Pentateuch is the five first books of the Bible- said to be written by Moses…Did she say that Moses died before these books were written? If so- that kind of proves that he didn’t write this. Also- didn’t he die…..hm- writing about your own death seems impossible to me. Sorry, I am spicy and maybe didn’t catch all the specifics, but it was a great presentation and it reminded me about how there are so many discrepancies over who wrote what in the bible. Although- I never heard this argument before. It does reminds me of how Mark wrote his part of the book way later on- not when it was occurring…Moses was obviously not the main author of the books…I feel as though authors being questioned within the bible creates so much disbelief in the bible itself.

…this was kind of a stupid rant- sorry 🙂

I found the presentations to be really helpful in understanding the context of the literature that we are reading. Learning of the fables that influenced the stories and the areas geographical structure is really interesting and makes the stories a little bit easier to understand. This approach to understand ing the stories is better than going into them with little to no knowledge of what’s happening during the time it was written. Now understanding the context of the different stories of jesus’ crucifixion makes it easier to compare and contrast each story, unlike before when I had very little understanding of what was happening in the old testament.
Nick

After Andrew’s presentation, I was not surprised about the regional/climate differences that were discussed. Even living in the South Shore and commuting to Downtown Boston daily, I can remember on more than a few occasions when it would be snowing/raining on one side and sunny of the other. And this is only around a 15 mile radius, compared to a larger size such s NJ. – I appreciate the visual handouts very much. Hope that more visual will be presented in the future.

Just a random comment for all the bloggers, please consider leaving your name with your post..I can’t seem to find out who’s posting what – and it’s just nice to associate a person with their thoughts/opinions.

-Sue

I really enjoyed the presentations of Wednesday. Juanita’s presentation mentioned the possibility of plagiarism. It is quite possible that one of the versions of the crucifixion may have been embellished from another version. I feel that there is definitely some influence between the different versions of the crucifixion. They were written at different times and have different elements to them. Andrew’s presentation was also very interesting. I had never really considered the region in which these stories took place. The heat is unbelievable and reminds me of James Carroll’s explanation of who exactly the people in The Passion of the Christ were when they wore the headdresses. Not just the Jews wore these headdresses because the heat is so intense that many people wear them.

-Olivia

I liked how Juanita kept reiterating how the stories in the Bible existed before the Bible actually existed.  I sometimes find this hard to remember because the authors write as if they were actually at the event they are describing.  I found it interesting to learn about the different climates in Israel and how diverse they are for such a small area in Andrew’s presentation.  This made me look differently at when the Jews were traveling to the promised land and how dedicated to that journey they were for enduring the heat.  It also made me see a new cruelty to Jesus’ crucifixion for making him carry the cross up the mountain in extreme heat or in the other versions it’s a punishment for the man they chose to carry the cross.

Andrew’s presentation made me look at Jesus crucifixion differenntly. Being a Christian I have learned all about the crucifixion of Jesus. But i never thought about the climate. Knowing that the climate was so hot  and that they barely had any rain makes me think of how bad Jesus had it when He was crucified. Not only was He forced to drag a cross around, and was whipped, but it was hot out making Him more fatigued and the journey worse.

From today’s presentations I learned a lot about how I have never thought about the landmarks,climate and those small details that are easy to skip when reading but at the same time tell a lot about the context of each story in the Bible.