I don’t know if there were many of you who thought to compare this passage with the other Gospels. Remember that we have moved from ‘Luke only’ material to synoptic material. And in this case we have a fourth column, that of John. All 4 Gospels are in sync. Very fruitful comparative ground. I will give you time to work on this portion and see if you can find more than you found yesterday, now that you have something to compare Luke with. I would be interested in hearing from you if you thought to compare the gospel accounts on this unit. I suspect not many of you did, but I am longing to be pleasantly surprised.
While you work on the four gospels, I will begin with what I gave you yesterday. It would be unfair at this stage if I started with resources that you didn’t have at your disposal, even though you could have easily got them.Go to the Internet link http://www.e-sword.net and download the E-Sword and what other resources you want. It is free. Once you have E-Sword running, click on one of the verses from the passage in Luke, and then go to the tool bar at the top of the E-Sword screen and click on <Bible> and then <Harmony> and the above columns will appear for you. It’s easy.
Did anything stand out to you as you read the first ‘Luke only’ passage? Did you begin by coming up with questions you need to find answers to? I wonder what questions you came up with.
My questions were as follows:
- What does it mean, Jesus walked ahead of His disciples? Why?
- Which two disciples? Do we know?
- What village over there? One of those mentioned or an unnamed village?
- Why does it have to be an as-yet-unridden donkey?
- How did they know it was unridden? How can you tell?
- Who owns the donkey? The word is plural – owners.
- How was it that the disciples’ answer was sufficient to secure its release?
Do you notice some obvious questions I missed out? I wonder if you saw the need to query them or not. I am referring to the place names in the text. So many times while teaching Deeper Bible and other courses I have taught over the years, this appears to be a blind spot. So many people omit to find the information needed. It is almost like the thinking goes along these lines. “Oh yes, a place name. Well, I don’t know where it is (or perhaps how to find out) so I won’t bother about it. Just some place I don’t know. So there is no need to know anything more about it.” Years ago, my mother taught me to always look up the words I didn’t know in the dictionary, and to look up all the places I didn’t know in an atlas. We always had a dictionary and an atlas readily available at home. Maybe that is what influenced me to become a geographer. Places are important! So when you come across a place name, seek to find out all you can about it.
So add these following questions as well:
- Where is Bethphage and what do we know about it?
- Where is Bethany and what do we know about it?
- Where is the Mount of Olives, especially in relation to Bethany and Bethphage?
You will no tice I haven’t given you the information yet. I am hoping you will find out for yourself all you need to know. I will give you the information gleaned at the right time. I’m giving you time to do what you need to do with the extra input I have given you today. Having asked the first series of questions based on the text, we are now primed and ready to start, but there is more to do.
If every picture is worth a 1000 words; does that mean every map is worth 10,000?
Anon
Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.
non
If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way; if you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.
Anon
A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices.
Edward R. Murrow