6,221 research outputs found
Zechariah and the Gospel off Matthew: the use of a biblical tradition
This thesis examines the use of Zechariah traditions in Matthew's Gospel. It analyzes and interprets the ways Matthew transmits, alters or adds Zechariah traditions to his sources. Instead of looking at portions of the Gospel in light of Zechariah 9-14 only, this study addresses the entire Gospel and all of Zechariah. In focusing on Zechariah tradition, the thesis has kept the following considerations in view. First, the content and function of Matthew's explicit uses of Zechariah are examined. Second, ways in which tradition derived from Zechariah may have exerted influence on portions of the gospel sub-structure are identified. Third, it explores the extent to which Matthew alludes to characteristic Zechariah themes. Together, these components illuminate how Matthew's Gospel incorporates its Zechariah material, whether alone or in combination with other prophetic traditions. Thus the methodological approach of the thesis is not only grounded in classical methods of biblical criticism but is also open to recent literary methods. In addition to explicit citations, numerous allusions and echoes of Zechariah tradition are present in Matthew. They appear in Matthean materials and in traditions Matthew has taken from Mark and Q. Because the focus of this thesis is open to both the Gospel and the Zechariah traditions in their entirety, two important observations have been made. First, traces of Zechariah material are found in the Infancy and Gaililean healing Narratives as well as in the Passion Narrative. Not only is the impact of Zechariah 9-14 observed, but important sections of Zechariah 1-8 are also discerned in Matthew's narrative structure. Moreover, Matthew's Son of David Christology is enriched and partially defined by Zechariah's prophet-shepherd imagery, as well as by the royal messianic motif
Citation expectations: are they realized? Study of the Matthew index for Russian papers published abroad
We consider the "Matthew effect" in the citation process which leads to reallocation (or misallocation) of the citations received by scientific papers within the same journals. The case when such reallocation correlates with a country where an author works is investigated. Russian papers in chemistry and physics published abroad were examined. We found that in both disciplines in about 60% of journals Russian papers are cited less than average ones. However, if we consider each discipline as a whole, citedness of a Russian paper in physics will be on the average level, while chemistry publications receive about 16% citations less than one may expect from the citedness of the journals where they appear. Moreover, Russian chemistry papers mostly become undercited in the leading journals of the field. Characteristics of a "Matthew index" indicator and its significance for scientometric studies are also discussed
Ritual in the Damascus document and the Gospel of Matthew
This thesis examines the ritual content of the Damascus Document and the Gospel of
Matthew, demonstrating how community identity is constructed and developed through
the interpretation of the Law represented in each. The content is arranged according to
the ritual typology of Catherine Bell, which organises ritual into six categories:
calendrical ritual, rites of exchange and communion, political ritual, rites of passage, rites of affliction and rites of feasting and fasting. Analysis by type enables comparison and comment on the features and effects of ritual. I identify the Scriptural precedent for the discussions of ritual and any similar texts from the same period. These two ritually dense texts provide a great deal of material representing different perspectives on ritual
function and obligations within a Jewish community setting. The Damascus Document is a non-sectarian legal text from the Second Temple period. The Gospel of Matthew presents the narrative of Jesus with considerable comment on ritual matters, reflecting an audience steeped in Jewish ritual praxis while looking towards an eschatological inclusion of Gentiles who adhere to Jewish obligations. Each offers an insight into a community dissenting from aspects of mainstream Judaism without withdrawing completely. Each community maintains traditional ritual obligations to some extent, but claims additional information clarifying the correct interpretations of the Law. This thesis analyses how they negotiate the practical, and often theological, issues that accompany their distinct practices, creating a community identity through ritual
Matthew Baker (1530-1613) e la nascita dell'ingegneria navale
La costruzione navale ha vissuto, durante i secoli ma soprattutto nel Rinasci-mento, profondi cambiamenti nelle tecniche e nelle tecnologie costruttive, nell'uso dei materiali e nelle tipologie di imbarcazioni: un processo che è continuato fino ai giorni nostri. La sua storia è quindi costellata di innovazioni, invenzioni e personaggi che hanno portato allo sviluppo della costruzione navale in senso moderno. Tra i tanti personaggi che hanno attraversato questa storia, di fondamentale impor-tanza è la figura di Matthew Baker (1530-1613), maestro carpentiere della Corona inglese sotto Elisabetta I (1533-1603). Egli, con le sue idee innovative in merito alla redazione del progetto navale, diede un contributo importante all'affermazione della Royal Navy come potenza marittima europea e a una trasformazione della figura cardine dei cantieri navali dellʼepoca, il maestro dʼascia, che diventò in seguito ingegnere navale.The 17th century was a period of great development for England, which reached a leading role among the European powers. In a few decades the British navy underwent major changes due to the creation of the Royal Navy and the figure of Matthew Baker, a young Master Shipbuilder. Baker's contribution concerns the method of approach to shipbuilding and the birth of a new professional figure: the naval engineer. Baker opposed tradition based only on experience; in order to verify the nautical qualities of a ship in a "scientific" way, he believed it necessary to combine an indepth study of mathematics and geometry with an understanding of the shipbuilder's construction process. As a result, Baker's work led to the realiza-tion of construction plans and the presence of the naval engineer in the shipyard, who became both the custodian of the science of shipbuilding and the real ship designer. Thanks to Baker, after a few years this new figure became part of the social elite of the English Crown as a link between the administrative part managed by the nobles and the work of the yard
'Woe to you, hypocrites!' : law and leaders in The Gospel of Matthew
This thesis seeks to move beyond the impasse in Matthean scholarship that posits the reason for conflict in Matthew 23 with the authorial community. A framework is developed that allows the possibility that the gospel was received and understood by a widespread, general audience that itself was not necessarily embroiled in conflict. Multiple complementary methods are used to analyze how an ancient audience might expect conflict and work through its development in the narrative. Analysis of comparative biographical literature and of Old Testament references and allusions shows that readers could expect in literature the type and intensity of conflict exhibited in Matthew 23. The gospel's internal narrative development provides unity to the conflict episodes in Matthew 9-23. It also offers rationale for the escalation of conflict for which Matthew 23 is the summary. Chapter One: The Shape of the Discussion surveys representative works including redaction, social scientific, socio-historical, narrative and genre critics, to understand the options for studying conflict in Matthew. Reader-response oriented genre criticism provides language for framing reader expectations. Chapter Two: Expecting Conflict examines expectations that can be associated with Matthew's use of the Old Testament and by comparison with ancient biographies. Chapter Three: The Conflict Builds works systematically through each of the points of contact between Jesus and the leaders of Israel in chapters 9-22 organized by three topics: legal interpretation, the identity and authority of Jesus, and the character of the leaders. Chapter Four: Woe to You takes up the task of examining Matthew 23. The analysis of Matthew 23 identifies three components in the summary of conflict: Jesus presented as the model for his audience, Jesus' final denunciation of the leaders, and the presentation of Jesus as God’s representative. The multi-methodological approach used in this study of Matthew 23 suggests a narrative that invites the reader to rethink how one knows and understands God. The study thereby provides an alternative to the assumption that conflict reflects the immediate experience of a narrowly conceived authorial community
Phobic, fearful, or refusing? Exploring adult constructions of young people's extended non-attendance and their impact on the young person's lifeworld
Matthew’s Emmanuel Messiah: a paradigm of presence for god's people
The motif of divine presence is a clear phenomenon within the Gospel of Matthew. The modern critical means for assessing the ancient biblical text have multiplied to the point, some claim, of disparity. This study employs both narrative and redaction criticism in an attempt to respond authentically to the structural, historical and theological dimensions of Matthew's Gospel. This study begins with the presumption of the wholeness and integrity of Matthew's narrative, and assumes the gospel story to have an inherently dramatic structure which invites readers to inhabit imaginatively its narrative world and respond to its call. But since we are concerned with the role of both reader and author, this study also assumes a text with an historical author and context. The introduction focuses on the meta-critical dilemma facing New Testament students - what is the text and how do we read it? - and seeks some balance in terms of Krieger's analogy of the text as both window and mirror. Proposed is a narrative reading of Matthew's presence motif alongside a redaction critical assessment of it. In Chapter 2 the elements of narrative theory are introduced and relevant terms defined: the structure of narrative, the function of the narrator, points of view. Chapter 3 becomes an exercise in narrative reading, with Matthew's presence motif providing the focus, and the implied reader’s interaction with the story being predominant in interpretation. Characters, rhetorical devices, and points of view are discussed, to understand the motif's development throughout the story's progress. The thrust of Chapter 4 is thereafter to examine divine presence as a dominant motif within Matthew's most important literary context: the Jewish scriptures. Here the primary paradigms of divine presence provided by the Patriarchs, the Sinai experience, and the Davidic-Zion traditions are assessed. Chapter 5 follows with a more detailed examination of the OT "I am with you/God is with us" formula and its µeo' vµwv/ηuwv language, so strongly connected to Matthew's presence motif. Chapters 6-8 build on these investigations with a closer analysis of the three critical "presence passages" of Mt 1:23. 18:20 and 28:20. The passages and their contexts are probed from a redaction critical perspective, guided by the narrative investigation of Chapter 3, and the background from Chapters 4 and 5.The three major "presence passages" examined in Chapters 6-8 are also complimented by a number of secondary issues: worship, wisdom, the Spirit and the poor in Matthew, and their relation to Jesus' divine presence. These are discussed in Chapter 9. Chapter 10 summarizes and looks briefly at some implications. Matthew' presence motif proves to be an important element of the Gospel’s rhetorical design, redactional strategy and Christology. The presence of Jesus, the Emmanuel Messiah, exhibited in his risen authority, becomes the focus of his people's hopes and experiences in the post-Easter world. What the presence of Yahweh was to his people. Jesus now provides in a new paradigm for his people - his followers, the little ones, the poor and the marginalized, from all nations
Artful living and the eradication of worry in Søren Kierkegaard's interpretation of Matthew 6:24-34
Danish thinker Søren Kierkegaard published fourteen discourses, across four collections, on Matthew 6:24-34. The repeated readings of the biblical text, whose themes include the choice between God and mammon, worry, what it means to consider the birds and lilies, and how to seek first the kingdom of God, converge with Kierkegaard’s interest in anxiety, despair, worry, subjectivity, indirect communication, choice, the moment, and life before God. Accordingly, the discourses make connections with his larger works, elucidate frequently explored Kierkegaardian themes in recent scholarship, and contribute to his critique of nineteenth-century Copenhagen. Additionally, the collections present an interpretation of each verse and phrase of Matthew’s text and, held up against modern Matthew scholarship, they correlate with and contribute to Sermon on the Mount and New Testament studies. Kierkegaard’s reading of Matthew also holds implications for the practice of biblical interpretation as it promotes the importance of awareness of sin, interestedness, and appropriation as central to proper reading. His emphasis on Christ as the primary exemplar of Matthew’s text adds an additional Christological element to his hermeneutic. Furthermore, the discourses serve as spiritual treatises which provide the reader with theological terminology to help confront the problem of worry and suffering. In light of a human being’s distinctiveness as imago Dei, Kierkegaard elucidates ways an individual may respond artfully to the ongoing possibility of worry, a possibility which the discourses connect with Christian anthropology and external labels associated with possessions and status. The Matthew 6 discourses intimate Kierkegaard’s sympathy with classic Christian spirituality and, in combination with the cultural-ecclesiastical critique, the creative exegesis, and the in-depth analysis of the cause of and cure for worry, his work emerges as an excellent example of spiritual theology
Wisdom and apocalyptic in the Gospel of Matthew : a comparative study with 1 Enoch and 4QInstruction
Recent scholarship has demonstrated that Matthew's gospel has significantly developed
both sapiential and apocalyptic elements within its narrative. Little attention has been paid,
however, to the question of how these two features of Matthew's gospel might relate to one
another. It is this gap in scholarly literature that the present study is intended to fill, by means of a
comparative study with two other texts of mixed genre: 1 Enoch and 4Qlnstruction.
An examination of these texts demonstrates that each is marked by an inaugurated
eschatology, within which the revealing of wisdom to an elect group, defined in distinction to the
Jewish parent group, serves as the pivotal moment of inauguration. In addition, within
4Qlnstruction the idea is developed that possession of this revealed wisdom allows the remnant
to live in fidelity to the will of the Creator and to the patterns built-in to the original creation.
Thus, possession of revealed wisdom facilitates a recovery of creation.
These findings provide lines of enquiry that may be brought to Matthew. Three sections
of the gospel are examined (chapters 5-7; 11-12; 24-25). It is argued that Jesus is presented as an
eschatological figure who reveals wisdom to an elect group. This wisdom cannot be reduced to
great moral insight or interpretation of Torah, but is presented as prophetic revelation, happening
in eschatological time. It remains the case, however, that Matthew presents it as wisdom and
presents Jesus as a sage.
More tentatively, it is suggested that creation provides the patterns for the ethical
requirements of Jesus' wisdom, thus indicating that the idea of restored creation is also at work in
Matthew. The fall of the temple may also be connected in Matthew's narrative to such a
restoration, but again, the evidence for this is not clear
Review of \u3cem\u3eThe Loyal West: Civil War and Reunion in Middle America\u3c/em\u3e by Matthew E. Stanley
Interest in Civil War memory and post–Civil War sectional reconciliation has expanded greatly in recent years, as two 2016 historiographical essays attest.1 Matthew E. Stanley\u27s new book, The Loyal West: Civil War and Reunion in Middle America is thus well timed to make an important contribution to our evolving understanding of the process of sectional reconciliation in the decades following the Civil War. With his focus on Kentucky\u27s northern neighbors in the lower portions of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, the editorial staff of the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society believe Stanley\u27s book will help historians better understand the role Kentucky played in the events of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, which saw a white supremacist version of Civil War memory eclipse an emancipationist version nationally.
We have asked four nineteenth-century historians to consider Stanley\u27s book from varying perspectives. M. Keith Harris teaches history at a private high school in Los Angeles, California. He is the author of Across the Bloody Chasm: The Culture of Commemoration among Civil War Veterans (2014) and is currently writing a book on D. W. Griffith\u27s controversial 1915 silent film, The Birth of a Nation. Anne E. Marshall is an associate professor of history at Mississippi State University and the author of Creating a Confederate Kentucky: The Lost Cause and Civil War Memory in a Border State (2012). James Marten is professor and chair of the history department at Marquette University. His most recent books are Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America (2011) and America\u27s Corporal: James Tanner in War and Peace (2014). Kristopher Maulden is a visiting assistant professor of history at Columbia College in Missouri. He is completing a book manuscript on the influence of Federalist politics and federal policy in the Ohio River Valley, and he is engaged in a study of nineteenth-century Ohio newspaper editor Charles Hammond. Finally, the author of The Loyal West, Matthew E. Stanley, assistant professor of history at Albany State University, will respond to the reviews
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