"You're on crack!"/Parties/ First 3 Worlds Assignment

Last class, we noted that one can't help but find, in Matthew, the "common history" of two pivotal events in the history of Israel.
Both  ended with homecoming "parties"
    Event       Date            Location                Deliverer       Result
1)Exodus      1000s BC          Egypt   400 years           Moses               Dance Party on the Beach
2) Exile           500s BC            Babylon 70 years          Cyrus   :            4 Parties


For #1, see the post from last class here

for #2, read on..
Hauer and Young call the return  a "new exodus".   Amazing that the "deliverer" who" let then go"  back home was a Cyrus, a pagan king; so used of God that Scripture calls him "Anointed One"/"Messiah"!  (Isaiah 45:1. comment see Hauer and Young p. 198)......For a "journal entry of what it must have felt like to be in exile, read this

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
   when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars
   we hung our harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs,
   our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
   they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

  How can we sing the songs of the LORD
   while in a foreign land?
 If I forget you, Jerusalem,
   may my right hand forget its skill.
⁶May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
   if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
   my highest joy.

  Remember, LORD, what the Edomites did
   on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down,” they cried,
   “tear it down to its foundations!”
 Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
   happy is the one who repays you
   according to what you have done to us.
 Happy is the one who seizes your infants
   and dashes them against the rocks. 

(Psalm 137) 

Many changes occirred as the Jews fret  (new temple , synagogues, etc.  But key for understanding Matthew are four "parties," groups, sects that emerged.  These are discussed in detail in Hauer/Young, Chapter 10, particularly pp. 221-227

Pharisees .lay scholars/ middle class   Oral and Written Torah    angels, demons, resurrection........
 Sadduccees   priestly/aristocratic         Written Torah only               no angels, demons, resurrection 


Essenes:  quiet, communal, prob connected to Dead Sea Scrolls 
Zealots    advocated armed rebellion against Rome

Read more on each from Ray VannDer Laan:

•  Pharisees
• Sadducees

• EssenesZealots

We began discussing these four groups in depth today; this will be important information
because:

-For the next quiz (Wed) you'll be asked to "say as much as you can about the four key parties"
-For the paper "Who is Jesus to Them?," you can use the discussion about the first two parties as the basis of your paper or video (see the updated syllabus for complete instructions).
-For the final , you'll be asked to respond to/critique certain sections of "The Upside Down Kingdom" as if you were a member of the party you were assigned to today.


If you missed class today, your group will be decided by last name:

• A-H  Pharisees
• I-M  Sadducees
• N-S  Essenes
• T-Z  Zealots

In this video, a rabbi summarizes the four:




--
As we talked about groups ,  parties, and bounded sets...inevitably the topic of "culture" came up.
How do you define culture?  How would you fill in the blank: "In England, they drive on the _____
side of the road?  What musical groups are on crack?  FOR THE ANSWERS TO THESE AND OTHER QUESTIONS, DARE YOU TO WATCH THIS:



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Your first "Three Worlds" assignment (see syllabus) is due  next Thurs: The text is Matthew 2: 1-12.

• Advice: -
• It's okay if you have more questions than answers..Just write them down.
• Remember to use the two required sources (see syllabus, the sources are linked on top of blog here.
• See the tab at top of page  :How to study a text via "Three Worlds" for help
• Remember you have already got a head start on the "historical world" of this passage (Review the :Shadow of Herod" video..see bottom of 
• 8/30 post..

BE READ UP:

Matthew chapters 1 -4

Hauer and Young, Chapters 4, 6. 8, 10, 11, and these pages (only) from Chapter 12:  pp. 269-272