Essay for Week 3: Lost Books

My favorite part of this unit was being able to read stories from the Lost Books of the Bible. Although these particular stories are not found in the Bible, they give a lot more details to some of the well known stories about Jesus. One of the stories that really drew my attention was Mary and Joseph because it gives an account of Mary and Joseph before Mary becomes pregnant with Jesus. I have always wondered the "before" part of their relationship and what was going through Joseph's mind when he found out Mary, who was supposed to be a virgin, became pregnant. I am sure I am not the only one who has pondered this thought before, and it makes me wonder why these passages are not in the Bible. Also, I enjoyed learning about Jesus' life from infancy until he started his ministry when he was about thirty years old. So much of his life is missing from the Bible, but I guess the Bible would be extremely long if they tried to fit every detail of his life into words! I liked that there were so many stories of healing because that is what Jesus is about. Even from such a young age, people were being healed of leprosy by pouring the water he bathed in over them in Curing the Leprosy . I am not sure if anyone in class has taken a class called Byzantine Icons, but I took it last semester, and I was able to recognize many of the pictures included in the stories. I think that is so awesome how classes sometimes overlap like that! It makes the material you are learning a little more interesting because you are able to connect it to something you have already studied.

This is one of my favorites from this unit that I remember learning about in my Byzantine Icons class:

 

Nativity by Andrei Rublev

Source: Wikipedia