Who is the Audience

by peacefulpete 7 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  peacefulpete

  Stumbled upon another small observation today and for some reason I've been in a sharing mood. lol.

  Compare the Synoptic variations of this pericope.

  Mark 8..

  Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”... Jesus warned them not to tell anyone ...

  ...Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ...If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

  
  

  Matt 16:

  ...he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah....

  24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ... 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels,

  
  

  Luke 9:

  Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”...Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.

  23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ...Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

  
  

  Notice in Mark Just after instructing his disciples not to disclose he was the Messiah, Jesus calls a crowd and identifies as the Messiah, the Son of Man. Did the author of the revision later called Matt notice this and attempt to fix it by removing the crowd and have Jesus instead address just his disciples? It looks that way. Then the poor author of the revision known as Luke comes along sees both Mark and Matt and decides to simply obfuscate by saying "all".

  Comparing the Synoptic authors allows us a peek into their minds and the decision process.
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
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  Touchofgrey

  Maybe there was more than one preacher called jesus. So different instructions.

  Or the gospel writers were not eyewitness of these events or conversations. And that they probably never even meet each other. So they each relied on oral story's that were passed down through the decades before it was written down.
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  Simon

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW8fDw8VzKI
  
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  peacefulpete

  Touchof grey,...the Synoptics are recensions of the same work. Just like the Gospel of Hebrews, the Gospel of Nazarenes, Gospel of Ebionites, Gospel of the Egyptians, the Gospel of the Apostles and others are literarily related versions. There were many revisions on a theme some took more liberties with their source document than others but none of them were "independent witnesses".
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  Phizzy

  " none of them were "independent witnesses". And none were eyewitnesses, of course, as the events and persons, including the "Jesus" Figure, are all Fictional in the Gospel of Mark, a Work of Fiction. A Work that is just a Fictional as the one about Apollonius of Tyana.

  Thanks for posting PP, it is interesting to see the process at work of adding to the the first Story, and deliberately changing it.

  This is a process that started as soon as Genesis was written, and carries on all the way through to "Revelation".

  A constant process of Editing, Redacting , inserting many Interpolations etc.
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  Touchofgrey

  My comment was meant with a hint of sarcasm for those who still accept the four gospels were actually written by Matthew, mark, Luke and john as eyewitnes accounts. When in fact they were written decades after the so called events by unknown authors.
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  LV101

  TouchofGrey - we need all the hope possible but those facts - oh my.

  Very interesting, PP - share more!
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  peacefulpete

  Pick a page. There is a similar story found on every line of the Gospels.

  touchofgrey...sorry I'm terrible at sarcasm.