WELCOME TO GOSPEL READING
The Purpose of this Project
My aim is to help you to read the Gospels, carefully and well.
With good observation on your part and some guidance on my part, I hope to encourage you to discover the four Gospels for yourself.
There are many sites offering reflections on the Gospels.
My aim rather is to open up your own reading of the Gospels, for you to discover what is there, not what we think is there.
Each Gospel can present the same story in notably different ways. Often though, one evangelist's version is dominant and so we are often not aware of the variations, that the evangelists can use the same story for different purposes.
An example: Jesus walking on the water
As a dramatic example of the different ways the same story can be used, let us take the story of Jesus walking on the water.
Read Matthew 14,22- 33: this is probably the more familiar account for most of us.
Now read Mark chapter 6, verses 45 to 52 (Mk 6,45-52).
Two important differences will I hope stand out. What are they? Can you think of any reason for them?
When ready, please go to the separate page with my response.
Throughout this project, please try to resist the temptation to look at my response until you have completed your own reading and exploration.
Where Next?
Looking at story of the walking on the water has been I hope a simple taste of how there is often more to familiar stories than we might realise.
Already we have had an introduction to the idea that each evangelist uses stories about Jesus in his own way and for his own purposes.
I hope therefore to take this much further by giving you a "hands-on" experience of reading the Gospels. Over a period of time, we will build up a better understanding of what each evangelist has to tell us about Jesus and what it means to be his follower.
In this year of reading the Gospel of Mark on Sundays, I am reading the Gospel based on the Sunday passages. This I introduce in more detail with The Gospel of Mark
Background and The Gospels
The pages on Background tell you something about the basis of this project. Included here is the relevant teaching of the Church.
In the pages on The Gospels I look at our presuppositions in reading the Gospels today.
John chapter 20
ACCESS
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The site has been built using Firefox. If you do not have this browser, I recommend that you download it from www.mozilla.com
FEEDBACK, please
FINALLY, for this welcome, feedback is all important. If this website is to fulfil its purpose, I need to know if it is being helpful to you. Please let me know your questions and comments right from the beginning.
My e-mail is patrick@gospelreading.co.uk