Bloomberg, C. L. Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey.
Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1997.
Blomberg, a professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary in Colorado, is also the author of Interpreting the Parables and The Historical Reliability and several articles in well-known journals (for example, “The Seventy-four Scholars: Who Does the Jesus Seminar Really Speak For? , Jesus of Nazareth, you should familiarize yourself with the history of the time and the work of scholars engaged in New Testament research.
In the first part, Blomberg analyzes the historical background to study the Gospels. Realistically, he begins with an overview of the intertestamental period (the last quarter of the 5th century BC to the 1st century AD) highlighting the contributions of Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities and Jewish Warfare, and other writings. such as the apocrypha and the pseudepigrapha. Blomberg’s blunt argument is that key developments such as Jews under Persian rule (ca. 424-331 BC), Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic period (331-167 BC), Greek rule under Alexander (ca. 331-323 BC), Egyptian rule under the Ptolemies (323-198 BC), Syrian rule under the Seleucids (198-167 BC), the Maccabean revolt, and the Hasmonean dynasty (167063 BC), the Roman period (63 BC to the New Testament era), must be studied to correctly interpret the situation of the Jews at the time of Jesus. In the religious realm, Jews were exposed to beliefs such as the Hellenistic religion, traditional mythology, philosophies such as Stoicism, Epicureanism, Cynicism, and Neopythagoreanism, mystery religions, Gnosticism, and emperor worship. The overview of the socioeconomic background helps us to better read the Gospels.
The second part is a relevant survey of various critical or analytical tools used by scholars to help them understand how the Gospels came to be in their present form. These include lower or textual criticism and higher criticism, which is further divided into two broad disciplines: historical criticism and literary criticism. His discussion of structuralism, post-structuralism, narrative, source, form, wording, and canon criticism is impressive. When critically analyzed, it can be concluded after the survey that there is a legitimate place for the historical, theological, and literary study of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. One can miss the dimensions of the texts and misunderstand them if they are not studied together.
The canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are introduced in the third chapter. Among the topics discussed in each book are the structure, theology and other distinctive topics, the circumstances, or the purpose of writing and dating. A careful study of the first three Gospels or Synoptics (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) reveals a fundamental difference from John. The baptism of Jesus, the Transfiguration, the parables, the Lord’s Supper, to name a few, are central in the Synoptics that are absent in John. Furthermore, there are also some prominent theological differences. Although the background and meaning of the logos have been continually debated, only John refers to Jesus as ‘the Word’ (logos in Greek). Blomberg’s study of the gospels is impressive. In his discussion of the Sermon on the Mount, for example, he notes that there are some thirty-six approaches to interpreting its core message and neatly summarizes eight, including traditional Catholic, Lutheran, Anabaptist, Old Liberal, and postmillennial. interim ethics, existentialist, classical. dispensational and kingdom theology. His assessment is that although each has an element of truth, the latter seems to have caught the entire correct approach.
Blomberg examines the life of Christ in Part Four, paying close attention to his birth, childhood, early and later ministries, additional teachings of Jesus in Matthew, Luke, and John, passion, crucifixion, and resurrection. He clearly presents the trend of emphasizing the sayings of Jesus by the Jesus Seminar, which is deservedly criticized. A credit to Blomberg, therefore, is his conscious desire to keep history and theology in balance.
He successfully attempts a historical and theological synthesis by discussing the historical reliability of the gospels and the theology of Jesus in Part Five. Reasonably discusses textual criticism, authorship and date, intent and genre, criteria for authenticity, and specific external evidence. The contributions of archaeology, non-Christian workers, post-New Testament Christian writers, and the testimony of the rest of the New Testament cannot be underestimated. A careful study of Blomberg’s last chapter on the theology of Jesus is necessary to understand his actions, use, and response to various Christological titles, most notably Son of Man, Son of God, Lord, and Messiah. Other important strengths include his leading questions that help focus the reading. These review questions help the reader reflect on the contemporary relevance of the New Testament writings. The many illustrations are easy to use. The theological perspective is evangelical, but other positions are frequently noted and suggestions for further reading include literature of different persuasions. Section titles make it easy to follow the structure of the text.
One weakness might be that Blomberg did not discuss at length the contribution of Paul’s understanding of Christ’s redeeming death, which he cited. Despite the above, Blomberg rightly points out that although the key themes in Paul’s theology may seem superficially different from Jesus’ own thought, they also suggest stronger lines of continuity.
I highly recommend this relevant book for theology students, laypeople who want to deepen their biblical roots, and pastors and scholars who are looking for a current summary of the state of a wide swath of scholarship on the Gospels.
