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78-613: The Codex Millenarius is an ancient book, containing all four Gospels in Latin . Believed to have been written around 800 at Mondsee Abbey , it is housed in the great library of Kremsmünster Abbey in Austria , which contains other items of paramount religious and cultural value, such as the Tassilo Chalice . The decoration of the book from the Carolingian period consists of eight frames with

156-438: A careful and ordered transmission of it." NT Wright also argued for a stable oral tradition, stating "Communities that live in an oral culture tend to be story-telling communities [...] Such stories [...] acquire a fairly fixed form, down to precise phraseology [...] they retain that form, and phraseology, as long as they are told [...] The storyteller in such a culture has no license to invent or adapt at will. The less important

234-528: A collection of sayings called "the Q source ", and additional material unique to each. There have been different views on the transmission of material that lead to the Synoptic Gospels , with various scholars arguing memory and orality reliably preserved traditions that ultimately go back to the Historical Jesus . Other scholars have been more skeptical and see more changes in the traditions prior to

312-535: A far less explicit manner, its influence is still pervasive. Their source was the Greek version of the scriptures, called the Septuagint ; they do not seem familiar with the original Hebrew. The consensus among modern scholars is that the gospels are a subset of the ancient genre of bios , or ancient biography . Ancient biographies were concerned with providing examples for readers to emulate while preserving and promoting

390-550: A first-born and that "until" did not have the meaning Helvidius construed for it, painted a repulsive word-portrait of Joseph having intercourse with a blood-stained and exhausted Mary immediately after she has given birth—the implication, in his view, of Helvidius's arguments. Opinions on the quality of Jerome's rebuttal range from the view that it was masterful and well-argued to thin, rhetorical and sometimes tasteless. Two other 4th century Fathers, Gregory of Nyssa , following "a certain apocryphal account", and Augustine , advanced

468-646: A further argument by reading Luke 1:34 as a vow of perpetual virginity on Mary's part; this idea, first introduced in the Protoevangelium of James, has little scholarly support today, but it and the arguments advanced by Jerome and Ambrose were put forward by Pope John Paul II in his catechesis of August 28, 1996, as the four facts supporting the Catholic Church's ongoing faith in Mary's perpetual virginity. It has been argued from John 19 , where Jesus entrusts Mary to

546-504: A good idea of [...] his public career." . Critical study on the Historical Jesus has largely failed to distinguish the original ideas of Jesus from those of the later Christian authors , and the focus of research has shifted to Jesus as remembered by his followers, and understanding the Gospels themselves. The canonical gospels are the four which appear in the New Testament of

624-495: A good idea of the public career of Jesus. The majority view among critical scholars is that the authors of Matthew and Luke based their narratives on Mark's gospel, editing him to suit their own ends, and the contradictions and discrepancies among these three versions and John make it impossible to accept both traditions as equally reliable with regard to the historical Jesus. In addition, the gospels read today have been edited and corrupted over time, leading Origen to complain in

702-531: A guarantee of his reliability, and the Synoptic Gospels are the primary sources for Christ's ministry. Assessments of the reliability of the Gospels involve not just the texts but studying the long oral and written transmission behind them using methods like memory studies and form criticism , with different scholars coming to different conclusions. James D.G. Dunn believed that the earliest tradents within

780-462: A kind of bios , or ancient biography , meant to convince people that Jesus was a charismatic miracle-working holy man, providing examples for readers to emulate. As such, they present the Christian message of the second half of the first century AD, and modern biblical scholars are cautious of relying on the gospels uncritically as historical documents, though according to E. P. Sanders "we have

858-622: A late 2nd-century text called the Protoevangelium of James . The Second Council of Constantinople in 553 gave her the title "Aeiparthenos", meaning Perpetual Virgin, and at the Lateran Synod of 649 Pope Martin I emphasized the threefold character of the perpetual virginity, before, during, and after the birth of Christ. The Lutheran Smalcald Articles (1537) and the Reformed Second Helvetic Confession (1562) codified

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936-540: A life-long virgin, argued that these adelphoi were the sons of "Mary, the mother of James and Joses" ( Mark 15:40 ), who he identified with the wife of Clopas and sister of the virgin Mary (John 19:25), which remains popular in the Western church. A modern proposal considers these adelphoi sons of "Mary, the mother of James and Joses" (not here identified with the Virgin Mary's sister), and Clopas, who according to Hegesippus

1014-527: A normal human birth, then his body was something other than a truly human one. As reported by Augustine , Jovinian "denied that the virginity of Mary, which existed when she conceived, remained while she gave birth." Augustine goes on to say that the reason for Jovinian's denial of Mary's virginity in partu was that the doctrine was too close to the Manichean view that Christ was simply a phantom. According to Ambrose, Jovinian maintained that Mary had conceived as

1092-527: A normal human parentage and birth, and makes no attempt to trace his ancestry back to King David or Adam ; it originally ended at Mark 16:8 and had no post-resurrection appearances , although Mark 16:7, in which the young man discovered in the tomb instructs the women to tell "the disciples and Peter" that Jesus will see them again in Galilee, hints that the author knew of the tradition. The authors of Matthew and Luke added infancy and resurrection narratives to

1170-622: A possible divine Christology in the Synoptics. In contrast to Mark, where Jesus hides his identity as messiah, in John he openly proclaims it. Like the rest of the New Testament , the four gospels were written in Greek. The Gospel of Mark probably dates from c.  AD 66 –70, Matthew and Luke around AD 85–90, and John AD 90–110. Despite the traditional ascriptions, most scholars hold that all four are anonymous and most scholars agree that none were written by eyewitnesses. A few scholars defend

1248-450: A previous marriage". According to Richard Bauckham , Ignatius of Antioch also believed in the doctrine of Mary's virginity in partu . The Gospel of James states that Mary remained a life-long virgin, because Joseph was an old man who married her without physical desire, and the brothers of Jesus mentioned in the canonical gospels are explained as Joseph's sons by an earlier marriage. The Protoevangelium seems to have been used to create

1326-473: A virgin, but she had not given birth as a virgin. Jerome wrote against Jovinian but failed to mention this aspect of his teaching, and most commentators believe that he did not find it offensive. Jovinian also found two monks in Milan, Sarmatio and Barbatian , who held similar views as Jovinian. The only important Christian intellectual to defend Mary's virginity in partu was Ambrose , Archbishop of Milan, who

1404-662: Is also distinctly different, clearly describing the passage of three years in Jesus's ministry in contrast to the single year of the synoptics, placing the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning rather than at the end, and the Last Supper on the day before Passover instead of being a Passover meal. According to Delbert Burkett, the Gospel of John is the only gospel to call Jesus God, though other scholars like Larry Hurtado and Michael Barber view

1482-563: Is found in the Gospel of Matthew and possibly in Luke , but it seems to have little theological importance before the middle of the 2nd century. The 2nd century Church fathers Irenaeus and Justin Martyr , though mentioning the virgin birth, nowhere affirmed explicitly the view that Mary was a perpetual virgin. This idea, however, appears in at least three second-century works: the Protoevangelium of James ,

1560-627: Is not entirely clear on the issue of Mary's virginity post partum , with some scholars denying his traditional association with the Helvidian position. Helvidius also argued that Victorinus believed that Mary had other children; Jerome later claimed that Helvidius was misinterpreting Victorinus. Epiphanius invented a name " Antidicomarians " for a group of people who denied the perpetual virginity of Mary, which Epiphanius attacked. Their same views were also mentioned earlier by Origen , although he too rejected them as heretical. They were active from

1638-687: Is that the Pauline epistles , the four gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles , all mention the brothers ( adelphoi ) of Jesus, with Mark and Matthew recording their names and Mark adding unnamed sisters. The Gospel of James , followed a century later by Epiphanius , explained the adelphoi as Joseph's children by an earlier marriage, which is still the view of the Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. Jerome, believing that Joseph, like Mary, must be

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1716-471: The Apostle Paul , who did not know him personally. Ehrman explains how the tradition developed as it was transmitted: You are probably familiar with the old birthday party game " telephone ." A group of kids sits in a circle, the first tells a brief story to the one sitting next to her, who tells it to the next, and to the next, and so on, until it comes back full circle to the one who started it. Invariably,

1794-588: The Bible . They were probably written between AD 66 and 110. Most scholars hold that all four were anonymous (with the modern names of the " Four Evangelists " added in the 2nd century), almost certainly none were by eyewitnesses, and all are the end-products of long oral and written transmission. According to the majority of scholars, Mark was the first to be written, using a variety of sources, followed by Matthew and Luke , which both independently used Mark for their narrative of Jesus's career, supplementing it with

1872-576: The Gospel of Peter and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas . All of these early sources independently assert that the so-called "brothers of the Lord" were children of Joseph's first marriage. According to Protestant scholar Richard Bauckham , these works "show no signs of literary relationship" and probably "evidence of a well-established tradition in (probably early) second-century Syrian Christianity that Jesus' brothers and sisters were children of Joseph by

1950-579: The Gospel of Thomas , and probably not the hypothesized Q source used by Matthew and Luke. The authors of Matthew and Luke, acting independently, used Mark for their narrative of Jesus' career, supplementing it with the hypothesized collection of sayings called the Q ;source and additional material unique to each called the M ;source (Matthew) and the L ;source (Luke). Mark, Matthew, and Luke are called

2028-596: The Incarnation of Christ despite the challenges to its scriptural foundations. Modern Protestants have largely rejected the perpetual virginity of Mary on the basis of sola scriptura, and it has rarely appeared explicitly in confessions or doctrinal statements, though the perpetual virginity of Mary is still a common belief in Anglicanism and Lutheranism . Among the Anabaptists , Hubmaier never abandoned his belief in

2106-476: The Pharisees , dies on the cross and is raised from the dead. Each has its own distinctive understanding of him and his divine role and scholars recognize that the differences of detail among the gospels are irreconcilable, and any attempt to harmonize them would only disrupt their distinct theological messages. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are termed the synoptic gospels because they present very similar accounts of

2184-542: The Second Helvetic Confession —stating that Mary was the "ever virgin Mary"—and in the notes of the Geneva Bible . Theodore Beza , a prominent early Calvinist, included the perpetual virginity of Mary in a list of agreements between Calvinism and the Catholic Church. Some reformers upheld the doctrine to counter more radical reformers who questioned the divinity of Christ; Mary's perpetual virginity guaranteed

2262-481: The gospel of Peter affirmed the perpetual virginity of Mary, saying that the "brothers" of Jesus were from a previous marriage of Joseph. Tertullian , who came between Clement and Origen, denied Mary's virginity in partu to refute the docetist idea that the Son of God could not have assumed a human body ("although she was a virgin when she conceived, she was a wife when she brought forth her son"). Tertullian, however,

2340-672: The perpetual virginity of Mary ); and gospel harmonies such as the Diatessaron . Gospel is the Old English translation of the Hellenistic Greek term εὐαγγέλιον , meaning "good news"; this may be seen from analysis of ευαγγέλιον ( εὖ "good" + ἄγγελος "messenger" + -ιον diminutive suffix). The Greek term was Latinized as evangelium in the Vulgate , and translated into Latin as bona annuntiatio . In Old English, it

2418-477: The synoptic gospels because of their close similarities of content, arrangement, and language. The authors and editors of John may have known the synoptics, but did not use them in the way that Matthew and Luke used Mark. There is a near-consensus that this gospel had its origins as a "signs" source (or gospel) that circulated within the Johannine community (which produced John and the three epistles associated with

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2496-437: The 3rd century that "the differences among manuscripts have become great [...] [because copyists] either neglect to check over what they have transcribed, or, in the process of checking, they make additions or deletions as they please." Most of these are insignificant, but some are significant, an example being Matthew 1:18, altered to imply the pre-existence of Jesus. For these reasons, modern scholars are cautious of relying on

2574-463: The 3rd to the 5th century. According to Epiphanius the Antidicomarians claimed that Apollinaris of Laodicea or his disciples denied the perpetual virginity of Mary, though Epiphanius doubted the claim. Early Christian theologians such as Hippolytus (170–235), Eusebius (260/265–339/340) and Epiphanius (c. 310/320–403) defended the perpetual virginity of Mary. By the early 4th century

2652-705: The Bible alone as the fundamental source of authority regarding God's word ( sola scriptura ). The reformers noted that while scripture records the virgin birth , it makes no mention of Mary's perpetual virginity following the birth of Christ . Mary's perpetual virginity was upheld by Martin Luther (who names her ever-virgin in the Smalcald Articles , a Lutheran confession of faith written in 1537), Huldrych Zwingli , Thomas Cranmer , Wollebius , Bullinger , John Wycliffe and later Protestant leaders including John Wesley ,

2730-485: The Christian churches [were] preservers more than innovators [...] seeking to transmit, retell, explain, interpret, elaborate, but not create de novo [...] Through the main body of the Synoptic tradition [...] we have in most cases direct access to the teaching and ministry of Jesus as it was remembered from the beginning of the transmission process [...] and so fairly direct access to the ministry and teaching of Jesus through

2808-510: The Earth and thus the Church should have four pillars. He referred to the four collectively as the "fourfold gospel" ( euangelion tetramorphon ). The many apocryphal gospels arose from the 1st century onward, frequently under assumed names to enhance their credibility and authority, and often from within branches of Christianity that were eventually branded heretical. They can be broadly organised into

2886-454: The Holy Spirit, and without loss of integrity brought him forth, and after his birth preserved her virginity inviolate. Thomas Aquinas admitted that reason could not prove this, but argued that it must be accepted because it was "fitting", for as Jesus was the only-begotten son of God, so he should also be the only-begotten son of Mary, as a second and purely human conception would disrespect

2964-544: The Mary named in Mark 15:40 as "mother of James and Joses", who has been identified as either the wife of Clopas and sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, or a sister-in-law to Joseph. The Odes of Solomon have been interpreted as implying that Mary was a virgin even during childbirth as well as stating that Mary did not have pain during childbirth. Similar statements exist in the Ascension of Isaiah . The virgin birth of Jesus

3042-511: The Middle Ages the perpetual virginity of Mary was commonly accepted, however the Paulicians denied her perpetual virginity, even saying that Christ denied her to be blessed. The Protestant Reformation saw a rejection of the special moral status of lifelong celibacy. As a result, marriage and parenthood were extolled, and Mary and Joseph were seen as a normal married couple. It also affirmed

3120-526: The New Testament references to the brothers and sisters of Jesus as signifying his kin, but not the biological children of his mother. The Latin Church, known more commonly today as the Catholic Church, shared the Council of Constantinople with the theologians of the Greek or Orthodox communion, and therefore shares with them the title Aeiparthenos as accorded to Mary. The Catholic Church has gone further than

3198-578: The Orthodox in making the Perpetual Virginity one of the four Marian dogmas, meaning that it is held to be a truth divinely revealed , the denial of which is heresy . It declares her virginity before, during and after the birth of Jesus , or in the definition formulated by Pope Martin I at the Lateran Council of 649 : The blessed ever-virginal and immaculate Mary conceived, without seed, by

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3276-451: The birth of Christ. Athanasius of Alexandria (d.393) declared Mary Aeiparthenos , "ever-virgin", and the liturgy of James the brother of Jesus likewise required a declaration of Mary as ever-virgin. This view was defended by Augustine , Hilary of Poitiers , Didymus the Blind , Cyril of Alexandria among others. The Apostles' Creed taught the doctrine of virginitas in partu . In

3354-480: The co-founder of Methodism . Osiander denied the perpetual virginity of Mary, for which Melanchthon was scornful. John Calvin 's view was more ambiguous, believing that knowing what happened to Mary after the birth of Jesus is impossible. However John Calvin argued that Matthew 1:25 , used by Helvidius to attack the perpetual virginity of Mary does not teach that Mary had other children. Other Calvinists affirmed Mary's perpetual virginity, including within

3432-452: The disciple John instead of his brothers, to support the view that Jesus had no brothers, however Protestants have generally argued in two ways against this passage, one by claiming that the brothers of Jesus were unbelievers or that they were not present during the crucifixion. Some have argued that Mary and Joseph could not have had a normal marriage if Mary remained a perpetual virgin; however, it has been argued by some Catholics that there

3510-402: The doctrine of perpetual virginity of Mary as well. The doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity has been challenged on the basis that the New Testament explicitly affirms her virginity only until the birth of Jesus and mentions the brothers ( adelphoi ) of Jesus , who may have been: (1) sons of Mary, the mother of Jesus , and Joseph ; (2) sons of Joseph by a former marriage; or (3) sons of

3588-430: The doctrine, while others arguing that he disputed the perpetual virginity of Mary. The Ebionites denied the virgin birth and Mary's perpetual virginity. In the 3rd century, Hippolytus of Rome held that Mary was "ever-virgin", while Clement of Alexandria , writing soon after the Protoevangelium appeared, appealed to its incident of a midwife who examined Mary immediately after the birth ("after giving birth, she

3666-476: The early Church Fathers, Matthew and John were the most popular Gospels while Luke and Mark were less popular in the early centuries of the church. Many non-canonical gospels were also written, all later than the four canonical gospels, and like them advocating the particular theological views of their various authors. Important examples include the gospels of Thomas , Peter , Judas , and Mary ; infancy gospels such as that of James (the first to introduce

3744-462: The eyes and ears of those who went about with him. According to Bruce Chilton and Craig Evans , "...the Judaism of the period treated such traditions very carefully, and the New Testament writers in numerous passages applied to apostolic traditions the same technical terminology found elsewhere in Judaism [...] In this way they both identified their traditions as 'holy word' and showed their concern for

3822-417: The following categories: The apocryphal gospels can also be seen in terms of the communities which produced them: It was originally written in Greek and is often interpreted as a Gnostic text. It is typically not considered a gospel by scholars since it does not focus on the life of Jesus. Perpetual virginity of Mary The extant written tradition of the perpetual virginity of Mary first appears in

3900-405: The gospels uncritically, and critical study can attempt to distinguish the original ideas of Jesus from those of later authors. Scholars usually agree that John is not without historical value: certain of its sayings are as old or older than their synoptic counterparts, and its representation of the topography around Jerusalem is often superior to that of the synoptics. Its testimony that Jesus

3978-575: The life of Jesus. Mark begins with the baptism of the adult Jesus and the heavenly declaration that he is the son of God; he gathers followers and begins his ministry, and tells his disciples that he must die in Jerusalem but that he will rise; in Jerusalem, he is at first acclaimed but then rejected, betrayed, and crucified, and when the women who have followed him come to his tomb, they find it empty. Mark never calls Jesus "God" or claims that he existed prior to his earthly life, apparently believes that he had

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4056-405: The methodological challenges historical Jesus studies have flowered in recent years; Dale Allison laments, "The publication of academic books about the historical Jesus continues apace, so much so that no one can any longer keep up; we are all overwhelmed." The oldest gospel text known is 𝔓 , a fragment of John dating from the first half of the 2nd century. The creation of a Christian canon

4134-425: The missionary needs of the church grew, there was an increasing demand and need for written versions of the founder's life and teachings. The stages of this process can be summarized as follows: Mark is generally agreed to be the first gospel; it uses a variety of sources, including conflict stories (Mark 2:1–3:6), apocalyptic discourse (4:1–35), and collections of sayings, although not the sayings gospel known as

4212-554: The name) and later expanded with a Passion narrative as well as a series of discourses. All four also use the Jewish scriptures, by quoting or referencing passages, interpreting texts, or alluding to or echoing biblical themes. Such use can be extensive: Mark's description of the Parousia (second coming) is made up almost entirely of quotations from scripture. Matthew is full of quotations and allusions , and although John uses scripture in

4290-588: The perpetual virginity of Mary and continued to esteem Mary as theotokos ("mother of God"). These two doctrinal stances are addressed individually in Articles Nine and Ten, respectively, of Hubmaier's work, Apologia . The Second Council of Constantinople recognized Mary as Aeiparthenos , meaning "ever-virgin". It remains axiomatic for the Eastern Orthodox Church that she remained virginal throughout her Earthly life, and Orthodoxy therefore understands

4368-463: The physical sign. It was due to Ambrose that virginitas in partu came to be included consistently in the thinking of subsequent theologians. Bonosus of Sardica also denied the perpetual virginity of Mary, for which he was declared a heretic. His followers would survive for many centuries, especially among the Goths . Additionally, the perpetual virginity of Mary was denied by some Arians . Jovinian

4446-452: The remembered Jesus. The idea that we can get back to an objective historical reality, which we can wholly separate and disentangle from the disciples' memories...is simply unrealistic." According to Chris Keith, a historical Jesus is "ultimately unattainable, but can be hypothesized on the basis of the interpretations of the early Christians , and as part of a larger process of accounting for how and why early Christians came to view Jesus in

4524-585: The representation of the four evangelists and their symbols, making the sacred text a unique work of art. Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel "), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words and deeds of Jesus , culminating in his trial and death and concluding with various reports of his post-resurrection appearances . The gospels are

4602-631: The sacred state of her holy womb. Symbolically, the perpetual virginity of Mary signifies a new creation and a fresh start in salvation history . It has been stated and argued repeatedly, most recently by the Second Vatican Council : This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception   [...] then also at the birth of Our Lord, who did not diminish his mother's virginal integrity but sanctified it... A problem facing theologians wishing to maintain Mary's life-long virginity

4680-483: The source, corrected Mark's grammar and syntax, and eliminated some passages entirely, notably most of chapters 6 and 7. John, the most overtly theological, is the first to make Christological judgements outside the context of the narrative of Jesus's life. He presents a significantly different picture of Jesus's career, omitting any mention of his ancestry, birth and childhood, his baptism , temptation and transfiguration ; his chronology and arrangement of incidents

4758-410: The spread of monasticism had promoted celibacy as the ideal state, and a moral hierarchy was established with marriage occupying the third rank below life-long virginity and widowhood. Eastern theologians generally accepted Mary as Aeiparthenos , but many in the Western church were less convinced. The theologian Helvidius objected to the devaluation of marriage inherent in this view and argued that

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4836-474: The stories into different languages. While multiple quests have been undertaken to reconstruct the historical Jesus, since the late 1990s concerns have been growing about the possibility to reconstruct a historical Jesus from the Gospel-texts. According to Dunn, "What we actually have in the earliest retellings of what is now the Synoptic tradition...are the memories of the first disciples-not Jesus himself, but

4914-667: The stories of Mary which are found in the Quran , but while Muslims agree with Christians that Mary was a virgin at the moment of the conception of Jesus, the idea of her perpetual virginity thereafter is contrary to the Islamic ideal of women as wives and mothers. The Second Apocalypse of James portrays James, the Brother of the Lord , not as a child of Joseph but of a certain "Theudas", a relative of Jesus. Hegesippus 's writings are not clear on this subject, with some authors arguing that he defended

4992-457: The story has changed so much in the process of retelling that everyone gets a good laugh. Imagine this same activity taking place, not in a solitary living room with ten kids on one afternoon, but over the expanse of the Roman Empire (some 2,500 miles across), with thousands of participants—from different backgrounds, with different concerns, and in different contexts—some of whom have to translate

5070-619: The story they found in Mark, although the two differ markedly. Each also makes subtle theological changes to Mark: the Markan miracle stories, for example, confirm Jesus' status as an emissary of God (which was Mark's understanding of the Messiah), but in Matthew they demonstrate his divinity, and the "young man" who appears at Jesus' tomb in Mark becomes a radiant angel in Matthew. Luke, while following Mark's plot more faithfully than Matthew, has expanded on

5148-457: The story, the more the entire community, in a process that is informal but very effective, will keep a close watch on the precise form and wording with which the story is told. Other scholars are less sanguine about oral tradition, and Valantasis, Bleyle, and Hough argue that the early traditions were fluid and subject to alteration, sometimes transmitted by those who had known Jesus personally, but more often by wandering prophets and teachers like

5226-459: The subject's reputation and memory; the gospels were never simply biographical, they were propaganda and kerygma (preaching), meant to convince people that Jesus was a charismatic miracle-working holy man. As such, they present the Christian message of the second half of the first century AD, and modern biblical scholars are cautious of relying on the gospels uncritically as historical documents, though according to Sanders they provide

5304-424: The traditional ascriptions or attributions, but for a variety of reasons, the majority of scholars have abandoned this view or hold it only tenuously. In the immediate aftermath of Jesus' death, his followers expected him to return at any moment, certainly within their own lifetimes, and in consequence there was little motivation to write anything down for future generations, but as eyewitnesses began to die, and as

5382-486: The two states, of virginity and marriage, were equal. His contemporary Jerome , realising that this would lead to the Mother of God occupying a lower place in heaven than virgins and widows, defended her perpetual virginity in his immensely influential Against Helvidius , issued c.383. In the 380s and 390s the monk Jovinian denied Mary's virginity in partu (virgin during childbirth), writing that if Jesus did not undergo

5460-451: The ways that they did." According to Keith, "these two models are methodologically and epistemologically incompatible," calling into question the methods and aim of the first model. Keith argues that criticism of the criteria of authenticity does not mean scholars cannot research the Historical Jesus , but rather that scholarship should seek to understand the Gospels rather than trying to sift through them for nuggets of history. Regardless of

5538-414: The written Gospels. There is near-consensus that John had its origins as the hypothetical Signs Gospel thought to have been circulated within a Johannine community . In modern scholarship, the Synoptic Gospels are the primary sources for reconstructing Christ's ministry while John is used less since it differs from the synoptics. However, according to the manuscript evidence and citation frequency by

5616-427: Was Joseph's brother. Further scriptural difficulties were added by Luke 2:7 , which calls Jesus the "first-born" son of Mary, and Matthew 1:25 , which adds that Joseph "did not know her until she had brought forth her firstborn son." Helvidius argued that first-born implies later births, and that the word "until" left open the way to sexual relations after the birth; Jerome, replying that even an only son will be

5694-478: Was condemned as a heretic at a Synod of Milan under Ambrose's presidency in 390 and Mary's perpetual virginity was established as the only orthodox view. Further developments were to follow when the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 formally gave her the title "Aeiparthenos", and at the Lateran Synod of 649 Pope Martin I emphasised the threefold character of the perpetual virginity, before, during, and after

5772-539: Was examined by a midwife, who found her to be a virgin") and asserted that this was to be found in the Gospels ("These things are attested to by the Scriptures of the Lord"), though he was referring to an apocryphal Gospel as a fact. The 3rd century scholar Origen used the Protoevangelium's explanation of the brothers to uphold the perpetual virginity of Mary ("There is no child of Mary except Jesus, according to those who think correctly about her"). Origen also mentioned that

5850-467: Was executed before, rather than on, Passover, might well be more accurate, and its presentation of Jesus in the garden and the prior meeting held by the Jewish authorities are possibly more historically plausible than their synoptic parallels. Nevertheless, it is highly unlikely that the author had direct knowledge of events, or that his mentions of the Beloved Disciple as his source should be taken as

5928-495: Was probably a response to the career of the heretic Marcion ( c.  85 –160), who established a canon of his own with just one gospel, the Gospel of Marcion , similar to the Gospel of Luke. The Muratorian canon , the earliest surviving list of books considered (by its own author at least) to form Christian scripture, included Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Irenaeus of Lyons went further, stating that there must be four gospels and only four because there were four corners of

6006-516: Was the chief target of the charge of Manicheism. In 391, he wrote Concerning Virginity whose full title was On the Education of the Virgin and the Perpetual Virginity of Mary . For Ambrose, both the physical birth of Jesus by Mary and the baptismal birthing of Christians by the church had to be totally virginal, even in partu , in order to cancel the stain of original sin, of which the pains of labor are

6084-585: Was translated as gōdspel ( gōd "good" + spel "news"). The Old English term was retained as gospel in Middle English Bible translations and hence remains in use also in Modern English . The four canonical gospels share the same basic outline of the life of Jesus: he begins his public ministry in conjunction with that of John the Baptist , calls disciples, teaches and heals and confronts

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