Christian Scriptures Exam 3

Sermon on the Mount

lengthiest and most developed (theologically and literarily) of Jesus’ teachings preserved in the canonical Gospels

Significance of the name of “The Sermon on the Mount”

Augustine of Hippo was the first to use this name

refers to the didactic speech given

• on a mountain according to Matthew

• on a level place according to Luke “Sermon on the Plain”

Significance of Matthew or Luke’s telling of this sermon

• John Chrysostom indicates that the Sermons on the Mount and the Plain are really two parallel passages which report the same event in different ways

• Augustine thought they were two different speeches

epitome

Hans betz — categorizes the literary genre of the sermon as an epitome

Turco definition — when a longer text is condensed to its core elements; summary of the essence of a piece

elements of classical Rhetoric

exordium, narratio, divisio, confirmatio, confutatio, peroratio

exordium

first part of classical oration which announces the topic and secures the attention and good will of an audience

narratio

section of a speech that provides a narrative overview of the facts of the case

peroratio

the conclusion of a speech

Was the sermon the mount a polemic against the Scribes and Pharisees

Luke Timothy Johnson argues that Matthew’s entire portrayal of Jesus is a polemic against the religious elites

Messiah and the Torah

• Damascus Covenant (Qumran) voices that the Messiah would be able to interpret the Torah definitively

• most vividly depicted in the Sermon on the Mount

Jesus interprets the Torah

• Beatitudes

• reflection on the Torah itself — He has not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill and follow it Himself

• pronouncements of the Law — “You have heard that it was said…” then, “But I say to you…” asserting Jesus’ authority to be the true interpreter of the Law given to Moses

  • not always referencing the Mosaic Law, but also the later interpretations/summaries

Beatitudes

8 statements that begin with the phrase “Blessed are the…” and two short statements about being Salt and Light

6 commentaries on the Law in Matthew

1. “You shall not murder” w/both the original commandment and subsequent interpretation included

2. Quotes verse about divorce from Exodus explicitly

3. Quotes the lengthy passage concerning divorce proceedings in ancient Israelite society

4. Includes both original and interpretation on “you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

5. abbreviated for of the law “an eye for an eye”

6. cites an expanded text from Leviticus about loving one’s neighbor

interiorization

Jesus is focusing His concern on the internal heart posture than the acts themselves

intensification

Jesus makes greater demands on those who would follow the Law

further topics Jesus addresses in the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 6-7

• Religious hypocrisy

• The Lord’s Prayer

• Forgiveness

• Fasting

• Anxiousness

• other short teaching on a variety of topics

significance of the ending of the Sermon on the Mount

Jesus undermines the supposed authority the scribes and Pharisees had to interpret and execute the Law

general characteristics of Mark

• Mark is as different from the other two synoptic Gospels as John

• shortest Gospel

• most difficult to grasp according to Luke T Johnson

• Mark had no commentary until 6th century and not again until 9th century

• for a period of time many thought Mark was just condensed Matthew

• seemed less adequate to Matthew or Luke or even John

• in the 20th century Mark became the most commonly studied of the canonical gospels bc he was seen as the most reliable

• begins his Gospel in the middle of action

• Jesus is depicted as almost constantly in action

• records fewer of “the saying of Jesus” — only 1 collection of sayings (1 discourse and a few parables)

euthus

Greek word meaning “immediately”

used 28 times in Mark

Mark’s literary quality

• Mark’s prose is unimpressive by standards of Greek rhetoric

• prolix — long/clumsy

• paratactic — joins clauses with “and”

• fond of slipping into historical present in the middle of the story

• many thought of Mark as a poor editor who simply used inelegant transitions between previously written and arranged material

specific criticisms of Mark’s writing

1. few complex transitions, often simply connecting presumably received material with “and” or “immediately”

2. followed activities with hour by hour precision to the gloss over large spans of time in a single sentence

3. chronological references are vague and unhelpful

4. does not present material in a linear fashion

response to Mark’s literary critics

he follows a clear and intentional rhetorical art, just not that of the standard imposed on him from outside

structure of Mark

• fond of sets of 3

  • seed parables

  • opinions about Jesus

  • passion predictions

• OVERALL structure is triadic

• question of Jesus’ identity into Him living out His identity

intercalation

when an author takes two sections of a single story and uses those two parts to “frame” a thort passage, effectively making a narrative sandwich, “story within a story”

Effect of Jesus’ teaching in Mark

there forms an inside groups who follows and agrees and an outside group who spurns and doubts

Outer Plot of the Passion Narrative of Mark

1. chief priests and scribe plot His death

2. They have Him arrested in Gethsemane

3. The put Him on trial where He is found guilty of blasphemy

4. They hand Him over to the ROman authority for execution

Inner Meaning of the Passion Narrative of Mark

1. an unnamed woman pours expensive ointment over Jesus’ head in anticipation of His coming execution

2. the Last Supper depicts Jesus transforming the meaning of the Passover

3. In His agony in the Garden, Jesus asks for the cup to be taken away, but it is not and those charged with watching with him fall asleep

Jesus is seen as increasingly alone as Mark moves the Passion narrative forward

Only Jesus’ executioner truly identifies Jesus as the Son of God

prologues to Luke and Acts

• prove that Luke likely wrote both books

• Luke addresses both books to the early apostles and specifically to Theophilus

• the books are supposed to be read as a single account

  • death and resurrection, and ascension of Jesus is expanded upon in Acts

• both books emphasize a desire for orderliness and maintaining chronology

Second Temple Judaic Persecution

• Christians were persecuted by Jewish authorities

• Second Temple Judaism comes to an abrupt halt in 70 AD when Jerusalem is seized again

• Likely limited and local

• expansion among the people was still taking place, this caused Jewish leaders to become concerned for Judaism

• apostles were arrested and freed by an angel

Peter in the Gospels

• erratic and impulsive

• speaks before he thinks

• loses his temper

ex: Transfiguration, Garden of Gethsemane, walking on water, denial of Jesus

Peter in Acts

• dynamic leader of the fledgling Christian movement

• Peter arises and delivers an address during Pentecost and 3000 are saved

• Peter heals a beggar in Acts 3

• Peter was arrested by the Sadducees for preaching Jesus’ resurrection to the people

• Portrays the growth and transformative power of the cross and resurrection of Jesus upon Peter

Paul the Apostle in Acts

• in Ch. 7 Luke shifts focus from Peter to Paul

• First missionary journey: 44 AD Paul and Barnabas leave Jerusalem to go to Antioch—through Cyprus, Paul first preaches to Jews and when they reject him, he preaches to the gentiles. Lasted for 5 years

• Dispute about circumcision: “Jerusalem Conference” decided that Jewish law should not be imposed on gentile Christians

• Paul’s second missionary journey: Paul separates from Barnabas and works with Silas, Corinth ~51/52 AD

• Paul’s third missionary journey: driven out of Ephasus by silversiths, wrote Romans in Corinth

• Paul, perhaps more than any other person than Christ Himself, served to spread the gospel

Saul the Pharisee

• born Saul to Jewish parents who held Roman citizenship

• schooled in Pharisaical tradition and very strict to the execution of the law

  • studied under Gamaliel (who was lenient towards the Christian-Jewish movement)

• persecuted the early Christian church

Saul’s conversion

• Acts 9

• Saul is going to Damascus, a voice from a great light asks him “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”, goes blind, Ananias is instructed to find Saul and help him through conversion

Heraclitus

• Ionian Greek who was well-versed in the philosophy of early Pre-Socratics

• Active between 540-480 BC

• “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man”

• ho skoteinos “The Obscure — cryptic

• felt there was a flux to creation, but still needed an ordering principle

• “Logos”

  • “everything comes to pass in accordance with the Logos and is the rational order of the world even if that rational principle is one of constant fluctuation

  • ever-living fire which judges all things by its rationality

What is the fundamental element of all things?

Question driving Pre-Socratic philosophers—what is the single universal element from which all things of the universe are composed

• Thales — water

• Anaximander — Apeiron “boundless”

• Anaximenes — rarefaction/condensation of air/vapor

• Pythagoras — numbers

• Heraclitus — focused on the fluctuating nature of the universe “all things pass away, nothing abides (from Plato)”

Stoicism

• Zeno of Citium (336-264 BC)

• commonly lectured from porches which the Greeks called stoa, hence stoicism

• similar to Epicureanism, but different

  • universe has purpose guided by a divine plan (epi: mechanistic manner ruled by blind chance)

  • virtues are ends in themselves, not just instruments of pleasure (epi: humans are essentially pleasure-seeking organisms, virtue=pleasure)

  • one should subordinate self-interest to greater social interests and emphasized community (epi: self-interest and hedonism, disdained greater community invovlement)

• the purpose and substaintial element behind the universe was a variety of things such as Zeus, God, Nature, Order, Universal Reason, Fate, Destiny, Providence

  • brought the most perfect outcome

  • labeled this god as the Logos

form criticism

• founded by Hermann Gunkel, later by Martin Noth and Gerhard von Rad

• allows reader to identify the form of pericope—smaller individual text units—exhibit

• ^^^ identifies the rules of a literary genre and allows for better interpretation

form criticism of the Gospel of John

• William P. Brown argues there are 7 creation stories

• Tom McLeish argues there are 21 different creation stories

• To most there are at least 5 distinct creation stories

form markers in John

• “In the beginning” immediately tells us what to expect from this genre

• creation language is prevalent

• notice what was created and how the objects of creation differ from/are similar to other creation narratives

• notice the agent of creation

incarnation

• sarx “flesh” — negative connotations

• soma “body” — strictly physical connotations

• once translated into latin — incarno “to make flesh”

• the Infinite Ordering Principle of the universe has descended into finite existence and taken on the humble form of a particular human

conclusions to draw from John using “incarnation”

1. John is intentionally using terminology of the ancients to bridge the theological and philosophical significance of reframing this word

2. John personalizes the Logos

Overview of Romans

• except the Gospels, Romans is the most significant work of the New Testament

• immense influence on the historical and theological development of Christianity

• Bruce Metzger notes this letter is the longest, weightiest, and most influential of Paul’s letters and conveys the full richness of experience w/Christ and maturity of thought

• Luke T. Johnson says Romans is the central writing of Paul’s letters

• Impacted Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther, and Karl Barth

Letter vs Epistle

Letter:

• the greeting — “Epistolary Salutation”

• list of individuals to whom Paul is writing towards — “Epistolary Valediction”

• definition: any writing addressed to a specific person in order to attend to specific needs or concerns

Epistle

• sophisticated theological treatise

• follows Roman rhetorical style

• definition: any writing whose form gives the impression of a letter but the context and style indicate that a broader audience is intended, addresses more universal themes and lacks concern for specific issues

NOT TRULY THAT IMPORTANT

Who wrote Romans

• consensus view — believes Paul wrote 7 letters, then the others were written by followers of Paul

• Romans was in fact directly written by Paul himself

when was Romans written

• scholars estimate sometimes in the mid to late 50’s

• written before the Gospels were actually compiled and written down

• Paul is giving us one of the earliest account of Christian theology in the early Church

Purpose of Romans

• Practical reasons for writing

  • wanted to visit the Roman church for a while and justifies his delay

  • notifies of his visit to Rome on his way to Spain after Jerusalem

  • asks for prayers

  • offers the Roman church an opportunity to participate in charity towards those in Jerusalem

  • recommends the Cenchaean deaconess Phoebe to the Roman Church

• Non-practical purpose

  • thological and philosophical discourse

• Practical purposes that ^^^ rely on

  • Paul is only known by reputation

  • intended to summon the support of the Roman church for his mission

  • (Paul is largely recommending himself)

  • not a systematic summary of Paul’s theology

What is a Diatribe

• definition: Hellenistic rhetorical style that uses vivid, dialogical form of discourse

• components

  • Apostrophe — when a writer breaks off and addresses an imagined reader

  • Rhetorical questions — a question with an expected, and therefore unnecessary, response

  • Questions answered by abrupt responses

  • Hyperbole — exaggeration of fact not to be taken literally

  • Vice lists — an enumeration of particular failings to live up to the virtues

  • Past exemplars — an appeal to traditional examples of virtuous piety

  • Citation of written texts as authorities

Ch. 1-5 of Romans

• Paul’s opening does not have particular significance

• Paul’s goal is to break down the dichotomy of Jew and Gentile

• God makes Himself known through creation, so there is not excuse to not know Him, but through feigned ignorance, God handed everyone over to their own desires

• Ch. 2 focuses on this separation, but equality in guilt, whether inherent law or the Law, we all fall short

• Eucharistic Prayer 1 of the Roman ritual: Abraham is the Father of all who are of faith

• Ch. 5 through faith we are reconciled with God