Exercise 3:  The Gospel According to Matthew

Due Date:   Thursday, September 20

Proportion of Final Grade:  5%
 

       This exercise has two objectives.  First, and as was noted in the previous two exercises, many people find it somewhat difficult, initially, to read religious writings in a critical fashion, and to pay close attention to exactly what is said, and to precisely what beliefs and values are being put forward.  One purpose of the present exercise is to provide you with additional practice in doing this.

        Secondly, one of the crucial issues that each one of us faces is how one can determine what moral standards are correct.  The thrust of this course is that the best approach involves critical, philosophical reflection upon the alternatives, and upon the arguments for and against each alternative.  Many people in Western society believe, however, that this is not the right approach.  For they believe that there is a certain man, Jesus, who was either God Incarnate, or who at the very least stood in a unique relationship to God, and who, as a consequence, spoke with unsurpassed authority on religious and moral matters.  The present exercise is designed to raise the question, then, of whether it is in fact reasonable to treat Jesus as an authority on ethical and religious matters.

Reading:  The Gospel According to Matthew

        The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is currently available at the following address:

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html

        The King James Version of the Bible is available online at

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/k/kjv/browse.html

        Either version should be fine, although I think the Revised Standard Version is the better translation.

        Part 2 of this exercise deals with certain teachings of the Catholic Church, and the relevant passages are sometimes translated differently in Catholic Bibles.  It is best, then, to use one of the above translations, so that you do not miss the relevant passages.  If you have a Catholic Bible, you can then compare translations, to see whether that affects the answer.

Instructions

2.  In the case of some of the questions, there are several passages that are relevant.  Always try to use the most clear and explicit passage (or passages).

3.  Each correct written answer is worth one point, as is each correct supporting passage.  There are 19 questions in all, and a total of 31 supporting passages, so that the maximum possible score for the exercise as a whole is 50 points.

4. In Exercises 1 and 2, I arranged the questions to correspond to the order in which one encounters a passage that contains the answer.  I found that this was very difficult to do in the case of Exercise 3, in part because there are often multiple passages that one can cite in the case of a given question.

        For some questions – namely, questions 5, 8, and 14 in Part 1, and question 5 in Part 2 – I have been able to find only a single passage that enables one to answer the question.  It is therefore very easy to miss the answer, and given the length of the reading, going through the reading again is not really an option.  What I’ve done below, accordingly, is to indicate, for each chapter, which questions one can find good answers for, and the order in which you will encounter answers to those questions in the chapter.  (There are many passages that contain less satisfactory answers to some of the questions.  I haven’t mentioned those.)

            In the case of some of the questions, you are asked to list two or three supporting passages, rather than just one.  As you’ll see below, then, many questions occur on the lists of more than one chapter, and sometimes more than once on a given list.  As a result, in the case of several questions, there will be many more passages than you need.  But even when you have all of the passages that you need to answer a given question, do keep an eye open for later passages that may be either more detailed or more clear-cut. 

        Finally, as you’ll also see, some chapters are not relevant to any of the questions.  Especially if you’re pressed for time, it may be tempting to skip those chapters.  But let me encourage you not to do that, since, given the impact of Christianity upon the Western world, I do think it is very valuable to have read at least one of the Gospels carefully from beginning to end. 

Chapter 1:  Part 2: Q 3.

Chapters 2 and 3:  None.

Chapter 4:  Part 1: Q 13, Q 3, Q 13.

Chapter 5:  Part 1: Q 7, Q 12.  Part 2: Q 1.  Part 1: Q 13.

Chapter 6:  None.

Chapter 7:  Part 1: Q 1, Q 2, Q 9.

Chapter 8:  Part 1: Q 3, Q 13.

Chapter 9:  Part 1: Q 3.

Chapter 10:  Part 1: Q 3, Q 13, Q 9, Q 11, Q 6, Q 9.

Chapter 11:  Part 1: Q 9, Q 11.

Chapter 12:  Part 1: Q 3, Q 13, Q 8, Q 11, Q 13.  Part 2: Q 3.   

Chapter 13:  Part 1: Q 13, Q 13, Q 1, Q 11, Q 4, Q 11, Q 4.  Part 2: Q 3.   

Chapter 14:  None.

Chapter 15:  Part 1: Q 14, Q 7, Q 12.

Chapter 16:  Part 2: Q 4, Q 1, Q 4.  Part 1: Q 4, Q 6, Q11.

Chapter 17:  Part 1: Q 3.

Chapter 18:  Part 1: Q 1.  Part 2: Q 2.

Chapter 19:  Part 2: Q 2.  Part 1: Q 12, Q 7.

Chapter 20:  Part 1: Q 10.

Chapter 21:  None.

Chapter 22:  Part 1: Q 1, Q 2.

Chapter 23:  None.

Chapter 24:  Part 1: Q 11, Q 4, Q 6, Q 5, Q 4.

Chapter 25:  Part 1: Q 2, Q 4, Q 11, Q 13, Q 1, Q 1.

Chapter 26:  Part 1: Q 10.  Part 2: Q 4.  Part 1: Q 4.

Chapter 27:  Part 2: Q 5.

5.  What you may want to do, then, before reading each chapter, is to glance at the questions for which, as indicated above, answers can be found in that chapter.