Maad Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Maad - Essay Example 2. Rather than engaging with the story of Jonah in the literal sense, early Christians, as exhibited in the New Testament books of Matthew and Luke, understood the story of Jonah to be typological. In this way, Jonah represented a type of â€Å"Christ† which was in the belly of the whale for a period of 3 days just as Christ was in the belly of the earth, the grave, for a total period of 3 days time. A further identification with the story of Jonah is the way in which Christ himself compared his earthly ministry and the generation he witnessed to as similar to that of the inhabitants of Nineveh. This typification was carried out in a number of ways and was a means whereby the early Christians were able to coalesce the story of the Messiah with the Old Testament typifications that are so prevalent throughout Judaism. 3. With regards to the means by which early Christians interpreted the story of Isaac and Abraham in the Old Testament, this too was similar to the typification th at has been briefly discussed in question 2 with relation to the early Christian interpretation of Jonah. ... 4. The distinctive features of the gospels can be inferred as something of the differing levels of approach that each provides with relation to understanding a further nuance of Christ’s earthly ministry. As such, each of these stands as a means of providing a more complete picture of Christ’s earthly ministry by casting it Him as a Savior, a Servant, a Son of God, and the Son of Man. These features were useful for the early Christian movement to develop a full and nuanced interpretation of Christ rather than a one-dimensional approach which had so often been elaborated upon in the Old Testament. 5. The key differential that exists within theology and the understanding and application of historical truth versus mathematical truth relates to the means by which the believer seeks to integrate a more full and complete understanding of the way in which past experience and certain events of the Old Testament can or should be quantified or understood within the historical con text that they were originally written to integrate with. As with any form of theological form of understanding this is concentric upon trying to utilize a new approach to what can be considered a historical context. 6. The most powerful reason for this historical approach to the fact that many Christians believe the Christ physically rose from the dead on Easter Sunday is most closely related to the fact that the Passover and the feasts associated with it can descernably be linked to a specific date and time. As such, the early Christian tradition of Easter Sunday as emblematic of the day in which Christ rose from the dead is much more than adherence to blind tradition; rather it is a marker that can firmly and rationally be defined as a set point in time that is