A United Methodist Pastor's Theological Reflections

"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory (nikos) through our Lord Jesus Christ." - I Corinthians 15:57


Thursday, April 1, 2010

The Easter Story - 1st Century Style

Dr. Tom Boomershine, my New Testament professor at United Theological Seminary taught that the gospels were originally told in story form. When you couple good story telling techniques with solid biblical scholarship on how the story should be told, you end up with a fresh hearing of the bible that can literally change your life.

I had Tom for both the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of John. For the first class of the Gospel of Mark, Tom shared with us the Gospel of Mark by memory. It took him two hours to do this, if I remember correctly. He told us ahead of time, that he would probably make a few mistakes along the way, which he did, but he reminded us that storytellers in the 1st century had the same problem. But it's no big deal. You just keep going.

Through Tom's classes, I learned that how you express yourself when you read scripture reveals a lot about your theology and your interpretation of that particular passage.

So, here's Tom sharing the resurrection account from Mark's Gospel. Enjoy!


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