Degree of Baccalaureate in Theology
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Item The Temptations of Jesus And the Tempter In the Gospel of Matthew(Tangaza University College, 2003) Ranzenberger, Pablo CirujedaThe temptations of Jesus and the action of an adversary to God, be it called Satan, the devil, or the tempter, have, in the past, inspired many a research work, as well as movies, novels, pious legends, and stirred up the imagination about mythical beasts and creatures who approach human beings with all kinds of evil intentions. Matthew's gospel partly contains this legendary vocabulary. It is not, though, a tale about good and evil, but a carefully constructed account about Jesus, the Son of God, his suffering during his public life among his fellow people, and the way he has overcome death once for all. Matthew proclaims the early Christian kerygma throughout his Gospel account: Jesus suffered, died and rose from death. And all those who believe in him, through faith, may share in the eternal life he has attained for all. And what is faith? As we will see, faith is obedience to God our Father. Obedience to do what? The answer to these and other questions is found in this long essay. But I am not going to advance anything else in this introduction, apart from saying that Satan, the tempter, has many faces, but none of them is the face of a monstrous beast. Rather, his aspect is rather decent, and so are his proposals. This essay is primarily a biblical and exegetical research paper I have used the English Revised Standard Version of the Bible, and occasionally the Greek New Testament, in the way they have come down to us today. I do not attempt to carry out any formal textual criticism on the texts used, but will nevertheless use some elements of form, source and redaction criticism. I take for granted that the present final redaction of Matthew's gospel is shaped for his audience best, and therefore I will use it for my analysis. but without questioning its final editing. In my research I have come across excellent exegetical commentaries on the temptation narrative in Matthew, and I am aware that there is nothing I can add in this essay to what has already been written. Nevertheless, by compiling these materials and further venturing into some applications which can be drawn from the present study, I do hope that some clear insights into the nature of the Son of God and his mission may be eained, even if it is only for my own better understanding. I will also try to present some practical applications based on the results of this mainly exegetical study. These applications will be a result more of my own reflection since there is not much material available on the pastoral consequences of the exegesis. Nevertheless, I understand that drawing pastoral applications is also part of the aims of literary criticism, since I understand that through the study of the final form of a bible text we can bring it closer to our present pastoral context.Item The Temptations of The Son of God According to Matthew 4:1-11(Tangaza University College, 2003) Mushunje, RegisMore often than not, we presume that temptation is a sin. On the contrary, it is not sin ( rather it is neutral or indifferent. It is simply an attraction to an object or certain action that is normally associated with eviI.2 In biblical sense, temptation is a situation of choice between fidelity and infidelity to one's obligations toward God.3 It is ordinarily translated from a Hebrew word 7197Z (mosso) whose root rici; (nissa) means "to put to the test", "to try", "to prove".4 The LXX and the New Testament use the verb TrapciCco (peirazo) with the sense of "to test" or "to tempt" to evil. But the test as it is should not be judged as wrong or bad since it is not out of one's choice. Judgment should only be based on the responce to the temptation. In the story of the fall (Gen 3:1-24), the snake in the Garden of Eden tested Eve, but we cannot blame her for being tempted. We can only judge her guilty or innocent as k as her responce to the temptation is concerned. The same could be said of Adam. After Eve seduced him to eat the forbidden fruit, he had two choices: to deny or to accept. It is from his choice that Adam is judged. Humanly speaking, it is very logical that the Israelites were tempted to follow the gods of other nations who seemed to be more powerful in their eyes and reject the God of Israel. The seduction to idolatry was more appealing than following the God who "neglects" them as they journey in the desert. We see here a general trend in temptation. The wrong or forbidden action is more appealing and enticing than the acceptable one. It is in this context that we encounter the temptations that Jesus underwent. It is more appealing to have bread if one is hungry instead of to starving (cf. Matt 4:3). It is humanly enticing to show spectacular powers rather than remain ordinary in the face of others (cf. Matt 4:6). And who does not want to amass wealth and be considered great? Yet these are the temptations that Jesus endured in order to manifest his kingship. If temptations "came to the Son [of God] himself, they will certainly come to his followers"5 and for this reason they are part and parcel of Christian life. In his experience, Paul says, "I can will what is right, but cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do" (Rom 7:18-19). Human life is full of temptations and coping with them is an enormous challenge. For that reason I chose to focus on the Temptations of Jesus. My hope, in this study, is to gain insights that can help Christians face temptations and triumph as Jesus did. Matthew's teaching on this reality goes a long way in empowering humanity to do God's will instead of following human desires only.