Transcript PowerPoint - Quodvultdeus

Is Mark’s Gospel reliable?
Can we trust his
information is correct?.
YES
He heard the stories first hand from Peter –
Jesus’ closest disciple, as he travelled with him
on missionary journeys
•Write down 2 points for each side why
Mark’s information is or is not reliable.
•Complete your points
•Write your own opinion
NO
He was not actually one of the disciples and did
not see everything Jesus did himself
He heard the stories in the language they
were told in by Jesus - in Aramaic
He might have remembered Peter’s stories
inaccurately, or Peter might have got things mixed
up
He himself knew the disciples, might have met
Jesus (last supper in mother’s house)
He might have translated badly, as his Greek was
not very good
He eyewitnessed some events himself eg
arrest in the garden -the young man who ran
away naked
He might not be the same Mark who travelled
with Peter
Rome and the
Early Christians
• To describe what life was like for
the early Christians in 1st
century Rome
• To explain why Romans were
suspicious of Christians
• To explain why Mark’s gospel
was written at this time
Read p.
1. What was Rome like in the 1st Century?
• Culturally/ racially
• Religions practiced
**What would be the average Roman’s view
of a Christian?
"Therefore, to stop the rumour that he had set Rome
on fire, he [Emperor Nero] falsely charged with guilt,
and punished with the most fearful tortures, the
persons commonly called Christians, who were
generally hated for their enormities.
..but the evil religion broke out yet again through the
city of Rome.
Accordingly the first to be arrested, were those who
confessed they were Christians… [and they were
charged] not so much on the charge of burning the
city, as of "hating the human race."
In their very deaths they were made the subjects of
sport: for they were covered with the hides of wild
beasts, and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to
crosses, or set fire to, and when the day waned,
burned to serve for the evening lights. Nero offered
his own garden players for the spectacle.
For this cause a feeling of compassion arose
towards the sufferers, though guilty and deserving of
exemplary capital punishment, because they seemed
not to be cut off for the public good, but were
victims of the ferocity of one man."
The Roman
historian Tacitus
wrote the
following, in his
book Annals a few
years after Nero
set fire to Rome
(AD 116).
Watch the video and answer
the questions:
1. Who started the
persecution of Christians
in AD 64? Why?
2. What happened to
them?
3. Why did the Romans
hate Christians? Read
p.22 and find 5 reasons.
**Which reason do you think
motivated Mark the
most?
Mark’s Gospel was written…
• From faith, for faith…
• For the Romans …
• For the Christians..
•
Why could suspicion of Christians be a
reason for Mark writing his gospel?
•
How could the gospel help Christians being
persecuted?
Christians Are Not Dangerous!