Roy Halstead
A Review: The First Christmas - Marcus J. Borg & John Dominic Crossan
08/12/10 22:26
The First Christmas - Marcus J. Borg & John Dominic Crossan (Harper Collins) (2007) Marcus Borg is an American biblical scholar, a voice in “progressive Christianity”. He is a professor at Oregon State University and a frequent contributor to the “Living The Question” DVD programs which we have used in Westminster as part of our Bible Study series. John Crossan is an Irish American, a co-founder of the Jesus Seminar and a “major figure in the fields of biblical archeology, anthropology and New testament textual and higher criticism “. The First Christmas is the second of three books on which Borg and Crossan have collaborated.*
The basic position of the authors in The First Christmas is that the birth narrative as presented in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke is not only quite different in the two gospels but is in fact parable, or as they refer to it a “parabolic overture’ to the accounts of Jesus’ ministry which occupy the remainder of the two gospels. “We are not concerned about the factuality of the birth stories…Rather we focus on their meanings. What did and do these stories mean?”
To pursue “what these stories mean’ the authors reflect on the parallels which Matthew and Luke draw between the Old and New Testaments, for example the figures of Jesus in the New and of Moses in the Old Testament. (Both boys born during a mass slaughter of Jewish children and both boys escape” . Or Jesus with his Sermon on the Mount and Moses’ encounter with God on Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments.)
The gospel writers, acutely aware of Rome’s domination over the world of their day use these narratives , according to Borg and Crossan, as subvertive attacks on Rome’s leadership. Where Caesar Augustas is widely referred to as Son of God (Apollo actually), whose name translates in Greek as “One who is to be worshipped” and who brought Peace (the Pax Romana) to the Empire or Kingdom, Jesus, too, becomes the Son of God in the birth narratives, as one also to be worshipped and as a bringer of Peace (just listen to those angels singing to the shepherds!). As the gospel narratives move on to Jesus’ ministry He establishes God’s Kingdom on Earth as opposed to Rome’s.
The book is rich in its look at the details of the two gospels, the differences between them and the possible intentions. of the Matthew and Luke as they penned their stories. Was Jesus born in a stable (Luke) or in Mary and Joseph’s “home” (Matthew)? Why were the heavenly visits to Joseph in Matthew’s account, and to Mary in Luke’s account? The book also deals with the matters of Jesus as light of the world and as the fulfillment of prophesy.
Borg and Crossan contend that the gospels of Matthew and Luke are records of Jesus’ ministry after age 30, that no factual record of Jesus life exists prior to his thirtieth year. These birth narratives, they say, are overtures to the important material, a prelude, a setting of the scene and a laying out of the intent of the authors (Matthew and Luke) as to how they are going to treat those years of Jesus’ most important activity.
The First Christmas then is not a debunking of the birth stories but a deeper look at what they are meant to tell us. How they help us to a deeper understanding of Jesus, the preacher, the founder of our faith. I have to say that the book is a “good read” generally, written for people like myself who have a pretty rudimentary knowledge of our Bible. I’ll admit I skipped those chapters on the genealogy of Jesus’ birth (in the one gospel the writer moves from parents to children, ancestors to descendants, in the other gospel the writer moves his genealogical list from children to parents, from descendants back to ancestors. The gospel writers had a reason for this but do I really care?).
Otherwise I came away from reading the book as happy as always with the Christmas we will soon experience at Westminster, And fascinated with what was going on in Matthew’s and Luke’s heads as they set out to write their accounts of our Lord Jesus.
Roy Halstead
*The Last Week: A Day by Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon
The basic position of the authors in The First Christmas is that the birth narrative as presented in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke is not only quite different in the two gospels but is in fact parable, or as they refer to it a “parabolic overture’ to the accounts of Jesus’ ministry which occupy the remainder of the two gospels. “We are not concerned about the factuality of the birth stories…Rather we focus on their meanings. What did and do these stories mean?”
To pursue “what these stories mean’ the authors reflect on the parallels which Matthew and Luke draw between the Old and New Testaments, for example the figures of Jesus in the New and of Moses in the Old Testament. (Both boys born during a mass slaughter of Jewish children and both boys escape” . Or Jesus with his Sermon on the Mount and Moses’ encounter with God on Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments.)
The gospel writers, acutely aware of Rome’s domination over the world of their day use these narratives , according to Borg and Crossan, as subvertive attacks on Rome’s leadership. Where Caesar Augustas is widely referred to as Son of God (Apollo actually), whose name translates in Greek as “One who is to be worshipped” and who brought Peace (the Pax Romana) to the Empire or Kingdom, Jesus, too, becomes the Son of God in the birth narratives, as one also to be worshipped and as a bringer of Peace (just listen to those angels singing to the shepherds!). As the gospel narratives move on to Jesus’ ministry He establishes God’s Kingdom on Earth as opposed to Rome’s.
The book is rich in its look at the details of the two gospels, the differences between them and the possible intentions. of the Matthew and Luke as they penned their stories. Was Jesus born in a stable (Luke) or in Mary and Joseph’s “home” (Matthew)? Why were the heavenly visits to Joseph in Matthew’s account, and to Mary in Luke’s account? The book also deals with the matters of Jesus as light of the world and as the fulfillment of prophesy.
Borg and Crossan contend that the gospels of Matthew and Luke are records of Jesus’ ministry after age 30, that no factual record of Jesus life exists prior to his thirtieth year. These birth narratives, they say, are overtures to the important material, a prelude, a setting of the scene and a laying out of the intent of the authors (Matthew and Luke) as to how they are going to treat those years of Jesus’ most important activity.
The First Christmas then is not a debunking of the birth stories but a deeper look at what they are meant to tell us. How they help us to a deeper understanding of Jesus, the preacher, the founder of our faith. I have to say that the book is a “good read” generally, written for people like myself who have a pretty rudimentary knowledge of our Bible. I’ll admit I skipped those chapters on the genealogy of Jesus’ birth (in the one gospel the writer moves from parents to children, ancestors to descendants, in the other gospel the writer moves his genealogical list from children to parents, from descendants back to ancestors. The gospel writers had a reason for this but do I really care?).
Otherwise I came away from reading the book as happy as always with the Christmas we will soon experience at Westminster, And fascinated with what was going on in Matthew’s and Luke’s heads as they set out to write their accounts of our Lord Jesus.
Roy Halstead
*The Last Week: A Day by Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon
Each of us is an individual
24/11/09 20:41
Each of us is an individual.
Well, sometimes, maybe!
On the one hand there are notions of “standard” lives, and “standard” people (Baby- boomers, The X generation, The A generation, The Post-Modernists), notions which prompt movers and shakers to sniff out our similarities and use them to entice us into living lives not always of our own choosing, to holding attitudes that don’t stand up to the scrutiny of our own critical thinking, to spending and acquiring things we don’t need; the culture we live in therefore encouraging us to adopt a “sense of self” without encouraging much in the way of our personal input. Read More...