Sunday, June 05, 2005

An ongoing set of comments on the gospels

I've put together a study-plan for the synoptics, showing the consecutive parallels and comparable verses. On June 8th, we start with the beginning of the Galilean ministry. Here is the schedule for June 8-19, the beginning of the ministry in Galilee and the North:

Jun 8 Mt 4:12-17//Mk 1:14-15//Lk 4:14-15

Jun 9 Lk 4:16-30 (cf. Mt 13:53-58; Mk 6:1-6; Jn 6:41-42; 4:43-44)

Jun 10 review

Jun 11 Mt 4:18-22//Mk 1:16-20 (cf. Lk 5:1-11; Jn 1:35-42)

Jun 12 Mk 1:21-28//Lk 4:31-37 (cf. Mt 7:28-29)

Jun 13 Mk 1:29-31//Lk 4:38-39 (cf. Mt 8:14-15)

Jun 14 review

Jun 15 Mk 1:32-34//Lk 4:40-41 (cf. Mt 8:16-17)

Jun 16 Mk 1:35-38//Lk 4:42-43 (cf. Mt 8:18)

Jun 17 Mt 4:23-25//Mk 1:39//Lk 4:44

Jun 18 review

Jun 19 Lk 5:1-11 (cf. Mt 4:18-22; Mk 1:16-20; Jn 21:1-11)

13 comments:

Larry said...

If you want the schedule for the portion of the gospels previous to this starting point, I can add a post showing them. The schedule is a year-long schedule designed to arrive at the Resurrection account on Easter Sunday (in the West), 2006.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget to save your comments somehwere before you publish, so just in case your connection is flakey, like mine, you won't lose your typing.

The word "metanoiehte" in Matthew 4:17 -- I think we should invent another word for translating it, not associated with the presuppositions we attach to "repent," i.e., to stop doing this or that. That's not the meaning of the word.

We have the word paranoid in English, and if we also had the word "metanoid," we could use that, and say that Jesus was calling the people to metanoia -- to change their outlook, their take on the world, the way they've put it all together, because the kingdom of heaven has arrived. Mark says do that metanoia, and believe the the good news!

Anonymous said...

You may not intentionally be doing so, but don't you notice that changing your outlook and take on the world sounds so weak and anemic, compared to "repent?" Jesus didn't come teaching in "Intro to Philosophy" class. Do you mean to remove the moral imperative component of "repent?"

Larry said...

(June 9; on Lk 4): Is it more that Jesus simultaneously accomplishes and proclaims, or that He merely proclaims the things He states in vv. 18-19, when He says, in 4:21, that the Scripture He read was fulfilled?

Anonymous said...

(June 11 Mt 4:18-22//) The call of the disciples is often interpreted from the point of view of the internals of the decision of Peter, Andrew, James, and John, to follow Christ, i.e., the greatness of that choice, the courage, the determination, the virtue of it. But the text doesn't say any of that. What is the context of this event? Galilee, the people in it, had already seen a great light (4:16); doesn't this call more likely show the greatness of that light, than that of the callees? It may also show the fact that the reputation of Jesus was incomparable from the beginning (cf. Lk 4:14-15). This is brought out even more in the Markan parallel at 1:20. Without the greatness of the One who called them as a backdrop, who would praise James and John leaving their father in a boat with the hired servants in the middle of the day's work, to follow Him?

Anonymous said...

Don't be too hasty to discount the decisions of these four men to follow Christ. Just because the text doesn't explicitly draw the conclusion that their decision was a great choice, you cannot argue from silence that it wasn't. Jesus praises either this or an equaivalent decision later, in speaking directly to His disciples in Lk 18:28-30.

Larry said...

The study plan allows you to read all three synoptics in the order they have in common; looking at June 12-16, you see that Matthew has comparable verses to Mark and Luke, which he places at a later point in his gospel. Therefore, while Mk and Lk are consecutive parallels in those passages, the Matthew passage will be read when it comes in the sequence of Matthew, and Mk/Lk will be listed there as comparable passages. Bottom line, you won't miss anything by ignoring the "(cf.)" verses.

Anonymous said...

(June 12 Mk 1:21-28//)
Can't help being reminded of, in reading this story, unfortunately besides my built-in suspicions in reading stories like this, also of how early this incident is in the narration, and how like the story of Genesis, in this respect, that just as God proceeded from the man's story to the woman's story to dealing with the devil first, Jesus worked on not just a teaching level, but dealt with the devil right from the beginning. Mk 1:13 prepare us for this, I guess. Got to fight that bias.

Anonymous said...

(Jun 13 Mk 1:31//)

Did Jesus stand over her (Lk 4:39), or did He take her by the hand (Mk 1:31)?

I point this out not to be fault-finding, but so that people can see that the gospels are not always verbally identical in describing the same event. This is a good thing.

Anonymous said...

(Jun 15 Mk 1:32-24//)

Jesus did not permit the demons to speak, specifically because they knew who He was, the Messiah.

What is the logic of this "Messianic secret" idea? First, it's not just in Mark, but Luke has it too.

One option is that there is no knowledge that evil doesn't twist, from the garden on out. The demons knew who He was, but already turned it into an accusation (in Mt 8:29) of Christ, or a temptation for others who heard them to make that accusation.

Anonymous said...

Jun 16 (Mk 1:35-38//)

the clause "let us go somewhere else" in Mk 1:38 captures an aspect of the Lord's approach to His earthly ministry that we don't see portrayed very often; we don't see it very often as anything but a march along a path completely forseen in every detail. But not here.

Anonymous said...

(June 17 Mt 4:23-25//)

The Matthew passage is expansive and is a great place to pause and imagine what that time and those events might have been like .... Or, if you're afraid to imagine yourself as having been there with the Lord at that time, or as any of the kinds of people from those places described there, just take what is said and "make valid inferences." That doesn't sound as dangerous, does it?

Anonymous said...

(June 19 Lk 5:1-11)

The crowd and the disciples listened to the word of God, but it was when Jesus revealed something about Himself directly in the sphere of their expertise (vv. 4-7) that Peter and the disciples react in the characteristic human way when God's glory is close (Ex 20:18-19).

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