89 chapter project: Matthew

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GeoFee said:
Most of us grew up under the influence of historical critical interpretation of the gospel narratives. Some of have exited that interpretive school to explore rabbinic patterns of engaging scripture.
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Could you say more about the two ways of understanding scripture and how they differ?
 
The point is he's frustrated and he's doing what he has always done when he's frustrated.
 
Hi,

Let me start here:
BetteTheRed said:
between Jesus, Pilate and Barabbas. Bar Abba is literally "Son of the Father".
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Three characters at the centre of attention. One in the position of judge. Two on trial for diverse reasons. Jesus was subversive of the religious structures prevailing in the day. He did this as one who affected the popular imagination to consider another possibility. Feeding five thousand on a hillside suggesting an egalitarian social structure. Embracing the outcast making clear the abundant love of God for all persons in all places. This is quite a contrast to the militant insurrection of Barabbas. We well wonder why the crowd would prefer Barabbas over Jesus. Perhaps because the change offered by Jesus required a new outlook. A turning from the way of power to the way of love. Pilate makes clear he disagrees with the voices calling for the death of Jesus. Yet he submits to the expression of their will. I am left wondering where I stand as our world moves rapidly towards breakdown and the onset of chaos.

Many persons and peoples worship Jesus as the Son of the Father. I prefer Jesus as liberator, according to the meaning of his name. This puts me a risk in our day as it put the followers of Jesus at risk in their day.

George
 
paradox3 said:
Could you say more about the two ways of understanding scripture and how they differ?
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I am off to relax with Barbara and pup as the new year approaches. Very basically, the historical critical is biased to objectivity and the rabbinic is biased to subjectivity. The former asks what the text means in its context. The latter asks what the text is saying in the context of the reader.

I hear a wee glass of sherry being poured. Adieu and best wishes for all the time to come!
 
Tomorrow I will put up the final chapter of Matthew. I am still planning to proceed with Mark's gospel but will probably hold off for a few days. This will give me time to read over this thread from top to bottom and summarize key points.

Anyone who has any final comments about the book of Matthew is most welcome to make them.
 
GeoFee said:
Pilate makes clear he disagrees with the voices calling for the death of Jesus. Yet he submits to the expression of their will.
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I wonder why Matthew portrays Pilate so generously? He was, historically, by all accounts, a thoroughly evil and incompetent man.

Also, about this crowd that demanded Jesus' life over Barabbas'? Some scholars note that this not necessarily the 'same crowd' or even the 'same size crowd' as celebrated Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
 
GeoFee said:
Hi,

This has me pondering: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” It evokes the heart cry of the broken poor in all times and places. Also the anguish of the faithful prophets advocating for people and land exploited and oppressed by the misuse and abuse of power.

Most of us grew up under the influence of historical critical interpretation of the gospel narratives. Some of have exited that interpretive school to explore rabbinic patterns of engaging scripture.

George
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The quote from Ps 22, of course. Psalm 22 starts out in a very low place, deep in the depths of despair. Yet as the Psalm goes on, the Psalmist recalls God's acts in the past, which leads him to a place of hope; sort of like coming through to the end of a dark valley in Psalm 23, into a place of light and peace. Could it be that even in the depths of despair, Jesus uses a Psalm like this to find the beginning of a new hope?
 
Redbaron said:
The quote from Ps 22, of course. Psalm 22 starts out in a very low place, deep in the depths of despair. Yet as the Psalm goes on, the Psalmist recalls God's acts in the past, which leads him to a place of hope; sort of like coming through to the end of a dark valley in Psalm 23, into a place of light and peace. Could it be that even in the depths of despair, Jesus uses a Psalm like this to find the beginning of a new hope?
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Psalm 22 prophesizes Christ's suffering. Christ was the hunted; in the exaltation following his overthrow of humanity's enemies, eternity dawned over him.

In verse one, the speaker, Christ, speaking through David, plunges into anguish which marked his suffering's climax. Prophecy and fulfillment unite here; we're taken 1,000 years into the future to Calvary.

Christ cried out as he felt hell closing in on him. Christ's goodness had been forsaken him. Without comfort and consolation he endured tortures.

So deep was that suffering that Christ himself asked, "Why?" God's counsel, with which he'd from eternity declared himself in harmony, was, for the time being, hidden from him.

And yet he clings to God, his cry of misery thereby proving the call of victory with which Christ conquered hell.

Christ's cry over his being forsaken by God is explained and extended. His cry became a roar; it rose up on high, during eternity's agony.
 
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Jae said:
Pilate was a broken person - as are we all.

I actually like to imagine that, in the end, God may have saved Pilate. As such is suggested in the apocryphal The Acts of Pilate.
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As I am a Universalist, I would assume that God will have received Pilate, and Hitler, and all sorts of other people we deem 'evil' into Goddeself. Yeah, there's some interesting stuff in the non-canonical works; I think that apocryphal has a more specific meaning? Particularly when it comes to both Jewish and Catholic acceptances of scripture at a very early juncture?
 
BetteTheRed said:
I wonder why Matthew portrays Pilate so generously? He was, historically, by all accounts, a thoroughly evil and incompetent man.
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Pilates's wife seemed to have a certain amount of positive influence over him. ;)

BetteTheRed said:
Also, about this crowd that demanded Jesus' life over Barabbas'? Some scholars note that this not necessarily the 'same crowd' or even the 'same size crowd' as celebrated Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
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Now that you mention it, I recall hearing this idea on another occasion. But I am not sure if I read it somewhere or heard it in a sermon.

Which nuances of the story change if it is a different crowd?
 
Barabbas / Jesus

perhaps a play on words.

Barabbas actually means son of the father.

Jesus had no earthly father. He was known in some places as Mary's son, or son of Mary. In other words a bastard.

The crowds that gathered that day, perhaps with others planted among them to stir up trouble for Jesus, choose a legitimate son over a bastard.
 
Is apocryphal like ultimate (once having to do with distance and measure) and a concept of something beyond the bible as proscribed by authorities with plots ... ancient conspiracies to be original ... when they weren't!

Then if you can't believe in concepts could you give birth to it? Thus seizure like the pall of Nero ... a great ominous cloud like many blind leadership representations! They do not believe in the whole thing as holy prefabrication of something that's not really there ... spacey? Tis nebulous or at least somewhat fuzzy ... like a winter's night gift ... flakey persons!

Are cool dreams like that .... frosty?
 
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