Tag: Literature
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Myth and the Gospels
In my previous post, I wrote about myths in the Hebrew Bible, and also about contemporaneous Greek myths. There are also what we can call myths, I believe, in the Gospels, and here I’m suggesting an example in John’s gospel. By ‘myths’, I mean imaginative stories which include supernatural beings and events. The fourth gospel, […]
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A Glance at the Gospel of Mark
Around 70 CE, in a city somewhere in the Roman Empire outside of Palestine, a man composed a religious tract on a parchment scroll. He wrote in Greek, and was either a Jewish or Pagan convert to Christianity. He added no signature, but around 100 years later, he was called Mark, so let’s call him […]
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The Gospels (5) ‘Sermon on the Mount – Beatitudes’
In this series, I’m looking at the Gospels as literature, as religious tracts, with contents selected and shaped accordingly. Even if your ‘religion’ is liberal, radical or non-existent, these fascinating and thought-provoking pieces of literature have much to offer, if read for what they are, rather than for what, in my view, they are not. […]
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The Gospels (4) ‘Religious Tracts’
Continuing to look at the Gospels as literature – as religious tracts designed to confirm and persuade, with their contents selected and shaped to meet that aim – authors can be tempted to stretch things a bit, and indulge a bit of ‘hype’. To ‘prove’ that Jesus is the promised Messiah, Matthew ransacks the Jewish […]
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The Gospels (2) ‘Works of Literature’
I’m writing about the Gospels as long-established and distinguished pieces of literature that deserve to be read, at least, for that reason. I’m also writing about them as extra-long religious tracts, designed to confirm believers and persuade non-believers, with contents selected and shaped to achieve these ends. Matthew wants to persuade us that Jesus is […]
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