Category: The Bible as Literature

In the triumphant entry into Jerusalem portrayed in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is adorned with the standard symbols of a Roman procession: the crowds, evoking bread and circuses; the donkey, a mockery of Caesar Augustus who elevated his stallion to the rank of consul; the gossip in the city, “who is this,” evoking the image of…

In battle, the US Marine Corps trains their soldiers to “adapt, improvise, and overcome” in carrying out the mission. Leading up to Matthew 21, Jesus has been making plans to carry out his mission with little help from his followers. Only now, on the eve of battle, does he find two able recruits—two blind men—willing…

In Matthew, the question of faith or “trust” in the Lord is not a matter of confession, but action. In chapter 9, two blind men proclaimed their trust in Jesus only to disobey him. In chapter 20, we find the same template—two bling men; but now, with Jerusalem just around the corner, the stakes are…

Unlike human philosophy, which re-imagines the world in its image, imposing the ruthless and violent ego of liberal and conservative idealism, Scripture takes the world as it is—with unparalleled attention to facts on the ground—co-opting social structures to serve its agenda. The first produces violence against the other side; the latter calls all of us…

The difficulty for Christians who aspire to positions of influence and power, is that the top person within the framework they inhabit became the lowest person in the eyes of the world. What can a Christian aspire to if the crown of their leader’s ministry is failure and defeat? What does the mother of the…

As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way he said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and will…

As contemporary society struggles with questions of equity and power, all of us would do well to consider the radical proposition of Scripture, which demotes everyone to the lowest level, assigns some to excercise an unequal authority for its purposes, and then demotes the latter along with everyone else, leaving them in a worse position….

When Peter approaches Jesus to ask, “what then will there be for us,” (Matthew 19:27) his question betrays two sins: first, his belief that he has done the right thing, and, second, his expectation that he deserves a reward for his actions. In his response, Jesus tests both Peter and the addressee of Matthew’s Gospel:…

Among the disastrous consequences of the Synoptic thesis of the gospels is the erasure of each individual author’s intent. Is there a generalized parable of the Rich Man that happens to appear in Matthew, or is there a teaching of Matthew that retools the parable to say something different than the other gospels? If we…

Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying, “Thus has the Lord of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ But…