As a young Bible student I was taught that the reason there were four different gospel accounts was because they each recorded the story from a different angle—to provide us with amore complete picture of the good news. Some of my favorite Bible teachers at the Bible Project emphasize this approach to the text. Watch their six minute video on how to read the gospels.
And there is a lot of truth to this approach. But an advanced learner recognizes that there is more to it. Each of the gospel accounts model contextualization for a different audience. This helps us understand how we need to adjust our gospel presenations for the various audiences with whom we are communicating.
Before you go any further I'd like you to watch a brief discussion between Travis Fleming and our textbook author Dean Flemming, as they begin to unpack contexualization in the four gospels.
Once you've watched the two videos, please read Chapter 8 in the textbook. Then email me a Learning Summary using the template. This assignment is worth 50 points.