The Origin and Formation of the Gospel

Ra

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781498203111
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

This book shows readers the nature of Christian faith by exploring how the gospel was originated, formed, and developed. As author Yoseop Ra demonstrates, the Christian faith began to develop during the conflict between Paul and the Jerusalem apostles, while the redemptive death of Jesus Christ on the cross, the core of the gospel, was made through theological interpretation and spiritual confession. The Origin and Formation of the Gospel offers new interpretations based on a profound analysis of sources. First, author Yoseop Ra shows Q to have been redacted four times. Second, he identifies the original form of the first Christian gospel and separates Paul's seven genuine epistles into sixteen letters. Finally, Ra offers an analysis of four Gospels and other writings to argue that the redemptive role of the cross was introduced as a breakthrough on the part of Paul to overcome the Jerusalem apostles, identifying the kingdom of God as the garden of Eden.

Part I

Prologue

The following prologue will help readers understand the context of this book. The appropriateness of the biblical theological approach, the sequence of the writings of the Christian Scripture, and the process of how the concept of gospel has changed over time will be studied in the prologue. This will help the reader gain a broader perspective on the common doctrinal positions they have learned to date and also to notice the historical facts as well as the theological interpretations of those facts. Through this process, readers will learn that the Christians of the first century CE lived vividly, helping them to form and develop their faith in Jesus Christ from different perspectives. As a result, this prologue will show that the content of the gospel went through a process of change and development over a short period of time. With this, the prologue will help build a foundation upon which readers can notice and understand the differences in the Christian Scripture.

1

The Biblical Theological Approach

Everyone has certain presuppositions about their life and surroundings. For those who read and study the Bible, this is no less the case. Many such presuppositions about the Bible, however, were developed and taught for doctrinal purposes over a long period of time. These doctrinal positions are created so as to connect the various writings of the Bible thematically. As a result, content that goes against the prescribed doctrines is often overlooked or misinterpreted. In response to this doctrinal approach to understanding the Bible, biblical theology began to come into favor approximately 250 years ago. The intent of biblical theology is to look at each individual book and author so as to understand the intent without having to compare it to the larger canon. In this sense, biblical theology takes primarily a historical and literary approach. This is the process of uncovering what God has revealed to each writer through the Spirit and then tracing this special revelation given to each person in their different situations. Using the biblical theological approach, it becomes clear that people have confessed their faith by adding new interpretations to what had been passed down through tradition. Each writer left his or her own theological interpretation about Jesus Christ, and this collection is the Christian Scripture.

A. The Nature of Faith

A common presupposition that many Christians share is that something can be believed only if it can be proven historically true. They can believe what is written in the Bible because it is historically true. Conversely, they refuse to accept something that is not historically true. Of course, this does not mean that the historicity of the events written in the Bible should be denied. As it turns out, however, many Christians believe a lot of things written in the Bible that are not necessarily historical. Faith involves not only believing historical facts but also the theological interpretations of certain events and words. This is the nature of the faith the Bible teaches.

The Christian Scripture itself tells people about the nature of faith. For example, 1 Cor 15:3 conveys a historical fact as well as a theological interpretation. In this verse, the death of Christ is presented as a historical fact. However, saying that Christ died “for our sins according to the Scriptures” is a subjective theological interpretation. While there are those who accept this, many do not. The former are Christians, and the latter are not. Christians are those who believe the historical fact “Christ died” as well as the theological interpretation “for our sins according to the Scriptures.” In this way, faith is composed of two elements: one is the historical fact, and the other is its theological interpretations. Therefore, Christians are able to believe something more than the historical facts alone.

The Hebrew Bible shows the nature of faith as well. A fairly typical case is the account of Abram’s emigration (Gen 12:1–5). Many people are inspired by the thought that Abram immediately obeyed God when he was told to go to the land to be shown to him. In order to have a proper understanding, however, people must read between the lines. In fact, the person who wished to go to Canaan was Abram’s father, Terah, but he died when he came to Haran after leaving his hometown, Ur (Gen 11:31–32). At that time, Abram had to make a decision among three possible choices: he could have gone back to his hometown, settled at Haran, or gone to Canaan as his father had wished. Abram decided to go to Canaan according to the will of his father, Terah. He would have told this story to his children later, and they would have passed the story on to their descendants. This is a historical fact. However, after a long period of time, that information was left out of the historical fact as it went through the process of theological interpretation. The author of Genesis wrote that Abram left for Canaan because the Lord had told him to go from his country and take his people to the land the Lord would show him, had given him a promise about his children, and had told him that he would be a blessing. Such writing is the result of the author’s theological interpretation about the historical event that happened to Abram long ago. Today’s Christians believe that such content is the Word of God. As mentioned above, faith involves believing theological interpretations as well as historical facts. In this sense, Christians necessarily believe in things that extend beyond the realm of provable historical fact.

Faith is a two-sided coin, with historical fact on one side and theological interpretation on the other. As people get to know the essence of faith, they come to accept the theological interpretation as well as the historical fact. If a person only accepts one side, that person is not a true Christian. However, embracing and obeying both sides is not easy. This is only possible when people are guided by the Spirit of God. Therefore, Christians are those who reflect themselves in Jesus Christ as the Spirit guides them and continually renews their theological interpretations.

B. The Formation of Christian Writings

Another common presupposition that many Christians have regards the sequence in which the Christian writings were composed. It is often presumed that the Christian Scripture was written in the order it is listed today—that the four Gospels, including Matthew, were written first, then the Pauline epistles were written later. They think that Paul learned about Jesus Christ from the four Gospels and wrote his letters according to their teachings. It is more probable, however, that the Pauline epistles were written before the four Gospels and that there was an early written document used as the source for the Synoptic Gospels.

Paul is understood to have left the most writings in the Christian Scripture. Although tradition holds that he is the author of thirteen letters, critical scholars conclude that only seven of them are from Paul’s own hand. These include Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, 1 Thessalonians, Philippians, and Philemon, which were written between the late forties and the early sixties CE. The rest include Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, which are believed to have been written by the disciples of Paul between the eighties and the first decade of the second century CE.1 This is due to the fact that the Deuteropauline epistles show different styles of writing, theology, historical context, and other factors compared to those presumed to be genuine. In addition, while Paul’s genuine epistles reflect the situation of the time of writing, the Deuteropauline epistles are more obsessed with doctrine and ecclesiastical issues. Therefore, when looking at the letters according to the chronological order, we can see how Paul and his disciples’ perspective of the gospel changed and developed.

Four Gospels describe the life of Jesus Christ in the Christian Scripture. It is believed that Mark was written first in Galilee around 70 CE, and then Matthew in Galilee between 85 and 95. John is presumed to be an edited work written in the border area of Syria around 90 to 110. Finally, Luke is believed to have been written at Ephesus in Asia Minor between 100 and 120, and it was followed shortly by Acts, written by the same author. From a chronological perspective, it is not difficult to accept that the Gospel authors acknowledged Paul’s genuine epistles and reflected his theology either positively or negatively in their Gospels. Written in different times and places, the four Gospels show their own understanding and theology of Jesus Christ. Acts was written specifically to resolve the conflict between the Jerusalem Church of Cephas Peter and the Gentile churches of Paul to describe their unity. This shows that there were different perspectives on Jesus Christ in the late first century CE.

The rest of the documents in the Christian Scripture must be taken under consideration as well. It is probable that Hebrews, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Revelation were written for those who were under the persecution of the Roman Empire in the Gentile area around 95 CE. They aimed to encourage contemporary Christians to keep their faith in Christ. In addition, the Johannine epistles are likely to have been sent to the local churches by the leader between 100 and 110. The epistles therefore reflect the relationships between them, and theologically they follow the Gospel of John. Finally, James and Jude show different theological tracks.

There is also a piece of writing that was not included in the Christian Scripture. This document is called “Q” and includes the first writings about Jesus. Its final form was probably redacted. Unfortunately, Q is not left to us in the form of a written document; therefore, biblical scholars have attempted to extract its final form on the basis of the common texts between Matthew and Luke that do not appear in Mark. Its scope and content are still under investigation by scholars. Nevertheless, it is difficult to deny its existence at one time in document form.2 Although Paul knew about Q, he onl...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Part One: Prologue
• Chapter 1: The Biblical Theological Approach
• Chapter 2: The Formation of Christian Tradition
• Chapter 3: The Concept of Gospel
• Part Two: The First Gospel and Its Development
• Chapter 4: According to the Scriptures
• Chapter 5: The Death of Christ
• Chapter 6: The Burial of Christ
• Chapter 7: The Resurrection of Christ
• Chapter 8: The Epiphany of Christ
• Part Three: The Gospel of Q and Its Development
• Chapter 9: The Edenic Kingdom of God
• Chapter 10: The Ascension of Jesus
• Chapter 11: The Second Advent of Jesus
• Part Four: The Pauline Gospel and Its Development
• Chapter 12: The Adam Christology
• Chapter 13: The Birth of Jesus Christ
• Chapter 14: The Theology of Redemption
• Chapter 15: The Lord’s Supper
• Epilogue
• Bibliography