Mapped Learning Outcomes and Course Content for Theology 2, Module 7

1. The Way of the Disciples

The “way of the disciples” was the gradual process by which the early
followers came to identify Jesus, based on their experience of salvation.
The way of the disciples gives us three steps to follow: first, we will look
into the very experience of the disciples on Jesus; second, we are going to
trace how this experience came to be interpreted and re-interpreted in
history; third, we will have to interpret again this interpreted experience
within our situation as Filipino Christians.

2. Three Steps: The way of the Disciples

a. The Disciples meet Jesus of Nazareth

All of us are looking for someone to inspire us (our model) in search

for well-being. Christianity started with this search for well being. The
disciples met a young man from Nazareth who had begun to teach and
heal. They were fascinated by this person who had a lot of common sense,
related warmly and mingled freely with different types of people (poor,
outcast, and spoke openly against injustices and oppressions of his time.
Being with was an inspiring experience for the disciples who had
been victims themselves of the discrimination and oppression in the Jewish
society. They felt that this man gave back their dignity and confidence in
life. In Jesus of Nazareth, the followers experienced a very free man and
caring because God, his Father, loved them.

b. Jesus is interpreted

The initial experience is important. Future generations of Christians

will come in contact with Jesus by recalling the experience of the disciples,
which they will then have to relate to their own search for meaning and
salvation in a changed situation.
Truly, Jesus was crucified but in faith the disciples were convinced
that he was alive and has risen. This conviction that Jesus continued to live
and inspire the community added a new meaning to the disciples’ initial
understanding of Jesus. They believed that Jesus’ spirit was challenging
them to give a new answer to people’s search for happiness. Jesus was
the bringing happiness and well-being (salvation).
Looking at the history of the early Christianity, there are three stages
in the development of the interpretation of Jesus and his ministry:
interpreted within the culture of the Jews; gradually in the Greco-Roman
world; in the cultures of the invading Germanic tribes. Christianity needed
to be interpreted again within these new cultures. This resulted in what we
call today Western Christianity. But since Christianity was more the
product of the Jewish life and culture, the early missionaries had to make
adjustments in the Christian message so that the non-Jewish communities
could understand better.

c. Re-appropriating Jesus in the Filipino Situation

We realize that the experience of the disciples with Jesus had been
interpreted and re-interpreted within different cultures in the past. There
had been a need for constant re-interpretation because times and
situations changed and so that the message of Christianity had to be
expressed in more understandable ways. To make the Christian message
relevant for our times, we may have to continue this process of re-
interpretation within the Filipino culture. For this last step, we have to
answer the following questions: How can Jesus and his message
interpreted in the past, become relevant to us as Christian Filipinos today?
How can we come up with an understanding of Jesus that is closer to
history but at the same time addresses our concerns now?

Module 8

1. Lenses for Reconstructing Jesus of History

It is important that we become familiar with several tools/lenses that

will help us understand the Jesus of history.

These are:
1) considering the gospels as developing traditions:
2) the study of Judaism;
3) the study of the social world of Jesus;
4) cross-cultural study of religion and worldviews.
2. The Lenses
a. The Gospels as Developing Traditions

How we understand Jesus depends on the extent how we use our sources.
Our sources are the New Testament as a whole, and the four gospels in
particular. As we all know, these writings are historical narratives reporting
exactly what Jesus said and did.
However, if we read them literally, we might fail to respect the true
nature of the text. We may start to twist biblical sources knowingly or
unknowingly to suit our own intentions (eg. We, Filipino
Catholics/Christians, practice selective reading and we start to project our
own ideas into gospel texts.).
Like other books in the Bible, the four gospels have a long history
behind them. The different stories we find in the gospels had been
developing and growing as the situation of the early Christians and their
surroundings changed. Much of the materials in the gospels did not remain
as they originally were for some reasons.
The stories and ideas about Jesus grew because of the new
experiences the believers had of Jesus as risen. After he died, the early
Christians felt that Jesus was still alive and present in their midst in a new
way. This experience transformed and enriched how the community
understood who Jesus was and the meanings of his words and deeds.
As developing traditions, the gospels contain two kinds of materials:
some go back to Jesus (history remembered) and some are the products of
the early Christian communities interpreting Jesus after he died (history
interpreted). By history remembered we mean that some of the things
reported in the gospels really took place. By history interpreted, we mean
that the writer of the gospels and the early Christians used symbolic
language (metaphorical language) and stories to express the meaning for
them of what happened to Jesus. Yet, though a metaphor is not literally
true, it can be powerfully true in a non-literal sense ( eg. Jesus as the
Bread of Life, Jesus heals the blind man ie. Literal and spiritual blindness).
Thus, in any case, the distinction of materials is important in the search for
the historical Jesus

b. The Study of Judaism

As a Jew, Jesus shared much of the way of thinking and behavior of

his people. He affected by the issue and problems of his society and
generally responded to these issues and problems as a typical Jew of his
time would. However, he differed from many of them in some significant
way.

c. The Study of Social World of Jesus

The human and social sciences (history, anthropology, sociology,

psychology, archeology and others) can help reveal the kind of social world
of Jesus lived in within which he had to think and act. Social world is
referred to as the total social environment of a people at a particular
time in their history, which includes the material conditions (economy, level
of technology, kind of government etc.). It also includes the non-material
element of shared convictions, thought forms, and behavior patterns
(culture).

d. The Cross-Cultural Study of Religion and our Worldview

One of the claims of Jesus that we have is Jesus was a Spirit Person. This
means Jesus was constantly in touch with the world of spirit. It is another
level of reality in addition to the visible world of our ordinary experience (the
sacred and profane, holy and mundane, God and the world, heaven and
earth. Many cultures have understood these worlds as interconnected. The
material world is permeated by the world of spirit. This idea of two worlds is
found in the heart of Jewish tradition within which Jesus lived.

This kind of idea is not alien to us Filipinos. We also believe that

these two worlds are interconnected. The spirit world exerts influence upon
the destiny of the world of our experience. By reason of this, it becomes
necessary to make some contact with the spirit world. Spirit persons act as
mediators between these two worlds.

Module No. 9 and 10: Jesus of Nazareth: The Geography, Provinces,

Socio-Political Situation

1. Topography
2. Provinces

JUDEA

was what remained of the tribal territory of Judah, with the capital at
Jerusalem. Herod the Great ("king of the Jews") ruled over a larger area,
which was alsoreferred to as "Judea" In his time (40-4 BC) the kingdom
also included Gaza, Samaria, Galilee,Perea, Idumaea, and parts of It uria
and Trachonitis. Herod the Great did not want any of his successors to be
greater then he had been, so he arranged that on his death the kingdon
would be divided up into four smaller "tetrarchies" or quarters
SAMARIA

was the original territory of the northern kingdom of Israel. Many of the
inhabitants were carried into captivity by the Assyrians ca. 722BC the
territory was repopulated with an ethnically mixed population, who
intermarried and became "Samaritans". A further revolt, against
Macedonian rule, after the conquest of Alexander the Great, resulted in
further scattering of the populace. With the coming of the Romans, Samaria
was assigned to the kingdom of Herod the Great (30BC). On Herod's death
Samaria was ruled by Herod's son Archelaus (4BC-AD6), by Roman
Procurators, and by Herod Agrippa (AD41-44)

GALILEE

The Galilee was part of the Northern Kingdom which was over-run by the
Assyrians ca. 732BC. Following the Maccabean revolt of 164BC the Galilee
was annexed to Judah and Samaria. In 63BC Pompey captured much of
the Galilee and made it into a Roman province. Herod the Great (40-4BC)
took control of the Galilee, Judea, and Perea; on his death he did not want
anyone else to have a kingdom as large as his had been, so he divided it
into four smaller kingdoms between some of his sons. He gave the Galilee
and Perea to his son Herod Antipas

PEREA

Perea, meaning "beyond", was to the East of (beyond) the Jordan. Perea
had been claimed by the Maccabees, ca. 200 BC, and by the time of Jesus
the population was mainly Jewish. It was part of the tetrarchy of Herod
Antipas, along with the Galilee.

NAZARETH

was part of the province Galilee. It was a poor village and basically
an agricultural hilly land. It was where Jesus lived. “Nothing good comes
out from Nazareth’ (JN. 1:46)

3. Jewish Society During Jesus Time

Palestine was narrow strip of land by the Mediterranean Sea (Great Sea). It
covered a relatively small area. It is now shared by the states of Israel and
Jordan. It was largely agricultural and rural society composed of towns and
small villages inhabited by farmers. There were a number of cities
established by Herod the Great and his successors. In these cities,
commerce was developing. This brought profound changes in Jewish
society. The rural areas tended to be Jewish, in contrast with the urban,
which had a mixture of population because of gentiles coming from
neighboring areas.

3. Political Situation

Palestine was part of the Roman Empire during the time of Jesus, which
controlled its various territories in a number of ways. In the East (eastern
Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt), territories were governed either by
kings who were “friends and allies” of Rome (often called “client” kings or,
more disparagingly, “puppet” kings) or by governors supported by a Roman
army. When Jesus was born, Palestine and some nearby Gentile areas
were ruled by Rome’s able “friend and ally” Herod the Great. Palestine was
important for Rome because it was one of the places included in the Fertile
Crescent. Roman imperial policy required that Palestine be loyal and
peaceful so that it did not undermine Rome’s larger interests. That end was
achieved for a long time by permitting Herod to remain king of Judaea (37 4
BC.).

When Herod died shortly after Jesus’ birth, his kingdom was divided into
five parts. Most of the Gentile areas were separated from the Jewish areas,
which were split between two of Herod’s sons, Herod Archelaus, who
received Judaea and Idumaea (as well as Samaria, which was non-
Jewish), and Herod Antipas, who received Galilee and Peraea.(In the New
Testament, Antipas is somewhat confusingly called Herod, as in Luke
23:6– 12; apparently the sons of Herod took his name. Both sons were
given lesser titles than king: Archelaus was ethnarch, and Antipas was
tetrarch. The non-Jewish areas (except Samaria) were assigned to a third
son, Philip, to Herod’s sister Salome, or to the province of Syria. The
Augustus deposed he unsatisfactory Archelaus in AD 6, however, and
transformed Judaea, Idumaea, and Samaria from a client kingdom into an
“imperial province.” Accordingly, he sent a prefect to govern this province.
That minor Roman aristocrat (later called a procurator) was supported by a
small Roman army of approximately 3,000 men. During Jesus’ public
career, the Roman prefect was Pontius Pilate (ruled AD 26–36).
Although nominally in charge of Judaea, Samaria, and Idumaea, the
prefect did not govern his area directly. Instead, he relied on local leaders.
The prefect and his small army lived in the predominantly Gentile city
Caesarea, on the Mediterranean coast, about two days’ march from
Jerusalem. They came to Jerusalem only to ensure peace during the
pilgrimage festivals—Passover, Weeks (Shabuoth), and Booths (Sukkoth)
—when largecrowds and patriotic themes sometimes combined to spark
unrest or uprisings. On a day- to-day basis Jerusalem was governed by the
high priest. Assisted by a council, he had the
difficult task of mediating between the remote Roman prefect and the local
populace, which was hostile toward pagans and wanted to be free of
foreign interference. His political responsibility was to maintain order and to
see that tribute was paid. Caiaphas, the high priest during Jesus’
adulthood, held the office from about AD 18 to 36, longer than anyone else
during the Roman period, indicating that he was a successful and reliable
diplomat. Since he and Pilate were in power together for 10 years, they
must have collaborated successfully.

Thus, at the time of Jesus’ public career, Galilee was governed by the
tetrarch Antipas, who was sovereign within his own domain, provided that
he remained loyal to Rome and maintained peace and stability within his
borders. Judaea (including Jerusalem) was nominally governed by Pilate,
but the actual daily rule of Jerusalem was in the hands of Caiaphas and his
council.

4. Social Situation

Most people in the ancient world produced food, clothing, or both and could
afford few luxuries. Most Palestinian Jewish farmers and herdsmen,
however, earned enough to support their families, pay their taxes, offer
sacrifices during one or more annual festivals, and let their land lie fallow in
the sabbatical years, when cultivation was prohibited. Galilee in particular
was relatively prosperous, since the land and climate permitted abundant
harvests and supported many sheep. Although it is doubtful that Galilee
was as affluent in the 1st century as it was during the late Roman and
Byzantine periods, archaeological remains from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th
centuries nevertheless confirm the plausibility of 1st- century references to
the region’s prosperity. There were, of course, landless people, but the
Herodian dynasty was careful to organize large public works projects that
employed thousands of men. Desperate poverty was present too but never
reached a socially
dangerous level. At the other end of the economic spectrum, few if any
Palestinian Jews had the vast fortunes that successful merchants in port
cities could accumulate. However, there were Jewish aristocrats with large
estates and grand houses, and the merchants who served the Temple
(supplying, for example, incense and fabric) could become very
prosperous. The gap between rich and poor in Palestine was obvious and
distressing to
the poor, but, compared with that of the rest of the world, it was not
especially wide. Those who suffered much deprivation were the workers
and day-laborer’s, the unemployed, and the slaves. The sick (skin-
diseases, so-called leprosy) and the infirm depended on the alms that other
people gave; alms-giving was a religious duty. One of the issues then was
taxation which caused rebellion. The Romans started it with census of the
population and
to draw up an inventory of the resources of the country. The Jews objected
on religious grounds.