Reading the New Testament has been part of a bigger project – reading the whole Holy Bible, as I described in this post:
My shot at reading The Holy Bible
I was reading the New Testament alternately with the Old Testament, but the New Testament is much shorted and this is why I finished reading it first.
As a Roman/Latin Catholic I have to say that I'm glad that I am a Christian, because I've known most of the teachings of Jesus from my Church, BUT I still think that Christianity isn't the only way to become “worthy of Heavens”. How can a Catholic say such an “outrageous” thing? Simple – I have to objectively admit that if I were born in a Jewish family I would be a Jew; if I were born in a Muslim family I would be a Muslim; if I were born in a Hindu family I would be a Hindu and if I were born in the middle of the jungle I would be of yet another faith.
This is why I don't quite understand the concept (that is present in all the main religions) that only people from a particular religion are beloved by God. There is only one God, by definition. For every person and for every religion. I believe in God who loves all good people, not only good people from a particular religion. I think that ANY detailed concept of God is wrong by definition, because no material person can actually understand how the spiritual world really “works”. However, it doesn't change the fact that my faith in God is very strong.
Well, I had a faith crisis during my college times, but God kept helping me and kept rewarding me for being a good person. Yep, it is really true that God “persists in saying yes” for a long time. I came back to Church for good after I met my wife – she was like a godsend to me (before I met her I started to have doubts if I would ever find a “normal” wife). I have to also point out that when my faith grew really strong my “eyes opened” and many things that were not understandable to me, even from the scientific/logical point of view, suddenly became clear, believe it or not. Only then did I start to ponder what the words “charism” and “charismatic” really mean from the spiritual point of view (not only in Christianity, but also in other religions).
Now I feel an unstoppable urge to write a review of the New Testament not only for non-Christian religious people, but also for atheists. Yes, even atheists can find interesting and valuable things in the New Testament, but only in some parts. And this is why I will rate not the New Testament as a whole, but only its parts.
Obviously I have to start with the “status” of Jesus, which is almost unbearable for atheists and some non-Christian religious people – I know that some of them won't even touch the New Testament just because of it. So, what could I do to change their minds? The only thing I can think of is paraphrasing Glen Cook. Considering the beauty and the wisdom of His teachings one could say that if Jesus was not Son of God incarnate then He was as close as made no difference.
Atheists can think about Jesus as one of the greatest philosophers of all time, if not the greatest. Nobody else has inspired as many people as Jesus. And nobody else has inspired people for as long a time as Jesus has. His teachings are a perfect complement to the Ten Commandments (from the Old Testament) and together they are the moral base for most of the human civilization, like it or not. From the social point of view the teaching of Jesus can be helpful to anybody, especially to the poor people (“those who are last will be first, and those who are first will be last”). They also stress that we should not judge people by their religion, but only by their deeds (the parable of the good Samaritan). Even from the political point of view His teachings are great, because they don't question non-religious authority by default (“render to Caesar, the things that are of Caesar; and to God, the things that are of God”). Unbeatable, simply unbeatable.
The Evangel/Gospel of Mark
The Evangel/Gospel of Matthew
The Evangel/Gospel of Luke
Atheist rating: 7/10
Non-Christian religious rating: 9/10
These three Gospels are the best source of the teachings of Jesus. They are called “Synoptic Gospels”, because they are very similar to each other and in some parts can be compared sentence by sentence. The shortest one is the Gospel of Mark and it is mostly incorporated into the other two Gospels. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are believed to be also based (in some parts) on the same additional text/source (called the source Q):
The source Q is called the “Double Tradition” on this picture:
The rating for atheists is obviously lower than the other rating because atheists will be annoyed by all the miracles performed by Jesus by default. It's a little similar to what happens nowadays – when something miraculous happens atheists always say that it was all just a coincidence, while the religious people are more open to a different interpretation.
Please notice that the Gospels of Matthew and Luke contain the The Lord's Prayer, also called Our Father – the most important prayer taught by Jesus (only in these two Gospels this prayer is recorded). Please notice that this prayer is directed to Father God, so it does NOT conflict with other main monotheistic religions (Judaism and Islam refer to the same “Father God”, but they use different names):
Our Father, Who is in heaven,
May Your name be kept holy.
May Your kingdom come.
May Your will be done,
as in heaven, so also on earth.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our offenses,
as we also forgive our offenders.
And lead us not into temptation.
But keep us from evil. Amen.
I have to point out that even the polytheistic religions can see the whole spiritual world as one complex entity. Actually this concept is also present in the Holy Bible and the Quran:
1) God, Spirit of God and Angels in the Old Testament,
2) Father God, Son of God (Jesus), Holy Spirit and Angels in the New Testament,
3) God, Spirit of Holiness and Angels in the Quran.
It’s actually all semantics when we talk about monotheistic and polytheistic religions. Either way, the Lord's Prayer is a rather universal prayer.
The Evangel/Gospel of John
Atheist rating: 5/10
Non-Christian religious rating: 7/10
The Gospel of John is significantly different from the Synoptic Gospels, considering both the style and the content. Well, the style is considered to be actually better, but the content is a mixed bag – there are many wise and inspiring things similar to the Synoptic Gospels, but some parts of the content are somewhat questionable.
In particular there are some inconsistencies within the Gospel itself and there is also significant amount of “new” content that is missing from the Synoptic Gospels. For example Jesus talks much more about himself, which feels kind of strange – the teachings of Jesus were surely the most important thing also for the authors of the Synoptic Gospels, so why did they omit so many things said by Jesus?
Another problem with the Gospel of John is the much bigger number of times the word “Jews” is used. In each of the Synoptic Gospels the word “Jews” is used only five or six times (16 times in total), but in the Gospel of John this word is used 67 times. It literally offends the eye. Moreover it's illogical – Jesus was born in a Jewish family and all those people who were listening to His teachings were also Jews, so using this general word doesn't fit the context at all. If the author had in mind only some particular groups of the Jewish community than he should have been more precise, like the authors of the Synoptic Gospels were in the vast majority of cases.
The rest of the New Testament
Atheist rating: 3/10
Non-Christian religious rating: 5/10
There are practically no new teachings of Jesus in the rest of the New Testament, only what His disciples and followers were reminding each other from His teachings recorded in the Gospels. It's more like a history of theology and development of the Christian Church. Quite interesting for Christians, but still not as interesting as the Gospels. Anyway, I am very glad that the Christian Church was created, because the teachings of Jesus were not lost/forgotten AND because thanks to this Church the Ten Commandments (from the Old Testament) were spread around the world.
SUMMING UP:
If you are an atheist or a non-Christian religious person and you want to read a little about Christianity then you should head straight for the source and read the Synoptic Gospels, ignoring the “status” of Jesus and concentrating on His moral and social teachings. They are unbeatable, trust me.
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