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Research
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Topics
The following topics are not meant to be exhaustive, but rather are
offered to indicate the nature of the assignment and to stimulate
your own interests. You are encouraged to consider a topic more aligned
with your own interests and to submit a topic statement and sources.
The professor will work with you to be certain that the topic suits
the course. As students choose topics, their names and
e-mail addresses will be accessible from this page so that you can
contact them to share resources and ideas.
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Synoptic
Gospel Issues
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- The
Messianic Secret in Mark
- In the first half of Mark's gospel, Jesus tries to hide his messianic identity. He goes around curing people, but then commands them not to let the word out that he has done this. Survey and describe the passages where Mark does this. Then, integrating secondary reading, propose and defend a thesis about why Mark uses this motif.
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- Redaction-Critical
Study
- Select a passage from the gospels that is found in all three synoptics. Describe the similarities and differences between the accounts. Then select one of the two later gospels, Matthew or Luke. Highlight the most significant changes that the author made to his sources (Mark and/or Q). Then, integrating secondary reading, generate a thesis or a few theses to account for the changes, taking into account the characteristic themes and audience of the gospel you have chosen.
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- Women
in the Gospel of Luke
- Women are portrayed frequently in the Gospel of Luke in service of Luke's larger theme of demonstrating that the kingdom of God is all-inclusive, a place where those now of low status will be lifted and those of high status will be brought down. But feminist biblical scholars have also noted that Luke's portrait of women is problematic. Compared to Mark and Matthew, Luke diminishes the role of particular women associated with Jesus. How does he do this, and why? Begin with a redaction-critical reading of key passages about women in the Gospel of Luke. Describe the way Luke has altered his sources (Mark and/or Q). Then, integrating secondary reading, propose and defend a thesis about why he has done this.
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- The
Brothers of Jesus
- The synoptic gospels mention that Jesus had brothers who were at least uninvolved in his ministry if not actively opposed to it. And yet we know from Paul's letters and the letters of James and Jude (two of Jesus' brothers) in the New Testament that Jesus' brothers played a prominent role in the life of the earliest church. Why did the later gospel writers portray these brothers so negatively? Begin with a redaction-critical study of the passages about the brothers in the Synoptics. Then, integrating secondary reading, propose and defend a thesis or two about the reason(s) the synoptic authors might have tried to rewrite history. Be sure to address the political situation in the early church (that is, the relationship of the various church communities that traced their traditions to various early apostles).
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- Attitudes
toward the Jewish People in the Synoptic Gospels
- By the time the Synoptic Gospels were written, tensions between Jews and the Jewish sect of Christianity had escalated to the point that that the two were beginning to separate from one another. As a result, our gospel authors portrayed the conflicts between Jesus and the Jews in terms of their own experience. This compromises the historical accuracy of their portrait of Jesus. Begin your paper with a redaction-critical reading of some of the controversy stories. If you notice any patterns of development in the tradition (assuming the Two Source Hypothesis), comment upon those. Then, integrating secondary reading, propose and argue a thesis which accounts for the pattern you have noticed in terms of the Two Source Hypothesis and in terms of the audiences of the gospels.
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- Synoptic
Christologies
- Each of the Synoptics portrays Jesus Christ as Christ or messiah in a slightly different way. Begin your paper with a redaction-critical reading of some of the key stories in the gospels that illuminate Jesus' identity. If you notice any patterns of development in the tradition (assuming the Two Source Hypothesis), comment upon those. Then, integrating secondary reading, propose and argue a thesis which accounts for the pattern you have noticed in terms of the Two Source Hypothesis and in terms of the audiences and dates of the gospels.
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- The
Griesbach or "Two Gospel" Hypothesis
- Johann-Jakob Griesbach argued in the 1770s that the Gospel of Mark is an abridgment of Matthew and Luke. More recently, William Farmer revived the thesis as a counterargument against the dominant "Two Source Hypothesis," which had arisen in the 1830s. Read an overview of the Griesbach Hypothesis in the Anchor Bible Dictionary (see below), and then read some of Farmer's book, The Synoptic Problem: A Critical Analysis (references below). In the first part of your paper, present the evidence for and against the hypothesis, including in your presentation clear references to relevant texts in the Synoptics. Then choose your position and develop several arguments in support of it.
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Non-Canonical Gospels
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- Analyze
a Gospel
- Select one of the Non-Canonical Gospels and analyze its literary shape. In the first part of your paper, present your own analysis of the outline, genre and character of the text. Then, with the help of secondary literature on the gospel, examine the social context of the gospel (date, author, audience, language) and what it tells us about religious diversity in the early Christian church.
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- The
Non-Canonial Materials and Feminist Biblical Studies
- The Synoptic Gospels were written by men, largely about men, and the decision to include only Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the canonical scriptures was likewise made by men. Feminist biblical scholars have therefore traditionally looked beyond the canonical texts to gather as much information as possible about communities that lay outside "orthodox" Christianity. They will even argue that some of these communities were led by women. For this paper, consider the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, which we are reading in class, and read some of the material below. Then present the feminist argument(s) for the use of non-canonical and canonical materials, describe their view of the place of women in the non-canonical communities, and close with an evaluation of the feminist argument.I
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The
Quest for the Historical Jesus
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- The
Quest for the Historical Jesus
- The enlightenment and the ascendancy of scientific method as the chief method of inquiry altered the approach to Jesus in biblical studies. Before the enlightenment, biblical scholars viewed Jesus much as the gospel authors wanted their audience to view Jesus, as messiah and son of God. But after the enlightenment, scholars began to understand the biblical texts as later creations of early Christian authors. They began to differentiate between the "Christ of faith" promulgated in the gospels and the "Jesus of history" who lived 40-70 years before. Your task in this paper is to examine the quest for the historical Jesus over the past 250 years and to render an account of its aims, presuppositions, and results. Conclude with an evaluation of the contribution that this quest has made, as well as an evaluation of the furor it has caused in some circles.
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- The
Portrait of Jesus Drawn by the Jesus Seminar
- The Jesus Seminar is a group of scholars and individuals interested in the study of the New Testament who have been meeting for 15 years to analyze the canonical and non-canonical Christian texts and to determine the likely historicity of our records. Robert Miller's The Complete Gospels is a product of the seminar, and represents their interest in addressing all the early Christian witnesses to Jesus. While the literature they have produced is extremely popular, they have generated opposition and outright ridicule from other biblical scholars for their methods of determining the historicity of a word or action of Jesus, and for their results. Your task in this paper is to examine the history of and literature produced by the Jesus Seminar, the presuppositions they have about the historical Jesus and the other criteria they use to determine the historicity of Jesus' words and actions, and finally the controversy that has developed around their project.
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