the gospel writers motives were not to document jesus life and works as history but to make them meaningful in a world of competing theologies. when matthew is going to have jesus give a sermon on the mount, he s going to model him on moses, even as he is being born. so as moses was almost killed by the evil pharaoh, jesus is going to be almost killed by the evil herod. the number-one message from roman imperial theology was that the emperor was divine and that the emperor had a divine right to rule. and reed takes note of the symbols caesar used throughout his empire and how they were seized by the new christian religion. after julius caesar died, halley s comet flew over the sky in rome, and his adopted son, augustus, proclaimed, that is, in fact, my father. julius caesar it s his soul ascending into heaven. and caesar augustus used that
questions about joseph s age and the brothers-versus-cousins debate have created a dilemma for some believers over the virgin birth. i think it s very critical that we believe in the virgin birth because it is the virgin birth that preserved the sinlessness of christ. in the early church, the primary concern was really on jesus divine origins and on the virginal conception and birth. when you look at the gospel stories, especially the christmas stories, you can see that there s a concerted effort to make jesus competitive with the other deities. jonathan reed sees parallels in the stories of jesus virgin birth and that of caesar augustus. you have a whole set of stories about caesar augustus, who was proclaimed divine because his mother, atia, slept with apollo. and so in the gospel stories, you have the virgin birth that competes with that. there are some scholars who want to deny the virgin birth, and
understand this. questions about joseph s age and brothers verses cousin s debate created a dilemma over the virgin birth. i think it is critical can he believe we believe in the virgin birth. in the early church the primary concern is really on jesus divine origin and on the virgnal conception of the birth. when you look at the gospel story especially the christmas story there s a concerted effort to make jesus competitive with the other deity. jonathan reed uses parallels in the story of jesus virgin birth and that of caesar augustus. you have a set of stories about caesar augustus who was proclaimed divine because his mother left with apolin. in the gospel stories you have the virgin birth to compete with
traditional catholic circles as understood as cousins rather than brothers. questions about joseph s age and the brothers versus cousins debate have created a dilemma for some believers, over the virgin birth. i think it s very critical that we believe in the virgin birth. because it is the virgin birth that preserved the sinlessness of christ. in the early church the primary concern was really on jesus divine origin and on the virginal conception and birth. when you look at the gospel story, especially the christmas story, you can see that there s a concerted effort to make jesus competitive with the other deities. jonathan reed sees parallels in the stories of jesus virgin birth and that of caesar augustus. you have a whole set of stories about caesar augustus, who was proclaimed divine, because his mother, attia, slept with apollo. and so in the gospel stories you have the virgin birth that
the books of the old testament n or hebrew bible had been in circulation as oral history for 1,000 years before the birth of jesus. they were told to the as a whole in the second century before the christian era. in the same way, the sayings and stories of jesus were first s passed down and preserved by word of mouth. pf it s one of the great mysteries of church history, that we don t always know ly exactly how they spread. archaeologist jonathan reed and biblical scholar john dawson are co-authors of excavating jesus, and in search of paul. we do not know who actually wrote matthew, mark, luke and john. those are names attributed to those writings in the second century. but very, very early were written down and the sources foe the gospels can be around the at 50s, so that s more than 20 rly years. there are no first editions o of the gospel. t the originals were lost, worn out or destroyed. hat does survive are just scrapi