| When it comes to the four gospels, many of us 20th century christians find them rather difficult to understand. The reasons are many, from the ability to understand a foreign worldview to the ability to interpret parables,to the problems of the use of language etc. A lot of us 20th century christians lack a good understanding of the Old Testament and because of that weakness don't really know what to do with the gospels. The gospels afterall are still in the world of the Old testament,but more so is the expression of the Old testament eschatology(end times). What many christian ministers do to understand them, is to allegorise them or point out spiritual truths and principles from them. When we employ these methods we completely miss the message that God speaks to us and that indeed is a great shame.When we employ allegory etc we however completely empty the gospels of their purpose and meaning. Most of Protestant christian theology and thought focuses very much on the books of Paul. The reason for that is that in Paul a lot of things which aren't very clear elsewhere in scripture are made clear in books like Romans etc. Paul tends to spell things out for us and besides his books been half of the New testament,we find Pauls letters easier to grasp. Christians tend to treat the gospels in the same way they treat the Old testament,that is either to allegorise it or ignore it. Because in the gospels and Old testament a lot of the writing is written in a narrative style, we don't quite know what to do with it because its like reading a history book, so we allegorise, spiritualise etc. So the solution proposed is to find out how the believing Hebrews understood the Old testament. We must understand what the believing Hebrews hoped for, if we are to understand the gospels. How they understood salvation, how they understood the world and most of all how they understood narrative or written historical events.You will later learn that historical events in the bible are interpreted theologicall. Everyside can tell their version of events. When England invaded and occupied Scotland, history was written from two different points of view. However in the bible the historical events are told from Gods eyeview and so we must get Gods interpretation of events, if we are to understand the events. An example would be the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in AD70. From the Roman and other pagan nations point of view, when they defeated a nation they would offer sacrifices to their gods, because they believed their gods were more powerful than the nations gods they had defeated. However from Gods point of view this was a false conception and wrong interpretation of events. So an event like the destruction of Gods temple by the Romans would mean, from Gods point of view, which is of course the the truth. It meant that God had handed Israel over to his fierce anger and judgement. The interpretation is clear Israel was been judged and would be exiled. So this is an example of a historical event being interpreted theologically. Also we will have to learn a new way of interpreting the scriptures. What I mean by that is the abandoning of the use of allegory ,spiritualising, getting truths etc from the scriptures. A lot of the Old testament and gospels use what we call historical narrative. So it tells the story of Yhwhs salvation. In short it is salvation history. So then that demands that we interpret historical events, as found in the scriptures theologically. another example from the gospels would go like this. In the gospels we read of Jesus been put to death on a cross. Many people were put to death on a cross.In fact in the time of Spartacus crosses lined the road into Rome. All that it meant to people was that these people is that they had been executed on a cross for rebellion against Rome. So thats a historical event, right? Yes it is,but the difference is that this historical event of Jesus been put to death has a theological interprertation. the interpreation isn't just that someone was put to death, but that this Jesus was put to death by Gods will, to take on Him the sins of the world and so reconcile sinners to Himself. So to add to the biblical historical method, we must also use grammatical as well as rules of context to arrive at the right interpretation. What we have from Genesis to Revelation is the progression of Gods plan of salvation. This is progressive revelation. If we accept that, then we will see the reason many of us including ministers can't properly comprehend the gospels. It is because you can't open a book at the last chapter and expect to be able to understand the whole story. you can't do that with any novel or any kind of literature and you certainly can't do it with Gods word,the bible. So then what is the solution? The solution is to get to know the Hebrew scriptures the way the Hebrews understood it. That will take some doing. However don't become despondent, I will help you along the way as one who has studied and understands the Old testament as we know it.
Okay lets start with the gospel of Luke. I will be using main points on the map to help us find our way. If we were to open the map of salvation, Luke opens it for us in the Hebrew world of a priest in Gods temple. Zachariah is the priest who is visited by the angel Gabrielle. That alone is of great significance because it was the Angel Gabrielle who visited the prophet Danielle, toward the end of Israels exile in Babylon. It was Gabrielle who pointed out to Danielle that Israels restoration wouldn't happen right after the 70 years of exile and captivity in Babylon. Rather he pointed out that Israels transgression and iniquity would only be covered after 70 weeks of years. The beginning of the 70 weeks of years started with the return and rebuilding of Jerusalem and would be completed when the anointed one ie The Christ is cut off and the sacrifice and offering is ended because the sanctuary(temple) is destroyed and desecrated by the abomination of desolation ie the destruction of the temple in 70AD.
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