Instructor: Father Tim Kelly, M.Div., M.A. S.T.L..
Time and location of classes
This class was given at Flint over three nights during Advent 2005 –four hours in all
Reading assignment. Students are asked to read the Infancy Narratives from Matthew and Luke.
Method of presentation. Lecture with PowerPoint presentation
Time of Instruction: 7.45 pm to 9 pm
Method of assessment: candidates are asked to return a single page quiz (attached) which was distributed. These are then graded and returned.
The Catholic respect for the Sacred Scriptures
The Constitution on Revelation at the Second Vatican Council (1965) restates for us Catholic Christians the centrality of the Sacred Scriptures.1 “The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she venerated the Body of the Lord, in so far as she never ceases, particularly in the sacred liturgy to partake in the bread of life, and to offer it to the faithful from the one table of the word of God and the Body of Christ.”
The Sacred Scriptures must be read with faith
Hippolytus comments on the need for faith when approaching the Holy books “Read the holy books in the light of the faith; and you will understand the mysteries of the faith.” 2
Revelation is a gift from God
“By natural reason man can know God with certainty, on the basis of His works. But there is another order of knowledge, which man cannot possibly arrive at by his own powers; the order of Divine Revelation. Through an utterly free decision, God has revealed himself and given Himself to man. This he does by revealing the Mystery, his plan of loving goodness, formed from all eternity in Christ, for the benefit of all. God has fully revealed His plan to us by sending.” 3
Dei Verbum on Revelation
"In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us the hidden purpose of His will (see Eph. 1:9) by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature (see Eph. 2:18; 2 Peter 1:4).
Through this revelation, therefore, the invisible God (see Col. 1:15, 1 Tim. 1:17) out of the abundance of His love speaks to men as friends (see Ex. 33:11; John 15:14-15) and lives among them (see Bar. 3:38), so that He may invite and take them into fellowship with Himself.
This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words having in inner unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them. By this revelation then, the deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation."4
Course Outline
The Infancy narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke provide the only evidence of the early years of Jesus in the canon. There are many extra-canonical accounts of these years, but they have been excluded because they often contain fanciful and magical incidents which were the result of Gnostic and pagan expectations about Jesus.
Class Aims
to identify the Infancy narratives in the Gospels
to distinguish between the two infancy narratives in terms of approach and theme and to explain certain apparent contradictions between the two accounts.
to show how each Infancy narrative forms part of that Gospel.
to show how Luke and Matthew have contributed to the commonly-known Christmas story.
to examine the history of Christian interpretation of these narratives.
Matthew’s Gospel
The class will first consider the general approach of Matthew to his subject, Jesus. Matthew is generally said to portray Jesus as a new Moses.
This Infancy Narrative appears to come from a Jewish source. In a typical Jewish way, the active person is male, Joseph the just man. He is modeled on the original Joseph, the son of Jacob. He was so just that he would not have condemned Mary, since he knew her virtue. He is a just man who leads his wife and child down to Egypt and he brings them back. This is then said by Matthew to fulfill the prophecy from numbers 23: 22. I Have brought my Son out of Egypt.” The original Joseph brought his Father and relatives down to Egypt for safety from a famine. They came back with Moses. Joseph is said in the genealogy to be the son a man called Jacob.
The genealogy of Jesus needs to read theologically. It confirms the bona fides of Jesus as a Jew. It also confirms his humanity and the divine providence directing his birth. There are four women and their stories will be read; (1)Tamar the daughter-in-law who seduces her Father-in-law Jacob in order to obtain justice; (Gen 38) (2) Rahab the whore, whose prudence and common sense allow her to survive the destruction of Jericho; (3) Ruth who seduces her cousin in order to get a husband to protect her and provide a home for Naomi; (4) Bathsheeba the unfaithful wife, who marries David after he has killed her husband. Mentioning women in a genealogy is unusual at this time. This class will examine why Matthew chose to mention these women when they could have been glossed over.
Epiphany. It is here in Matthew that we find the visit of the Wise Men. (Matt. 2:1-12) Their theological significance is that they open up the mystery of God’s plan of Salvation to the Gentiles. This openness to the nations is a constant patristic theme. I will examine how the legend of the Donkey and the Cow at the stable in Bethlehem is used extensively to stress the divine intention that Christ is a universal savior. I will also look at how the English speaking world came to speak about the birth of Jesus happening in a stable. The word stabulum is a Latin translation of the Greek word for a wayside guest-house or motel in our modern understanding.
Gospel of Luke
The Lucan account appears to have come from a family source, perhaps even from Mary.
In this class, I will examine the Lucan Infancy narrative in terms of the general presentation of Jesus in this Gospel. Luke portrays Jesus as a new David, a new Messiah or Anointed One of Israel. This theme of the Christ or Anointed One is best seen in the story of John the Baptist. The aged parents of John resemble the aged parents of Samuel. The Magnificat (Luke 1; 46-56) is based on the Song of Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1-11) who is the mother of Samuel. Samuel eats no meat, does not drink strong drink, and he anoints David as king at Hebron. (2 Samuel 5: 1-3) John the Baptist is somewhat similar; he anoints Jesus with water at the Jordan (Luke 3: 21,22) and the Holy Spirit descends immediately to confirm the anointing of Jesus as Messiah or Christ.
The angelic choir chooses to appear to shepherds on the hillside near Bethlehem. This is (Lk. 2: 8-20) obviously supportive of the Davidic theme since these are the same hills from which Samuel called David the shepherd to be king of Israel.
A brief exegesis of the three Lucan canticles, The Song of Simeon, the Canticle of Zakeriah and the Magnificat.