|
English 240: Ancient Literature Questions on The King James Bible Alfred J. Drake. Hours: Cyber Cafe Tu/Th. 12-1 | ajdrake@ajdrake.com Job 1. How does the prose frame correlate to the poetic sections of Job? What contrast or contradiction do they suggest for your interpretation of Job’s attitude towards his struggle? 2. What advice do Job’s friends and wife, respectively, offer him? How does he respond? 3. To what extent does Job understand the cause of his predicament? Does it matter whether he understands? 4. What view of God comes across in this book? Is his behavior obviously just? Or is his conduct a challenge to readers just as much as to Job? Explain. 5. What view of the Adversary emerges from this book? How would you characterize his role? What challenges does he offer to God's justice and omnipotence? 6. What does Job do, or not do, that leads God to restore him to good fortune? Is it a matter of repentance, or something else? The Gospel According to Saint Matthew 1. In what sense is Jesus a challenging, radical figure? Whom in the Gospel account does he offend by his advice and actions, and why? 2. How does Jesus respond to accusations leveled against him? What effect do his responses generally have? 3. What qualities might some observers find in common amongst Jesus and modern hero-figures such as Gandhi, MLK, Malcolm X, and possibly others? 4. How does Matthew, who writes after Jesus' death, establish his authority as narrator? And how does he establish Jesus' divine authority? 5. To what extent does Matthew show us Jesus' human, suffering side? Why is there a need to show it? What narrative task competes with that need, and why? Chapters 1-2 6. Catalogs of “begetting” are traditional in the Scriptures, but how does Matthew’s choice to open his narrative with one enhance the difference established by the coming of Jesus? 7. Why does Herod react as he does to the events surrounding young Jesus? What misunderstanding is he acting upon? Chapter 3 8. What expectations does John the Baptist raise regarding the mission of Jesus? Into what relation does he place himself with Jesus, and vice versa? Chapter 4 9. What resources does Jesus call upon in resisting the devil during the temptation in the wilderness? What is the immediate result of his success? Chapters 5-7 10. How do you interpret Jesus’ comments about sin and righteousness in connection to the Old Testament, at least insofar as Jesus himself characterizes the earlier scriptures here in his Sermon on the Mount? 11. What means does Jesus employ to confirm his authority as a spiritual teacher of both his disciples and the multitude gathered before him? Will add more if time permits, but the above should be enough.... Other Questions (not for assigned readings) Genesis 1. Why does God create the earth and the heavens? Does the text explain, or should we not expect the narrative to explain such things? 2. How does the text handle the first sin--what do you think leads Eve to sin? 3. How does God respond to the sinful behavior of his creatures? Does the text clarify his reasoning in acting as he does? 4. What patterns do you see emerging in the aftermath of the Fall? To what extent do the children of Adam and Eve repeat their first progenitors' error--does sin remain the same in its source even as the varieties of sin multiply, or would you explain the pattern of error some other way? 5. How does God respond to the continual mistakes of his creatures? What promises does he make, and why?
|