what these four gospel accounts are is accounts about Jesus' announcement of the

gospel. But now that account itself is a message of the gospel to you, the reader. So Jesus announcing the arrival of God's kingdom to people in Galilee and Jerusalem. Is the gospel. Has become the gospel to people of all nations. And that's what these are. So I've got, I don't know, a boring paragraph, I don't know, I think it's exciting paragraph. Here's a rough estimation of a definition of the gospel.

Okay. The gospels are carefully designed Here's a rough estimation of a definition of the gospel. The gospels are carefully designed theological biographies of Jesus of Nazareth. They focus on his announcement of the Jungelian. They are not merely historical records. They are trying to make a claim about things that happened in history, but they're not merely trying to tell me about something interesting that happened. They are designed to advance a claim that will challenge the readers thinking and behavior. So the reason these texts exist is because their authors believe every person needs to reckon with what happened in the story of Jesus,

and you are going to be forced to make a decision about him after reading this book. It's not a neutral book. It's not a neutral book. It's got an agenda. Yep. In the second or last chapter of the Gospel of John, he straight up tells you, he says, I could have written many, many more stories about Jesus. He says, I selected these so that I could persuade you the reader to believe that Jesus is the Messiah,

the Son of God. So these, they have an agenda. They're trying to persuade you by means of these stories about Jesus. But here's my definition. They want to challenge, advance a claim that will challenge you. Here's the claim that the crucified, risen Jesus of Nazareth, crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of Israel and the true Lord of the world. They're actually balancing two goals, I think, as an author. I'm trying to faithfully represent a story that happened, but at the same time, I'm trying to persuade you the reader to start following Jesus.

And the gospels are always doing both of those things at the same time. Right. Yeah. We're like, we think of writing history, like if you were gonna be a pure historian, you come without agenda. Yeah. We're like, we think of writing history, like if you were going to be a pure historian, you come without agenda. Yeah. Right.

Which arguably is impossible. It's totally exactly the only reason you create an account of something in the past is because you think it's worth retelling for the present audience, because they'll learn something from it. They'll, for some reason. Right. And you have an assumption of what that thing is that they should learn. Yeah, and why it's important and what it means, which is why you would want to tell anybody about it. Yeah, and it's why you chose to tell this story, but not tell that story, or emphasize this detail, not emphasize that detail. Correct, yeah. That's right. Which is again, at the end of John, he says,

I could have picked all kinds of things of stories or teachings of Jesus. I picked these in order to persuade you. So yeah, when I say that there's theological biographies, I'm tuning into a really cool conversation in the last 30, 40 years of New Testament scholarship, scholarship, two significant names are Richard Burridge, and then a woman named Love Day Alexander.

And, dude, what they did was go read all of the narrative biographies from the Greek and Roman Latin era. Yeah, it's saturated. And create a profile of like, this is how an ancient biography works. Totally. Yep. And then they created these big comparative accounts and analyses and people still appeal to these works today. I mean they haven't. What did they do this time? This was in the 80s, 70s and 80s. And it's been filled

out and you know tweaked and so on. But on the whole, it's the way that scholars will talk about it, is the Greek word is BIOS. The call BIOS. And just like we use the word BIOS, give me your bio. Oh right. Yeah. But it refers to a certain kind of narrative. It's a narrative where a key historical figure,

it's a narrative that is trying to represent the essence and meaning of their life and contribution. In other words, it's not archival, interest. It's saying this figure matters, and everything is designed around telling you why they matter. Their persuasive documents, they put forward figures that are worth emulating, worth following, and what burridge and Alexander come to the conclusion is that actually is the element that the Gospels turn up the volume on the most in comparison.

The persuasiveness. Yes. Which makes sense. Like to write a, you know, an ancient biose of Aristotle, you know, or Plato. They're noble figures, and they're still philosophers who, you know, the author wants them to respect their works and learn from them and so on.

But Jesus is someone. If you come across a story of Jesus, it's one of his followers telling you, and they want you to join his community, the community of his followers, and take on his way of life, and live as if this story is really true. So they turn up the persuasion more than your average ancient Greek biography, which is really interesting to think about. Because it's like, ah, listen to Plato, like learned from him.

Yeah. That's, you know. But if you end up like not spending a lot of your life think about Plato. Yeah. Oh, oh, well. Yeah. Oh, well. Yeah. You're missing out. But, yeah. Yeah. But these four accounts are saying, no, the world has a new ruler. The world's changed. It has a new king. And you have to make a decision of whether you're going to acknowledge the risen king Jesus because these are your Lord whether you acknowledge it or not. That's what these texts are saying. So they have a vested interest in forcing you to bring you to a crossroads so that if you read it, you at least, you can't remain neutral. You finish one of the gospels and you have to say, this is baloney, no thank you. Or there's something here that I've never thought

to think before and I did take it seriously. So that's, yeah, there's an ancient form of biography. I don't think we need to talk about in this video. Yeah. But I really recommend the works. Also, I recommend one other work just since we're kind of in intro mode. A very helpful introduction to like a next level.

Actually, it's not an introduction that it would be like. A book that's very accessible that we'll guide you into the next level depths of reading Gospels is by Jonathan Pennington, a New Testament scholar. I forget where, but he does PhD at St. Andrews in Scotland, and it's called Reading the Gospels Wisely. Hmm, great title. A narrative and theological introduction.

So we have chapters on where they came from, how they came into existence. We've talked about that before, but it's more about how to read them. In a way, some of the things we're doing in the video will be distilling, petting tints work. Okay. Yeah. Unique features of the gospel narratives. Okay.

I think we can focus on. And then after that is three helpful skills for perspectives and three skills. They're actually like little things that you could go home and like do today. Like pick up the gospels and put these three skills to work. Put them to work. That's right. There we go. That's where we go. Technical skills.

That's right. Perspectives on the gospels and then some new skills for how to read them. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project Podcast. Next week, we'll dive into some of the techniques we can use to better read and understand the goss bowls of Matthew Mark, Luke, and John. Today's show is produced by Dan Gummel. Our theme music comes from the band Tents. The Bible Project's a crowd-funded nonprofit where in Portland, Oregon, you can learn

all about our free resources at thebibletproject.com. Thanks for being a part of this with us. Hello, this is Megan. I am from Happy Valley, and I really like the Bible project, because as an animation nerd, it is a great way for me to dive into scripture. We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus.

We're a Crowdfunded project by people like me. Find free videos, study notes, podcasts, and more at thebibelproject.com. you you