GOSPEL CHRISTOLOGY PAPER ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

Your task in this assignment is toexperience the Gospel writers portrayal of Jesus as the story unfoldsbefore you. Keep in mind that the assignment is not to write about who youunderstand Jesus to be in your Gospel, but rather to identify and describe whoyour Gospel writer understood Jesus to be based on the way he tells hisstory of Jesus. In so doing, it is best to read the Gospel all the way throughat one time, as you would a story or short novel, rather than randomlyshuffling through the story looking for particular scenes or passages orverses, the very act of which will disrupt the flow of the story and cause youto miss the Gospel writers portrayal of Jesus. If you prefer, you can listento the Gospel read on DVD or MP3. In some ways, listening to the story ispreferable to reading it because the Gospels were stories written more forthe ear than the eye (remember, many in the ancient world could not read,and even if they could, books were too expensive to own a personal copy). Asyou read or listen to your Gospel, jot down your impressions of Jesus as hisportrait emerges in the story. Try to isolate the single, centralChristological image or role your Gospel writer uses to describe Jesus; forexample, Messiah (or Christ), Son of Man, Son of God, Miracle Worker, Teacher, theNew Moses, the Suffering Servant, the Prophet, the Word (logos of God), andso forth. Be sure that you are identifying a Christological title,and not just an emphasis of your Gospel. For example, everyone recognizes thatLuke portrays Jesus as compassionate, but merely being compassionate, in and ofitself, is not Christological. That could be said of lots of people whohad no Messianic pretensions or aspirations. Also, while there may be multipleChristological images employed at times in your Gospel, your task is toidentify and explore the single Christological image that seems to youto dominate the writers view of Jesus. That is, you must explore oneChristological image in your Gospel, not multiple images. There is nosingle right answer for which the instructor is looking. You can choose anyChristological title you can defend from the text of your Gospel, butyou must defend your choice by appeal to the text of your assigned Gospel.
Once you have isolated the Christological portrait of Jesus you believe yourGospel writer employs, test your hypothesis against the experts by comparingyour Christological interpretation with the scholarly commentaries on yourGospel. However, do not consult the commentaries until you have read yourGospel through and come to your own conclusions about its Christology. Finally,write a paper explaining and defending your Christological interpretation ofJesus in your Gospel.
Students will be assigned a Gospelbased on the first letter of their last names: A-F (Matthew), G-L (Mark), M-R(Luke), S-Z (John).
      Thesis statement: The paper musthave a thesis statement clearly identifying which Christological image of Jesuswill be defend, e.g., The thesis of this paper is that Mark portrays Jesus asthe Son of God.
      Length of assignment: Not less than ten(10) and not more than fifteen (15) pages in length, double-spaced, excludingtitle page, contents page, and bibliography.
      Format of Assignment: Turabian,current edition. References to the biblical text may be included in the body ofthe paper with parenthetical citations, but all other sources must havefootnotes and a bibliography of all sources cited in the paper.
      Number of citations: The papershould interact in detail with the four Gospels. While you must work chiefly withthe biblical text (your Gospel), you must consult at least five (5) scholarlysources as conversation partners with whom to test your ideas.
       Acceptablesources:  Bible, recent scholarlysources, textbooks, and course presentations. Preference should be given to academiccommentaries on the Gospels. Internet sources require the instructors priorapproval.
Note: Yourassignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.