Are the four Gospel historical documents?
Nobody is able to explain as really the Gospels have been written, if we limit ourselves to the information that are reached there. It is necessary to question more directly the four books correcting some translations. And it is not our study that gives us the solution but the Gospel themselves, with what they contain: all what has been added or we adds of ours, clearly estranges us from the historical truth. Only in a second moment we can use the news that have arrived there from the second century onwards.
Also ignoring how the Gospels are historical, we have to acknowledge that nevertheless they would even exist, if they were not it. If, in fact, we read the texts without the various symbolisms - also all edifying ones - that have been added, we can notice that the content of the Gospels has only value if it is historical, because it is simple report, deprived of philosophical or theological considerations of whom has written. Except the prologue of John and some brief sentence here and there, everything is word or work of the Christ and not always the writers have understood the meaning of it.
The Church has constantly affirmed that the Gospels are historical reports.
We can affirm again it, without hesitation, but after having resolved a decisive matter: why the Gospel of Matthew, also almost all bringing what we find in the Gospel of Luke, is different from this in all the possible ways?
We simply answer that they have been the authors of the Gospel of Matthew to change a lot of things, and deliberately, for publishing motives.
Having said this, the whole rest will find suitable systematisation.
Considerations or questions? |
who tells it?
"city on the mountain"
convert you!
sepulchrurn of James?
Apocalypse and Gospels
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To the origin of the Christian faith there are certified historical facts.
Everything therefore in the Gospels is historical, if we depart from the certified relation of John and of Luke, and nothing has been lost of what has been written about Jesus Christ in an authentic way.
These books are inspired by God, also in the keeping us the freshness of the events distributed in a "puzzle" of four pieces.
To support the way of reading the Gospels here suitable
it is not necessary to bring many reasons.
All it takes is trying to read them this way, and we realize
to come into direct contact with the witnesses.
What was enigmatic is clarified by the Gospels themselves, that can deepen this way without limits. This means that the Gospels really put us in contact with the historical facts.
It is not indifferent that the Gospel are historical books or are not it, because the facts that they reports are also fundamental for the one that didn't fully agree the message of Jesus Christ. As it is not indifferent that every Gospel makes more evident and precise what say the others three, or that instead, comparing them, result in endless matters.
Found the native point of view, what appeared enigmatic is clarified by the Gospel themselves, that can deepen this way without limits, because they really put us in contact with the historical facts.
When we read them the events are recomposed under our eyes, the two millennia that separate us from them disappear and we can space in the mystery of Jesus Christ. The alive Tradition of the Church is herself reinstated by the historical evangelical documents.
The Holy Spirit operates in us
and drives us in the whole truth
taking from that historical facts (John 16,14).
The Gospel of Matteo and Mark were published soon and they were teaching for the life of the Christians, while the Gospel of Luca and Giovanni remained as reserve, as gift and treasure of truth for the centuries.
Each time the Church has drawn from it, but today to rediscover the historical truth is essential and it can be effected in more complete way. To this Pius XII invited, already in 1943, with the encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu. Sovereign Pontiff wished however that the commentators of the Sacred Writing didn't limit them «to expose what touches the history, the archaeology, the philology and similar other subjects», but that «mainly» they put «in sight the theological doctrine of every book or text around the faith and the customs». This is easier in the case of the Gospel of Luke and John.
Reading these two Gospel as an only historical report we find again the precise facts and, inside the historical facts, every thing that the Church has then taught and lived: Jesus himself teach and shows with his divine words and works in precise circumstances. It will be had to study, to compare, to explain and to apply them, but they are opened to every other circumstance, to the different places and even to the seasons.
Then the historical, archaeological and philological study serves to make more concrete the circumstances of that time so that it is very simpler to compare them with those of today, to understand in every moment what Jesus wants to teach us and to give us. The human situations repeat them since that time today in identical way and this allows us to draw from the Gospel divine teachings, very concrete and always new.
It is not a question of striving ourselves to lower "some Christian principles" in the "complex society" of today. We can relive in our daily life the adventure of twenty centuries ago, in all of her wealth. The story of Jesus is not quite monotonous or scheduled; rather it is example, in everything, for the people engaged in the most complex business. He, in fact, faced the most complicated situations.
His concrete work and word, in the real political, social and economic situation, didn't bring in effects damage to anybody, but it sowed an unimaginable benevolence that darkened the defects of the people.
The Holy Spirit discreetly and really drives us through the Gospel. The Immaculate Heart of Mary, with her grace of light, inspires feelings and attitudes worthy of her Child and appropriate to every situation.
Then all what is fundamental for the world becomes little thing, but it becomes also very surer.
The exceptional words and works of Jesus Christ, Son of God Creator, tells us what is necessary to know about the whole reality, particularly that the human creatures have a soul. They are true words and facts, therefore they make us really enter the truth, universal and effective, not uncertain as that the men reach, also the more wise.
I like to say that Jesus Christ, with his divine and human Personality, gives to us, today, the full sense of the reality, making us free, making us participating in the whole creation and impassioned to the people.
The person of Jesus Christ is the sure base, that many looked for and dreamt for the daily life, but unexpectedly he gives us the safety of an eternal life, that nobody would have imagined and hoped.
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Giovanni Conforti
Renewed on November 25th 2004
I beg you: convert you
«I don't only cry because Jesus is dead. I cry because Jesus is dead giving up to the last drop of his blood for all the men, but many my sons don't want from this to draw some benefit».
Mary's message to Medjugorje of the 1st of April 1983. (Good Friday)
«Cari figli! Oggi vi invito ad aprirvi a Dio Creatore perché vi cambi. Figlioli, voi mi siete cari, vi amo tutti e vi invito ad essermi più vicini, perché il vostro amore per il mio Cuore Immacolato sia più fervente. Desidero rinnovarvi e condurvi col mio Cuore al Cuore di Gesù, che ancora oggi soffre per voi e vi invita alla conversione e al rinnovamento.
Tramite voi desidero rinnovare il mondo. Comprendete, figlioli, che siete voi oggi il sale della terra e la luce del mondo. Figlioli, vi invito e vi amo e in un modo speciale vi supplico: convertitevi.
Grazie per aver risposto alla mia chiamata».
Messaggio di Maria del 25 ottobre 1996
La Madonna si rivolge a chi può accogliere una simile supplica; non a chi è incredulo, non a chi si converte senza bisogno di suppliche.
Si rivolge a chi può capire bene il significato del termine "convertirsi", a chi crede in Gesù e onora Lei, al Magistero, ai teologi, agli educatori cattolici.
Ci supplica, perché ci sta chiedendo un grande atto di umiltà, quello di rivedere ciò che pensiamo di aver studiato a fondo. |
- A questo proposito, La Madonna, nelle apparizioni a Medjugorje, ha confidato che il suo duemillesimo compleanno si doveva celebrare il 5 agosto del 1984.
- L'anno seguente, 1985, ha confermato la sua data di nascita, apparendo ad Anita Rio, cameriera di un bar nel paesino di Oliveto Citro, nei pressi di Napoli.
- "Sulla parola di due testimoni", Maria ha fornito un collegamento tra il nostro sistema di datazione e i fatti della sua vita e di quella di Gesù, precisando di esser nata il 5 agosto del 17 a.C.
- Non c'è dubbio; questa informazione viene da un altro mondo. Riconosciamolo: dal Cielo di Dio.
- In questo mondo, nessuno, se vuole apparire scientifico, l'accetterebbe. Gli storici sono infatti concordi nel sostenere che Gesù nacque nel 6 o 7 a.C., perché c'era ancora Erode il Grande, che sarebbe morto nel 4 a.C.
- Dopo la nascita di Gesù passarono circa 2 anni prima che Erode facesse uccidere i bambini di Betlemme, poi ancora un po' di tempo che la famiglia di Gesù trascorse in Egitto, finché il re morì. A questo punto il bambino Gesù poteva avere più di 3 anni. Perciò deve essere nato agli inizi del 7 a.C.
- Ma così Maria, a Medjugorje, avrebbe fatto intendere di aver dato alla luce suo Figlio all'età di 10 o 11 anni, cosa altamente improbabile, sia per la natura, sia per le consuetudini ebraiche. Ricordiamo che Maria era in età da marito.
- Dobbiamo concludere che la Madonna chiede ai suoi fedeli di convertirsi, di fidarsi in tutto dei quattro Vangeli, anche quando la scienza sembra testimoniare ben altro.
- "Sembra", perché c'è la probabilità scientifica che Gesù sia nato quando Maria aveva compiuto i 14 anni..
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Per quanto riguarda più direttamente il Vangelo, il Signore ci ha dato dei segni: la possibilità di rivedere la traduzione dei testi biblici (enciclica Divino Afflante Spiritu), la riscoperta, da parte degli Ebrei, di Gamla, luogo chiave per capire il valore storico della testimonianza dei Vangeli.
Occorre "cambiare modo" di leggere il Nuovo Testamento, perché il cambiamento promette molti benefici.
La Madonna ci supplica, perché altrimenti non ci accorgeremmo di quanto sia importante per il mondo questa nostra conversione.
Sappiamo bene che il mondo ha bisogno della benevolenza che viene da Gesù Cristo e di riferimenti eterni per il lavoro umano che, invece di governare e coltivare, sta introducendo nell'ambiente della Terra cambiamenti dissennati.
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Luke's introduction to his Gospel
As the original Greek, also the Italian translation of this evangelical step results difficult but, after having do her again she offers us many historical data.
«Since many have just begun to recompose a (official) narration about the events that have concluded among us, as they have granted us those people who since the beginning have been (of them) eye witnesses and official appointees of the the report, I have decided too, after having acquired exactly from top (to bottom) all them, to methodically write to you, excellent Theofilos, so that you see the certification about the reports that you have received by voice».
Luke 1,1-4
Luke, with this, reveals us that he was in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified and resuscitated, for which he had been able to follow the carrying out of the events.
Theophilos was a priest son of Anan, whom convinced Pilate to condemn Jesus to the death of cross. He was elevated to the dignity of high priest from the legate Vitellius in the year 37, when the emperor Tiberius died.
Tiberius, about AD 36, had tried to make to approve from the Senate a law that recognized Jesus Christ as a god, so that the Christians could freely adore him; but he could introduce to the Senate only in voice report and the law was not approved.
It looks like he had been really Theofilos to make to reach to Tiberius the in voice report and to him the emperor applies again to ask a test written by a public official. Theofilos, then, was addressed Luke. Here because Luke acquired what it was written «since the beginning», or it was sent to memory in fixed way (by Mary, by the acquaintances of John the Baptist and perhaps by others), or that he had seen himself.
When however the test was ready, Tiberius lived more and more retired to Capri and he could not make to approve that law anymore.
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The Apocalypse, a prophetic look on the past, on the present and on the future
In the book of the Apocalypse (1,2) we find these words: «Revelation of Jesus Christ, that God has given him to make to know to his servants the things that have to happen soon, and that he has made to notice communicating her, through his angel, to his servant John, which has testified the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, how great things he has seen»
The apostle Giovanni testifies, so, that Jesus Christ made every thing in full accord with the word of God, on which the faith of the Hebrews founds her, but he has brought really a new reality, obeying to God the Father.
Did you know that the four symbols used for represent the Gospels are they in the book of the Apocalypse?
They are appropriate for denote the evangelists and their books, but they in the Apocalypse indicate probably the leaders of the "four regions" of Israel, that is the entire people.
The Apocalypse, written among the year 41 and the year 54 during the empire of Claudius, is a prophecy, because it uses the language of the prophets, particularly the symbols and the visions. John, through the suggestions of one «voice», sees the realization of the visions of the ancient prophets in the facts of the Jesus' public life and in the first times of the Church. Who is the «voice» that it inspires John? He is almost certainly Luke, because this evangelist had been able to hear from Jesus that, in the voyage from Jerusalem to Emmaus the day of the resurrection, «starting from Moses, through all the prophets explained them in all the Writings what concerned himself» (Lk 24,27). But Luke was also present when the Lord spoke «about the things of the Kingdom of God» (Act 1,3), included some prophecies on the future of the Kingdom in the world, up to the conclusion of the centuries.
The principal are: the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem (year 70) that she was contained already in the Gospels; a «kingdom of thousand years» by Christ together to his saints (it could be identified with the historical period that goes from the 313 to 1302, in which the Church has also supported a politics responsibility in the world); afterward a such time in which left liberty have to the adversary of the Church and, finally, a «new holy city Jerusalem».
The meaning of the Apocalypse is all in the concrete, historical, interpretation of the ancient prophecies and in the prophecies of Jesus, «true words, of God» (Ap 19,9; 22,6).
The Apocalypse explains the job of the evangelist John
But there is also an interesting detail. The chapter 10 of the Apocalypse tells how and when the Gospel of John was written. Jesus had just begun to reveal (the «seven thunders») God's things, John, that was a 13 year-old boy, was ready to write what «the seven thunders» said. As «nobody believed» (John 3,11.32), someone suggested him not to write only, but to certify with seal his testimonies. In such way it also convinced the powerful leader of Gamla, the city where he had been to school, to have found really the Messiah. And from that moment to Gamla the leader and his people prepared them to serve the «Prophet that had to come in the world», rather they wanted «to abduct him to do him king». Still with ideas from Zealots, they began to believe in Jesus the Christ.
An ex-teacher of John began to transcribe on roll his testimonies. Subsequently it was done a copy of this Gospel for the young apostle.
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"James son of Joseph brother of Jesus"?
Matthew 1,25:
«And (Joseph) didn't know her until she didn't give birth to a child; and he called him Jesus».
Joseph didn't have conjugal intercourses with Mary, until she didn't bear Jesus. But he didn't have subsequently even of it.
Matthew and his scribes don't worry to sustain that Mary has remained virgin always, quite because this Gospel has been finished approximately year 40: Mary was still alive, there had not been the assumption to the heaven, the attention had addressed exclusively to Jesus. What concerns Mary enters the Tradition some time after the editing of the Gospels.
To Matthew doesn't interest how Joseph has behaved afterward. He wants specify, without there could be a shadow of a doubt, that Joseph is not father of Jesus.
Mary didn't have other sons, even if the Gospels talks about four "brothers" of Jesus.
In fact the first two remembered by the Gospels, James and Joseph (Matt 13,55; Mark 6,3), were really sons of another mother, even she by name of Mary (Matt 27,56; Mark 15,47), bride of Alphaios (Luke 6,15; Matt 10,3). The other two, Simon and Jude, were sons of another Mary still, bride of Cleophas (that one of Luke 24,18.22 and John 19,25). The Hebrews considered brothers also the cousins and the near relatives.
News from the archaeology
On the 21st of October 2002 has been announced in a conference of the Biblical Archaeology Review the recovery of an urn of calcareous stone, long 50 centimetres, with the writing "James son of Joseph brother of Jesus" (in the writing, Aramaic, there are not commas).
The find would seem to prove that James the minor (called "the just") was son of Joseph, husband of Mary that was mother of Jesus.
Though the epigraph of the urn doesn't mention to Mary, we nevertheless remember what we said above: yes, the Gospels talk that James "the just" was son of a woman by name of Mary, but also that he was son of Alphaios. The "Mary" name was very diffused, as much as, when Jesus had put in cross to Jerusalem, there were four persons by name of Mary: Mary mother of Jesus, Mary from Magdala, Mary of Alphaios (mother of James and Joseph, or Joses) and Mary of Cleofas (mother of Jude and Simon).
How does clear up, therefore, the matter of the "son of Joseph"?
Simply supposing that this «James» (not "the just") was «son of Joseph (son of Alphaios and Mary, "sister" of the mother of Jesus) (that was) "brother" of Jesus».
If they had wanted to write "James Jesus' brother", they would not have inserted the expression "son of Joseph", that makes to pass in second order the prestigious relative with Jesus.
If instead we suppose that it was "Joseph Jesus' brother", the relative of this "James" with Jesus was little most distant and it could not be defined with different words as those were written.
Let's remember that the Church, apart any episodes, could live in peace to Jerusalem about thirty years and that the Apostles and the relatives of Jesus had respected and enjoyed "of the fancy of all the people" (Acts 2,47). It must be inferred that to Jerusalem the personage in matter has quite called "James, son of Joseph Jesus' brother".
Even the "James" name often was repeated in the Hebrew families.
Therefore the finding, if really authentic, would furnish us an archaeological evidence about Jesus Christ (it otherwise didn't have meaning to write "brother of Jesus") and about that "brother of Jesus" that was called Joseph (or Joses). It would tell us also that Joseph, "brother of Jesus" would have a son by name of James, about which we didn't have news.
Nevertheless the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), in 2003, have shown that this urn is a modern forgery, engraved on an authentic work.
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Four ancient books... But if they allow us to know exactly something of ancient once that concerns us today, they are of an amazing actuality.
The evangelical narrations don't have anything mysterious. As the Church has always affirmed, they are historical narrations. We can repeat it also today, after having specified that Matthew has published two "Gospels" and that, in the second, he has changed all what has been able, for publishing motives.
The mystery, instead, is the one of the Son of God, done man, that has taught and has operated according to the command of God the Father. The Evangelists have transmitted him intact to us: also they is to enumerate among the martyrs that the secret of Fatima us remember.
They lived and they have written in the same environment in which Jesus spoke and acted. Therefore, as more as we deepen their narration, we more participate to the facts happened two thousand years ago. The Gospels are "testimonies to Jesus Christ."
Mary was protagonist of the facts told by the Gospels and she also is witness in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. The possibility to see her again through the eyes of the three shepherd children of Fatima makes the whole evangelical testimony more vivacious.
We see in the historical reality of twenty centuries ago what the Charity of God done for us; therefore the Gospels relate the "Jesus' testimony" to his Father and to the heavenly realities. |
