Author Archives: greed

Team 1 Question 1

Posted on by under birth narrative

In Matthew’s birth narrative, Matthew tells the lineage of Jesus through 3 sets of fourteen generations. The first set  (v.2-6) begins with Abraham and ends with David. The second set (v.6-11) begins with David and ends with Jeconiah. And the last set (v.12-16) begins with Jeconiah and ends with Jesus. Clearly in retelling a birth narrative, Matthew is trying everything he can to make a connection between Jesus and the office of the Jewish Messiah. Matthew intentionally starts and stops each section of generations with prominent figures in the Jewish community. The effect of this is that it personally connects Jesus directly to Abraham, David and Jeconiah. This is important because as the narrative continues we learn that Jesus is not the son of any man in actuality but sent directly from God by the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus was not “born of man” so to speak, Matthew demonstrates that his human father Joseph is from direct lineage of David and Abraham.

Also something I found interesting in this particular section is the strong emphasis to make sure that he pointed out fourteen generations even though there are not fourteen generations. Several times in the genealogy, Matthew omits people in the genealogy on purpose to keep the fourteen generation theme consistent. I think this is important because fourteen is a multiple of seven, and seven in Jewish culture represented completeness. Once again pointing to the case that everything is complete through Jesus because he is from God. Genealogies were very important in establishing a proper aretalogy. In this section, both Luke and Matthew are trying to demonstrate that Jesus is from God. Luke even takes his genealogy of Jesus further all the way to Adam! It is clear form the genealogy stories that the important thing that Matthew wants us to understand is that Jesus is from God.

In the birth story, Matthew tries to make as many parallel to Jesus and the Jewish people as possible. Just as Moses’ mom and to predict him from a king trying to kill all the male infants, so Mary must protect Jesus from being killed as an infant. Just as God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, so he brings Jesus and his family out of Egypt. Matthew tries to use as many parallel as possible to prove the Jewishness and Divinity of Jesus. No one man could have this much in common with huge figures such as Moses and David unless he was from God, seems to be Matthew’s whole premise.

Team 1, Question 1

Posted on by under divine man

White goes into detail for us, as to what qualifies someone to be “divine man”. First is the birth. Birth is usually foretold in a dream or a divine oracle announces the birth of messenger of the gods. Also, typically the mother is impregnated in a peculiar way. Usually by a divine parent, which would connect the idea that the “divine man” is a “Son of God” The actual birth itself, is accompanied by special circumstances. It usually takes place around a special holiday. It occurs in an unusual place like a forest or foreign land. Anywhere where a normal baby would not be born. Sometimes the father is kept out of the whole birthing scene or does not play a significant role in this part of the child’s life. Secondly, from birth the child begins to show exceptional abilities far beyond the years of his peers. The mother is typically the one who recognizes the special nature and concludes that the child should be given special treatment or training. All throughout his childhood the child excels in all aspects of growth and learning and miraculous powers can be evident when the “divine man” is a child. Lastly, as an adult, the “divine man” shows great wisdom and has the ability to perform miracles. He gains a popularity and a following because of his abilities and wisdom. Finally an unusual phenomena accompany his death or disappearance.

Lucian portrays Pereginus as a lunatic and en evil man. From Lucian monologue, it appears that Pereginus spent most of his life trying to prove to people that he is a “divine man”. But Lucian, who clearly knows Pereginus from several interactions, proves that he is nothing more than a fraud that taken advantage of people and have burned a lot of bridges in the process. For instance, Pereginus used to have good relationships with the Christians until he swindled them and they eventually wanted nothing to do with him as well.

Ancient writers believed that a way a person died revealed his character. Pereginus says that he’s going to cremate himself at the Olympics as an example for everyone to reject the world and embrace suffering. But Lucian sees this as just another ploy to get more of a following for Pereginus. Unfortunately, Pereginus dies in his attempt so even if it worked, he would never know.

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