Week 5 Post

This week we read a chapter by James Crossley on Reading Historical Documents Historically. This chapter gave me new insight and affected how I look at the gospels now. The gospels of Mathew, Mark, John, and Luke need to be read with the mindset that these writers had certain ambitions when putting together each book. These books have a central meaning where the writers aim to tell readers about the life and story of Jesus and the time in which he served. If we look at the books with all the knowledge we have acquired, we might miss the context of the stories simply because over time, context shifts and molds to the different generations. We might not be able to understand some things because the works were composed in a different era than that of what we are used to. The changing of generations causes a buffer or a challenge to understand the written materials because each generation has its differences. These differences may cause trouble for present day readers and lead to a misinterpretation of the readings. We will never know the absolute context of these readings; however, we have been able to put together an idea of what their intentions are. The gap between us and when the gospels were written is too large to overcome and an exact interpretation, or the correct interpretation, can never really be made.