Part I
Chapter three of A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jesus concentrates on the subject of Jesus’ birth and family descent. Norm struggles to decipher the truth when reading the birth narratives of the Gospels due to the authors’ ‘creativity’ when writing. Norm dissects the birth narratives and discovers two main differences: 1) The “itinerary of the holy family” (where they began before Jesus’ birth and where how they ended up in Nazareth) differs between the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (79), and 2) The concentration of different main characters; Matt. focuses on Joseph, while Luke focuses on Mary (79). Norm seeks the opinions of many on this subject including his professor Guilder, and a group of fellow travelers in Israel.
Part II
Throughout the chapter Norm creates many charts that point out the similarities and differences between the stories of Jesus’ birth and the holy family. Norm questions the long accepted idea that Jesus was born a ‘virgin birth’ and seeks the aid of his professor Guilder to help him discover the truth. Guilder lays out four notions of skepticism behind Mary’s virginity which state that there is little known about Jesus’ birth, the stories retold in the Gospels express different versions of Jesus’ virginal birth, birth from a virgin has ties to ancient Greece, and that New Testament accounts could simply be trying to counteract rumors of “Jesus’ illegitimacy” (81-82). Another big question that haunts Norm is the idea of the census which, in Luke, guided the holy family to Bethlehem. Norm discovers that there are no plausible historical facts behind Luke’s census, although he is not completely convinced that Luke made it up entirely. This chapter ends with Norm’s realization that his quest for the historical Jesus is not without the literary exploration of the Gospels, as he sets out in search for a better understanding of their intentions.
Chapter three of A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jesus concentrates on the subject of Jesus’ birth and family descent. Norm struggles to decipher the truth when reading the birth narratives of the Gospels due to the authors’ ‘creativity’ when writing. Norm dissects the birth narratives and discovers two main differences: 1) The “itinerary of the holy family” (where they began before Jesus’ birth and where how they ended up in Nazareth) differs between the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (79), and 2) The concentration of different main characters; Matt. focuses on Joseph, while Luke focuses on Mary (79). Norm seeks the opinions of many on this subject including his professor Guilder, and a group of fellow travelers in Israel.
Part II
Throughout the chapter Norm creates many charts that point out the similarities and differences between the stories of Jesus’ birth and the holy family. Norm questions the long accepted idea that Jesus was born a ‘virgin birth’ and seeks the aid of his professor Guilder to help him discover the truth. Guilder lays out four notions of skepticism behind Mary’s virginity which state that there is little known about Jesus’ birth, the stories retold in the Gospels express different versions of Jesus’ virginal birth, birth from a virgin has ties to ancient Greece, and that New Testament accounts could simply be trying to counteract rumors of “Jesus’ illegitimacy” (81-82). Another big question that haunts Norm is the idea of the census which, in Luke, guided the holy family to Bethlehem. Norm discovers that there are no plausible historical facts behind Luke’s census, although he is not completely convinced that Luke made it up entirely. This chapter ends with Norm’s realization that his quest for the historical Jesus is not without the literary exploration of the Gospels, as he sets out in search for a better understanding of their intentions.
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