Purpose: To compare parallel New Testament passages and make thoughtful determinations about applicability or suitability to a particular context.
Instructions: The story of Jesus miraculously feeding a crowd of 5,000 people is narrated in all four of the New Testament gospels. While each gospel relates the same basic details of the story, they also tell it in their own unique way. We can see their unique fingerprints in two ways: the small editorial changes they make within the story, and the literary context in which they place the story (what comes before and after the story in the gospel). In this assignment, you will compare the accounts of the miraculous feeding in the gospels. To complete the assignment, you will need to do the following things:
Examine the Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand Download Jesus Feeds the Five Thousandchart identifying the literary context of the miraculous feeding in each gospel. Note the stories that come before and after the miraculous feeding and which of the stories are unique to a certain account. Consider how they connect in the narrative flow of the gospel.
Read the account of the feeding of the multitude in each of the four gospels. The text is included in the chart for side-by-side comparison.
Compose your work:
Part 1: Analyze how the literary context shapes the meaning of the story. In other words, describe how the stories that appear immediately before and after the miraculous feeding shape the way a reader should understand the meaning of that event. It will be best to organize your response by Gospel. For example, explain how the literary context of the story (what comes before and after the feeding story and Mark’s overall portrayal of who Jesus is) in Mark shapes the meaning of the feeding story. Then do the same for the other three gospels. This will be 400-600 words.
Part 2: If you were telling the story of the Feeding of the 5,000 to a friend, which details would you be sure to include, and why? What do those details reveal about who Jesus is? Which gospel’s portrait (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) would you choose for the present-day Christian community to hear? Write a 300-500 word response.
AI Limitations: For this activity, responsible use of AI-assisted writing tools includes drafting an outline for a paper, brainstorming topics, and improving the organization, sentence structure, or grammar of your writing. Inappropriate use of AI includes using AI beyond the parameters described above, such as copying AI-generated responses and representing them as your own original work.
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