2,699 research outputs found
'Woe to you, hypocrites!' : law and leaders in The Gospel of Matthew
No full textThis 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
Citation expectations: are they realized? Study of the Matthew index for Russian papers published abroad
No full textWe 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
Zechariah and the Gospel off Matthew: the use of a biblical tradition
No full textThis 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
Matthew’s Emmanuel Messiah: a paradigm of presence for god's people
No full textThe 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
Wisdom and apocalyptic in the Gospel of Matthew : a comparative study with 1 Enoch and 4QInstruction
No full textRecent 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
Artful living and the eradication of worry in Søren Kierkegaard's interpretation of Matthew 6:24-34
No full textDanish 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
Quantification of food intake in Drosophila
No full textMeasurement of food intake in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is often necessary for studies of behaviour, nutrition and drug administration. There is no reliable and agreed method for measuring food intake of flies in undisturbed, steady state, and normal culture conditions. We report such a method, based on measurement of feeding frequency by proboscis-extension, validated by short-term measurements of food dye intake. We used the method to demonstrate that (a) female flies feed more frequently than males, (b) flies feed more often when housed in larger groups and (c) fly feeding varies at different times of the day. We also show that alterations in food intake are not induced by dietary restriction or by a null mutation of the fly insulin receptor substrate chico. In contrast, mutation of takeout increases food intake by increasing feeding frequency while mutation of ovoD increases food intake by increasing the volume of food consumed per proboscis-extension. This approach provides a practical and reliable method for quantification of food intake in Drosophila under normal, undisturbed culture conditions
Should i publish in an open access journal?
No full textAn “author pays” publishing model is the only fair way to make biomedical research findings accessible to all, say Matthew Kurien and David S Sanders, but James J Ashton and R Mark Beattie worry that it can lead to bias in the evidence base towards commercially driven results
Azithromycin plus chloroquine: combination therapy for protection against malaria and sexually transmitted infections in pregnancy.
No full textINTRODUCTION: The first-line therapy for the intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) is sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP). There is an urgent need to identify safe, well-tolerated and efficacious alternatives to SP due to widespread Plasmodium falciparum resistance. Combination therapy using azithromycin and chloroquine is one possibility that has demonstrated adequate parasitological response > 95% in clinical trials of non-pregnant adults in sub-Saharan Africa and where IPTp is a government policy in 33 countries. AREAS COVERED: Key safety, tolerability and efficacy data are presented for azithromycin and chloroquine, alone and/or in combination, when used to prevent and/or treat P. falciparum, P. vivax, and several curable sexually transmitted and reproductive tract infections (STI/RTI). Pharmacokinetic evidence from pregnant women is also summarized for both compounds. EXPERT OPINION: The azithromycin-chloroquine regimen that has demonstrated consistent efficacy in non-pregnant adults has been a 3-day course containing daily doses of 1 g of azithromycin and 600 mg base of chloroquine. The pharmacokinetic evidence of these compounds individually suggests that dose adjustments may not be necessary when used in combination for treatment efficacy against P. falciparum, P. vivax, as well as several curable STI/RTI among pregnant women, although clinical confirmation will be necessary. Mass trachoma-treatment campaigns have shown that azithromycin selects for macrolide resistance in the pneumococcus, which reverses following the completion of therapy. Most importantly, no evidence to date suggests that azithromycin induces pneumococcal resistance to penicillin
Intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy: at the crossroads of public health policy.
No full textThe intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) has been a key component of the focused antenatal care package for nearly a decade, reducing the burden of low birthweight attributable to malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. However, SP has lost parasite sensitivity in many sub-Saharan locations during the same period, rendering its beneficial effect in IPTp debatable. Malaria transmission has also declined in some epidemiological settings. There is no evidence to suggest, however, that the risk of malaria in pregnancy without preventive measures has declined in the same locations. Thus, the urgency to identify efficacious drugs and/or new strategies to prevent malaria in pregnancy remains as great as ever. We summarise the results of recently published SP-IPTp studies from areas of high drug resistance and/or low malaria transmission. We also present the evidence for mefloquine and azithromycin-based combinations (ABCs), two leading drug options to replace SP in IPTp. We discuss optimal dosing for ABCs and their likely protection against several sexually transmitted and reproductive tract infections. We also summarise data from a diagnosis-based alternative to IPTp known as the intermittent screening and treatment (IST) for malaria. Clinical and operational research is urgently needed to compare birth outcomes achieved by IPTp with ABCs vs. IST using an efficacious antimalarial therapy
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