Jesus Christ Margins and the Gospel

This report critically reflects on the depictions of Christianity and Jesus Christ in major textual documents such as the Bible and the gospel of Matthew. It emphasizes the importance of reading these texts from the margins to gain a comprehensive view and reflective insights on the way in which these religious literature are comprised to present a skewed view which suits a preset narrative where the oppression of people is justified and hidden within subtexts.

Jesus Christ, Margins
and the Gospel

Contents
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Critical reflection on reading gospel of Matthew from margins......................................3
Gospel of Matthew and Jesus Christ..................................................................................6
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Christianity as a religion has been interpreted in very different manners by a multitude of
authors worldwide as the faith is very popular and spread globally through migration and
missionaries who have toiled hard to make people believe in the power and divinity of Jesus
Christ1. However, there are major flaws involved in the teachings of the bible and gospels
involved in the religious teachings as the majority of the different interpretations and editions of
the Bible which receive official support from religious institutions and big churches are
predominately written by white people for a middle and upper class audience.
This report will contain a detailed description of the ability to read the bible and its
related gospel through the margins to gain a comprehensive view and reflective insights on the
way in which these religious literature are comprised to present a skewed view which suits a pre-
set narrative where the oppression of people is justified and hidden within subtexts.
MAIN BODY
Critical reflection on reading gospel of Matthew from margins
The gospel of Matthew is a very important religious literature in the religion of
Christianity as it is the first book of the new testament and it is also one of the only three
synoptic gospels which are important texts documenting similar stories about Jesus, god and holy
commandments but with slightly different artistic liberties. Gospel of Matthew just like the bible
has extreme levels of fan following around the world as it is advocated by multiple churches
across the world and has been interpreted multiple times2. However, at the same time it is quite
different than the Bible as it interprets the lineage and destiny of Jesus Christ and his followers in
a very different way as it decrees Jesus Christ as the promised messiah of Israel and is about the
way his followers shaped their own community and raged a resistance against the oppressive
church regime comprising of elitists.
1 Baur, Ferdinand Christian. Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2021.
2 Schmitt, Elder Jonathan S. "Jesus Christ." (2022).

The gospel of Matthew provides a unique look at the way religious texts of Christianity
are aimed and prefaced at certain audiences as both Jesus, Matthew and the main point of view
through which the texts tell stories and teachings is written for a predominant Jewish audience.
This is a stark departure from traditional viewpoints of Christianity as the Bible for a long time
has been under the narrative control of white people who belong to the upper strata of society
which is why the Bible has been the basis of religions discrimination for a long time. Reading the
Bible and gospel of Matthew from margins is a new and critical way of reading and making
sense of ancient written texts from the view point of minorities and people who are not white and
the central part of Christ. The gospel of Matthew unlike the Bible, aims to present a type of faith
which is same in concept but is changed to fit the beliefs of Jewish people to convince them that
Jesus is their saviour but reading it at face value with no critical assumption of minorities still
results in a narrow world view for Jewish Christians which is a predominantly white community.
The reason behind reading important religious texts from margins is because it is very
important to be religiously and racially aware in the modern world as the racism, brutalities and
societal offences we notice around ourselves has largely arrived due to the interpretation of
important Christian texts to favour one race over another3. A major flaw can be depicted from the
example that the Bible states that people should labour and toil themselves with hard work for
six days of week and take a well-deserved rest granted by the lord, Jesus Christ but for
economically weaker sections of society who struggle to find even one day of employment and
are burdened under a capitalistic system, the Bible presents no options or inclusions. Another
major flaw with the gospels is that their interpretation and meaning which has permeated in the
pop culture and majority of the Christian faith which has resulted in people of white background
feeling that they relate much more to god because the popular editions of Bible and gospels have
canonized Jesus Christ as being white. This has had a devastating consequence worldwide as
instead of people spreading the knowledge of Christ and rebelling against oppressive regimes
which is stated in the gospel of Matthew, the white people residing in upper echelons of the
Christian faith and church hierarchy have promoted white supremacy as people of diverse and
3 Atkinson, David. The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ: Meditations on Themes from the Book of Revelation.
Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2020.

minority backgrounds have been shunted from being followers of Christ as they don't look like
him4.
Reading gospel of Matthew and the entire Bible from the margins is important to notice
such discrepancies as there is no canonical evidence or solid proof which proves the fact that
Jesus is white as the gospel of Matthew and all other major gospels and religions belongings of
Christianity have remained radio silent over his race and skin colour which should make the
readers ponder over the question that why has the gospels and Biblical depictions of him in
popular media for decades have been exclusively white. On the contrary, using advanced facial
reconstruction techniques and using science of bone recognition and ethical feature matching, the
body of evidence that historians and researchers have piled up states quite the opposite as they
have found proofs in ancient readings and historical documents about Jesus being a Jew due to
similarity in cranial structures with them and his colour of the skin being identical to middle
eastern akin of a brownish hue. Even though the Bible and the gospels both collectively and as
separate editions get regular reprints from trusted and highly prestigious printing and media
institutions monthly, the evidences, researches or the depiction of Jesus mostly stays the same,
which for the modern day minorities, is a travesty as they are being refused to connect
themselves with the one true god while the religions books they read tell them to blindly follow
his rules by white men occupying shiny offices5.
Through marginal readings of such documents and texts, one gets to know about the truth
which prevails in modern societies which relays that the current structure and religious
frameworks within which Christians are made to reside by the church and the government at
large of Christian nations works actively to hinder and suffocate minorities in a bid to stop the
toppling of archaic elitist societies. The truth might be bitter but real life examples support this
fact thoroughly, some of which are stated below.
 There has been a growing xenophobic attitudes being displayed by agents of church, high
ranking Christian emissaries and religious gurus towards minorities which is due to the
growing diversity in America thanks to globalization and migration. The Christian
stricture will not last long as major powers like America and UK might not remain
4 Rogers, Alex. "The Road to Damascus: St. Paul and the Phenomenology of the Event of Jesus Christ."
PhD diss., Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, 2021.
5 Sejdini, Zekirija. "Jesus Christ in the Perspective of Islam." In Rethinking Islam in Europe, pp. 141-150.
De Gruyter, 2022.

predominately white for long and the current system of Christianity does not promote
inclusiveness in the slightest6.
 The teachings imparted by Christianity is extremely narrow and one sided as it actively
associates lighter colour and white skin as something beautiful worth admiring while
darker colours have always been traditionally associated with Satan.
 The gospel of Matthew is a very paternalistic document as it imparts teachings of Jesus
Christ for his followers to practice in the modern world to become a better and morally
good society but it does so from a Jewish perspective which is a majority white
community. How can a Jewish depiction and interpretation of a body of religion speak
for those belonging to diverse backgrounds such as Latino, Hispanics, Indians and
African Americans is a reflective observation worth pondering upon as one reason the
bible from the point of view of the oppressed rather than the oppressor.
Gospel of Matthew and Jesus Christ
Upon critically reflecting upon the gospel of Matthew, it becomes clear that the main aim
of the book is to project Jesus Christ as the king and saviour of Israel by presenting a new
viewpoint catering towards a primarily Jewish audience. The gospel states many interesting
things about Jesus stated herein.
 Explicitly glorifies Jesus Christ and refers to his name being the heir to the throne of
David
 The entire gospel serves as a detailed presentation of credentials of Jesus Christ as the
promised king of Israel.
 Tracing back the lineage of Jesus Christ to Abraham and linking it to the side of Joseph
and reinforcing his origin roots deeply to Jewish culture7.
The gospel of Matthew suffers from its fair share of problems as despite breaking the mould
from traditional narratives of religious tests ignoring race and ethnic differences, it focuses
6 Meyer, Frederick Brotherton. Paul: a servant of Jesus Christ. Vol. 8. Christian Publishing House, 2022.
7 Dougall, Lily, and Cyril W. Emmett. The Lord of thought: a study of the problems which confronted
Jesus Christ and the solution he offered. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2021.

heavily on one group and many people believe it is exclusively made for Jews to follow, reading
the gospel from its margins, there are glaring errors and fallacies listed below.
 We are explicitly bombarded with continuous information and hints which state that the
book was meant for a Jewish audience and Matthew himself as the author was Jewish but
there is no actual historical evidence of Matthew existing, scholars have not been able to
link who exactly wrote this gospel.
 It has also ben every tough to name the exact place and location where the document was
first written as a religious text capable of teaching a religion to a broad audience,
evidences have pointed out to places such as Jerusalem and Palestine but the strongest
case is made by Antioch which has historical data and textual evidences found
exclusively in Matthew’s gospel. The ironic thing noticed upon further critical reflection
is that the gospel actively teaches the followers of Christ to rebel against evil regimes and
destabilize regimes which oppress the society but the ancient city of Antioch had a clear
class divide and historians have pointed out as the city having toxic and highly oppressive
regimes over the years.
 We also do not have the exact timeframe which can justify the existence and creation of
the gospel of Matthew as many historians are conflicted and a vast majority of them do
not believe the book borrows from Mark’s gospel as a vast majority of the content of the
latter has been eliminated, manipulated, deleted and been added to for creation of new
narratives found in the former8.
By placing the gospel under the eyes of the marginalized sections of the society, one can
always gain different interpretations as for privileged Jewish and white people who hold the
media and the churches in their pockets, Jesus Christ is the ultimate king and saviour of Israel
and of the Jewish people but for other racially diverse people from remote places, Jesus Christ is
a symbol of hope. A hope that things will become better, a hope which seldom comes true due to
the rampant class divide and poverty in the world as a result of rise in multiple phenomenon’s
that have eroded most of the teachings that bible and the gospel of Matthew teaches such as
commodification of life and capitalist frameworks governing the economy globally. As the world
8 Hegazi, Ezzat. The Ascension of Jesus Christ into Heaven: the Hidden Context. Partridge Publishing
Singapore, 2020.

keeps on advancing, people of different backgrounds and races are finding it difficult to connect
to depictions of a biased god in media which is reading from the margins is very important.
CONCLUSION
The above report went into detail regarding the depictions of Christianity and Jesus
Christ in major textual documents such as the Bible and the gospel of Matthew in order to
undertake a critical reflection on the way Jesus is depicted in these religious sources and why
reading them from the margins is very important. It was concluded that the majority of the
teachings and sayings in these texts have been doctored towards a predominately white audience
and in order for minorities to relate to the same gods everyone else does, reading these texts from
margins and critically analysing their fallacies and errors is key to move towards a better society.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baur, Ferdinand Christian. Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2021.
Schmitt, Elder Jonathan S. "Jesus Christ." (2022).
Sejdini, Zekirija. "Jesus Christ in the Perspective of Islam." In Rethinking Islam in Europe, pp. 141-150. De
Gruyter, 2022.

Meyer, Frederick Brotherton. Paul: a servant of Jesus Christ. Vol. 8. Christian Publishing House, 2022.
Dougall, Lily, and Cyril W. Emmett. The Lord of thought: a study of the problems which confronted Jesus Christ
and the solution he offered. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2021.
Hegazi, Ezzat. The Ascension of Jesus Christ into Heaven: the Hidden Context. Partridge Publishing Singapore,
2020.
Atkinson, David. The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ: Meditations on Themes from the Book of Revelation. Wipf and
Stock Publishers, 2020.
Rogers, Alex. "The Road to Damascus: St. Paul and the Phenomenology of the Event of Jesus Christ." PhD diss.,
Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, 2021.