Essay Four - Luke, John, Gospel of Thomas -

Requirements:

1. Your essay should be word-processed, double-spaced, one-inch to one and one-half inch margins. It should be spell-checked and grammar checked. Pages Numbered. Font no smaller than 12 point.

2. Your essay should have a cover page  with your name, date, Phil/RelS 303, and prompt pasted from assignment.

3. Number each paragraph.  Bold your thesis.  After the end of the essay, attach an OUTLINE of the essay with the thesis clearly stated and at minimum a line for each paragraph.

4. Each essay should be approximately three to five pages long (not including the cover page, outline, and Works Consulted page).

5. You must include a Works Consulted/Cited Page.  Any sources you consult must be included in your Works Consulted/Bibliography and cited in-text or in footnotes/endnotes. CAREFUL AND CORRECT CITATION IS REQUIRED. WHEN IN DOUBT, CITE. Remember that simply paraphrasing or changing every third word is not OK. Quote and cite or radically summarize and cite. Use quotation marks when quoting or indent if quote is five lines or longer. Guessing at where your information comes from is not OK. Use page numbers in your in-text citations, footnotes or endnotes. Book or journal titles are italicized or underlined.  You may consult Citation for Biblical Studies for information related to citing biblical studies sources. I prefer Turabian (Chicago), MLA, or SBL(Society of Biblical Literature) citation styles.  See note on citing Gospel of Thomas at end of this assignment.

6.  I will grade the essays for both form and content.  Click here for the Grading Rubric.  This is a checklist I will use in grading the essay.  Defining key terms, using examples to illustrate, referring to relevant biblical passages, pointing out alternative points of view and responding to objections often improve essays.    Remember that evaluation includes both strengths and weaknesses.

Note: Information on setting the grammar checker in WordPerfect and MS Word is HEREInformationRoadmaps and Transitions for Essays

Topics: Choose one of the following prompts/questions:

1. Compare and contrast the portraits of Jesus on three main points painted in two of the following: Luke, John, Thomas, or Mark.  In order to prepare your essay, you should be sure to consider the words, actions (Thomas won’t have actions per se), and functions of Jesus as well as the use of  Christological titles in each. Cite specific texts and examples to illustrate your answer. The items listed for reading in Barr on the syllabus for April 4th may be helpful.

2.  If you were making a film based on Luke or John or Thomas what three sayings/parables and/or episodes would you think were absolutely essential to include?  Explain why you chose the three you chose.  How do these episodes capture important aspects of that gospel?

3.  Compare and contrast the portrait of the disciples in Luke and John.  Pick at least three passages to illustrate your answer.

4.  Discuss the historical and social situation of Luke or John. Explain how it is reconstructed and how the reconstruction affects the interpretation of that gospel.    Be sure to point to key gospel passages scholars use in reconstruction.   Use Barr, the Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, and the introduction and annotations from the New Oxford Annotated as resources.

5.  Select one of the articles or book chapters I list below. Write an analysis of the argument/interpretive position and discuss at least one key strength and one key weakness.   These are available through the UI library's article databases, on the web

Jerome Neyrey, "Despising the Shame of the Cross": Honor and Shame in the Johannine Passion Narrative”   Semeia 69 (1996):113-37.available online at http://www.nd.edu/~jneyrey1/shame.html  He begins the article online with an abstract, so you can see what it is about before reading the whole article.  This is an example of a social-scientific approach. 

Adele Reinhartz, "Caiphas on Camera" in Images of the Word:  Hollywood's Bible and Beyond.  Ed. David Shepherd.  Atlanta:  Society of Biblical Literature, 2008, 169-93. on ereserve.

6.  Discuss the themes of solitariness/singleness and salvation in the Gospel of Thomas.   Be sure to discuss at least three of the sayings in your essay. The following sayings may be especially relevant to your discussion: 4, 11, 22, 23, 30, 61 and 106 that speak about "single one" and 16, 49, and 75 about "solitary" and sayings 21, 22, 37, 56, and 114 which seem to deal with salvation.  See also the Cameron entry from the Anchor Bible Dictionary on e-reserve and the  Valantasis "Introduction"  on e-reserve.  You may also find food for thought in the Pagels and Koester essays at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/thomas.html  (You can agree or disagree with their interpretations).

7.  Write an essay describing key three elements of your overall impressions of the Gospel of Thomas.  You should discuss at least three sayings in your essay.  You may want to consider what kind of cosmology, anthropology (view of humans), soteriology (theory of salvation), eschatology, or community ethos the Gospel of Thomas presupposes; Thomas literary characteristics, or how it compares to one of the canonical gospels.

8.    *Wildcard.  Topic of your choice.  Get approval for topic from instructor via email or in person.

NOTE ON CITING Gospel of Thomas:

Assuming you are using the Lambdin translation from http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gthlamb.html, you would cite it as follows using MLA 

In Works Cited: 

“The Gospel of Thomas. II, 2.”  The Nag Hammadi Library in English. Trans. Thomas O. Lambdin.  Eds. James M. Robinson and Richard D. Smith. Rev. Ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1990. 124-38. Print.  The Gnostic Society Library.  Web.  YOUR DATE OF ACCESS. < http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gthlamb.html>.

 You sort of have to do the best you can with such a complicated source.  The Gnostic Society essentially reproduced online the Lambdin translation from Robinson et al in print. You can alter the information to fit Turabian style for References or if you are using another translation.  I won’t be too picky given the difficulty in citing.  Include as much information as you have

In-Text: 

The in-text citations are more like citing a regular biblical book  because there is a standard agreed upon number just as there is with chapters and verses in the Bible.  Thus:   (G. Th. 112)  if you are referencing saying/logion 112.  If you are quoting, I would put a footnote after the first use indicating you will use the Lambdin translation throughout or whatever translation you are using throughout.  If you are switching from translation to translation, then (G. Th. 112, Lambdin)