FREE ESSAY ON JESUS - APOCALYPTIC PROPHET

JESUS - APOCALYPTIC PROPHET

Who was Jesus? Why it's so hard to know
The author examines several methods that have evolved over the centuries in
interpretation of the New Testament. Scholars try various ways to find the facts of who
Jesus was and how he did the things he did. 
Supernatural histories were one method of explanation of the events in the New Testament.
During the pre-Enlightenment years, scholars explained that events in the bible as actual
truths, things that have happened for fact and by word. Science hadn't been used for
reasoning yet and methods for understanding things like sickness and natural catastrophes
were always linked to a supernatural source. 
Natural histories evolved during the enlightenment period as a logical method of
understanding ancient scriptures. This rationalistic view of the bible insists that
events and "miracles" of the New Testament were in fact misunderstandings of science and
natural laws at the time when science wasn't understood. Things were labeled a miracle
because the concepts to understand these things were yet available. 
Myths were introduced by a German philosopher David Strauss. Myths were religious stories
that could happen but didn't really. Instead the myth is to teach a religious meaning
through interpretation. 
Biblical stories vary from author to author, especially within the 4 Gospels. Each book
tells basically the same story in conflicting ways. The birth, life and death of Jesus is
told but yet every Gospel varies from the other in story. These conflictions bring up
questions of fact, authenticity, and reality.