Index The passion of Jesus through biblical source criticismConclusionReferencesBiblical criticism is the study that examines the textual, compositional, and historical issues surrounding the Old and New Testaments . The theme of narrative criticism as part of the criticism of biblical sources is revealed in the essay. Narrative criticism seeks to understand the meaning of words based on the way they are written in the story. Narrative criticism also considers the audience, setting, and implied characters. Each Gospel is written for a different audience, so the author uses his or her own vocabulary and will focus on the setting, implied audience, characters, and symbolism. This essay will discuss the narrative criticism used in the passion narratives of Mark and Matthew. Even though the gospels of Mark and Matthew are identical, they have different numbers of chapters. Matthew has 28 chapters and Mark has 16 chapters. Matthew highlights Jesus as the fulfillment of God's covenant with Israel and why Jesus' teachings are important, but on the other hand Mark places particular importance on Jesus' last week in Jerusalem, the crucifixion and resurrection. The gospel of Matthew is written primarily for Jewish Christians living near Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. The gospel of Matthew was written so that the Jews who became Christians at that time could better understand and appreciate Jesus. But on the other hand, the gospel of Mark was written for a Gentile audience. The purpose of the Gospel of Mark was to support people living under the threat of prosecution. Passion narratives are stories from Jesus' agony in Gethsemane to Jesus' burial. This essay will discuss three of the stories in the passion narrative. These include the arrest of Jesus, the trial of Jesus before Pilate, and the crucifixion of Jesus. Narrative criticism helps readers interpret the text in a new way. Narrative criticism also helps the reader understand the story from an imaginary implied reader. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The passion of Jesus through criticism of biblical sources The arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane is the beginning of the passion of Jesus. Although the plot is the same, the story of the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane as told by Matthew and Marco is even different. In the Gospel of Matthew the arrest of Jesus is fundamental, but in the Gospel of Mark the arrest is a little longer. For example, Matthew 26:48 Now the traitor had agreed with them a sign: “He whom I kiss is man; arrest him." But Mark says: Now the traitor had agreed with them on a signal: “He whom I kiss is the man; arrest him and take him away under guard”. The few extra words make it different. This is done on purpose by the authors because Mark's gospel is written for persecuted people, so Mark talks about the persecution of Jesus in detail. But Matthew's audience is Jews trying to become Christians, so they just need to know the basic story to do this Mark presents Jesus as martyr Mark he wanted the Gentile illegals to remain strong and carry out the legal proceedings. But Matthew's focus is on the Christians who were excluded mainly because their religion was Judaism. The goal is to make the Jewish community aware of the teachings of Jesus The setting in both gospels is the same. Jesus is arrested while he was talking to his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was taken by the guards. Jesus is described as obedient to the Scriptures. The escape of the disciples shows humans praying to Jesus formake a wish and if the wish does not come true, they simply leave Jesus. The characters in Matthew's version of this story include Jesus, twelve disciples, a crowd of guards, the crowd. In Mark's version the characters are Jesus, the twelve disciples, the crowd of guards, the crowd and a young man. Judah symbolizes God's people. Most people turn away from God and pursue worldly pleasures. Jesus is portrayed as a great mystical man throughout the gospels. But there are also parts throughout the gospels where he is presented as weak. This is related to the topic because this story is part of the passion narrative and readers can learn more if they know more information about the setting, characters, and audience. The next part of Jesus' passion is when he is put on trial by Pilate. The narrative in both gospels is the same in both gospels but there are notable differences. Again, Mark's version of the story is longer for the same reason presented in the first paragraph. Matthew's version of Jesus before Pilate is divided into two stories: Jesus before Pilate and the Stations of the Cross. But Mark's version is under only one subtitle. Matthew says that Pilate's wife had a dream and that Pilate washed his hands. For example, Matthew 27:24-25 When Pilate saw that he was getting nothing, but instead a riot was breaking out, he took some water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man's blood,” he said. “It's your responsibility!” All the people replied: "His blood is on us and on our children!". This describes that Pilate knew Jesus was innocent and Pilate did not want to crucify Jesus, but had to please the people. Matthew spoke of these two phrases to tell his audience that Jesus was innocent and holy. But Mark presented Pilate as a person who showed no mercy towards Jesus. This was exactly what Mark wanted to tell his audience. Mark's purpose was to tell his audience that no mercy will be shown to people who fight for Jesus. The setting is the same in both gospels. This story is set early in the morning, in Judea because Pilate was the governor of Judea and Jesus was brought to Pilate's house. The characters in this story are Pilate, Jesus, Barabbas and the crowd. In this story Jesus is shown to be weak and defenseless because he obeys the Scriptures. The crowd shows that normal people do nothing to save Jesus. There is no relationship with God and with people. Jesus is handed over, this symbolizes how Jesus is threatened by his own people. This is related to the topic because this story is part of the passion narrative and readers can learn more if they know more information about the setting, characters, and audience. The crucifixion of Jesus is one of the final parts of the passion narrative. Matthew's version is longer. In Mathew's version the crucifixion part is under the subtitle The Stations of the Cross. But Mark has a separate title for the crucifixion of Jesus. In Mark's time it is specific. For example, it was nine in the morning when they crucified him. This is said to show that Jesus stayed up all night because Jesus was arrested at midnight, then the trials occurred. The setting and characters of both gospels are similar: both take place on Golgotha, in front of the elders and high priests. The characters in this story are Jesus, Simon, the soldiers, 2 bandits, the scribes, the elders, the passers-by and the high priests. Jesus appears weak and still hasn't said a word. The crowd speaks rudely to Jesus and annoys him. Jesus being crucified symbolizes that people no longer care about Jesus after a while. He suffers a painful death. This symbolizes that the people who defend Jesus will also come.