Today's class, in which we compared the Passion narratives of John, Luke and Mark, I found myself a little skeptical of what I consider the true Passion story. I raised my hand about two events in particular that I've always considered a part of the narrative, that were not in any of the three texts that we analyzed. Both the wiping of the face of Jesus by Veronica, and the saga of Jesus falling three times while carrying the cross. Before raising my hand to ask where these parts of the traditional story were found in the text, I assumed that they were hidden in the Gospel of Matthew, that we did not read in class. However, after asking and receiving the answer that they were not explicitly stated in any of the four texts, I felt a little bit duped. I had always considered Veronica wiping the face of Jesus and the struggle of Jesus carrying the cross to be vital and explicit parts of the Passion narrative, but how could I possibly believe this if they weren't stated in the Gospels themselves?
Of course this is a macro-question and one that cannot be fully answered in a blog post, but, how do we know, that is those of us who believe in this tradition in the first place, what really happened? If not in the text, did it happen? Can we be better than Thomas and believe without seeing?
Much of what believers practice and understand to be true, is not actually in the Bible, but perhaps an extension of what is written. Through much textual analysis and fitting together the puzzle pieces of what the bible does cover, many believers have passed down those beliefs through the centuries. These 'traditions" have evolved into what is believed to be true. Are these traditions and stories passed proof enough?
Veronica's wiping of the face of Christ and the three falls of Jesus while carrying the cross are only two examples of these instances that many believe is a concrete evidential "parts of the story." Although I felt duped to uncover that these details were not mentioned anywhere, it has called my attention to the importance of Tradition.
Does anyone have examples of anything else that was not explicitly mentioned in a Bible story but is a belief of a denomination of Christianity?
Hey Julia, this is really interesting! I can see how this would really stress the importance of Tradition in Christianity. Your post reminds me of something that I learned last year in my Church History class which is: there is no explicit mention of Hell in the Bible. This fact is often contested because the New Testament has a handful of references to what we assume is Hell. For example, Matthew's gospel mentions "eternal punishment" and "eternal fire." Even so, you will seldom find the term "hell" in the New Testament, if at all.
ReplyDeleteLastly, if you simply google "what is hell?" you will find many different Christian interpretations, even within the same denomination! This has me asking similar questions to yours. How can we be sure of what it is if it's not explicitly written down? Is our understanding of hell Tradition or embellishment?
The point about Hell is very interesting. I took a class my senior year of high school specifically about hell. We discussed Dante's book Inferno which basically divided hell into 9 circles. Each sin had a specific level and its own punishment. Oddly enough, the worst circle where Satan lived was all ice. Anyways I think this is interesting because after this (which was written in the 14th century) artists attempted to paint hell and people got a certain image in their mind. Just as Rayven said, there are no specifics about hell in the Bible. So I think a lot of this does have to do with tradition. I was also talking about this topic with my friend and she mentioned that recently one of her Bible study instructors actually interpreted hell as a dark place where the sinner is alone for eternity. I think once artists got a chance to paint the image of hell people got that in their minds and now it is just a place that people imagine through artists' interpretations.
ReplyDeleteLove it. Yes, there are multiple interpretations of what "hell" means. Even early Christians disagreed about it. And in Jewish tradition there really isn't any notion of hell or even heaven.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post. I for one, had never heard of Veronica wiping Jesus' face, despite having grown up in an extremely religious community/school. So I think it's interesting that some traditions may teach that while some leave it out. The point about Hell is something I've wondered about a lot, particularly this year. One of my friends here is a Christian, but doesn't believe in Hell, as his tradition denies it's existence. I think there are so many interpretations of Hell that it's hard to pin down what it exactly is or is not. Also I think it's interesting that we have "proof" of heaven (people claiming to have died, gone to heaven, and come back, ex: Heaven is for Real, 90 minutes in Heaven, etc.), but we have no proof of Hell. As far as I know, no one has gone to Hell and come back to tell about it. And I think the whole concept of Hell comes from basic human constructs. The idea of Hell functions to motivate people towards God. So despite the fact that it may or may not exist, the idea that it COULD exist is enough to drive people towards divine devotion.
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