Recently added
Matthew 5 — The Beatitudes
- Matthew 6 — The Lord’s Prayer
- Matthew 25 — When Saw We Thee an Hungred, and Fed Thee
- Luke 11 — Ask, and It Shall Be Given You
- New Testament, Luke 15 — The Prodigal Son
- John 17 — The Great Intercessory Prayer
To be added
- Matthew 5 — The Beatitudes
- Matthew 8 — See Thou Tell No Man
- Matthew 8 — I Have Not Found So Great Faith, No, Not in Israel*
- Matthew 8 — Suffer Us to Go Away Into the Herd of Swine
- Matthew 13 — Why Parables
- Matthew 14 — He Walked On Water, to Get to Jesus
- Matthew 16 — Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? — See also, Mark 8
- Matthew 22 — The Wedding Garment *
- Matthew 24 — JS-Matthew: The Second Coming
- Matthew 24 — See also KJV & JST Matt. 24 Comparison,** Appendix
- Matthew 25 — Ten Virgins
- Mark 8 — with Hugh Nibley footnote — Whom do men say that I am? — See also, Matthew 16
- Mark 9 — Elias is Indeed Come
- Mark 10 — Jesus, Thou Son of David
- Luke 1 — Behold the Handmaid of the Lord*
- Luke 1 — Mary’s Psalm*
- Luke 1 — Remember His Holy Covenant; The Oath*
- Luke 2 — On earth peace
- Luke 2 — Joseph and His Mother Marvelled
- Luke 2 — Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man
- Luke 10 — The 70 return
- Luke 10 — The Good Samaritan
- Luke 11 — A certain Pharisee
- Luke 13 — Fig Tree w/ Mark 11
- Luke 15 — The Prodigal Son
- Luke 16 — A certain Rich Man & a certain Beggar
- John 1 — The Word — See also KJV & Greek John 1 Comparison, Appendix
- John 1 — JST — The Word — See also JST & KJV John 1 Comparison,** Appendix
- John 6 — I Am the Living Bread
- John 15 — I Am the Vine
- John 17 — Christ’s Intercessory Prayer*
- John 21 — Lovest Thou Me?/Feed My Lambs*
- Acts 22 — Who art thou, Lord?
- 1 Corinthians 2 — Eye hath not seen (being updated, check back soon)
- 1 Corinthians 15 — Paul on the Resurrection*
- 2 Corinthians 12 — A Thorn in the Flesh*
- 2 Thessalonians JST — 2:1-17 — That man of sin be revealed*
- Hebrews 1 & 2 — Thou art my Son*
- Jude — The angels which kept not their first estate*
- Revelation 2 & 3 — “He that overcometh…” – The Seven Churches* (See also Inter-chiastic analysis**)
3 comments to New Testament
Roger
Love this website, thank you very much. This week we are teaching about Matt 13 and about the parables of Christ. Anyway you can add your insights on this chapter and the “Why Parables before this Sunday?”
thanks in advance.
Scott Vanatter
Hi Roger,
Sorry for getting to this late. While I wish I had time to personally delve into how parables both conceal and reveal at the same time (depending on the preparedness and receptiveness of the listener), I will reference something Jared Demke and I prepared for the website. Mention of the purpose of parables can be found here:
http://www.davidicchiasmus.com/blog/faqs/03-implications/
Here you can read one of our FAQs (see excerpt immediately below):
Though I don’t really disagree with your analysis, it all seems very abstract. Can you make it more concrete? Show how Davidic chiasmus influences our reading of a specific passage of scripture?
Our perception of Davidic order emerges from the discovery of these repeated patterns throughout prophetic scriptures and the consistent use of language in each of the six identifiable elements. If we can demonstrate that all of these authors (of prophetico-Messianic scripture) followed the same general outline rather than another, would not that systematic classification describe that this pattern is efficacious. Our proposition then is that when the original writers of prophetico-Messianic literature crafted their works, they appealed to a construct and a distinctive symbolic vocabulary to convey a reality beyond their words. When we analyze their works accordingly, we gain access to their inner logic. We may then describe precisely “the whole system” – that is, how all of these scriptures interrelate and expand the framework of discourse by making each specific element (AB, CD, EFE, DC, BA) address all others.
As to its influence:
1. First, it provides a template so as to better be able to:
*Determine what is the general context of a particular text;
*Discern a deeper, clearer meaning for (potentially) obscure passages; and
*Get even more out of well-known passages.
2. Secondly, as with all parables, it both reveals and conceals at the same time. It provides the means for “active reading” so that the reader is always on the look out for:
*The introduction via the various revelations, visions, prayers, letters, chapters, books, or speeches, and a specific closing of language with what we have termed a Salvation Song (A)/(A).
*The specific Covenants of the Lord and their Fulfillment (B)/(B);
*How the Lord’s Servants Overcome the World (C)/(C);
*The identity of the Lord’s Servants in the Last Days (D)/(D);
*Preservation of the Lord’s children in the temporal context and the extended Salvation in the cosmic sense (E)/(E); and
*How Jesus is revealed in a myriad of ways as the Suffering Servant, and how every son or daughter of God can emulate him (F).
. . .
[The answer goes on to explain a deeper meaning for the conversation between Jesus and Peter about feeding his sheep. See following post for another take…]
Scott Vanatter
Please see below a few quotes which speak to how we might read parables (even all scripture) on more than one level. [See also my comments in square brackets.]
#
Endowed From On High — Lesson 5: Learning from the Lord through Symbols
Objective: To help class members understand and appreciate the use of symbols in the temple. …
The most sacred symbolic teachings on earth are received in the temple. In a symbolic way, the teachings and rituals of the temple take us on an upward journey toward eternal life, ending with a symbolic entrance into the presence of God.
The characters depicted, the physical setting, the clothing worn, the signs given, and all the events covered in the temple are symbolic. When they are understood, they will help each person recognize truth and grow spiritually. … The temple clothing is also symbolic. … Members who receive temple ordinances and make covenants with God wear special garments (underclothing) throughout the rest of their lives. These garments are symbolic. …
Almost every aspect of the temple ceremony is symbolic. This means that each person should prepare to be as spiritually sensitive as possible to the symbolic nature of the temple endowment. [Parables too!]
#
Four Levels of Meaning: Literal, Allegorical, Moral, and Spiritual:
1. Literal — this is the shell, the outer level, at which the words are understood at their face value, as a record of simple fact or instruction.
2. Allegorical — each element of the text is understood as standing for something else. [This is where we can, or should, be extra perceptive… However, this is still in the intellectual realm. See level 4 below.]
3. Moral — the text can be understood in a way that is relevant to our own lives.
4. Anagogical (Spiritual) — this is the kernel, the innermost or spiritual level, where understanding becomes direct perception [or, experience]. [This is where we have an authentic spiritual “experience.”]
(attributed to Dante and St. Boneventure)
#
Deepak Chopra, The Actors Can be Seen as Aspects of the Soul, How to Know God, page 285
The…parables…are equally multidimensional. The actors in them can be seen as aspects of the soul. In fact, these vignettes are so effective and colorful that the soul gets overlooked. [See below where I cite how the Garden Story (no matter how literal Adam and Eve were) the SYMBOLISM still obtains…]
#
Clifford Geertz, The Anagical Imagination
Culture [or one could say, the Temple] is defined as “an historically transmitted pattern of meaning embodied in symbols; a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic form, by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.” [Parables are a simple, yet deep, way to transmit complicated, eternal principles to both the unlearned and the learned; to the unaware and aware; to the spiritually immature and the mature; to the unawakened and the awakened — BOTH at the same time, all at once.]
#
The Nag Hammadi Library, “Interpretation of the Soul”
The soul, represented as Eve, became alienated from her spiritual nature…. But when she became willing to be reconciled and reunited with her spiritual nature, she once again became whole… this process of spiritual self-integration is the hidden meaning of the marriage of Adam and Eve.
#
Philo of Alexandria, Allegorical Interpretation
Adam and Eve represent two elements within human nature. Adam represents the mind (nous), the nobler, masculine and rational element, which is “made in God’s image”; and Eve represents the body or sensation (aisthesis), the lower, feminine element, source of all passion.
[A similar exercise can be applied to, e.g., the Prodigal Son(s) where each actor in the parable represents some aspect of our inner selves. Wish I had more time.]
# # #