Q 9:20

Gospels and Acts - Class Four - "Literary Criticism: Mark and Matthew"
-Guidelines for research paper
-Analysis of John 3 and 4: Conversations with a Pharisee and a Samaritan woman
-Group analysis of Mark and Matthew
-Analysis of the account of Jesus walking on water


[Reading through the outline for the research paper]
"By 'arousing interest', I don't mean 'sensational' - something you'd read in a tabloid in the check out line at a King Soopers."

[Written on the board: IBS to stand for International Bible Society]
"It's not meant to be an autobiographical confession... IBS."
(He had to slow that one down for us, too.)

"You remember the < or = sign from high school math, I hope..."

"As for a conclusion... have one."

"For application, get into your time machine."

"Know how to use an apostrophe.  The universal misuse of it is... discouraging.  [Writes on the board: Its, It's, Jesus', Shepherd's - complete with explanations] It's not hard!  So do it right!"

"When the clock struck twelve, Michael J Fox did something... You don't have to force a transition.  Just get into your time machine."

[On Scripture as literature]
"It's high drama!"

[Reading aloud the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3 - parenthetical between vv. 15 and 16]
"And now to the verse that you all knew out of context..."

"And since you always wondered what Nicodemus looked like, here's one artist's rendering... with a full moon."

"Of all the Gospels, here are two examples of Jesus' conversations with individuals.  Unless you count His interview with Pilate... if He hadn't been silent."

"With apologies to an old Clint Eastwood movie, their conversation takes place at high noon."

"Then there's this wonderful overstatement: 'Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.'  After He's just recounted her entire marital and non-marital history!"

"Jesus is bringing the great reversal - tearing down rulers from their thrones and lifting up the humble (a la the Magnificat)."

"The floor is yours... but you knew that.  Your feet are on it!"

[John 4 - with the Samaritan woman]
"Which is interesting... by the end of the story, He still hasn't gotten His drink.  It starts off very promising..."

"That was the old King James 'Y-E-A', not the 'Y-A-Y' yay!"
(You had to see it.  But you can imagine.  It was funny.)

"If you want a break, do something physical: move, box, stand, walk..."

"Whatever the uncomfortable features of these chairs, they do swivel."

"Out of that wonderfully rich chapter six, which is beneficial for... somebody..."

"Why is that?  Do you have a martyr complex?"

[Student mentions that Mark seems to slow down time toward the end of his book]
"It's not quite as slow as 24... like that episode when it takes 15 minutes for them to figure out how to dismantle a bomb set to go off in two minutes?"

[Who is Mark?]
"Companion of Peter, best known for deserting him... later to be reconciled."

"You all know Diogenes Laertius... household name, I know."

"How they died says something about who they are!  It's about how you die that counts, not about how you lived.  Where do you stand before the LORD?"

[Passage in Mark and Matthew where Jesus walks on water]
"I'm sorry the lab isn't working... we won't be replicating it."

"You haven't read about John yet, you can just ignore that column."

[Written on the board]
"Peter's partial water walking."

"Does Matthew include the bit about Peter to exalt him, or... not to?"

[Trying to write on the computer screen...]
"That's a... real pen."

"Whether I was misled by a Sunday school teacher, or by my own imagination, I always thought Jesus was appealing to His divinity... was tired after a long day, took a short cut across the lake, and -shoot!- they caught Him!"

[Student: "Could you repeat what you just said?"]
"I could say it... differently!"

[How to respond when faced with the Divine]
"You pros...trate yourself.  Just want to leave out the 'r'."

"And then we have to throw Luke and John into the mix... but that's next week!