Ep 216: Jesus the Divine Messiah and Gospel Trajectories

In this episode I discuss how the gospel writers develop both the messianic and divine identity of Jesus, building up from their sources. I discuss my preferred theory to the Synoptic problem, the Farrer Hypothesis. It postulates that Mark was the first written gospel, Matthew used Mark as a source and added his own material, and Luke used both Mark and Matthew as a source. I then explore a recent proposal made by James Barker who argues that John knew the Synoptic gospels. Advocating for the Farrer theory, he explores ‘Synoptic trajectories’, showing how each successive evangelist developed their source material, and shows how the line runs through John, which was a creative rewriting of the Synoptics. I apply these theories to the opening verse of each gospel. Mark 1:1 acknowledges that Jesus is Messiah, possibly alludes to Genesis 1-2, and sets the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with John the Baptist. Matthew agrees but pushes Jesus’ origins back to David through Abraham while narrating the divine conception of Jesus. Luke further develops the divine and messianic Christology of Mark and Matthew, tracing Jesus’ lineage back to Adam, boldly affirming his messianic status, and more extensively narrating Jesus’ divine conception. John agrees with all of this and takes the final step, showing Jesus participating in creation while retaining his Davidic, Messianic Christology.

Additional Resources

• James Barker interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-181-how-the-gospel-writers-copied-each-other-with-james-barker/
• Helen Bond interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-167-the-gospels-as-biography-with-helen-bond/
• Paul and Divine Christology: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-127-paul-believed-that-jesus-was-god-with-chris-bruno/