Tag Archive for: Jesus

Wise Men the Magi

December 24, 2018/in The young Jesus/by warcher

Wise men visit Jesus in Bethlehem

Questions for Bible study groups

Who was born at Bethlehem? (trick question)
Who were the Wise Men or Magi?
What did they predict, and why did it frighten King Herod?
What gift did the Wise Men bring, and why were these particular gifts significant?

In brief: Three scholars from the East, the Magi, came looking for a special child. They asked King Herod, who tried to trick them into telling him where Jesus was. Instead they found the child, gave their gifts, and quietly went home.

Wise men from the East

Jesus was born in the quiet little town of Bethlehem, but he was not the first great hero to come from there. Bethlehem was also the birthplace of King David. who ‘made his people a nation’.

On the throne of Judea at the time Jesus was born was King Herod the Great, a paranoid, brilliant, tormented man who terrified everyone.

With good cause. Herod had murdered a great many people in his rise to power, and he continued doing so throughout his reign. No-one was safe even, or perhaps especially, his own family. He murdered his wife the beautiful princess Mariamme, her brother, her mother, and the two sons he had with Mariamme. Why? Because he saw conspiracy everywhere, even in his own family.

Herod was not Jewish in the strict sense of the word, but an Idumaean convert, and he knew he was almost universally hated by his Jewish subjects. He was always afraid of being dethroned by the rebellious citizens of Judea.

So when wise men/astrologers (the Magi) appeared in Jerusalem, saying that a king had been born, Herod was badly Gold_nugget shaken. To Herod, the word ‘king’ meant competitor, someone who would usurp and kill him.

These Magi were astrologers, probably from Persia. The word Magi comes from the Latin word magus, meaning a scholar, or someone who knew secret information. They were educated members of an elite group. They are not named Matthew’s gospel, but are traditionally called

Melchior, a Babylonian
Caspar, a Persian
and Balthazar, an Arab scholar.

Medieval paintings often showed one of them as African (see end of page).

The gospel writer Matthew tells us that the Magi asked about the ‘King of the Jews’. He was making a point: the royalty of Jesus runs right through the gospels, as far as the cross. Matthew contrasts Jesus and Herod: Jesus is truly royal, Herod is not.

The Magi told Herod that a unique new star had appeared in the night sky. This was significant, because people at that time believed that the birth of a great man could be signalled by a new star appearing in the heavens.

There are various modern theories as to what that star was; it may have been the close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7BC, though this would place the date of Jesus’ birth several years before the accepted date. King Herod died in 4BC, so Jesus must have been born before that date.

Read the blue text at end of page

King Herod is frightened

stars The wise men, strangers to Judea, naturally thought that the authorities would know about the birth of a great man. They never expected this great man to have been born in obscurity, to poor parents in a minor village. The expected the birth of a prince, or of a boy in a great and noble family.

So they went to Herod, or at least to his officials, to find out where this boy might be.

When Herod found out about this, he knew immediately that the person they were seeking could very well turn out to be the long-awaited Messiah, who was supposed to be born in Bethlehem.

Herod was cunning. His dealings with Mark Antony and Octavian, later the emperor Augustus, show just how shrewd he could be. He asked the Magi to find Jesus so that he too could go and worship the child. Of course he had no intention of doing so.

Read the green text at end of page

Gold, frankincense and myrrh

When the Magi finally found Jesus with his mother Mary and Joseph, they were overjoyed. Their mission to find this child had been successful. They showered the child with three separate gifts, each of which had a symbolic meaning:

gold meant kingship and power on earth
frankincense meant priesthood
myrrh, an embalming spice, meant death.

When was this? Matthew’s gospel refers to Jesus as a ‘child’, which suggests that the visit of the Magi happened at least several months after Jesus’ birth.

How do we know there were three Magi? We don’t. This idea is based on the fact that they brought three gifts. This is the basis on which the Magi were believed to number three.

Why does Matthew call them ‘kings’? The text calls them wise men, but Psalm 72:10, Isaiah 49:7 and 60:10 describe the way ‘kings’ will pay homage to the Messiah. This is how the Magi came to be called the Three Kings.

May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute
May the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts
May all kings fall down before him
All nations give him service
Psalm 72:10

The story of the Magi follows the homage of the shepherds. The Son of God, first revealed to poor field-workers, is now revealed to representatives of the educated elite of the ancient world.

Read the red text at end of this page

What happened next? See the Flight into Egypt

Adoration of the Kings, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

What the Gospels say

1. Wise men from the East. Read the blue text

2. King Herod is frightened. Read the green text

3. Gold, frankincense and myrrh. Read the red text

Matthew 2:1-12 1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, 2 “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.”

3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by the prophet: 6 ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.'” 7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared; 8 and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.”

9 When they had heard the king they went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; 11 and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

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Find Out More

Gospel text for this story

Mary of Nazareth

Paintings of Angels

Lost Boy

Baptism

December 24, 2018/in Teaching, Miracles & Parables/by warcher

Jesus and John the Baptist

Bible study questions

What did John do to baptize someone?
What did Jesus and John argue about?
How are Baptism and the Exodus related?
What did God’s voice say when Jesus was baptized by John?

Jesus comes to the Jordan River

The baptism of Jesus by John is a key moment. Jesus is named by God as Servant, Messiah and Son of God.

Painting of John the Baptist pointing towards a figure of Jesus approaching

John the Baptist was a well-known teacher in Galilee.

He urged people to repent their sins

first by a personal repentance, where they acknowledged their sins to God
then in a ceremony which literally washed them clean in the River Jordan.

This ceremony was a symbolic replaying of the Exodus from Egypt, where the people crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land.

Jesus would certainly have heard of John and listened to his teachings.

Now he approached the spot on the river bank where John taught, and offered himself as a candidate for the cleansing ritual, the baptism. John reacted with surprise.

Read the blue text at the end of the page

John argues with Jesus

He immediately sensed he was dealing with someone extraordinary. Probably he had heard of

Photograph of the Jordan River

Jesus and his teachings. In any event, he saw that this was no sinner in need of repentance, and he said so, emphatically. He pointed out that it was he who should have been coming to Jesus for baptism, not the other way round.

He also called Jesus the ‘Lamb of God’, an extraordinary thing to do, and said that instead of having his sins taken away by baptism, Jesus would be the one who took away the sins of the whole world. John saw no point in baptising such a person.

Jesus calmly corrected him. He wished to be baptised, and it was fitting that John should be the baptiser. John immediately gave in, acknowledging that it was Jesus who had authority, not him.

The people who witnessed this extraordinary scene must have been astonished, but it was only a prelude for what followed.

Read the green text at the end of the page

The Spirit descends on Jesus

All four gospels agree on what happened next. This was the moment when John realized who Jesus was.

As Jesus came up out of the water (the same word is used when describing the Exodus and the entry into the Promised Land), the heavens opened – the original Greek word means something like ‘torn or ripped asunder’, so that those below had a glimpse of heaven. Remember that at the time the gospels were written, people believed that the sky was a dome that covered a flat disc, the earth.

In the form of a dove, God reached down into the world of Jesus. People could see it happening: God ‘in bodily form’. The gospel writers wanted their readers to remember the dove in Genesis, hovering over the dark waters of the Deluge, bringing hope to those trapped in the Ark below.

Then God’s voice was heard. He called Jesus ‘Beloved Son’, words that signalled a unique relationship between the two, Father and Son.

Jesus submitted to the baptism of repentance
He received the Messianic gift of the Spirit
He was declared the Son of God

These three things revealed the secret of who Jesus was:

The Servant
The Messiah
The Son of God

Because of what happened that day, John and the people around him realized who Jesus was, and the work he had come to do.

Read the red text at the end of the page

What happened next? See Wedding at Cana

jesus baptism

baptism jesus

A most unusual icon dated at about 1300AD, showing Jesus stripped of all clothing as he moves down into the waters of the Jordan to receive his baptism at the hands of John the Baptist. This is part of a four-piece panel showing the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Baptism of Christ and the Transfiguration, four of the major events in the cycle of the Christian Church’s year.

What the Gospels say

1. Jesus comes to the Jordan River to be baptised, read the blue text

2. John argues with Jesus, read the green text

3. The Spirit descends on Jesus, read the red text

Matthew 3:13-17

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.

14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.” Then he consented.

16 And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; 17 and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Mark 1:9-11

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; 11 and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.”

Luke 3:21-22

21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.”

John 1:29-34

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him; but for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

32 And John bore witness, “I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

Jesus_rising_from_water

Find Out More

Elizabeth, John’s mother

Baptism

Bible text for this story

Execution of John

Ancestors of Jesus

December 19, 2018/in The young Jesus/by warcher

Women ancestors of Jesus

What’s on this page?

The women ancestors of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel
Why does Matthew mention them?
What’s important about them?

Matthew lists Jesus’ women ancestors. Why?

The Birth of Jesus

Joseph and Mary were not legally married at the time Jesus was conceived – betrothed but not married.

Matthew’s gospel faced this problem full on. He showed that many of the great heroes of the Bible had sprung from irregular relationships – Mary’s unmarried state was nothing new.

What was the problem with Jesus?

Jesus was not from Jerusalem, the religious center, or even from Judah, but from provincial Galilee. Many Jews thought Galilee was not really Jewish at all.
Compared to the rabbis, Jesus was poorly educated. His early education must have come from an obscure provincial rabbi.
Worst of all, Jesus seemed to be illegitimate. Jews in 1st century Israel believed your lineage – who your parents were, and their parents, and their parents – was extremely important.

Matthew does not try to hide the doubts surrounding Jesus’ birth. Instead, he shows them as a plus: he links Mary’s irregular pregnancy to Jewish heroines whose own ancestry was irregular.

1st heroine: childless Tamar

The first of these was Tamar, daughter-in-law of Judah, whose husband practised a form of birth control that prevented her becoming pregnant. Undaunted, she seduced her father-in-law Judah so that she could conceive.

Her story shows that irregular unions had been part of the Jewish ancestry.

For her full story, with Bible text, see Tamar and Judah

2nd heroine: Rahab the prostitute

The second woman named in the genealogy was Rahab, who reputedly helped Joshua to capture the city of Jericho. She is always called Rahab the Prostitute , but she may have simply been an inn-keeper in a sleazy part of town.

Whatever she was, prostitute or inn-keeper, she was not someone you would call respectable – and yet the city of Jericho might not have fallen without her help, and the whole invasion of the Canaanite states (later Israel) would have been impeded. So, respectable or not, she was an essential element in the unfolding of God’s plan.

For some information on her story see Rahab of Jericho

3rd heroine: loyal Ruth

Ruth and Naomi travel to Bethlehem

The third woman was Ruth who, God help us, was not even Jewish but a Moabite, and thus a foreigner from an enemy nation.

Despite this she became the grandmother of King David, the great Jewish hero.

The story of her loyalty to Naomi her mother-in-law is often quoted as the ideal family relationship. For her full story, with Bible text, see a Bible love story: Ruth and Boaz

4th heroine: ambitious Bathsheba

The fourth woman was Bathsheba, the mother of King Solomon and thus eventually Queen Mother, which meant she was the most powerful woman in the country at the time Israel was at its zenith.

For the full story of this shrewd and beautiful woman, with Bible text, see Bathsheba and her son Solomon

Why did Matthew do this?

Taken together, Matthew was making the following points:

Great heroes, people who furthered God’s plan (like Jesus of Nazareth) were not necessarily from high-born priestly families
God had a plan that was not apparent to people at the time
The presence of certain women in the ancestry of Jesus gave legitimacy to doubtful events surrounding Jesus’ birth and Mary’s marriage status

Taken separately, Matthew was saying that certain features of the stories of these women could be seen in the life of Jesus:

Tamar: her dogged determination to have justice done, even when it meant her life was threatened
Rahab: an unlikely heroine from a low rung of the social ladder, who nevertheless helped in the quest for a Promised Land
Ruth: a woman who was not even Jewish, as Jesus was not a Judahite but a Galilean, she was the grandmother of King David
Bathsheba: a woman who became pregnant under irregular circumstances as Mary had done; despite this her son Solomon became a hero of the Jewish people.

What does Matthew’s gospel say?

Matthew 1:1-17

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Ammin’adab, and Ammin’adab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Bo’az by Rahab, and Bo’az the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uri’ah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehobo’am, and Rehobo’am the father of Abi’jah, and Abi’jah the father of Asa, 8 and Asa the father of Jehosh’aphat, and Jehosh’aphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzzi’ah, 9 and Uzzi’ah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezeki’ah, 10 and Hezeki’ah the father of Manas’seh, and Manas’seh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josi’ah, 11 and Josi’ah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoni’ah was the father of She-al’ti-el, and She-al’ti-el the father of Zerub’babel, 13 and Zerub’babel the father of Abi’ud, and Abi’ud the father of Eli’akim, and Eli’akim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eli’ud, 15 and Eli’ud the father of Elea’zar, and Elea’zar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob,

16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

Questions for Bible study groups:

Why does Matthew’s gospel name the women ancestors of Jesus?
Which women ancestors did Matthew include?
Why was each one important to Jesus’ story?
Which woman would you like to have known? Why?

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Links

What famous writers say about the ancestors of Jesus

Ruth’s story

Rahab the prostitute

Bathsheba –
temptress? victim?

Tamar and Judah

Mary of Nazareth

___

Joseph, the quiet hero
of Nazareth

The Birth of Jesus

December 15, 2018/in The young Jesus/by warcher

Jesus is born in Bethlehem

Questions for Bible study groups

Why was the betrothal of Mary & Joseph more binding than a modern engagement?
Why were Mary & Joseph in Bethlehem, not Nazareth?
Who chose the name ‘Jesus’?
When was Jesus born?

Tiny, red and wrinkled, the newborn baby Jesus lay on a pile of hay – the Prince of Peace in a stable. It is a story of love and hope.

Joseph’s dream

Joseph and Mary were betrothed to be married. This was a binding relationship, more so than a modern engagement, because it involved not only a promise between two people but the exchange of money and goods.

It was a prenuptial contract made in front of witnesses, only broken by a formal process of divorce. Unfaithfulness during the engagement was considered to be adultery, and the consequences for adultery in 1st century Palestine were much more severe than they are in modern society.

A betrothed girl who was found to be pregnant to someone other than her husband-to-be could be stoned to death, and this might easily have happened in a small rural community like Nazareth – but only if Joseph agreed to it.

The gospel-writer makes no mention of the pain Joseph, ‘a righteous man’, felt at what seemed to be Mary’s betrayal of her promise to him. He writes about Joseph as a real person, confronted with a real dilemma. What should he do?

The Birth of Jesus 2 There was a more civilized alternative to death by stoning: a quiet divorce. This is what Joseph decided to do.

Something now happened in the story that changed world history. Joseph had a dream, a very powerful one, in which he was guided by God to take Mary as his wife.

The text describes the message as coming from an ‘angel’, without going into details of what it meant by ‘angel’. Biblical writers seemed to have used the word as a sort of code: the message of an ‘angel’ meant that a deep conviction settled on a person that God had a particular purpose or plan, and that they were part of it. They must follow this purpose through to the end, even if it did not seem to make sense to them. They must simply trust in God.

The dream/angel told Joseph to marry Mary, even though he knew the child would not be his. This he did. Then, awed by the dream and God’s message, he decided to abstain from sexual relations with her until after the baby was born.

Read the blue text at end of page

Bethlehem

During the reign of Augustus (31BC-14AD), the Romans systematically reorganised their provinces. As part of this, they may have carried out censuses of the population for the purposes of taxation. Judea, a member state of the large Syrian province, would have been affected by this imperial decree. This could have been the reason that Mary and Joseph, who you would expect to find in Nazareth, were in Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Mary’s baby.

But there may also have been another reason, one that the gospels preferred not to mention. Nazareth was a conservative rural community, used to handling its own problems. Under such a system, honour killings were sometimes used as a means of settling disputes linked to sexual misdemeanours.

It may have been that when Mary’s pregnancy became known in the village, she was hastily sent to stay with relatives in the south for her own protection. She certainly visited Elizabethand Zechariah at this time: they lived near Jerusalem, quite a distance from Nazareth, and were of unblemished social respectability – a perfect haven for a young woman with an unexplained pregnancy.

If this was the case, it could place Mary and Joseph in or near Bethlehem at the time ofthe birth of Jesus. This is important, since it was prophesised that the Messiah would be born in the ‘city of David’. In the Old Testament, Jerusalem is the city of David, but Bethlehem is the city where David came from. Bethlehem is about 5 miles from Jerusalem and about 85 miles from Nazareth.

Read the green text at end of page

Mary bears a son

According to Matthew, it was Joseph who chose the name of the child. Names were much more important in that culture than in ours. They were meant to point to the actual character and destiny of the child, and so a great deal of thought went into selecting the right name.

The Birth of Jesus 4

‘Jesus’ is the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua, ‘the Lord saves’. Joshua was the heroic warrior who led the Hebrews into the Promised Land after Moses died. To the first Christians, Jesus was the prophet who would save them and lead them into a different, heavenly Promised Land.

Naming a child had an another function: it was a way of claiming a child as your own. When Joseph named Jesus, he was establishing Jesus’ Davidic lineage through his own ancestry – which makes Joseph very significant in the story of Jesus.

Mary would not have been alone when she gave birth to Jesus, as pious legend likes to picture her. Even if she was travelling and not at home, she would have been helped by a number of women, some from her own family. It was rare for a husband and wife to travel alone together, without any family members around them, and it seems most unlikely in the case of a heavily pregnant woman like Mary.

Luke’s gospel makes a point of saying that ‘there was no room for them at the inn’, so the birth probably happened in one of the storage caves hollowed out of the rock near each house. Imagine an over-crowded Palestinian peasant house: a single-roomed home with an animal stall under the same roof. Jesus was placed in one of the animals’ feeding troughs.

A question sometimes asked is: what happened to the placenta? In modern Jewish tradition, the placenta is buried as soon as possible after the birth of the child. Since the Jewish purity laws and rituals today are much the same as they were then, it is safe to assume that something similar happened at the birth of Jesus. The midwives would have taken the placenta, dug a hole outside the boundary of the village, and buried it.

No-one really knows the date that Jesus was born. The early Christian church named the shortest day of the year as his birthday: after that, each succeeding day becomes lighter and longer. The implication was that the birth of Christ brought light and life into the world.

Read the red text at end of page

What happened next? See Shepherds and Angels

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What the Gospels say

There are two descriptions of the birth of Jesus. Matthew focuses on Joseph, Luke on Mary.

1. Joseph’s dream. Read the blue text

2. Bethlehem. Read the green text

3. Mary bears a son. Read the red text

Matthew 1:18-25 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; 19and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; 21 she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel” (which means, God with us). 24When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.

Luke 2:1-7 1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. 2 This was the first enrolment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city.

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. 7And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

You might like to compare the parallel accounts of the births of Jesus and John the Baptist in Luke’s gospel. You can find the gospel texts at http://www.womeninthebible.net/Elizabeth_bible_text.htm

Tag Archive for: Jesus

Wise men visit Jesus in Bethlehem

Questions for Bible study groups

Wise men from the East

King Herod is frightened

Gold, frankincense and myrrh

What the Gospels say

Jesus and John the Baptist

Bible study questions

Jesus comes to the Jordan River

John argues with Jesus

The Spirit descends on Jesus

What the Gospels say

Women ancestors of Jesus

Matthew lists Jesus’ women ancestors. Why?

What was the problem with Jesus?

1st heroine: childless Tamar

2nd heroine: Rahab the prostitute

3rd heroine: loyal Ruth

4th heroine: ambitious Bathsheba

Why did Matthew do this?

What does Matthew’s gospel say?

Questions for Bible study groups:

Links

Jesus is born in Bethlehem

Questions for Bible study groups

Joseph’s dream

Bethlehem

Mary bears a son

What the Gospels say

Jesus: stories, gospel study questions, text

Childhood of Jesus

Ancestors of Jesus

Joseph of Nazareth

The Angel and Mary

Birth of Jesus

Shepherds and angels

Wise Men the Magi

Flight to Egypt

The Lost Boy

Teaching, miracles, parables of Jesus

Baptism

Temptation

Peter Apostle

Andrew 1st Disciple

Rejection

Wedding at Cana

Jesus and Children

Parable of the Seeds

Transfiguration

Loaves and Fishes

Jairus’ Daughter

Gerasene Demoniac

Prodigal Son

The Rich Fool

The Good Samaritan

10 Popular Parables

Jesus’ trial, death and resurrection

Entry into Jerusalem

The Money Changers

The Last Supper

Garden of Olives

Betrayal by Judas

Annas and Jesus

Caiaphas the trial

Peter’s Denial

Herod & Pilate

Scourging

Death Sentence

Way of the Cross

Crucifixion

Jesus on the Cross

Jesus dies

Burial of Jesus

Risen!

Magdalene

Peter and John

Doubting Thomas

Emmaus

The world Jesus lived in