Your next blog post will engage the Gospel of Matthew and/or the Gospel of Luke, both of which are similar in many ways to Mark.  At the same time, Matthew and Luke are also distinctively different from Mark and from each other.  The second half of Margaret Nutting Ralph’s chapter, “What Is a Gospel?” will provide some useful background on the context and audience of Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels.

Here are four possible topics for your blog post.  (As usual, just pick one topic and compose a 200-400 word response.)  Questions 1-3 adapted from questions found here and here.

(1) Matthew cites the Jewish Scriptures quite frequently.  Why do you think he does this?  Do you think that the Scripture passages Matthew cites would have convinced his audience that Jesus was the Messiah?  In contrast, Luke draws from the Jewish Scriptures much less often than Matthew, but when he does invoke the Jewish Scriptures, he tends to quote from them more extensively than Matthew typically does.  (Compare, for example, Matthew 4:12-16 with Luke 4:16-30.)   Why do you think Luke chooses to do this, and what effect might this have had on his intended audience?  [For more on the original audience of each of these Gospels, see Ralph, Chapter 7.]

(2) Based on your reading of Matthew’s Gospel, especially chapters 5-7 (i.e., the Sermon on the Mount), what is Matthew’s attitude toward the Jewish Law?  How do the standards established by the Law of Moses differ from the expectations Jesus has for his followers?

(3) What aspects of Luke’s Gospel (in terms of general themes and/or particular narratives) might have appealed especially to Gentiles (i.e., to non-Jews) and to those on the margins of mainstream society (e.g., outcasts, sinners, women, the poor)?

(4) Compare Matthew’s parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22:1-10) with Luke’s version of this same story (Luke 14:16-24).  What differences do you notice between the two accounts, and how do these stories function in terms of Ralph’s categories of parable and/or allegory?

Returning to the usual schedule, your next blog post is due Monday, October 7, by 7 p.m.  Two comments on other posts in your blog group due by Tuesday, October 8 at class time.