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02/06/2014

Textweek/ATLAS links Last Epiphany Transfiguration, March 2, 2014

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/transfiga.htm

Last Epiphany/Transfiguration
March 2, 2014

“There is value in referring to this story as one about Jesus' mountaintop experience, which is followed by his return to the valley where he ministered to human need. To such a presentation we can add recitations of mountaintop experiences we have known, followed by exhortations to return to the valley ready to serve. The connections can not only be clear but also encouraging and challenging. However, large pieces of the text remain intact, containing affirmations not about us but about Christ alone. But this, too, is edifying: to stand before a text full of dazzling light, hovering clouds and a heavenly voice, a text that we cannot explain fully or consume homiletically, a text that is simply there night and day, offering disturbing consolation, a text before which we live out our faith in awe and praise.”

 

Abstract: “This article traces the theme of royal power through the lectionary readings in Matthew during the seasons of Lent and Easter, culminating in Trinity Sunday. An examination of major turning points in Matthew's story of Jesus—temptation, transfiguration, triumphal entry, passion, resurrection, and farewell—demonstrates Jesus' re-definition of kingship as obedience and service. Matthew characterizes Jesus as the perfect example of true righteousness, consistently obedient to the Father's will. As a result, Jesus possesses absolute and eternal power, and he commands his disciples to draw on that power and his presence as they make other disciples throughout the earth.”

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“The transfiguration reminds us that Christian worship is on the way to the cross. . . . We rise from it to resume the way to the cross in a world full of suffering. But we have seen who Jesus really is and he has shown us that we do not need to be afraid.”

 

“In a sense, the genre of the fantastic allows the description of the fantastic universe and raises the hesitation in the reader regarding the potential to participate in that fantastic universe. In this functional sense, the Transfiguration story belongs to the genre of the fantastic.”

 

Knight, Henry F., "The Transfigured Face of Post-Shoah Faith: Critical Encounters with Root Experiences,"Encounter, 1997.
  EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
  EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials

 

“In the re-configurations of Sinai's light we glimpse our unfinished portrait of post-Shoah faithfulness with increasing clarity. Just as Matthew stood with his people at Sinai to portray the transfigured Jesus, we have taken our place there as well. Hopefully this commentary has exposed the serious problems which accompany how Christians typically make their way to Sinai - starting with Jesus and presuming they may do so without regard to how prior witnesses came to him.” 

Abstract: “An analysis of how Psalms 1 and 2 are integrated reveals that both have as their central theme the identical royal and Joshua-like figure who is given absolute victory in battle. The principal focus of Psalm 1 when read in concert with Psalm 2 is not Torah nor wisdom, but rather this individual of kingly and military trappings. These ascriptions of Psalm 1 are made explicit in Psalm 2, where he is portrayed in close relationship with Yahweh as his anointed king and son. His opponents are the scoffing wicked of Psalm 1, identified more specifically as the conspiring earthly kings and nations in Psalm 2. This cabal revolts against Yahweh and his anointed, an action which elicits the question 'Why?' from the speaker in 2.1 because of the promise in 1.5, 6. Yahweh and his anointed respond appropriately to the earthly scoffing with laughter and derision from heaven. Psalm 2 then concludes with a reaffirmation of the same judgment promised at the conclusion of Psalm 1.”

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Abstract: “Psalm 2 is not a Messianic Psalm in the fully eschatological and Chrisdan sense, nor part of a cult drama connected with the enthronement of a King of Israel or Judah, nor a poem which originated in a specific historical setting which can be reconstructed. Rather, parallels between Psalm 2 and verbal defiances prior to single combat and prior to battle in and/or Judah.

Three features are characteristic of cries of defiance: (1) threat of impending conflict; (2) affirmations of certainty by the speaker that he (and his comrades) will prevail; and (3) warnings to the enemy that if they do not surrender they will be defeated, followed by an assurance that they will be blessed if they capitulate and take refuge in Yahweh. Psalm 2 contains a portion of an enthronement ritual ( w. 6-9), but the Psalm as a whole is a cry of defiance.”

 

“Considerations of grammar and vocabulary show that it is possible to interpret έν τάίς καρδίαις υμών as modifying γινώσκοντες, but they do not show that it is impossible to interpret it as modifying άνατείλη, or even that the former is more likely than the latter. If the two interpretations are equally possible on grammatical grounds, however, the former is preferable because of the meaning it gives the passage. On the latter interpretation, 1:19 speaks of the παρουσία of Jesus (1) as both a physical occurrence and a psychological event, or (2) only the latter, making use of an idea not found elsewhere in 2 Peter or the rest of the NT. On the former interpretation, 1:19-20 simply speaks of the παρουσία of Jesus as a physical event, as elsewhere in 2 Peter, and goes on to speak of the knowledge of prophecy one must have to continue one's expectation of this event.”

 

“IT IS THE AIM of this brief study to investigate the framework of the argument in 2 Pet 1:16-21, especially how the "transfiguration" is understood and how it functions in the apology of the author. The specific contribution of this study is an attempt to make sense of 1:16-21 in the context of the whole argument rather than to interpret the verses piecemeal. Even this requires that we situate the argument in 1:16-21 in the flow of the author's presentation, i.e., in relation to 1:12-15. So we begin our inquiry with remarks about the fictive and real occasion of 2 Peter.”

02/06/2014 at 12:02 PM |

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