This book gives you a good taste of the many and varied gospels that exist outside the four canonical gospels in our Bible. It will be an eye opening experience to see the content of these other gospels that critics of Christianity deem valuable and on par with the gospels in the Bible. You will understand why those gospels were not included in the biblical canon.
I mentioned in class a website that goes into more depth about the evidence that supports the author of the Gospel as John the Son of Zebedee. You can reach the site by clicking the following link: Evidence for John of Zebedee This will give you a more in depth look at the type of evidence that exists in support of the traditional view that it was John, one of the twelve disciples who wrote the Gospel of John.
I mentioned as well that the textbooks for the course are two volumes by N. T. Wright:
These books are available in paperback or on Kindle. Click on the links above for the information on ordering through amazon.ca. I would recommend reading through these books. They are very accessible and Tom Wright uses an open style that brings relevant everyday examples as points that build a bridge to the meaning of John. Wright offers his own translation of the gospel in these books as well which will give you another alternative reading.
In terms of class, I mentioned that I will run class from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm with a short break in between. I will keep students for credit from 9:00 - 9:30 pm to go over any details related to course work. For those thinking about switching enrollment to taking the course for credit, you will have three weeks to decide whether you would like to make the change. Please keep me posted if you decide to do so. The two weeks where there will be no class will be March Break week - Tuesday March 12, 2013 and the last week of March - Tuesday March 26, 2013. The last class of the course will be Tuesday April 9, 2013. This will give us 11 weeks of classes.
Read through chapters one and two of the Gospel of John to prepare for next class. I encourage you to read them in a couple of different versions so that you can get an appreciation for the possible different ways that the passages can be translated into English. Try to note the similarities of John chapter 1 and 2 with Genesis 1 and 2. There is a deliberate move on John's part to remind us of Genesis in the opening chapters.
Hi Luc, great looking blog and great first class. I love the opening of John. One of my favorite ways to read the bible is to read it chronologically which I feel should start with John one and not Genesis one.
ReplyDeleteDerek
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteI am really enjoying the class though there is not as much discussion as past classes but then it is only our second one.
Anyway I had a few other observations that I wanted to share.
I noticed another parallel with Genesis the first thing after all of Gods creation was to essentially attend the first wedding between a man and wife. This is also the first thing John records Christ doing - attending a wedding.
Luc I also wanted to say that I love the way you describe the imagery of God wanting to make a tent and dwell with us as you illustrate in the old testament.
I remember you using this illustration in a previous class it was nice to be rinsed of that again.
Are there any books you could recommend that explore this?
Derek
Derek,
ReplyDeleteNow you're talking! Yes - that is a very good observation. This is exactly the way that John intended that we read the imagery in his book. Absolutely - there is a definite parallel that may be even taken further to suggest that the world is only complete when true humanity is present in it. In Genesis we have the putting of Adam and Eve in the Garden as completion of God's work and in John we have Jesus redeeming the wedding ceremony of the Cana couple as a sign of completing his work - restoring the ideal man and woman back into a new creation - of which the new wine is representative.
Great stuff!!!