Life and Faith

Getting Started

After all of the big picture overviews in this workshop, we now come down to reading a specific passage in the Gospel of Matthew. You may find it helpful to review the video on “How to Read the Bible Well” and review the feedback that you received on the discussion in 1.3. Prayer is always a good way to start this kind of study. Remember that you want to read the passage closely, attending to the sequence of the passage, the structure of the sentences, key nouns, key verbs, and descriptive language. Then, we try to read that passage in light of its immediate, literary, cultural-historical, and canonical context. You won’t have space in the paper to do all of these, so you should choose well and use whatever you think sheds the most light on the passage itself.

Upon successful completion of the course material, you will be able to:

· Interpret a passage from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel.

Resources

· Bible 

· Video: How to Read the Bible Well

· Sample Paper: Interpretation of the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:1-9

Background Information

Interpretation is both an art and a science. Like science, there are helpful tools and techniques, and there are right and wrong ways to use them. Like an art, interpretation has subjective elements and preferences that affect our ideas and choices. The mediating ground that connects and supports both of these is explanation and evidence. If you think something about a passage, then you have to explain it using evidence from the passage itself and the various contexts that surround it. Evidence should be used critically. This means that the evidence you cite should be clear, accurate, precise, and relevant with appropriate breadth and depth. Your process of analysis and explanation should use traceable cause and effect, bear some weight of significance, draw on a range of evidence, be fair and balanced, consider other points of view, and attend to any assumptions made in the process. Do not be afraid to employ creativity and imagination in your interpretation, but always keep it attached to the specifics of the passage and to good evidence and reasoning. That creativity comes to the fore in the application phase where you take a main point from the passage and transplant it into our time and place to see what wisdom and guidance it has to offer to us. 

The sample paper on Matthew 13:1-19 gives you a model to follow as you write this first interpretation paper. You can look at it and ask your instructor any questions that it raises for you about this assignment. 

Instructions

1. View the rubric to be sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.  

2. You are allowed to choose a passage of your preference from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chs. 5-7 (e.g., the section on oaths 5:33-37 or the section on asking in 7:7-11). Your passage should contain a complete idea or story. You should not start in the middle of something or cut a unit off early. Generally, your selection should be at least 3 verses long but no longer than 10 verses. 

3. Once you have chosen your passage. You will want to read it closely, attending to its overall flow, the structure of sentences, key nouns, key verbs, and any important descriptive elements. Then you will want to consider the four contexts (immediate, literary, cultural-historical, and canonical) and see how they may inform your understanding of the passage. Remember that you can draw on the videos on “Literary Styles in the Bible,” “Cultures in and of the Bible,” and “The Story of the Bible” to help provide some material for these various contexts.  

4. Compose a 650-750 word paper in proper APA format that contains the following 

a. A brief introduction that identifies your passage and explains why you chose it (approximately 50-75 words).

b. A section that explores the details of the passage’s flow, sentence structure, nouns, verbs, and descriptors (approximately 250-300 words).

c. A section that explains the passage more fully by using two of the following contexts with connections to details in the passage: immediate, literary, historical-cultural, and canonical (approximately 250-300 words).

d. A short conclusion that states your main takeaway from your interpretive work and how that point may apply to our time and place (approximately 100-150 words)