These symbols/ terms and these definitions/examples will appear:
- Three Worlds
- Bounded Set
- Centered Set
- Fuzzy Set
- Chiasm
- Inclusio(n)
- Recurrence
- Subversion of Empire
- Intertextuality/Hyperlinking
- 10 Text
- 11 Sign
- 12 Gospel:
The first term discussed on 8/31, see this.
Second and third were discussed last week, see this 9/5 post.
--
Fuzzy Set
Fuzzy set: a set where the boundaries are fuzzy: “when does a hill become a mountain?” or “when did Peter become a disciple?”
This is a "BOTH/AND"...not an "EITHER/OR" set:
This is a "BOTH/AND"...not an "EITHER/OR" set:
Here below is some help on Fuzzy Sets:
Chiasm
"the first
shall belast/the last shall be first" is a chiasm?
A-B-B-A, X pattern.
(and this one, because it's in Matthew (20:16), will be important
for our class.
But often the chiasm is wide enough to spotlight and intended embedded theme in between the endpoints.
And to really help us get what the Spirit is saying...structurally.
People remember how to perform a piece of music by using musical notations on scale. A similar solution to the problem of remembering how to perform a piece of dance has been solved with the use of Labonotation. In antiquity, it seems most written documents were intended to be read aloud, hence to be performed. The purpose of writing wasto facilitate remembering how the document went when one read it aloud. But how did one make paragraphs or mark off units in a document read aloud? It seems that the main way to mark off a unit was to use repetition of words and/or phrases at the beginning and end of a unit, either alone (as in Matt 5:3, 10,"...for theirs is teh kingdom of heaven) or in parallel bracketing fashion (as John 1:18). The Greeks called such parallel brackets a chiasm, after one half of the letter "chi" (our 'X"), thus ">."-Social Science Commentary on the Gospel of John, p. 295, emphasis mine.. a free read online here.
here are some links to these literary devices we talked about:
- Chiasm and inclusio: an intro
- Chiasm led me to Christ (a great story from a recent FPU grad)
- Detecting chiasm
- Inclusio
- Chiasm in the Bible
Inclusio(n)
Ever notice Matthew starts with "His name will be called Emmanuel, which means 'God with us.'
And ends...very last sentence...with "I will be with you."?
No accident.
And neither is the midpoint and message of the gospel: "I will be with you" (18:20).
In Jesus, God is with us.
Jesus is the With-Us God.
That's an INCLUSIO.
You knew God was with us in Christ.. But now you see it as you look at Matthew structurally..
And ends...very last sentence...with "I will be with you."?
No accident.
And neither is the midpoint and message of the gospel: "I will be with you" (18:20).
In Jesus, God is with us.
Jesus is the With-Us God.
That's an INCLUSIO.
You knew God was with us in Christ.. But now you see it as you look at Matthew structurally..
Recurrence
ne response to the key question of the course-"Who is Jesus in Matthew?" is"Jesus is the new Moses."
Matthew could have said that, but instead he embedded it in the literay structure of his book;
is no accident that 5 times Matthew offers an almost identical sentence (RECURRENCE) to close off his five teaching blocks..
"When Jesus had finished saying these things, he moved on..."
..shows up in
- 7:28
- 11:1
- 13:53
- 19:1
- 26:1
See page 269 of your Hauer/Young textbook (the three paragraphs underneath the "Higher Righteousness" section) for more on this..
There is huge significance of five teaching blocks in Matthew, how they are identified, and what they likely symbolize.
Why 5?
Jewish people reading Matthew would say"Oh, I get it. Matthew is trying to tell us (5 times, no less( that Jesus is the New Moses (or the fulfillment of Moses)!"
Why? The answer has to to with the obvious intentionality of the5 "teaching blocks" in Matthew..Five being a hugely significant number for Jews...it's the number of books in the Torah, AKA the Five Books of Moses, AKA The Pentateuch "(Five Books in One.") . Moses=5ness.
Subversion of Empire
The HerodianWe moved into the "Christmas" story in chapter 2 (noting how it compared and contrasted with modern mangewr scenes and Christmas cards), and we watched the Ray VanDer Laan"In the Shadow of Herod" video below as a classic example of how a verse that at first seems so matter of fact, comes alive when we grasp the historical and literary world. (remember that for each VanDer Laan video we watch, there will be a question on the midterm about the main point of the video as it related to the Three World (in this case, we learn about Herod, and we see that he is a very different kind of king than Jesus,
and we learn it by the literary world of Matt. 2:1a, and the historical world image of the Herodian fortress, in whose shadow is baby Jesus). REWATCH IT BELOW..
THE MASTER BUILDER
There was another side to Herod. His visionary building programs, his ingenious development of trade with the rest of the world, and his advancement of the interests of his nation are legendary. Many of his building projects were designed to strengthen the loyalty of his subjects, a goal he never achieved. Most seem to have been built to strengthen his relationship with Rome and to establish himself as the greatest king the Jews had ever had. Herod built on a magnificent and grandiose scale. His building projects included:
The Herodion: This mountain fortress overlooked the town of Bethlehem. Standing on a high hill, the upper fortress was round and more than 200 feet in diameter. Originally, it was seven stories high, with an eastern tower that stood more than 40 feet higher. Packed dirt covered the first four stories, giving the upper fortress a cone shape. Inside were a peristyle garden, reception hall, Roman baths, and countless apartments. The lower palace included an enormous pool, a colonnaded garden, a 600-foot-long terrace, and a building more than 400 feet long. The Herodion was the third-largest palace in the ancient world....
....The visitor cannot help being impressed with Herod's vision and ingenuity. However, all that remain are spectacular ruins, because Herod lived for Herod. By contrast, another builder, a humble carpenter born in Bethlehem, used a different material than did Herod (Matt. 16:18; 1 Peter 2:4-8). Jesus' buildings continue to grow because He built for the glory of God. Like David (1 Sam. 17:46), Elijah (1 Kings 18:36), and Hezekiah (Isa. 37:20), He lived so that the world may know that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is truly God. His construction projects will last forever because He built for the glory of God the Father. -link
Intertextuality/Hyperlinking
(when one text quotes another text):
One of Chris Harrison's projects is called "Visualizing the Bible":
"Christoph Römhild sent me his interesting biblical cross-references data set. This lead to the first of three visualizations. Intrigued by the complexity of the Bible, I derived a new data set by parsing the King James Bible and extracting people and places. One of the resulting visualizations is a biblical social network. The other visualization shows how people and places are distributed throughout the text." Chris Harrison-
But why should I tell you when I can show you?::
What is a "gospel"?
-
We decided that it was:
1)"good news"..literally what the word means.
2)biography/history..(but) with a targeted theological purpose.
3)Subversion of empire...The emperors could issue pronouncements/edicts called "gospels." That the story of Jesus is presented as a "gospel" satirizes/subverts that idea (This is the REAL good news)
MORE ON 3:
The early Christian church, living as an
- altermative
- counter-cultural
- Upside Down
had to decide how to respond to the empire/emperors.
Here below are two "literary/historical world" examples of one of their key responses:
Subvert/satirize it.
"any message in any medium, designed to communicate anything"
sign
"any message in any medium, designed to communicate anything...about something else"
---------
David Letterman subverts Taco Bell and McDonald's:
No comments:
Post a Comment