Anthony Schoen
Religion 120-05
Reflection Paper 2

Traditions of Jesus

When reading into the traditions of the Bible and how the New Testament came into being the widely know text we have today I was astounded at the accusations that were made!  At first I was skeptical, but as I continued to read, the authors back their thoughts with many logical examples and comparisons found within the four main Gospels of the New Testament.  The begin to dig and go in depth about how the unknown authors of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John were able to write these in depth stories of Jesus and the life he experienced while he blessed us with his presence on Earth.

Looking at a more historical view of Jesus and trying to decipher when he lived and when he died, many details are missing.  Scholars even struggle to decide on an exact date of his death.  There are two references in the bible found in Mark and John where they reference an exact hour of Jesus’ death, but they fall 21 hours apart.  This is very well explained because of the tradition of telling stories at this time by word of mouth.    

Unfortunately stories of Jesus’ life were not estimated to begin their formal recordings until nearly 30 years after his estimated death.  They continued to be written, in what we now know as the Gospels of the New Testament, until at least 60 years after his death.  I did not think this was too significant until Bart Ehrman pointed out the metaphor of if we attempted to record the acts of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency for the first time today based on stories passed down from generation to generation and how difficult this would be. 

The only set back in writing the stories of Jesus was not just the time differential, but also language and cultural barriers.  Over the course of the 30-60 years after Jesus died, the stories of his blessings on us were passed down over the area of the Roman Empire.  These territories included many different cultural beliefs and several different languages.  As one person would tell a story to another individual the story would need to be deciphered by the new individual so that they could continue the story in their mother tongue.  Translating from one language to another serves its own limitations, because each language has different words to represent different scenarios of the use of that word.  After the story would be translated, some individuals would be so inclined as to put their own personal twist on the story in order to influence certain political or cultural views they supported that they believe Jesus should also support in his teachings.  All of these were barriers that caused the writers of the Gospels to struggle in accuracy of the writings. 

Overall this reading made a lot of exceptional points that made me think more about how the Bible came into being.  Although I feel that God had a hand in helping the divine people who wrote these Gospels, this was still an amazing argument that does pertain a lot to how things were passed down, and probably how many of the stories found in the bible came to be.  Many questions are still unanswered in the life of Jesus and may stay unsolved forever, but it is good for our faith to question such things as these.

Religion in The Roman World

    Upon reading the text Religion in The Roman World by Marianne Bonz, several of the main ideas made a significant impression on me.  I have always had a general idea about the Gods of Mount Olympus, and their significance in the Roman culture, but never quite understood how important these gods were to them.  People in these ancient societies idolized all of these gods and were in awe of their powers. 
    Although people in this time period worshiped many different gods, who all were the ruler of a certain aspect of life, they still addressed the presence of a higher power.  Originally there were twelve different gods, and over time, several more were added when another significant aspect of life was discovered.  They would create these gods on the belief that certain individuals were more or less chosen by one of the gods to be impregnated with one of their supernatural offspring.  This concept shows a lot of resemblance to the birth and conception of Jesus Christ.
    In comparison to these days, the Christian belief being that there is one almighty God who rules all.  He is considered to be the God of all that is good, and every aspect of life in the natural world we all reside in.  Even though God is the almighty ruler, he still has his angels and saints who are known to be the good in a certain area.  All of this relates to the Roman concept of religion. The almighty ruler of all of the gods in the Roman time, the one who was considered the most powerful and the most wise, was Zeus.  As stated above, there were many other gods who would rule over different aspects of life.  Our current day religion, and that of the Roman time are nearly the same, just separated from one God ruling all, to many gods ruling the same things but individually.
    Jesus was a man who arrived on Earth and helped display his love for all by performing miracles on the sick and providing food for the hungry, and then ultimately dying for all of our sins on the cross.  Many of the Roman Gods displayed this same type of interest in helping the needy.  They would help the sick, and in return these individuals would display their love to this God by worshiping them and spreading their spiritual experiences.  This is the same as today.  We pray for help with family members and those around us who are ill or in need of guidance in their lives.  God will answer to those that are in true need and who are pure and sincere in their prayer.  These are all considered miracles when this blessing is bestowed upon us.
    The Romans prayed and worshiped the many different gods of their time, and this can be viewed to be the same as praying to the Mother Mary or other saints in the present day.  The Roman’s concept of religion was probably the foundation of religion as we know it today.  Over time, and after Jesus was brought to spread the Word of God, religion evolved to what it is today. 

Assignment 2

1) I am an outgoing individual who loves to have fun and socialize.  I am very dedicated to my school work and to where I want to end up in life.  Attending Gonzaga is a building block in my life that will help me achieve the goals I am striving for.  I love my family, and a huge movie fan!  My absolute favorite thing to do is to snowboard!

2) I am and intriguing individual, and love to be randomly adventurous.

3) Unique

4)

Assignment 1

1) Jesus is the savior of Christianity.  He died for all of our sins, and has eternal love for all.  Jesus is viewed by many religions as the figure of worship, and is the son of God.  He has brought many people together with his love for all.

2) Jesus is the savior of Chrstianity.

3) Almighty

4)