Matthew Brief Essay - 20 points
Requirements:
1. Your essay should be word-processed, double-spaced, one-inch to one and one-half inch margins. It should be spell-checked. Pages Numbered. Font no smaller than 12 point.
2. You should have a cover page with title, date, topic/prompt, and your name. (You can simply cut and paste the topic/prompt from the list below onto your cover page.)
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. The essay should be approximately three pages long (not including the title page or Works Consulted page).
5. You must include a Works Consulted/Cited Page. You need not consult any other sources than what we have read for class. Those sources and any other sources you consult must be included in your Works Consulted/Cited 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.
6. Click here for the Grading Rubric for the essay. 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. Here is a link to Roadmap and Transition advice.
Topics: Choose one of the following prompts/questions:
1. Discuss how the Matthean genealogy and birth story at the beginning and The Great Commission at the end form bookends around the rest of the gospel. How does the birth story set the stage for the reader and foreshadow key themes? How does the Great Commission recall previous themes?
2. Matthew and Anti-Judaism.
As Barr says, Matthew is viewed both as the most Jewish and the most anti-Jewish of the gospels. Historically, people have sometimes used Matthew to justify anti-Semitism or anti-Judaism. Read Matthew Chapter 6, Chapter 23, Chapter 27:25, and Chapter 28:11-15. Matthew paints a particularly harsh picture of certain Jewish leaders and perhaps even of the Jewish people as a whole in 27:25. How should modern interpreters treat these passages? Are there ethical obligations for interpreters which arise because the historical context has changed from a situation in which Christians were deviant Jews to one in which Christians are members of a separate religion, far greater in numbers, and have knowledge of the Holocaust ? For background on Matthew and Judaism and Barr's take on this, see Barr 325-33.3. Disciples
Compare and contrast Matthew's characterization of the disciples with Mark's characterization of the disciples in the following parallel passages: Mt 13:10-23=Mk 4:10-20; Mt 14:22-36=Mk 6:45-52 (Aland Synopsis 1474. **Wild Card. Topic of your choice. Must be approved by the instructor ahead of time.