Due date: March 2, at the beginning of class (you may turn it in before then)

Click here to read the general writing guidelines for this essay, including page length, format, and suggestions for essay writing.

Reminder: You are not to use any outside sources, merely the biblical text and your own analysis. For background, you may cite the professor's lectures or the textbook.

For your second essay assignment, choose one of the following essay subjects

1. Sermon on the Mount/Sermon on the Plain

Based on a comparison of Matthew 5-7 and Luke 6, what are the differences between Jesus' message in these two gospel accounts?

In answering this question, you may consider any or all of the following questions:

At what points do these accounts of the speech agree or disagree? Do the gospel writers envision the same group of people listening to Jesus speaking? Do the gospel writers imagine the same readers of their respective gospels? What broader differences in these two gospels, and their messages, and their audiences, are hinted at in these speeches? How might a reader make these two speeches agree? What sort of reader would want them to agree?

2. Paul the Patriot?

Based on a reading of Acts 22-28, how would you characterize Paul's relationship with the ruling powers (the Jews of Jerusalem and Rome)?

In answering this question, you may consider any or all of the following questions:

How does the representation of Paul's legal defenses fit in with the overall religious and political attitudes of the author of Acts? How does it fit in with what we know of Paul from his own letters (particularly his apocalypticism)? Whom would an ancient Christian reading Acts consider the "bad guys" of the story? How does this compare with attitudes towards Rome, Jerusalem, and the Jews found in other New Testament writings (such as the gospels)?

3. Raising the Dead (?)

Based on Jesus' character and behavior in the miracle accounts of Mark 5:22-43 (the raising of the girl and the woman with the hemorrhage) and John 11:1-46 (the raising of Lazarus), how might these different audiences perceive Jesus as a messiah?

In answering this question, you may consider any or all of the following questions:

Is Jesus in complete control of his miracles in both accounts? What are the roles of women in these two miracle stories? Which Jesus is more powerful? More sympathetic? More accessible? What kind of "kingdom" would readers of Mark expect based on these miracles? Would readers of John expect the same kind of kingdom of God?

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