the bible writers and their perceptions

Matthew must have been detailed. He liked to deal with taxes. He must have had some broad views about his relationships with those that ruled him. His upbringing I am sure somehow effected his worldview and how he saw the world and those around. And if you ask any author, this would have definitively effected how they wrote what they saw. So when we read the ancient scriptures maybe we can begin seeing that they each have opinions and ideas about who Jesus is. For example, when we see in the book of Matthew that he starts his book with the geneaology of Jesus there is more to this than a list of names. In fact, you might notice he does the geneaology in sets of 14. King David was the most prominent king in Israel’s history, and if you spell out his name in Hebrew, it would look like this: D V D. Where the letter D has the gematria value of 4 and the letter V has the value of 6, which when added has a sum of 14. So, in essence, Matthew is telling us that he thinks Jesus is the new King David, which according to the prophets the Messiah was supposed to come through the family lineage of King David. Which Jesus does. (Thanks to Rob Bell for this).

Luke has a heart for the outsider. For the Samaritan more particularly and this comes through from his compilation of Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan. In fact, there is speculation that some of the stories compiled were more than legends than actual occurrences. But because Luke had a passion for the outsider he wanted to present to his readership that Jesus too had a heart for the Samaritan.

This doesn’t change the importance of scripture, but it does enhance the realization that scripture isn’t the ultimate point of our development. that it is in our experience and understanding along with a driven sense of curiousity that drives us to get to know God more. This invites us into a new way to see scripture. It doesn’t change who Jesus is. But it does give us a better view on what was going on when he was around. We cannot get away from the fact that these books were written by human hands with worldviews. If God desires our hearts, how/why would he supernaturally thwart the writers from ever including their own views and personalities within their writings? I dont think God fears our views of him. I think he invites us all to see him as we do and to continue to grow in our understanding of him, which might change over time. which makes our relationship more fluid, exciting and adventurous…