Part 1
In chapter six of A Hitchhikers Guide to Jesus, Norm tries to understand Jesus’ death.  He visits multiple places during this journey including Mount of Olives where Jesus is seen in the New Testament preaching to his disciples and weeping over Jerusalem.  The weeping story can be connected to the Old Testament story about David as he wept going up the mountain.  Another major gospel story Norm touches on in the donkey ride.  This story is compared to Zachariah and Soloman in the Old Testament.  There are not only similarities in the Testaments but differences in the gospels (193-200).  Each has a different remembrance of the Last Supper.  Lastly the chapter ends with the contemplation of why Judas betrays Jesus. 
 
Part 2
There has been a lot of talk by Norm comparing New Testament stories to Old Testament stories.  Going a chapter back he makes the inference that maybe the gospel writers wrote down there stories than compared them to the Old Testament.  In this chapter, Norm gives us reference to the idea that the Old Testament gives the gospel writers inspiration.  An example is given where Matthew and John have very similar passages (195).  These gospel writers are inspired to compare Jesus to old heroes.

Part I

    In this chapter, Norm’s journey brings him to the question of Jesus’s death and resurrection. His entire passion story is investigated by Norm, who is still trying to decipher through the Gospels and other sources who Jesus really was.  Jesus is compared to many previous persons in this chapter: Lazarus, Solomon, Jeremiah, and even Pilate at one point concerning his entrance into Jerusalem via donkey.  The main point is this: did Jesus really rise from the dead or not?  Other main points include the significance of the predictions Jesus made about the destruction of the temple and the portrayal of Jesus’s death as told by the Gospel authors.  Norm’s struggle, as always, comes down to the fine line one must walk when reading the Gospels and considering what is truth and what is fabrication to make Jesus into a figure a faith could be proud of following.

Part II

    I find Jesus’s death and resurrection to be a very interesting topic. Obviously, at least to modern thinkers, one cannot die and then come back to life. If you do you are a zombie, or some other ridiculous theories.  So how did Jesus do it?  Or did he even do it at all?  Was the entire story of his rising from the dead made up completely by the Gospel writers in order to depict Jesus as the Messiah?  Clearly this is a touchy subject because if it is proven that Jesus never rose from the dead and the Gospel authors fabricated that in order to make Jesus a figure to worship, the entire Christian faith would crumble. Jesus would turn from a symbol of hope for salvation into an average man.  At worst, Jesus would be seen as simply a political figure who was put to death for defying the Roman emperor.  Practically the entire argument of faith vs. historical research rests on the truth of the passion story.

Part I

In chapter 6 Norm continues his journey on finding historical Jesus by evaluating the later part of Jesus’s life, right up to his death. Nom first travels to Mt. Olives where he looks at a story that shows many similarities between Jesus and Lazarus. (189) He finds 4 similarities between the two and is very perplexed. Norm then goes on about whether or not Jesus’s arrival on a donkey was a political movement or not. The final section focuses on Judas and his betrayal to Jesus and discusses the disciples at the last supper. (220-227)

Part II

I thought it was interesting that Jesus in a sense predicts his death through another person and story. There were so many similarities between the 2 stories it is hard to deny the evidence. I also found it strange that scholars would mix Jesus and politics. I had never heard of or considered Jesus doing anything in relation to politics. 

Part I

            In the sixth chapter to A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jesus, the bold topic of rising the dead is discussed, one of Jesus’s miracles (188). In the book of Luke many of Jesus’s stories take place in Jerusalem; Norm visits the window that shows a view of the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (191-193). Norm looks at parallels in the Bible of the coming of the king and how this affects his status according to his people (195-200).  Norm also travels to the Temple Mount where he Jesus role in this location as he walked around the Temple and also a section on intertextually of God’s temple (200-207). Norm also evaluates how the people were presuming on grace; Jesus calls them a “Den of robbers” in his disappointment (211).  Norm takes a look at Judas’s life on earth and also with the Passover meal comparisons (214, 221).

Part II

John is written from a perspective of understanding, believing, and living; therefore written like a novel (188). John becomes very factual with his wording, taken from Luke’s Gospel which is written as a story. With John’s process of understanding, we can see something Mark’s gospel does not have; the flow of stories without seeming as negative as Mark’s version of Jesus. This makes John’s gospel more believable because it writes stories in a textual twist which is very “matter of fact.” It seems odd that Jesus wanted to have his status as Christ kept quiet, yet he is called other high status names such as king as Norm points out in his parallel of the gospels, Zechariah, and Solomon (195-200). With many unclear issues that come from Judas, it is interesting that the Bible does not make it a priority to set Judas’s happenings strait because of his status in the Bible.

Part I

In the sixth chapter of Fisk’s book Norm travels to the Mount of Olives.  The main topic of the chapter is the passion story of Jesus.  Norm discusses the resurrection of Lazarus and notices how it was different from both the window’s son and Jairus’s daughter seeing as only Lazarus was dead for more then a day (188).  Norm then looks at the similarities between Jesus and Solomon’s descent into Jerusalem.  Norm stated that some saw Jesus’s donkey ride as a reenactment of Solomon’s inaugural descent (200).  The last section of the chapter discussed Judas’ death and why he betrayed Jesus with the last supper details. 

Part II

Jesus riding the donkey into Jerusalem causes a big scene and may have been the spark to light the flame, which led to Jesus’ eventual crucifixion.  The parallels between Jesus and Solomon was interesting and really made me wonder if Jesus was just following the way Solomon had done it.  The differences in the last supper stories intrigued me.  Only in Matthew was Jesus’ death referred to as an offering for sin (226).  Only in Mark did Jesus have his disciples drink the wine before he says it is his blood (226).  

Part I
    In chapter six of A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jesus, Norm travels to the Mount of Olives and Jerusalem. We don’t quite learn about the death of Jesus yet, but we start to learn about everything that leads up to his death. We learn about the possible parallels between Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem on the donkey and the chosen son of David who claimed the thrown by riding a donkey (199). Another topic Norm covers deals with Judas and his betrayal to Jesus and Judas’ controversial death (213-220). Along with all of that Norm talks about Jesus’ trip to the temple where he overturns tables (203-205).

Part II
    Like I mentioned above everything that is going on in this chapter is preparing to lead us up to Jesus’ death. All four gospels include the table turning “in the temple” so this shows that this was a key point in the story. Jesus does this to prove his point about those exploiting the holy space and that he does not agree with what’s going on. Norm has a lot of questions that he wishes he could ask Judas. The thing that stuck out most in this chapter to me was about Judas and his betrayal to Jesus and also Judas’ death.  Today there is still no answer for how Judas dies since both Matthew and Acts describe it so differently. Did Judas fall to his death or hang himself?

Part I
     In chapter 6 of A Hitchhikers Guide to Jesus, Norm continues on his journey landing on the subject of Jesus’ death.   He travels to the Mount of Olives where he finds symmetry between Lazarus and Jesus (189).  Norm mentions four ways where there are similarities between the two.  Jesus foresees both Lazarus’s death and his own, a woman named Mary weeks in Jesus’s presence, a stone must be moved to let Lazarus out, and the story highlights Lazarus’s grave clothes (189).  To end the chapter, Norm examines the last supper to find out if it was actually a Passover meal, or if it had not begun until after Jesus was crucified (221-227).

Part II
    I thought it was very interesting in this chapter when Norm pointed out the parallels between Jesus and Lazarus.  I never realized or thought about the foreshadowing with Lazarus even though I have studied both previously.

Part I
        This chapter follows the final days of Jesus’ life, and offers many parallels to Old Testament stories. The chapter opens with Norm watching the sunrise on the Mount of Olives and comparing Jesus’ raising from the dead to that of Lazarus (187-189). Norm then questions Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem and compares it to Solomon’s ride into Jerusalem (199-200) saying that it may have been a political statement (197). Next, Norm travels to the Temple that he notes as “political and theological Ground Zero” (202) for Christians, Muslims, and Jews. He thinks back on Jesus’ turning tables in the temple and notices parallels to Jeremiah’s call for national repentance in the Old Testament (209-211). Finally, Norm notices comparisons between the Judas narrative in Matthew and stories from the Prophets, specifically the story of Ahithopel who backed an anti-David coup (218). Norm notes that this is another example of the Gospel writers interpreting history through the lens of Scripture (219).

Part II                                                     
        Norm acknowledges that John’s historical agenda in writing his Gospel is not for every detail to be completely factual in the modern sense. He doesn’t want us to just know what happened, he wants us to understand and believe it (189). This is an important fact to remember when trying to find historical Jesus. Gospel writers did not write with the intentions of throwing fact after fact at us. While faith and oral tradition were enough for them, factual proof has become a modern necessity. This is why the Gospel writers saw no harm in adding their personal interpretations to their historical accounts (220).  Not only did they want to convict others that Jesus’ suffering was part of God’s plan, but they also wanted to create a way to cope with the difficult situations that they were faced with (220). 

_Part I

In chapter six, Norm begins his study of the passion story which he describes as “a detective’s nightmare” (186).  He first mentions previous occurrences of resuscitation, specifically about Lazarus.  He also wonders why such a seemingly monumental even was neglected by three of the four writers of the Gospels (188).  The next question Norm asks is about the meaning behind Jesus’s procession in Jerusalem and how the donkey may have been a parody of Pilate’s military parade, but seemed implausible due to strict disciplinary actions against anti-Roman displays (194-195).  More information on the procession is given when Norm compares Jesus’s ride to that of Solomon (199-200).  Once in the temple, Norm compares the Gospels to each other about Jesus’s turning of the tables in the temple.  He concludes that the most significant factor they all share is that this event almost certainly took place in the temple.  Norm then compares Jesus’s actions to those of Jeremiah and the significance of Jesus’s predictions of the destruction of the temple (209-213).  Judas’s death is the next point Norm discusses along with how it was conveyed by early Christian writers (215-220).  The last portion of the chapter discusses how Jesus could have been portraying himself as the “new Passover Lamb” harkening back to the Passover story in Egypt (220-227).

Part II

This chapter presented a different perspective to me that was something I had never considered; the political implications and overtones of Jesus.  While I had considered the theory that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet, much like John the Baptist, the fact that he may have been somewhat of a political activist had never really crossed my mind.  As Fisk says, if Jesus’s ride on a donkey had been remotely anti-Roman in its purpose, why would he not be immediately arrested rather than allowed to proceed on through the temple, especially with the heightened fear of rebellion against the Romans?

Part I
                 
     Chapter 6 of A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jesus is concerned with Norm’s questions on the Last Supper and the Temple. Norm journeys to the Mount of Olives to watch the sun rise; this is where he connects the death of Lazarus with foreshadowing his own death in three ways: 1) a woman named Mary weeps in Jesus’ presence; 2) a stone must be moved to let Lazarus out; 3) the story highlights Lazarus’s grave clothes. Norm reaches the Dominus Flevit, where he realizes the significance of the city of Jerusalem being the object of the clear window and the burden Jesus carried as the city, and his death, become visible. The next subject of Norm’s questions is the similarity between Jesus’ descent into Jerusalem and Solomon’s descent into Jerusalem. Towards the end of the chapter Norm discusses different aspects of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus and of the Last Supper.

 Part II
                 
     I found this chapter to contain an overwhelming amount of questions. The first question that caught my attention was when Norm addresses why Jesus chose to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, and whether or not it was for political reasons (194-200). Another intriguing thought that Norm seems to bring up is the controversial nature of discriminating against certain people in a religious place; he is referring to the Temple Mount Al Aqsa and how non-Muslims are banned from particular areas of the temple (201-209). I found a humorous parallel between Norm breaking the law by reading the Bible and the fact that Norm was reading about people in the Bible who were breaking laws (208-213). I thought it was interesting that Norm looks at a variety of possibilities for what Judas did and then concluded that it must not have been bribery alone that would have turned a disciple into a traitor (215).