Paper Topics | Spring 2004 | Paper 3
Due Date: Saturday, April 24, 2004, 5 p.m. in the Faculty mailboxes in Eliot.
The format and length of the paper will be determined by your conference leader.
Write on one of the following questions:
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In "The Gospel According to Matthew," Jesus says the following: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill." (V:17) To what extent do Jesus' own teachings in Chapter Five support or undermine this bold pronouncement? Does Matthew’s use of the prophecies seem natural or forced? In order to build your case, be sure to draw explicit comparisons between the teachings in Chapter Five and the Jewish laws and traditions that we have encountered in the Hebrew Bible.
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The Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Thomas seem to share material in common. How do the ways in which they differently frame their common material affect the meaning of their respective gospels? Consider, for example, their uses of the parable of the mustard seed (saying 20 in the Gospel of Thomas and Matthew 13: 31-32).
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How is martyrdom or asceticism seen to sustain and/or undermine community in 2 or 3 of the following texts: Matthew, John, The Jewish Wars, the Rule of the Community, Perpetua's journal, Athanasius' biography of Anthony?
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Choose three of the following texts: Seneca, Daniel, the Pirke Avot, the Rule of Community, Romans, John, Revelation, The Golden Ass, Perpetua's journal, Athanasius' biography of Anthony. Consider both the acquisition of the knowledge of the divine and how it functions in the individual’s and/or community’s life.
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Compare the understanding of law, including the contexts in which these understandings developed, in two or three of the following: Exodus, the Rule of the Community, the Pirke Avot, Romans, Matthew and John.
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How is the tale of Cupid and Pysche related to the rest of Apuleius' Golden Ass?
- In consultation with your conference leader, write on a topic of your own devising.