Week 1

Grab your Kraybill book, and watch this.  What to call the  teacher and why
 

"as the sign of highest personal respect, call me by my first name"

Kraybill, The Upside Down Kingdom:

• "In one stroke, Jesus erases titles (Matt. 23:8-10). Tagging each other with titles has no place in the upside-down kingdom where everyone stands on equal ground" (226).
• "Titles are foreignto the body of Christ. Terms like Doctor and Reverend perpetuate status differences unbefitting the spirit of Christ."  Titles pay tribute to position, degree and status rather than to personhood.  Members of flat  kingdoms call each other, as the sign of highest personal respect, by our first names" (239, emphasis mine)
• "We call each other by our first name, for we have one Master and one Lord, Jesus Christ" (256).
  

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Orientation to class and the three types of church visits:

Your "Who is Jesus?" answers:

Become familiar with the "Three Worlds"  concept/model, which we will use throughout the course. 
Here  below is how one student summarized the worlds, based on reading a textbook by Hauer and Young (not a textbook assigned for this class, but one your teacher will draw insights from)


Literary World--The literary world of the Bible is simply the text itself, apart from anything outside the text.  We mean the world (or, better, worlds) created by the text; the words on the page, by the stories, songs, letters and the myriad other types of literature that make up the Bible.  All good literature (and the Bible is, among other things, good literature) creates in readers' minds magnificent, mysterious, and often moving worlds that take on a reality of their own, whether or not they represent anything real outside the pages .

Historical World--The historical world of the Bible isthe world "behind the text" or "outside the text".  It is the context in which the Bible came to be written, translated, and interpreted over time, until the present.  In studying the historical world of the Bible, we look for evidence outside the text that helps us answer questions such as, who wrote this text, when was it written, to whom was it written, and why was it written.  We also probe the text itself for evidence that links it to historical times, places, situations, and persons (Hauer and Young 2)..



Contemporary World--The contemporary world is the "world in front of the text" or the "world of the reader."  In one sense, there are as many contemporary worlds of the Bible as there are readers, for each of us brings our own particular concerns and questions to the text.  They inevitably shape our reading experience.  We are all interested in answering the questions of whether the Bible in general, or particular texts, have any relevance to our personal lives (Hauer and Young  ch3).
-Originally at www.stolaf.job

--  Here is a brief outline that relates specifically to Matthew:

·         Literary World

o   World within the text (the text itself)

(Who is Jesus in the text of Matthew?)

o   Literary structure, genre, literary conventions (metaphor, characterization, etc.), pericope in context of the book / NT / Bible

·         Historical World

o   World behind the text

(Who is Jesus in the context of 1^st century Palestine?)

o   Who, when, where, why the text was written

o   People, places; social, political, economic & religious context

·         Contemporary World

o   World in front of the text (unique to each reader & generation: original and contemporary audiences)

(How might this (Matthew’s) Jesus be perceived by the first hearers of the gospel & how might this Jesus act today?)

o   the literary & historical world analysis point to contemporary application. 

In Fee & Stuart, the “three worlds” flesh out this way: (p. 27-33)

·         Exegesis =  historical context (historical world), literary context & content (literary world)

·         Hermeneutics = contemporary world  (the authors don’t use this word in its traditional definition)

Recognize that, for Christians who view the Bible as their scripture, the Holy Spirit is central to correct understanding and interpretation of the text, and that the 3 worlds approach doesn’t really address this. Both Kraybill and Fee & Stuart address the “three worlds” without calling it this.  Kraybill contains a great deal of historical world information.  Fee & Stuart focuses more so (but not exclusively) on the literary world.

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Guiding Question for the course:  "Who is Jesus?" . Read Matthew 16:13-20

The question “Who is Jesus?” is a guiding question for this course.  It comes out of Matthew’s gospel.

Read Matt 16:13-14. Note that the responses are varied. Discuss with the class what the responses tell us about the way Jesus was being perceived. What kind of figure is John the Baptist? Elijah? Jeremiah? Jesus pushes the question a bit closer to home. Read Matt 16:15. This is an important question, the personal question, “Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asks his disciples for their response, their testimony/confession. The people had given a variety of answers, as people today give a variety. Think of various portrayals of Jesus in books, movies, art, etc. These are all attempts at answering the question, “Who is Jesus?”

Read Matt 16:15-16. Jesus confronts the disciples with the more direct question, “Who do you say that I am?” Told in this way, this story confronts us with the same direct question.  Peter answers but doesn’t fully understand the implications of what he is saying. These words (“You are the Christ/Messiah”) don’t quite mean what Peter has grown up thinking they mean. (Jesus will soon have to reorient Peter, 16:21-23)  Jesus the Christ/Messiah will go the way of the cross, and Peter has difficulty grasping this. This is part of the difficulty with answering the question of who Jesus is. If we claim to follow him, then our lives must be shaped by the answer we give to this question. We must live in light of who we confess Jesus to be.  Who Jesus is directly shapes who we are as his followers/disciples.

Note that during this course we will explore the question, “Who is Jesus?” by using the Three Worlds Model (explained above).  Note the focus on exploring the 3 worlds of Matthew’s gospel and the portrayal of Jesus found there. This class seeks to understand how the gospel of Matthew answers the question  “Who is Jesus?” and the significance of this portrayal of Jesus for us today.

The two questions and reading the geneaology in Matthew 1 for

"Who is Jesus?" :"One unafraid of outcasts in his family tree."

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We went over all of the case studies: tentatively pick one now  (see syllabus)

I took this class. Like my typewriter?











The two questions of the class are:
the  

"Who is Jesus (in Matthew?"

and

"What is Church?"

Watch this lighthearted video with a serious point.  Note you will have to interpret the "text" of the video using "Three Worlds" skills:  Who made this?  Is this for real?  What genre is this?  Note: Sometimes it is important to decide what/who Jesus is NOT, in addition to who Jesus IS.







Here are the individual episodes we watched.

Jesus Video 1: Jesus doesn't have time for Peter

Jesus Video 2: Jesus gives rules for First Christian Church, and confronts a follower for missing prayer meeting for the Super Bowl:



Jesus video 3: Jesus tells all the disciples what they have recently done wrong:



Jesus Video 4: Jesus rides on a donkey, cleanses the temple,and steals money from Pharisees:




MORE that we didn't watch in class:

Misconceptions of Jesus 1: Jesus Club-Jesus Loves Righteous People:




Misconceptions of Jesus 2: Jesus Loves Red States:




Misconceptions of Jesus 3: Jesus Sells Insurance:




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Thanks to Mike Furches, and his wonderful "Faith and Film" seminar, for the tip.

Watch South Park's "Do The Handicapped Go to Hell?" episode.

  It raise great questions about "set theory" and the two questions of the class//: 

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In Paraguay, I met the Julio of the toothless grin who broke my heart, and taught me how to pray.




He (photo, on left) had latched on to me, as I spoke Spanish to him...and was a big
kid myself .





"What are you building here?," he asked.




"A church."




"What's a church?"




"A place where people can worship Jesus."


Of course, I know now...well, knew then (but didn't take time for theological distinctions) that is ddecidedly the wrong answer: church as a place, edifice complex, etc...)





I gulped. I was guessing, dreading/hoping what his next question would be. 


It's one thing to hear that billions around the world have never even heard of Jesus, but I had just met my first.




Yep, he said it:




"Who's Jesus?"




Those are the two questions!



 
 
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Three worlds,texts and contexts 
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 TEXTS. 
a TEXT is technically ":any message  in any medium, designed to communicate anything"
so obviously the Bible counts as a TEXT message.

Texts need contexts.

I'll have you  text me (cell phone) random text messages during class to illustrate that texts need contexts. 


Because several of the classes I teach have to do with how to read and interpret texts (particularly biblical texts) , contexts, and intertextuality...I actually encourage students to send me text messages in class.

They often look at me as if I am kidding, even afraid I will confiscate their phone if they do.

..

How about this text message..cn u intreprt it?:

GODISNOWHERE:  is it GOD IS NOWHERE  or GOD IS NOW HERE?

How you read the text changes as much as everything.

How you read the text changes as much as everything.

Spaces matter.

Like this:

Professor Ernest Brennecke of Columbia is credited with inventing a sentence that can be made to have eight different meanings by placing ONE WORD in all possible positions in the sentence: 

"I hit him in the eye yesterday."

The word is "ONLY".

The Message:

1.ONLY I hit him in the eye yesterday. (No one else did.)

2.I ONLY hit him in the eye yesterday. (Did not slap him.)

3.I hit ONLY him in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit others.)

4.I hit him ONLY in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit outside the eye.)

5.I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other organs.)

6.I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday. (He doesn't have another eye..)

7.I hit him in the eye ONLY yesterday. (Not today.)

8.I hit him in the eye yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for today.)

                              -link 

Like this 'text message' from Jesus:

I SAY TO YOU TODAY, "YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE.'

or is it,

I SAY TO YOU, " TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE."

The original manuscripts of the Bible not only run all letters, all caps, together, but include no punctuation.

Punctuation matters.

Everything is  context.

Context is everything.

Everything is  context.

Context is everything.

By the way, that last statement was a chiasm (we'll define that later)..

 i..won't even mention the "but, cheeks" story (:   

texts have tone and  context-ure:

Remember reading The Prodigal Son around the tables?

Click these to review

• The Invisible Famine in The Parable of the Prodigal Son |
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• Notice the Famine? How Your Location Impacts Your Bible Reading ...

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What continent is Israel on?

"What continent is Israel on?"

How did you answer the question? 

Answer it in your mind, and then scroll down.

There is only one right answer, obviously. 

 But every time I ask the question--in Israel or in class--people stumble, and tentatatively give the wrong answers: Europe?  Africa?  Middle East?

The only right answer is:

 Asia.

Does that sound surprising or shocking?

Sooo..that means: Jesus was Asian.

People laugh when you say that.  But it's true...and important that Jesus lived in Asia;  born and died there. That was his home. In our contemporary world, we think Asian means only Chinese, Japanese etc.

Jesus was Asian! Note I didn't say He IS Asian, as I believe He is bigger than that now, but while on earth as a human he was ethnically  Jewish...and  Asian.  So He thought and lived an Eastern, Mediterranean, Hebrew, Occidental, ASIAN worldview.  This will become important later in class.

POST the phrase "Jesus was Asian" on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter..or text or say it to at least three people. Then post below some of the responses you got.  Some people will accuse you of being crazy

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What's a text? :

ANY MESSAGE, IN ANY MEDIUM, DESIGNED TO COMMUNICATE ANYTHING

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GENEALOGY:

We began looking at the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, noting

-that since "genealogy" is literally "genesis" ("beginning"), there is an inclusio from the first sentence of Matthew to the very last sentence ("till the end of the age"). Point:  Who is Jesus in Mathew?

He is the Beginng and End.

We also noticed that strikingly, against Jewish tradition, women were mentioned in the geneology.

Not only that, but most were controversial and GENTILES (outside the bounded set of Judaism.

We noted yet another inclusio from beginning of the gospel (Gentiles highlighted in the geneology in cghapter 1 and end of gospel ( "Go and make disciples of all nations [literally "Gentiles"] 28:18-20

• not just women, 
• but 5 (hmm, remember that number)  women,
• and 5 women who had a "shady reputation".

That's no accident; we decided that  one way to answer "Who is Jesus in  Matthew?" is

"One who includes all types, even outcasts, in his family,  Very centered set, and we are only in Chapter 1.  (:

]

a chart revealing the "skipped" names from an article( link)

 "Matthew arranged the geneology to reflect the significance of the Hebrew gematria of King David's name which was the number 14 [D = 4, V= 6, D= 4; Hebrew was written only in consonants] and the significance of number symbolism in his division of the 42 generations from Abraham to David to Jesus the Messiah.  Matthew's manipulation of the genealogy is reflected in the fact that he dropped the names of the 3 Judahite kings in Jesus' line: Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah [see 2 Chronicles 36:1-13], doubled the use of the name of both King David in verse 6 and King Jechoniah in verses 11 and 12 in the beginning of his 2 and 3 sets, and added the name of Tamar's other son Zerah (not in the line of descent) to make his list reflect the symbolism he desired in the total number of names/ males, and to produce 3 sets of 14 generations for a total of 42 generations from Abraham to Jesus of Nazareth.

Set #1

1. Abraham	fathered	Isaac
2. Isaac	fathered	Jacob
3. Jacob	fathered	Judah
4. Judah	fathered	Perez
			additional names of Zerah and Tamar (woman #1)
5. Perez	fathered	Hezron
6. Hezron	fathered	Ram
7. Ram	fathered	Amminadab
8. Amminadab	fathered	Nahshon
9. Nahshon	fathered	Salmon
10. Salmon	fathered	Boaz
			Rahab (woman #2)
11. Boaz	fathered	Obed
			Ruth (woman #3)
12. Obed	fathered	Jesse
13. Jesse	fathered
14. David

There are 14 generations
         There are   3 names of gentile women

Set #2

David	fathered	Solomon	Uriah's wife (note: David's name is repeated)
1. Solomon	fathered	Rehoboam
2. Rehoboam	fathered	Abijah
3. Abijah	fathered	Asa
4. Asa	fathered	Jehoshaphat
5. Jehoshaphat	fathered	Joram
6. Joram	fathered	Uzziah	(3 missing kings)
7. Uzziah	fathered	Jotham
8. Jotham	fathered	Ahaz
9. Ahaz	fathered	Hezekiah
10. Hezekiah	fathered	Manasseh
11. Manasseh	fathered	Amon
12. Amon	fathered	Josiah
13. Josiah	fathered	[see #14]
14.Jechoniah			[deportation of Judah to Babylon]

            There are 14 generations (no repeats)
            There are 29 names of males total if you include Uriah
            There is      1 female mentioned 

Set #3 (after the deportation to Babylon; notice no restoration is mentioned)

1.Jechoniah	fathered	Shealtiel
2.Shealtiel	fathered	Zerubbabel
3. Zerubbabel	fathered	Abiud
4. Abiud	fathered	Eliakim
5. Eliakim	fathered	Azor
6. Azor	fathered	Zadok
7. Zadok	fathered	Achim
8. Achim	fathered	Eliud
9. Eliud	fathered	Eleazar
10. Eleazar	fathered	Matthan
11. Matthan	fathered	Jacob
12. Jacob	fathered	Joseph
13. Joseph	husband of	Mary	(the 5th woman) mother of
14. Jesus the Christ			(bringing true restoration to Israel)

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Since "genealogy" is literally "genesis" ("beginning"), there is an inclusio from the first sentence of Matthew to the very last sentence ("till the end of the age"). Point:  Who is Jesus in Mathew?

He is the Beginning and End.

We also noticed that strikingly, against Jewish tradition, women were mentioned in the geneology.

Not only that, but most were controversial and GENTILES (outside the bounded set of Judaism.

We noted yet another inclusio from beginning of the gospel (Gentiles highlighted in the geneology in chapter 1 and end of gospel ( "Go and make disciples of all nations[literally "Gentiles"] 28:18-20).

By the way, how many controversial Gentile women show up here?

5...hmm. Must be no accident

Who is Jesus in Mathew?

The One who is not ashamed to include  four triple outcasts:  gentile/women/people with a shady reputation in his family tree.  The fifth woman was Mary, who fit all three categories except "Gentile".  All women have a) a ":sexually suspect" reputation

and were surprisingly and sovereignly used of God.

of course Christians will be left behind

Preface (sigh); Don't hear what I'm not saying. I am not necessarily saying there is no "rapture," etc. I am just saying read this one particular scripture in context. No hate email necessary.

It astounds people when I tell them that

no one 

reading the famous "one will be taken; the other left behind" 'rapture' passage..

(in context; and without everything you've ever heard that it said influencing what you hear)

will read it as Christians being taken/raptured.

It is the most obvious interpretation in the world that in this Scripture:

the Christians are left behind.

!

Try it out! Follow the flow and logic; read text and context prayerfully and carefully.

There's a reason this passage was not spun this way in the early church (B.L.H.-"Before LaHaye")

the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

And Rossing:

Only by combining this passage together with First Thessalonians can a dispensationalist begin to piece together their notion of 'left behind'...But here's the problem with their use of this passage in Matthew: Dispensationalists make the leap of assuming that the person 'taken' in this passage is a born-again Christian who is taken up to heaven, while the person 'left' is an unbeliever who is left behind for judgement. This is a huge leap, since Jesus himself never specifies whether Christians should desire to be taken or left! In the overall context of Matthew's Gospel, the verbs 'taken' and 'left' (Greek paralambano and apheimi) can be either positive or negative.

In the verses immediately preceding this passage, Jesus says that his coming will be like the flood at the time of Noah, when people were 'swept away' in judgement. If being 'taken' is analogous to being 'swept away' in a flood, then it is not a positive fate. That is the argument of New Testament scholar and Anglican bishop N.T. Wright:

'It should be noted that being in this context means being taken in judgement.
There is no hint here of a , a sudden event that would remove individuals from terra firma...It is, rather, a matter of secret police coming in the night, or of enemies sweeping through a village or city and seizing all they can.'
(NT Wright, Jesus and The Victory of God, p. 366

If Wright is correct, this means that 'left behind,' is actually the desired fate of Christians, whereas being 'taken' would mean being carried off by forces of judgement like a death squad. For people living under Roman occupation, being taken away in such a way by secret police would probably be a constant fear....McGuire suggests that the 'Left Behind' books have it 'entirely backward.'. McGuire, like Wright, points out that when analyzed in the overall context of the gospel, the word 'taken' means being taken away in judgement, as in the story of Jesus' being 'taken' prisoner by soldiers in Matt 27:27. 'Taken' is not an image for salvation"

(Rossing, pp 178-179)

‘But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son,nor the Son');"; but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day at what hour');your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. '
-Matt. 24

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• you can skip the Wonders and Mighty Deeds worksheet 
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• If you can't see videos on Moodle, download the Video Lan Player here
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• Dinner next week, week 2:
  
  everyone bring their own dinner 

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