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.
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.
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