jn_en_2019_12_04
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====== Birth of Jesus - History and Perception | ====== Birth of Jesus - History and Perception | ||
- | Wednesday, Dec 04, 2019. Taking | + | Wednesday, Dec 04, 2019. Talking |
birth of Jesus. In the time of advent - the four weeks before the Christmas celebration, | birth of Jesus. In the time of advent - the four weeks before the Christmas celebration, | ||
Christians all over the globe celebrate the birth of the "son of God" | Christians all over the globe celebrate the birth of the "son of God" | ||
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** Birth of Jesus ... ** | ** Birth of Jesus ... ** | ||
+ | Jesus is said to be born during the reign of Herod the Great in Palestine. His reign | ||
+ | was between 37 BC and 4 BC, when he died. This places the birth of Jesus into the years | ||
+ | 7-6 BC, i.e. seven or six years before the year 0 of our Gregorian calender, which was | ||
+ | introduced 1582 AD by pope Gregor VIII, following calculations of Dionysius Exiguus 525 AD. | ||
+ | In Rome emperor Augustus was in power 31 BC to 14 AD. Augustus was followed by Tiberius, | ||
+ | who reigned until AD 37. | ||
+ | Concrete circumstances about the birth of Jesus are recorded in the Gospels. There is | ||
+ | a lot of further historical material about the Roman empire and Jewish history. | ||
+ | The composition of the four gospels is usually dated into the time between 55 AD | ||
+ | and 90 AD, where different theories and theological schools hold their particular view | ||
+ | on which gospel came first and how they were composed from earlier material. The | ||
+ | material must have been written in the time between the death of Jesus 30 AD and | ||
+ | the destruction of the Jewish temple by the Romans in 70 AD. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the time of advent, many towns display the birth of Jesus following the gospel | ||
+ | of Luke. We find scenes of his mother and father Mary and Joseph, together with a child | ||
+ | in a creche. Luke talks about a census initiated by Augustus, which made Joseph and | ||
+ | Mary travel to Bethlehem, to be registered. Bethlehem was very little town close to | ||
+ | Jerusalem - nothing of big significance. Augustus had initiated various censuses in | ||
+ | the Roman empire, among them those in 28 BC, 8 BC and 14 AD. Luke also mentions | ||
+ | Quirinius, who was a key Roman figure and consul from 12 BC, who also held influential | ||
+ | positions in Palestine from 6 AD to his death 21 AD. | ||
{{ 2017: | {{ 2017: | ||
- | ** ... ** | + | ** Presenting the Jesus Baby ... ** |
+ | |||
+ | Does it make sense to put the birth of Jesus into our churches today? When you | ||
+ | look at the design of such scenes, it is often transfered into later centuries. | ||
+ | People have taken the freedom to put Jesus into their particular environment! | ||
+ | |||
+ | Yes, it is completely reasonable from a Christian perspective, | ||
+ | birth of Jesus and place it into your life and framework. It is an act of | ||
+ | perception. But it is also an act of truth, which tries to place the events | ||
+ | into their true framework. | ||
+ | What is the true framework of the birth of Jesus. On one hand it is a historical | ||
+ | event. It took place in Palestine, about 7/6 BC. On the other hand, it is an | ||
+ | event which has universial meaning. Its meaning and significance lasts, and | ||
+ | it is so important that putting it into any time of history up to today is | ||
+ | fully justified. | ||
+ | Why is the event so important? It is because Jesus is not just a human. He is | ||
+ | not an arbitrary human. The significance of this event is that God himself | ||
+ | becomes human. He chooses to be ordinary, comes into a small insignificant town, | ||
+ | into a small insignificant family. He wants to be with mankind. | ||
+ | The birth of Jesus is part of the restoration of humanity. It is part of a | ||
+ | transformation which takes place in and through the whole life and resurrection | ||
+ | of Jesus. Of course, to fully understand the meaning of this significance, | ||
+ | need to go throuh the life of Jesus. We need to go through the gospels and | ||
+ | the letters of the New testament. But in any case, we have a historical event | ||
+ | here, with elements which need to be discussed further, but an event with | ||
+ | extremely high significance. | ||
(Roland Potthast) | (Roland Potthast) | ||
jn_en_2019_12_04.1575442683.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/12/04 07:58 by potthast