Part I
Norm spends the first portion of this chapter in the baths of Siloam where Jesus supposedly restored a blind man’s vision. Norm ponders whether or not the location was chosen in order for others to see the miracle in which Jesus was performing or if it had some other significance. He also debates the role saliva played in both John and Mark’s story. Norm then takes his journey to Tiberias where he tackles the feeding of the masses miracles. We get Guilder’s input and comparisons of Old Testament miracles of feeding the masses as well as the parallels between these stories and the last supper. Norm also uses an old fishing boat to explain how the same story could have been portrayed for two different audiences, which could alter the meaning and some of the content of the story. He then moves on to continue his trek around the Sea of Galilee area, including Jesus’s “home base” of Capernaum where he sees the supposed house of Paul.
Part II
A major point in this chapter for me was the different interpretations of the walking on water miracle that Jesus performed on the Sea of Galilee. Norm’s statement that perhaps Matthew and Mark used the factual story of Jesus’s sea voyage where Matthew wants to depict the disciples as good followers and Mark to depict them as blind to who Jesus really was.
One fact that I took from this chapter, while seemingly of little relevance, was the possible reason that Jesus worked out of Capernaum. We learn from Jonathon Reed, through Norm, that Capernaum had a strategic location in the fact that it was close to the edge of Herod’s controlled territory. Following John the Baptist’s beheading, it would have been in Jesus’s best interests to be able to slip out of Herod’s territory should he come looking for Jesus (134).
Norm spends the first portion of this chapter in the baths of Siloam where Jesus supposedly restored a blind man’s vision. Norm ponders whether or not the location was chosen in order for others to see the miracle in which Jesus was performing or if it had some other significance. He also debates the role saliva played in both John and Mark’s story. Norm then takes his journey to Tiberias where he tackles the feeding of the masses miracles. We get Guilder’s input and comparisons of Old Testament miracles of feeding the masses as well as the parallels between these stories and the last supper. Norm also uses an old fishing boat to explain how the same story could have been portrayed for two different audiences, which could alter the meaning and some of the content of the story. He then moves on to continue his trek around the Sea of Galilee area, including Jesus’s “home base” of Capernaum where he sees the supposed house of Paul.
Part II
A major point in this chapter for me was the different interpretations of the walking on water miracle that Jesus performed on the Sea of Galilee. Norm’s statement that perhaps Matthew and Mark used the factual story of Jesus’s sea voyage where Matthew wants to depict the disciples as good followers and Mark to depict them as blind to who Jesus really was.
One fact that I took from this chapter, while seemingly of little relevance, was the possible reason that Jesus worked out of Capernaum. We learn from Jonathon Reed, through Norm, that Capernaum had a strategic location in the fact that it was close to the edge of Herod’s controlled territory. Following John the Baptist’s beheading, it would have been in Jesus’s best interests to be able to slip out of Herod’s territory should he come looking for Jesus (134).
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