Wednesday, September 5, 2012

9/5: Genealogy, Christmas and Herod/Set Theory, Test 1 Questions

-Do the Handicapped Go to Hell  (South Park, edited episode
- Jesus' Geneology
-Birth and Christmas
-Herod
-Set Theory: Bounded and Centered
-Quiz and Test Questions
-Guest: Tiffany Niles: "Who is Jesus to Me?"

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Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?

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

We watched this edit of  South Park's "Do The Handicapped Go to Hell?" episode  (Thanks to  Mennonite pastor Mike Furches, and his wonderful "Faith and Film" seminar, for the tip)
The rest of the episode may be terribly offensive to some, I am not endorsing it all.

I asked you to make notes on questions this episode raises about Christianity,  We'll compare notes next time.



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.  (:
Please be familiar with this crucial point, by re-reading Hauer and Young, p, 270, 2nd full paragraph




 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. Abrahamfathered    Isaac
  2. Isaacfathered    Jacob
  3. Jacobfathered    Judah
  4. Judahfathered    Perez
additional names of Zerah and Tamar (woman #1)
  5. Perezfathered    Hezron
  6. Hezronfathered    Ram
  7. Ramfathered    Amminadab
  8. Amminadabfathered    Nahshon
  9. Nahshonfathered    Salmon
  10. Salmonfathered    Boaz
Rahab (woman #2)
  11. Boazfathered    Obed
Ruth (woman #3)
  12. Obedfathered    Jesse
  13. Jessefathered
  14. David
There are 14 generations
         There are   3 names of gentile women
Set #2
      Davidfathered    SolomonUriah's wife
(note: David's name is repeated)
  1. Solomonfathered    Rehoboam
  2. Rehoboamfathered    Abijah
  3. Abijahfathered    Asa
  4. Asafathered    Jehoshaphat
  5. Jehoshaphatfathered    Joram
  6. Joramfathered    Uzziah(3 missing kings)
  7. Uzziahfathered    Jotham
  8. Jothamfathered    Ahaz
  9. Ahazfathered    Hezekiah
  10. Hezekiahfathered    Manasseh
  11. Manassehfathered    Amon
  12. Amonfathered    Josiah
  13. Josiahfathered    [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.JechoniahfatheredShealtiel
2.ShealtielfatheredZerubbabel
3. ZerubbabelfatheredAbiud
4. AbiudfatheredEliakim
5. EliakimfatheredAzor
6. AzorfatheredZadok
7. ZadokfatheredAchim
8. AchimfatheredEliud
9. EliudfatheredEleazar
10. EleazarfatheredMatthan
11. MatthanfatheredJacob
12. JacobfatheredJoseph
13. Josephhusband ofMary(the 5th woman) mother of
14. Jesus the Christ(bringing true restoration to Israel)

--
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JESUS" BIRTH
Two  students assembled a manger scene..
But then we noticed that the  text

  • Nowhere says there were three
  • Nowhere says they were wise
  • Nowhere says they were men (:

But most importantly, we know from Luke, they didn't come to the manger when Jesus was a baby, but to the house when he was a child..
We took the wise men out!


HEROD>

We wayched this video (two parts)




--
SET Theory

Somewhere around 25 or 30 years ago, anthropologist Paul Hiebert proposed a new way of understanding social groupings. He divided them into centered sets, bounded sets...continue, click here
.i). Bounded set: Defined by boundaries, who is in or out

  Centered Set: Though it has a boundary, it is defined by direction of   persons relative to the center (towards/ away)
iut-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------What are some of the examples we gave for each set?


Here are some helpful links on "set theory" and
 bounded sets and centered sets.

 tered set



Click a title to read:




    -
    I hope you enjoyed Tiffany's "Who is Jesus" story.  Here is her Egypt video"


    ------------------------
    HOMEWORK HELP
    1)Remember Friday's short  "Impressions"assignment:

    Write down your impressions after having read through Matthew at one sitting. It can be  bullet points, or any format helpful to you.
    Note anything interesting,questions raised, repeated words/ideas/themes. emotion/atmosphere, basic story..
    Informal assignment, Credit/No credit, but do take it seriously, the 5 points might tip you to an A in the class, who knows?
    Note: the syllabus says 3-4 pages, but as you can see below, I am changing it to 102.  Since I suggested you do this last week, fresh after your assigned reading of Matthew, some have done this already.
    Reflection Paper:  Impressions of Matthew                                                    Due Friday, Sept 7
    §  1-2 pages. Handwritten OK (legible and large enough, please)
    §  5 points, Credit/No Credit
    §  Due at the beginning of the class period



      2) Test  Questions 9/21:

    1. Say as much as you can about Jesus' geneaology (From today's post and readings)
    2. Say as much as you can about Jesu's birth and  the Christmas story (From today's post and readings)
    3. Say as much as you can about Herod  (From today's post and readings)
    4. Say as much as you can about the "Dance Party on the Beach": (to be covered Friday)
    5. Give as many examples as you can of bounded and centered sets (in Scripture and in life (From today's discussion


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