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07/18/2014

Textweek ATLAS Links August 10, 2014 Proper 14A Ordinary 19A Pentecost +9

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/propera13.htm

Proper 14, Ordinary 19, Pentecost +9
August 10, 2014

 

 

" ...if we accept the tradition of our early Pseude- pigraphic source, we learn that the children of the handmaids, and especially Dan and Gad, with whom Joseph had had a special relationship in his early years, evolved into his implacable enemies, spearheading his kidnapping and sale."

 

Abstract: “In a previous issue JSOT, Victor Matthews treats the garment motif in the Joseph story, but does not include the Judah/Tamar story (Gen. 38) in his analysis. I argue that this chapter is more concerned with garments or personal objects than any in the Joseph narrative, and therefore deserves examination alongside chs. 37 and 39. In all three chapters, garments play a pivotal role in plot development as markers of status and authority by which identities are revealed or concealed. The motif is manifest in a variety of ways: deception through loss or removal of garments, deception through forced recognition, and authority signified via possession of garments or personal items. The Judah/Tamar episode in ch. 38 demonstrably shapes in various ways the reader's understanding of garment-related events in these chapters.”

Abstract: “This article examines the dynamics of good and evil as represented in the Joseph story (Gen. 37-50). It examines the story's plot, the larger conceptual framework of the narrative's Pentateuchal setting, as well as the semantic indicators and associated attitudes/behaviors qualified as good and/or evil. The main objectives of this article are: (1) to identify the main issues within the story's concept of the dynamics of good and evil; (2) to promote a more thorough consideration of the place of Joseph and God in those dynamics; and (3) to generate hermeneutical inquiries about the dynamics of good and evil using the insights gained from this examination—inquiries that are more relevant to contemporary discussion (e.g. understanding human atrocities, forgiveness, and reconciliation).”

“This examination poses a challenge to a number of recent treatments of the same literature that see the idea of divine favoritism (and its reflection in the favoritism exhibited by certain patriarchs and matriarchs towards one special child) as unfair and therefore morally and theologically retrograde…Rather, as will be demonstrated in the following analysis, the Joseph story offers a critique of the human rebellion that occurs when others persecute the elect, as well as when the elect misuse or fail to accept their special status and the responsibilities it entails.”

“A teenager once told her father, ‘You'll never learn to dance if you're always thinking about how you look on the dance floor.’ You and I will never learn to live if we pay too much attention to all that is working against us. We will sink for sure!”

“Could it be that absolutely no help comes from Jesus until we admit we need help and ask for it? When we cry to Jesus for help, Jesus reaches out and catches us, saying, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ And then we get back into the boat, and the wind ceases, and we continue the journey to the other side, worshipping Jesus as the Son of God.”

“The Christ who promised to be with his church is always with us, even in the storms.”

“At the core of this text lies the existential question "what must we do to be saved?" How can things be put right with God? This is the fervent question plaguing the woman in the weekly Bible study whose husband never comes to church. It is the unformed question murmuring in the heart of the heartbroken parents who hobble to the state prison to visit their son. It is the question rippling through the ruling board's debate about the ordination of homosexual persons, the question weighing down the woman who lies in a hospice bed waiting to die.”

“This article attempts to locate Rom. 10:5-13 within the tension of orality and literacy. There has been a debate concerning the precise nature of the relationship between Lev. 18:5 cited in 10:5 and Deut. 30 cited in 10:6-8. Here it is argued that Paul emphasizes the antithesis between the orality of the Gospel and the literacy of the Torah because he understands himself as living and working in the tradition of the ‘herald’ of Isaiah 52. Against the orality of the Gospel he stresses the literacy of the Torah when he introduces the Leviticus citation with ‘Moses writes’ in 10:5.”

"Just as the typical biblical scenes of a prophet’s initial call can and do help many discern and understand their initial calls, so perhaps the story of Elijah s “recall” can aide others in the process of evaluating what form of Christian service ought to come next in a life long-committed to a different task."

07/18/2014 at 03:23 PM |

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