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A-level RS - Christianity (Eduqas/WJEC) > 1A Jesus: his birth > Flashcards

1A Jesus: his birth Flashcards

1
Q

What are the birth narratives?

A

The accounts, in Matthew and Luke’s gospels that give information on how Jesus came into the world

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2
Q

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding Angels?

A
  • Matthew: Unnamed angel appears to Joseph and quotes Isiah 7:14
  • Luke: Angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her of her pregnancy (the Annunciation)
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3
Q

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding Mary and Joseph’s marriage?

A
  • Matthew: Joseph marries Mary

* Luke: Joseph is engaged to Mary

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4
Q

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding Elizabeth and Zechariah?

A
  • Matthew: No mention
  • Luke: Mary visits Liz, who expresses her joy in the song, Magnificat; Liz gives birth to John the Baptist and Zechariah makes a prophecy, Benedictus
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5
Q

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding the visitors?

A
  • Matthew: Magi (Wise Men)

* Luke: Shepards

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6
Q

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding Herod?

A
  • Matthew: Magi duped Herod, who reacted by killing all children in Bethlehem under 2 years old
  • Luke: No mention
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7
Q

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding the Temple?

A
  • Matthew: No mention
  • Luke: 8 days after birth, Christ is presented in the Temple; mysteriously recognised by Simeon and Anna; Simeon speaks a hymn, Nunc Dimittis
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8
Q

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding the return journey?

A
  • Matthew: Flight to Egypt; return to Nazareth from Egypt after Herod’s death
  • Luke: Return to Nazareth from Jerusalem
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9
Q

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding the chronology?

A
  • Matthew: Jesus was born “in the days of Herod the king”

* Luke: “It was when Quirinus was governor of Syria”

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10
Q

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding the census?

A
  • Matthew: No mention

* Luke: Caesar Augustus calls a census; made it necessary for Joseph + Mary to travel to Bethlehem to be registered

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11
Q

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding where Jesus was born?

A
  • Matthew: “in a house”

* Luke: “in a manger”

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12
Q

In Matthew’s Gospel, it is not mentioned that there were three Magi, nor that they were kings; where does the idea of three kings originate from?

A
  • Three: Tradition of three gifts

* Kings: Tradition based on passages like Psalm 72:11, “May all kings fall down before him”

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13
Q

Outline the historicity of Matthew’s account.

A
  • Little historical detail but does mention Herod’s massacre.
  • Massacre = not reported by any other contemporary historian
  • Some believe he made it up to draw a parallel between Jesus and Moses, who was similarly threatened by a pharoah
  • However, does fit with Herod’s character as he murdered three of his own sons to protect his power
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14
Q

Outline the historicity of Luke’s account.

A
  • Insists on the historical accuracy - “an orderly account”; “investigating everything clearly”
  • Quirinus = governor from 6-12 CE, but it cannot be established that he was gov. “in the days of Herod”
  • Unless he served a previous term or a scribe miscopied Quirinus for Saturnius (9BCE-6CE), his chronology must be erroneous
  • Quirinus held a census in 6/7 CE, but no evi. of one several years earlier
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15
Q

What is the issue with the chronology of Herod?

A

He died in 4BCE; how could he have known about Jesus if he died 4 years prior?

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16
Q

What do some scholars argue about the three hymns in Luke’s Gospel?

A
  • That Luke misleads his readers

* The three hymns were already in use by the early Christian community before Luke attributed them to the characters

17
Q

What supernatural event do both Gospels claim is true?

A

Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin

18
Q

What supernatural events are there in Matthew’s version?

A
  • Angel appears to Joseph on three occasions
  • Angel appears to Magi
  • Star appears to Magi and miraculously guides them
19
Q

What supernatural events are there in Luke’s version?

A
  • Angel Gabriel appears to Mary
  • Liz’s unborn baby leaps in her womb after recognising the unborn Jesus
  • Jesus is mysteriously recognised as the Messiah in the Temple
20
Q

What is the issue with the supernatural events in the narratives?

A

Casts doubts about their historicity

21
Q

What are the obvious similarities between the two narratives?

A
  • Born in Bethlehem
  • Herod = king
  • Mary = mother + betrothed to Joseph
  • Jesus = conceived of HS
  • Mary = virgin
  • People travelled to visit
  • Jesus = fulfilment of OT prophecy; came to save all humankind, not just Jews
22
Q

How can we harmonise the accounts?

A
  • Accounts do not blatantly contradict each other
  • Matthew may have had access to info not available to luke (vice versa); many believe Luke received his story directly from Mary, which explains his accounts of the Annunciation, Liz, Temple
  • Jesus may have been visited by Magi and shepherds; angel may have appeared to both Mary and Joseph; all may have fled to Egypt after being presented in the Temple
23
Q

What is redaction criticism?

A
  • A critical method for the study of biblical texts
  • Assumes that original traditions about Jesus circulated as independent units within the early church
  • Each gospel writer chose the material and arranged/edited it to suit their theological interests
24
Q

Redaction: Who was Matthew’s Gospel aimed at, and why?

A
  • Jewish readers
  • At pains to prove that Jesus descended from King David through Joseph
  • Tries to prove that Jesus = a fulfilment of OT revelation of God; his accounts contain quotes from OT prophets (Isiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Hosea) + 2 OT books (2 Samuel, possibly Judges)
  • Convinced that Jesus came for all people, not just Jews; expresses conviction as his first visitors were foreigners, Magi “from the East”
25
Q

Redaction: Who is Luke’s Gospel aimed at, and why?

A
  • Gentiles
  • Both his Gospel and Acts are dedicated to a Greek man, Theophilus (‘lover of God’) and may be a general term for all those who follow Jesus
  • Luke was the only non-Jewish writer in the NT
  • OT quotes = from the Greek Septuagint, not the Hebrew
  • Mary’s viewpoint: less anxious to connect Jesus to David
26
Q

Redaction: How does Luke’s Gospel appeal to poor people?

A
  • News of birth first brought to poor shepherds, not the sophisticated Wise Men
  • Mary/Joseph = poor
  • Emphasises that Jesus brought salvation to the poor, underprivileged and downtrodden
27
Q

Redaction: Despite its Greek ‘flavour’, how does Luke link his Gospel to the Jewish religion?

A
  • Jesus = fulfilment of OT revelation of God

* Mention of John the Baptist, an OT prophet

28
Q

What is the etymology of ‘incarnation’?

A
  • Derives from the Latin, ‘incarnationem’

* Meaning = ‘becoming flesh’

29
Q

Quote a Bible passage that gives credence to the incarnation.

A

• John 1:14: “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”

30
Q

Where do the most widely accepted definitions of the incarnation come from, and what do they assert?

A
  • First Council of Nicea (325)
  • Council of Ephesus (431)
  • Council of Chaceldon (451)
  • Assert that J = fully G (begotten from, but not created by, the Father) and fully man
31
Q

What is the name given to the two natures united in one person?

A

• The hypostatic union

32
Q

Explain how the doctrine of the incarnation sees Jesus as fully man and fully God.

A
  • Fully God: existed from beg. as G; his appearance on earth = only a brief period
  • Fully man: born as any other is born; flesh and blood; ate, slept, drank; died
33
Q

Who rejects the doctrine of the incarnation? Why?

A
  • Jews, Muslims, and some C.tian denom.s e.g. Unitarians
  • It violates the transcendence and immutability of G.
  • C.tian theologians who have tried to emphasise one nature in J’s person at the expense of the other have been condemned as heretics
34
Q

What is kenosis?

A
  • Jesus emptying himself

* Comes from the Greek verb, ‘keno’, meaning, ‘to make empty’

35
Q

Where does the word kenosis appear in the Bible?

A

• Paul’s letter to the Philippians (2:7): Jesus, “though he was in the form of God…emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness

36
Q

What is the main concern of kenotic theology?

A
  • To solve the difficulties that arise from J having a divine and human nature
  • E.g. How could an omniscient G become a baby? How could J, if he was G, be tempted (Mark 1:13) or not know when the world was going to end? (Mark 13:22)
37
Q

What does Paul mean when he says that Christ emptied himself?

A
  • It cannot be that J emptied himself of his divinity and ceased to be G; he must have hidden his divine attributes while maintaining the substantial presence of G
  • The emptying consists of a pre-incarnate self-limitation by J, agreeing to take “the form of a slave, being born in human likeness”; the self-emptying of his own will as a human being and submitting to the will of G

A-level RS - Christianity (Eduqas/WJEC) (24 decks)

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