O'Donoghue MTh_Thesis-FinalCopy.pdf - South African Theological ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

7.2.1 Money as a Rival GodWhen Jesus addressed the issue of material wealth in Matthew, the literary analysisdid not show that Jesus was referring to money explicitly. However, in Jesusaddressing the relationship between His disciples and material wealth it was notedthat money was implied. Further, this point was strengthened in chapter two when itwas concluded that Jesus’ historical context was monetised. Money was changinghands. And as shown, by way of example, basic money principles like supply anddemand were in place.Thus money was considered in Jesus time as a form of wealth. Of pertinence to theexegesis of the passage, money was a measure of wealth in Jesus’ day and is stillvery much a measure of wealth today. Further, money is used to purchase basicnecessities used in this modern day survival. This last point is worth noting as it wasshown in the literary analysis that the kind of worry Jesus addressed, was the kindthat stems from anxiety related to human survival.A synthesis of the findings shows that there are two aspects of money as a rival godworth noting. Firstly, while this thesis examined a debate from scholars as to whetheror not mammon should be considered the personal name for a pagan god of wealth,the literary analysis did show that regardless of where one stands on the issuemoney was definitely presented as a rival god to the disciples’ Heavenly Father.In the literary examination of the three sayings found in Matthew 6:19-24, it wasconcluded that money can challenge for a disciples allegiance that should belong toGod. I.e. money becomes a rival to God. In fact it was concluded that the languagesuggested that there were disciples who were prioritising accumulation of wealthover and above service to God. Something Jesus was commanding them to stopdoing. Although only the “two kinds of treasure” metaphor went as far as to personifymoney as rival God, all three dealt with the issue of allegiance to God.That the literary analysis portrayed Jesus as expecting disciples to stop prioritising91
the accumulation of wealth over and above service to God is consistent with thenature of the SOM portrayed in chapter one. The SOM was presented as havingdemands that Christian disciples are able to obey as opposed to views on the SOMthat portrayed it as impossible ideals.Further, the historical analysis showed that the gospel of Matthew provided definitionfor the Christian movement. Of pertinence here is that it was shown to include acontinuing relevance of the Decalogue. To displace one’s allegiance to God with anallegiance to money would be considered a violation of the first command, whichcommands God’s people to the exclusivity of worship of Him.The theme of Money presenting itself as a rival god continued throughout the rest ofMatthew 6:19-34. The literary analysis showed that when Jesus instructed Hisdisciples to seek first God’s Kingdom, it was not a matter of chronology but ofpriority: The lack of prioritising God and running after the accumulation of wealth wasshown to be behaviour that characterises idol worshipers that live in fear of theirgods. I.e. once again the literary analysis drove home the point of the exclusivity ofallegiance to God that is expected of the Christian disciple.Further the literary analysis made the point that the anxiety that results from un-trustin God was shown to add to the moral evil of idol worship to any given day. It shouldbe noted that the literary analysis showed that by Jesus telling them they were oflittle faith, showed that it was not a complete lack of faith on the disciple’s part. I.e.insufficient faith in God results in anxiety and thus in idolatry. Also, the theologicalthemes of both the God of the SOM and Jesus, the giver of the Sermon portrayedthe supremacy of God over all creation.Also to note was that the demand on the Christian disciple to neglect allegiance tomoney in favour of allegiance to God, came to the disciple regardless of her or hisfinancial disposition. The historical analyses showed that Matthew was written inwhat was more than likely a prosperous urban area. Also, Jesus was seen to besome, if not all of his life poor, and at best case scenario achieved a modest level ofexistence.92
Page 1 and 2:
A BIBLICAL-THEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF
Page 3 and 4:
ACKOWLEDGEMENTSI am eternally grate
Page 5 and 6:
TABLE OF CONTENTSCHAPTER 1: Introdu
Page 7 and 8:
6.2.5 Discipleship and Community…
Page 9 and 10:
sinfulness and pushes people toward
Page 11 and 12:
discourses in Matthew, is meant to
Page 13 and 14:
Christian disciple and money was an
Page 15 and 16:
NT text actually did occur and did
Page 17 and 18:
to have used it as a source (France
Page 19 and 20:
almost no evidence outside of the N
Page 21 and 22:
addressed.Jesus says things in the
Page 23 and 24:
The Jewish community was taxed very
Page 25 and 26:
finding the origin and purpose of M
Page 27:
instruction for the believing commu
Page 31 and 32:
Matthew will have continued pertine
Page 33 and 34:
Chapter 3Literary Analysis - Struct
Page 35 and 36:
etween 6:19-24 and 7:1-11 that is c
Page 37 and 38:
would not have ever found such a li
Page 39 and 40:
and 7:7-11 are worth noting:a) Both
Page 41 and 42:
appealing. He seems to at times ack
Page 43 and 44:
three parts.While the literary appr
Page 45 and 46:
Chapter 4Literary Analysis - Matthe
Page 47 and 48: common to a teacher like Jesus woul
Page 49 and 50: treasures would be, but agrees that
Page 51 and 52: Blomberg (1992:123) shows that the
Page 53 and 54: Talbert (2006:122) argues this by r
Page 55 and 56: for God’s kingdom, it is in a bad
Page 57 and 58: The statement that one cannot serve
Page 59 and 60: Chapter FiveLiterary Analysis - Mat
Page 61 and 62: Moses. Even more significant is tha
Page 63 and 64: ightly notes that humans are more v
Page 65 and 66: Secondly, Henry’s argument that o
Page 67 and 68: Perhaps the point is not to cast So
Page 69 and 70: The second reason related to this p
Page 71 and 72: the scriptures that even the great
Page 73 and 74: more than what one eats and wears.
Page 75 and 76: CHAPTER SIXTHEOLOGICAL MOTIFS OF MA
Page 77 and 78: 6:19-34 and that this chapter would
Page 79 and 80: It has now been established that Th
Page 81 and 82: Kingdom requires its citizens to ha
Page 83 and 84: “our Father,” i.e. the Father o
Page 85 and 86: It must be noted that the Father-So
Page 87 and 88: Matthew 25:31-36 presents Jesus as
Page 89 and 90: unanimous among scholars. These rea
Page 91 and 92: Unger and White (1985:171) note tha
Page 93 and 94: interdependent interpersonal relati
Page 95 and 96: examples of how a disciple may prov
Page 97: Chapter SevenConclusion7.1 Introduc
Page 101 and 102: them. The historical analyses highl
Page 103 and 104: preparedness to give up monetary pu
Page 105 and 106: e for the benefit of the believing
Page 107 and 108: captivity to sin. The SOM itself wa
Page 109 and 110: APPENDIX ONETALBERTS FORMAL DIVISIO
Page 111 and 112: BIBLIOGRAPHYAchtemeier PJ, Green JB
Page 113 and 114: Clowney EP 1988. Church. In SB Ferg
Page 115 and 116: Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishi
Page 117 and 118: Peter Laing Publishing.Lloyd-Jones
Page 119 and 120: 73-97.Smith KG 2008. Academic Writi
show all

O'Donoghue MTh_Thesis-FinalCopy.pdf - South African Theological ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?