The Gospels as Myths that Convey Moral Truths Rather than Record of Fact
Statement Three – The Gospels should be regarded as myths that convey
moral truths rather then record of fact.
Question – Explain and assess this claim with reference to the
different approaches to the New Testament and evaluate the
consequences for Christians of holding such a position.
Several of reasons have to be looked to see why was the Gospels
written and what effect has it got on the Christian communities. When
I have answered this question I can only then know whether the Gospels
should be regarded as myths that convey truths then records of fact
and what the outcomes has on Christians.
Regarding the Gospels there are two misconceptions. The first is that
they are historically correct and second of all that they are eye
witness accounts throughout the whole. These were written to
strengthen the faith. The second are not eyewitness accounts but are
reports and refection on the impact of Jesus on the Christian
community.
The four main reasons that the Gospels has been ‘divinely inspired’ is
the following:
1. Preaching – Illustrations of Jesus was used for the early
Christians What the preachers preached is what is in the Gospels.
Theses illustrations are different from one preacher to another and
also depends on the climate the preacher was in.
2. Apologetics – The first Christian converts were Jews. The people
who would preach to them would use points from their scriptures and
would prove that they had points about Christ and his existence. Also
there was many disagreements about Jesus death, these disagreements
had to be inc...
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...on orally
which could have resulted in people adding, deleting and forgetting
things. This was not an accurate way of recording things. It is hard
to prove then authenticity of the sources because there is also of
confusion. The confusion is that which is the first Gospels and why
does it say things different things. One Gospel might say something
and the other don’t even come near to the topic. Science plays a role
in the Gospels. It tries to prove the existence of God and Adam and
Eve which until the present date not happened. This is a risk to some
Christian groups like literalists.
So the Gospels should be regarded as myths that convey moral and
truths rather then records of facts. As professor Ford said “you
either trust the people who wrote this Gospels or not, we cannot
re-run historical events.”