scholarly journals Language, meaning, sense and reference: Matthew's passion narrative and Psalm 22

1988 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Van Tilborg
Keyword(s):  
Poetic Language ◽  
Passion Narrative ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Death Of Jesus ◽  
Sense And Reference ◽  
Psalm 22 ◽  
Language Meaning

The passion narrative of Jesus as told by Matthew is a verbal enunciation which finds its place next to other passion narratives in which the narrator lets the protagonist use the words of the '1' person of Psalm 22 and in which the narrator describes internal and external conflicts with the words of the Psalm. Against the background of the Greek Septuagint and the Aramaic text in the Targum, parallel to what the hymnist of Qumran tries to do and the narrator of the story about Aseneth, based on the narrative as we find it in Mark, Matthew took Psalm 22 as anchor for his story. What is described in the Psalm, happens in the life and death of Jesus. To approach Jesus' passion more closely, Matthew used poetic language: words on words on words. The passion and death of Jesus has thus become literature, an ambiguous attempt to express the impossible. The question, 'how can one maintain today compassion against the forces of violence?', is the concern of the article.

“Jesus is Going to Be Stoned”

2021 ◽  
pp. 79-92
Author(s):  
David Lloyd Dusenbury
Keyword(s):  
Passion Narrative ◽  
Babylonian Talmud ◽  
Death Of Jesus ◽  
Christian History

Anti-Semitic interpretations of the gospels and Christian hostility towards Jews are both rooted, in terribly complex ways, in the first centuries of the Christian era. The death of Jesus is certainly the “most resentment-laden” theme in Christian history. But this chapter argues that it is not a sign of primitive Christian resentment that the gospels depict a Judaean moment in Jesus’ legal ordeal in Jerusalem—an ordeal which culminates in a Roman verdict, and a Roman punishment. In fact, the Judaeans’ condemnation of Jesus is less decisive in the gospels than in many revered Judaic texts. This chapter thus seeks to reconstruct a Judaic ‘passion’ narrative in which Jesus dies, and Pilate is innocent, from the ‘Judaean’ testimonies of a pagan philosopher (Celsus), from the pages of an illustrious rabbinic collection (Babylonian Talmud), and from a tradition of parodic ‘gospels’ (Toledot Yeshu).

Oral and Written Gospel: A Critique of Werner Kelber

1994 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Halverson
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Passion Narrative ◽  
Death Of Jesus ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Dead

In The Oral and Written Gospel, Werner Kelber argues that the first written gospel was an attempt to supersede oral tradition by the creation of a literary ‘counterform’. It aimed to discredit ‘oral authorities’ (identified as the disciples and family of Jesus and Christian prophets). Similarly, the paucity of sayings in Mark indicates a suspicion of the sayings genre, which is taken to be the oral genre par excellence. The sayings represent the living voice of the living Lord. The substitution of a written gospel would silence that voice as an ongoing phenomenon by relegating it to the dead past. The passion narrative is essentially the creation of Mark, and with its emphasis on the death and post-resurrectional silence of Jesus, creates a new Christology in opposition to the ‘oral Christology’ of the sayings, which never refer to the death of Jesus. The net effect of the written gospel was to inaugurate a theology (or ‘hermeneutic’) of death and absence in contradiction to the principle of presence that informed the oral tradition.

Reparation and Atonement

1992 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Mcnaughton
Keyword(s):  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Death Of Jesus ◽  
Richard Swinburne ◽  
Better Than

The Christian doctrine of the Atonement has been interpreted in several ways. In Responsibility and Atonement, Richard Swinburne offers us a version of the sacrificial account of Christ's redemptive work. This version claims that in the life and death of Jesus we have a gift of great and fitting value, which God himself has made available to us, and which we can in turn offer to God as reparation and penance for our sins. My paper has two main parts. In the first I shall argue that his account is conceptually incoherent; in the second that it is morally flawed. I then briefly suggest that the exemplary theory can capture, better than can the reparation theory, those features which Swinburne believes to be desirable in any account of the Atonement. I take Swinburne's account as my target because it is the best modern exposition of the theory, but my argument is intended to have wider significance.

scholarly journals The motive of forgiveness in the Gospel according to Matthew

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius J. Nel
Keyword(s):  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Intrapersonal Conflict ◽  
The Social ◽  
Death Of Jesus ◽  
Point Of Departure

This article explores the importance of the motif of forgiveness in the Gospel according to Matthew. It takes the arrangement (τάξις) of Matthew as an ancient biography (βίος) of Jesus as its point of departure for describing its ethics of forgiveness. The importance of the motif of forgiveness for Matthew is apparent from the relative frequency with which it is addressed in his Gospel and from the manner in which it is interwoven with his narration of the birth, ministry and death of Jesus. Thereafter the social-historical setting of the Gospel’s initial readers is briefly described in terms of the external (a growing schism with formative Judaism) and internal challenges (intrapersonal conflict) they faced in an attempt to understand the reason for the prominence of the motif of forgiveness in it. Finally, Matthew’s view of forgiveness is systematised by describing the different agents (God, Jesus and the disciples) of forgiveness in his Gospel. The article argues that the birth, life and death of Jesus as well as his words and deeds are integrated in a clear and compelling manner into Matthew’s ethics of forgiveness. For Matthew the confession that God had forgiven his people through Jesus, is the main reason why they are compelled to forgive others. Die motief van vergifnis in die Evangelie volgens Matteus. Die artikel ondersoek die tema van vergifnis in die Evangelie volgens Matteus. Dit neem die opbou (τάξις) van Matteusas ’n antieke biografie (βίος) van Jesus as vertrekpunt vir die beskrywing van die etiek van vergifnis daarvan. Vir Matteus blyk die belangrikheid van vergifnis uit die relatiewe frekwensie waarmee dit voorkom in die Matteusevangelie en die wyse waarop dit met sy vertelling van die geboorte, bediening en dood van Jesus verweef is. Die sosio-historiese agtergrond van die Matteusevangelie se aanvanklike lesers word ook kortliks beskryf interme van die eksterne (’n groeiende skisma met formatiewe Judaïsme) en interne uitdagings (intrapersoonlike konflik) wat hulle in die gesig gestaar het in ’n poging om die rede vir die prominensie van die vergifnistema in Matteus te bepaal. Ten slotte word Matteus se siening van vergifnis gesistematiseer deur die beskrywing van die verskillende agente (God, Jesus endie dissipels) van vergifnis in sy Evangelie. Die artikel argumenteer dat die geboorte, lewe en dood van Jesus, sowel as sy woorde en dade op ‘n duidelike en oortuigende wyse in Matteus se etiek van vergifnis geïntegreer is. Vir Matteus is God se vergifnis van sy volk se sondes deur Jesus, die primêre rede waarom hulle genoodsaak is tot die vergifnis van anderse oortredings teen hulle.

Women and Martyrdom: Feminist Liberation Theology in Dialogue with a Latin American Paradigm

Horizons ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-53
Author(s):  
Elizabeth O'Donnell Gandolfo
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Third World ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Death Of Jesus

ABSTRACTIn recent decades, Latin American liberation theologians have sought to find meaning in the deaths of women and men throughout their continent who have been killed for their pursuit of God's kingdom by naming these individuals “martyrs” and correlating their lives and deaths to the life and death of Jesus. The concept of martyrdom presents special difficulties when viewed from a feminist perspective, especially since the subjugation of women has been perpetuated by Christianity's tendency to idealize women who embody “martyr-like” qualities. However, the use of this concept as a way to find meaning in the deaths of those who lose their lives in the struggle for liberation is not beyond retrieval. Feminist theologies should take into account the reality of martyrdom, which, especially in the so-called “Third World,” is a part of women's experiences in which God is present in liberating, female form.

scholarly journals FREGE’S ĮNAŠAS Į REIKŠMĖS SAMPRATĄ

Problemos ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 82-91
Author(s):  
Mindaugas Japertas
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Features ◽  
Declarative Sentence ◽  
Truth Values ◽  
Theory Of Meaning ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
Sense And Reference ◽  
Language Meaning

Straipsnyje dėstoma, komentuojama ir interpretuojama Gottlobo Frege’s reikšmės teorija, kurios pagrindą sudaro reikalavimas kiekvieno kalbos ženklo semantikoje skirti prasmės (Sinn) ir referencijos (Bedeutung) lygmenis. Atskleidþiamos loginės lingvistinės priežastys, nulėmusios Frege’s sprendimą laikytis diferencinės reikšmės sampratos, taip pat remiantis „prasmės“ ir „referencijos“ terminologiniu instrumentarijumi parodoma, kuo skiriasi, o kita vertus, kuo panašūs Frege’s įtvirtinti požiūriai į tikrinio vardo ir į teigiamojo (asertorinio) sakinio reikšmes. Vadovaujantis prielaida, kad žodžio ar posakio reikšmės sudedamąja dalimi gali būti tik tie veiksniai, kurie yra būtini kompetentingam kalbos supratimui, Frege’s išskirti semantiniai aspektai straipsnyje įvertinami ir šiuo atžvilgiu. Daroma išvada, kad tikrasis semantinis terminas yra „prasmė“, o referencijos lygmens esybės (objektai, teisingumo vertės) nėra nekeliančios abejonių reikšmės sudedamosios dalys, todėl referencijos aspekto statusas Frege’s tipo reikšmės teorijoje tampa neaiškus.Reikšminiai žodžiai: Frege, kalba, reikšmė, prasmė, referencija FREGE’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE NOTION OF MEANINGMindaugas Japertas SummaryThe article aims at exposition, commenting and interpreting Frege’s theory of meaning, based on the requirement to distinguish, in the meaning of a sign, the level of sense (Sinn) and the correlative level of reference (Bedeutung). The author directs attention to some logico-linguistic reasons which seem to have urged Frege to advocate the differential conception of meaning. In accordance with Frege’s decision to use the theoretical notions of sense and reference, the relevant semantic features of a proper name as well as of a declarative sentence are explored. Since only something which constitutes what someone who understands the word or expression implicitly grasps can be counted as a possible ingredient in meaning, the claim is made that entities on the level of reference (objects, truth-values) are not undeniable ingredients of meaning. Sense therefore is left in the role of a genuine semantic concept.Keywords: Frege, language, meaning, sense, reference.

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