Final Project Two-fer

NT 1210 Fall 2005 Students: You are working with at least one particular text for your Final Project. Practice "Seeing the Big Picture" by writing me at least one paragraph on your final project text in each of these contexts. (If you are using more than one main text for your Final Project, just choose one in order to complete this assignment.) Email the paper to me (follow the style sheet form) by Monday, Dec. 5.

1. The immediate literary context. What is going on immediately before and after your text, and what implications does it have for understanding your text?
2. The broader literary context, such as the whole book of the New Testament you are reading.
3. The context of similar New Testament texts. When you are reading in the gospels, other versions of the same story may help you understand your particular version of the story better. If you are looking at a greeting in an epistle, reading similar greetings will show you how the one you are focusing on is distinctive.
4. The context of the Christian canon as a whole. The New Testament is probably best understood as a reading (or interpretation) of the Old Testament in light of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and his followers' conviction that Jesus was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. Any New Testament text will make more sense if you see it in the context of a canon that includes both the Old and New Testaments.

See Texts and Contexts, the second resource page for this skill, for more information on these contexts, including pictures and examples.

Problems under construction:

The Lord's Supper in Matthew

The Crucifixion & Echoes Back to Jesus' Ministry