Historical Background for the Gospel

In Chapters 1, 2, and 3, Blomberg introduced the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and, John by exploring the political, religious, and socioeconomic background of the events in these books. Furthermore, Blomberg listed different approaches to studying and interpreting the Gospels by discussing the historical and literary elements of the books. Blomberg also suggested that despite the number of interpretations of the Gospels, applying the kingdom approach is the best way to study the Gospels. Following the three chapters, Blomberg discussed historical criticisms of the Gospels. In this chapter, Blomberg discussed different tools that historians used to analyze the gospels. According to Blomberg, initially, Jesus Christ’s life was reconstructed based on all the events that happened in the four Gospels. Therefore, the life of Jesus Christ was narrated based on the order of events that occurred from the first Gospel to the fourth. Nevertheless, during the 1700s, the approach to reconstructing the life of Jesus Christ changed, with scholars offering a rational perspective, especially in explaining Jesus’ miracles. Later on, scholars, attempted to reconstruct Jesus’ life by discerning the relationship among the four Gospels and how Jesus was depicted in each book. Consequently, scholars also compared and contrasted Jesus’ story in each Gospel, and noting the differences among four books, divided the study of the Gospels accordingly. Providing details to different approaches in studying the Gospels is very important for readers so they can make their own interpretations based on what they approaches they believe are most accurate. In Chapter 5, Blomberg discussed the literary approaches used by scholars to analyze the Gospels. The approaches include textual criticism, and then more complex approaches including narrative analysis. Blomberg argues that combining historical and literary criticisms is highly important to avoid misinterpreting the messages and narratives embedded in the Gospels.