Bible Study: Parody and Subversion in Matthew's Gospel

Episode 9 The Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-16

May 01, 2020 14:00 - 23 minutes - 16.1 MB

Jesus begins laying out his new law or teaching for the new Society. This new teaching inverts the male honor code of the first century Mediterranean World.

Episode 9: The Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-16

May 01, 2020 14:00 - 23 minutes - 16.1 MB

Jesus begins laying out his new law or teaching for the new Society. This new teaching inverts the male honor code of the first century Mediterranean World.

Short Note on Where We are Going

April 29, 2020 22:00 - 7 minutes - 5.42 MB

This is just a short note to explain where I'm going with this series.

Episode 8b: Jesus Begins an International Campaign of Healing, Matthew 4:23-25

April 20, 2020 22:00 - 11 minutes - 8.24 MB

Jesus' campaign of healing provides an alternative to more conventional military campaigns (parody?) and signals the dawning of a new society.

Episode 8b: Jesus Begins an International Campaign of Healing

April 20, 2020 22:00 - 11 minutes - 8.24 MB

Jesus' campaign of healing provides an alternative to more conventional military campaigns (parody?) and signals the dawning of a new society. Support the show (https://paypal.me/ParodySubversion?locale.x=en_US)

Special Coronavirus Easter Episode

April 12, 2020 05:00 - 17 minutes - 12.2 MB

In this episode, to address our current situation, I take a break from Matthew and hop over to the Gospel of Luke to look at the Parable of the Dishonest Manager - A strange parable for strange times. I am indebted to Ched Myers for opening up the secrets of this parable for me. You can find his article on it at www.radicaldiscipleship.net under the title Discipleship as Defection from the Mammon System: Jesus’ Parable about a "Manager of Injustice”

Episode 8 A: The Calling of the First Disciples, Matthew 4:12-22

March 31, 2020 17:00 - 21 minutes - 14.5 MB

Jesus takes up John's work of leading a movement for The New Society (Kingdom of Heaven). Matthew's imagery reminds the reader of the setting of this story in the Roman Empire. Jesus liberates his disciples from bondage to the empire, setting them free to join the movement.

Episode 7: The Temptations, Matthew 4:1-11

March 24, 2020 14:00 - 23 minutes - 16.4 MB

In this episode, we follow Jesus through his "vision quest," as he retraces his people's journey in the wilderness through a time of testing/temptation. Jesus has to prove what sort of Messiah or "Son of God" he will be. Please leave comments at the Facebook page (click on the Facebook icon at the top)

Episode 6: John the Baptizer, Matthew 3:1-17

March 20, 2020 16:00 - 21 minutes - 14.6 MB

If this series has not been controversial already, it gets even more controversial in this episode. I make the claim that Jesus joins a liberation movement already in progress to get his start as "Messiah." Also I will assert that temples in the ancient world were government institutions that served as mechanisms through which the ruling classes controlled the people. A significant part of the movement of John the Baptizer was to undercut temple authority.

Episode 5: The Flight into Egypt, Matthew 2:13-18

March 17, 2020 23:00 - 19 minutes - 13.1 MB

In this episode, Jesus and his family become refugees. Fleeing their home country, which is under the brutal occupation of a foreign empire, they take refuge in Egypt, which, according to their national history, was both the place of their people's slavery and also a refuge for those escaping the Babylonian invasion. With this story, the author of Matthew introduces the themes of Jesus-as-Moses and Jesus-as-Israel by using Exodus imagery. The texts from Jeremiah 31 and Isaiah 53 also play a...

Episode 4: The Magi, Matthew 2:1-12

March 15, 2020 02:00 - 18 minutes - 12.9 MB

The story of the Magi evokes sentimental, feel good memories of Christmas for many of us, but this story, for its original audience, signaled hopes of liberation from a brutal occupation.

Episode 3: Matthew As Parody

March 09, 2020 14:00 - 23 minutes - 16 MB

This episode is the only one that will not look at one particular text (all the other episodes will continue progressively through Matthew), but rather at the book as a whole. I make the argument in this episode that the whole Gospel of Matthew parodies a genre in the ancient world to get across a very serious message.

Episode 2: The Virgin Birth, Matthew 1:18-25

March 02, 2020 05:00 - 23 minutes - 16.4 MB

The "virgin birth" of Jesus, the title "Son of God," and the concept of the forgiveness of sins all had resonances in the first century Mediterranean world that they no longer have today. Understanding what those terms and concepts signaled, as well as how this story "fulfilled" the prophetic texts will greatly expand our understanding of what this story was all about.

A Parody of Pedigree: Matthew 1:1-16

February 13, 2020 21:00 - 20 minutes - 14.3 MB

In this episode, I describe how the genealogy in Matthew is actually a parody of a genealogy. In the gospel in which Jesus instructs his followers to "call no one on earth 'father,'" this list of fathers is intentionally ironic. I also talk about other "trickster" texts in the Bible such as the praise of King Solomon and the story of the rise of Joseph to the second most powerful person in Egypt. These stories are not what they appear to be.

Episode 1: A Parody of Pedigree: Matthew 1:1-16

February 13, 2020 21:00 - 20 minutes - 14.3 MB

In this episode, I describe how the genealogy in Matthew is actually a parody of a genealogy. In the gospel in which Jesus instructs his followers to "call no one on earth 'father,'" this list of fathers is intentionally ironic. I also talk about other "trickster" texts in the Bible such as the praise of King Solomon and the story of the rise of Joseph to the second most powerful person in Egypt. These stories are not what they appear to be.

Bible Study: Parody and Subversion in Matthew's Gospel

Episodes