Part I

    This chapter focuses mainly on the story of Jesus's birth.  Norm travels to Bethlehem in order to investigate the differences between Matthew's account and Luke's account of this occurrence in their separate Gospels.  Norm approaches several questions about the Gospels: was Mary really a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus?  Why were there so many differences between Matthew's account and Luke's account?  Was Jesus truly divine or was he just a zealous prophet trying to spread the word of God?  Besides raising questions about Jesus's beginnings, this chapter reveals further outside material: there are emails between Norm and Professor Guilder and more relevant information from Josephus.  Another important thing to note about this chapter is that when Norm smokes with the men and talks to them about Luke and Matthew, they try to piece the two together into one cohesive story.

Part II

    This chapter went much more into detail with Jesus Christ's birth that I ever have before.  I never wondered about what could be the truth or what parts each author had made up on his own; I always took it for granted that it was just a story that was to be taken at face value.  This isn't to say that I thought the Holy Spirit made Mary conceive a child and then birth it.  In fact, I really didn't believe in the Immaculate Conception, and after a certain point I stopped wondering about such things and focused my energies on other subjects.  This chapter brought me right back to the beginning of high school when I was first questioning my faith.  I am starting to feel uncomfortable, and that is a good thing.  My main question regarding this chapter is why people try to make the Gospels work together when sometimes they simply don't.  The only thing holding anything in the Gospels together, in my opinion, is the few outside sources we have that are reliable.

Part I

In this chapter Norm is making his trek towards Bethlehem.  Norm begins to question the differences in the birth narratives and early childhood stories of both Matthew and Luke.  Matthew tends to focus more on Joseph in his stories and Luke puts more emphasis on Mary (92).  Norm arrives in Bethlehem and is taken back at how Jesus’ birthplace is a tourist attraction and not a sacred place.  Two professors and students present Norm with differences in the gospels Matthew and Luke and how they might have scripturized history (98). 

Part II

Norm is not at ease with the differences between the gospel Matthew and Luke.  He does not like the idea that he might have had it wrong his whole life.  The differences are noticeable between the two but it is easy to see why Matthew and Luke may have made the changes or kept the facts that they did.   

Part I

This chapter focuses mainly on the story of Jesus’s birth.  Norm travels to Bethlehem in order to investigate the differences seen between Matthew’s account and Luke’s account of this occurrence in their separate Gospels.  Norm approaches several questions about the Gospels: was Mary really a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus?  Why were there so many differences between Matthew’s account and Luke’s account?  Was Jesus truly divine or was he just a zealous prophet trying to spread the word of God?  Besides raising questions about Jesus’s beginnings, this chapter reveals further outside material: there are emails between Norm and Professor Guilder and more relevant information from Josephus.  Another important thing to note about this chapter is that when Norm smokes with the men and talks to them about Luke and Matthew, they try to piece the two together into one cohesive story.

Part II

This chapter went much more into detail with Jesus Christ’s birth than I ever have before.  I never wondered about what could be the truth or what parts each author had made up on his own: I always took it for granted that it was just a story that was to be taken at face value.  This isn’t to say that I thought the Holy Spirit made Mary conceive a child and then birth it.  In fact, I really didn’t believe in the Immaculate Conception, and after a certain point I stopped wondering about such things and focused my energies on other subjects.  This chapter brought me right back to the beginning of high school when I was first questioning my faith.  I am starting to feel uncomfortable, and that is a good thing.  My main question regarding this chapter is why people try to make the Gospels work together when sometimes they simply don’t.  The only thing holding anything in the Gospels together, in my opinion, is the few outside sources we have that are reliable.

Part 1
  In Chapter 3 of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Jesus, we catch up with Norm as his is on his way to Hebron, looking for traces of Herod the Great (76).  He is contemplating the virgin birth of Jesus and it's plausibility while staying at the house of a child named Safwat (76-77).  Part of his question of the virgin birth of Jesus has him comparing and contrast the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, both of which have birth narratives in them.  He concludes that the information that the two shared must have been very old such as the importance of the city of Nazareth (77-79). Norm emails Professor Guilder at this point, seeking to get his opinion on the virgin birth and Professor Guilder gives him information on other "virginal" births (i.e. Alexander, Ocatvius, and Apollonius of Tyana) and ways in which Jesus could have been considered a illegitimate child (80-87).  Next, we catch up with Norm as he is making his way to Bethlehem and the Church of Nativity, a place in which he questions the theory of where the birth of Jesus actually happened (87-89).  From there, Norm makes his way to a refugee camp on the outside of Bethlehem, where he continues to show skepticism about the cave he had recently visited as well as the birth narratives in the Gospels. He seeks to make comparisons between writings of the Old Testament and those of the New Testament such as Matthew and Luke (90-101).

Part 2
  The main focus in this chapter is the story of Jesus's birth to the virgin Mary.  Norm is showing skepticism about whether Mary was actually a virgin, thus making the birth of Jesus a real live miracle.  I feel that if this were discovered to be true and that Mary actually was impregnated by a divine being, then it would be a lot easier to believe in other miracles that Jesus was said to have performed (i.e. walking on water or turning water into wine).  This would mean that all of the different miracle stories that are a part of the legacy of Jesus would also become valid parts of discovering more about the historical Jesus. There would also be a negative point if this was discovered to not be true.  A lot of Chiristians would have to change the way that they think about the birth story. 

Part I

            In the third chapter to A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jesus, Norm stays the night in the Old City; here he questions Mary’s virgin birth to Jesus (77). While looking into Jesus’ birth, he compares the gospels Matthew and Luke to see the differences in text (77-79). One that stands out to Norm is the itinerary of the holy family and also differences in the central characters (79). Professor Guilder weighs in on the topic of virgin birth and discusses the topic with Norm (81-83). Norm makes a list of pagan births to compare to Jesus’ birth (85-87). After gathering his material he heads to Bethlehem where he visited the display of Jesus’ birth place (87-89).  Norm then talks with some locals about why he is traveling their area and discusses the issue of differences between the gospels, compared with Genesis and Exodus (92-99). The chapter ends with Norm and his Professor emailing about Norm’s adventures (100-102).

Part II

            In Norm’s travels, his next topic to look into is virgin birth, which is something every complex. Norm emails his professor about ideas that could be the conclusion of the virgin birth. I think it is interesting how in Matthew and Luke Guilder suggested that Matthew is writing to fulfill the Jewish Scriptures and Luke is writing to fulfill the Greco-Roman myth. Each writer seems to have different incentives, showing that they wanted to write something that would appeal to potential readers (77-79). When Norm visited the site where Jesus’ birth place was represented, it seems odd that the space had marble and silver creating the scene (89).This is not something that is mentioned in the Bible and serves as a way to honor Jesus. Over the years it seems that Jesus as become someone of great status, which the Bible does not depict him as.

Part I

Chapter 3 begins with Norm’s preparation to travel to Bethlehem. Before his journey he decided it was important to review and evaluate the differences between Matthew and Luke’s version of Jesus’s birth and where Mary’s virginity fits into all of this. After an email exchange with his professor, Norm begins to piece together all of the parallels between the gospels of Matthew and Luke’s and the Old Testament and begins to wonder whether ideas were taken from other sources to create their Gospels. Norm also questions whether or not Mary truly was a virgin.

Part II

I found this chapter to be the most controversial and interesting yet. Just with the birth alone, Norm brought up many ideas I had never thought of questioning. Norm begins by questioning the reliability of Jesus’s birth story and whether or not he was illegitimate. Once Norm had gathered all of his thoughts he sent an email to his professor to help him figure out where to start. In Guilder’s response to Norm’s email, I found it interesting that the earliest sources (Paul and Mark) said nothing about Jesus’s birth and the idea that Mary was a virgin. Knowing that the two earliest sources didn’t mention something so foundational to Christianity is a little troubling. Throughout the rest of the chapter Norm struggles to figure out whether or not Mary was a virgin or if this may have been added to cover up a rape or sex out side of marriage. This idea too is very disturbing to Norm and myself. Questioning the Holy Spirit and that Jesus’s birth was a miracle born from the virgin Mary means questioning the foundation of Christianity and therefore means questioning Christianity all together. 

Part 1

This chapter tackles the Christmas story.  Norm begins the search for Jesus as the Son of God with the similarities and differences of the birth narrative in Matthew and Luke (77-79).  Through emails with Guilder, Norm unearths the other parallels of the birth narrative in Greek and Pagan culture.  Norm asks Guilder if “did a virgin give birth”, the answer is that there are too many skeptical opposition points: silence of the birth story from Paul and Mark, different paths by Matthew and Luke, Greek parallels, and legitimacy (81-82).  Norm visits the spots on the Bethlehem pilgrim itinerary from the Church of the Nativity to cave where Jesus supposedly took his first breathe (88-90).  After visiting the sites, he smokes a water pipe with professors and students about the history and legend behind the Christmas story.  He concludes that perhaps Matthew and Luke “scripturized history or historicized prophecy” (98).  They used their artistic freedom to take historical reality but twist it to Old Testament parallels for instance Jesus as the new Moses.

Part 2

Norm concludes that “perhaps there were layers to the virgin birth as well: historical, literary, traditional, theological.”  He questions whether if Jesus’s conception was normal it would change his perspective on Jesus and the Gospels (85).  We talked about this metaphor of religious scholars and experts peel back certain layers to define and interpret figures and events of the Bible.  This line is a great summary of Norm’s purpose of his quest.  Each of those four layers are lenses of perspective to view not only the virgin birth, but everything.  As a far as how a “normal conception” would affect my opinion of Jesus, his status becomes less important.  The virgin birth sets Jesus above human and makes Jesus divine.  If not historical, the Gospel writers certainly wanted to use that literary addition of the virgin birth to elevate Jesus to God’s son not an ordinary baby.  Normal conception would degrade Jesus to average and not extraordinary, which the Gospels and Christians speak of Jesus as.

Part I
                 
     Chapter 3 begins when Fisk starts on a journey to Bethlehem, but only after reviewing the similarities and differences of the birth narratives in the Gospels (Mathew and Luke). One of the first theological questions that arise is one that concerns whether the virgin birth is historically supported. While Mathew and Luke have some overlapping details, the majority of their narrative
is conflicting. Guilder provides insight that Mathew and Luke wanted to portray Jesus from their own perspective. Fisk learns that perhaps Mathew aims at portraying Jesus as Moses and that’s why he includes various Old Testament parallels in his stories. Guilder explains to Fisk that it is a possibility that Mathew intended for the reader to not dwell on facts, but to understand them
metaphorically in order to receive Mathew’s message about Jesus. By the end of the chapter Fisk realizes that the Gospels are possibly meant to be interpreted as part biography, part novel, and part sermon.

 Part II
                 
     When Fisk first begins his synopsis on the comparison of the birth narratives in Mathew and Luke, he set up tables to show comparisons/differences which I found much easier to follow and understand (77-79). It was also insightful to learn that maybe some aspects of the Gospels aren’t meant to be taken literally because then the significance of the story becomes distorted.
Another aspect that shocked me was the speculation of the possibility that Jesus was an illegitimate child (82). The reader can only imagine how that would drastically influence Christianity if it was proven that Jesus was not born from a virgin (85). Modred explains an aspect of artistic freedom that story tellers’ use makes sense to me because it explains that the Gospel writers wanted to draw the audience in while assuring that the moral of the story was successfully understood (92-93).

Part I
        In this chapter of his journey, Norm takes on the topic of Jesus’ birth as he travels to Bethlehem. He looks first to the birth stories in Matthew and Luke for comparison (77-79), noting that there are two key differences in their stories: 1) the itinerary of the holy family and 2) the central character in each (Joseph in Matthew and Mary in Luke). Still, Norm notes that there is no obvious borrowing in either direction, so the ideas they are sharing must be older than either of them (78). Norm then centers his focus on the controversial topic of the virgin birth. Norm’s professor, Guilder, offers several reasons to doubt the idea of the virgin birth: silence in Paul and Mark, different paths in Matthew and Luke, parallels to Greek mythology, and attempts to refute rumors of illegitimacy (81-83), which Norm then counters with ideas of his own (84). Norm spends the remainder of his time in Bethlehem countering and weighing ideas with some fellow theologians he meets along the way (92-99). Again the challenge of discerning history from story is presented. With many parallels to the Old Testament, the historical facts behind Jesus’ (especially his birth) are questioned, which leaves us to ask the question: Do the Gospels scripturize history or historicize prophecy (98)?
 
Part II 
        The exchange between Norm and Guilder illustrates the challenge of examining the historical Jesus. Both Norm and Guilder look at the same material, with much common knowledge, and draw conclusions in two different directions. Guilder argues that there was not a virgin birth and perhaps Christians borrowed ideas from Greek mythology (81), while Norm points to the Hebrew tradition of miracle births in the Old Testament which leaves Mary’s pregnancy Jewish themed (84). This shows that with lack of historical fact, much of the details of historical Jesus are left up to personal interpretation. Later in the chapter, the similarities of Jesus’ birth and Moses’ birth and Israel and Jesus are noted (94, 97). Initially Norm believes that this proves the Gospels care more about allusion than reality, however one of the professors notes that the borrowing isn’t to distort reality but rather to add weight to the present (97-98). 

Part 1

Norman picks up his journey at a stop in the city of Hebron on his way to Bethlehem. Here Norm reviews the birth stories in the books of Matthew and Luke noting both parallels and differences between the stories of the books. Pondering the differences intrigues him to email Guilder asking him his personal take on the birth stories. Like many biblical scholars, Guilder dismisses the idea of Jesus being born of a virgin and notes his reasons for that conclusion. Norm then goes to Bethlehem to the Church of the Nativity. He describes how it has been transformed from the original nativity scene and how the cave has been face lifted into a sanctuary of sorts. After taking a tour of the birth place, Norm travels to the Deheisheh refugee camp outside of town. There he meets a group of American professors, students, and filmmakers.

Part 2

Norm is bothered by the differences in the birth story between Matthew and Luke. Norm, Conrad, Max, Modred, Hani discuss this topic over smoking. The conversation is intriguing because it portrays an idea that many people have including myself: Matthew and Luke told the same story, but had several different points they wanted to make. Modred makes a great analogy saying that they “hold their cameras at different angles” (93). Matthew seems to be directing his work to Jewish Christians. He opens his book with the genealogy of Jesus to show how Jesus comes from the family of David and Abraham. This shows how Jesus fulfills Old Testament prophecy which happens to one of his common themes. On the other hand, Luke is not so much worried about the ties to scripture. His focus is more or less on Jesus being the savior and him bringing salvation to the world. I feel like they had different opinions on what should have been included. Some things, mostly minor details, were simply important to Matthew and not to Luke. Vice versa.