Page 142 - Prophet Jesus (Pbuh): A Prophet Not A Son, Of God

140 Prophet Jesus (pbuh): A Prophet, Not A Son, of God

wide coverage in the 8 April 1996 edition of Time magazine. David Van
Biema, author of the book The Gospel Truth, aired his views, as follows:
There are, after all, four Gospels, whose actual writing, most schol-
ars have come to acknowledge, was done not by the Apostles but by
their anonymous followers (or their followers' followers). Each pre-
sented a somewhat different picture of Jesus' life. The earliest ap-
peared to have been written some 40 years after his Crucifixion. 39
E. P. Sanders summarizes why he believes that the Gospels de-

parted from their original forms:
(1) The earliest Christians did not write a narrative of Jesus' life, but
rather made use of, and thus preserved, individual units – short
passages about his words and deeds. These units were later moved
and arranged by editors and authors. This means that we can never
be sure of the immediate context of Jesus' sayings and actions.
(2) Some material has been revised and some created by early
Christians.

(3) The Gospels were written anonymously. 40

The Fourth Gospel

The fourth Gospel is a very important piece of evidence for re-
searchers of the Greek influence on Christian beliefs. Most academics
prefer to call the Gospel of John as the Fourth Gospel, for they reject John's

authorship of it.
This author's interpretation of Prophet Jesus' (pbuh) identity is very dif-

ferent, as are his style and the words and events he reports. It is more philosoph-
ical, more symbolic, and more mystical than the Synoptic Gospels. Indeed,
most of the contradictions among the Gospels are between the fourth
Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels. In his The Historical Figure of Jesus,
Sanders concentrates on the differences between the Synoptic Gospels
and that of John. He takes several very important incidents from Prophet