September 20 - Matthew - Interrogation and Preparation

I've been burning up my brain today learning how to parse Greek verbs.  That means that I look at a verb and based on the information I find there, I can tell you about its tense, mood, voice, person and number.  Well, I WILL be able to tell you all of that ... someday.

The fun thing about this is that it isn't going to take too long before my classes start working in tandem.  The inductive study into Matthew will soon encourage me to use information found in an Interlinear Bible.  That's a Bible that generally has the Greek text, an English translation and then all of that information (verb parsing, noun declensions - oh for heavens sake, stop, DIANE!) about the specific word.  Knowing that information will help me understand exactly what the writer was saying.  But, for today, as I try to assimilate some of this random information, I simply shut the book and say, 'head hurts ... make it stop.'

Another type of structural relationship that we observe when working through Matthew is 'interrogation.'  This is kind of fun.  Where are there question and answer passages in the book?  Well ... in Matthew, there are a lot.

The Pharisees question Jesus about His healing the man with a withered hand (12:9-14)
They don't much appreciate the fact that His disciples don't rush out to wash before eating and question Him about that (15:1-9)

The conversation between Jesus and the rich young man in Matthew 19:16-30 is a form of interrogation.

When Jesus comes before Pilate, He is interrogated (Matt 27:41-46) and then Pilate also interacts with the crowd in that format when he offers a choice of either Jesus or Barabbas (Matthew 27:15-23).

One more type of structural relationship is how a scene is prepared and then realized.  It doesn't always happen, but when details are given about a scene, they might be there for a reason ... more than likely to draw you into the story and help you imagine what is happening.  In Matthew 5:1, we see the scene being set for the Sermon on the Mount and in Matthew 8:23-27, the scene is being set for the storm on the sea and the realization of Jesus' power over the sea.

There are so many different types of structural relationships that help us to observe the scripture just a little more deeply.  We may not find all of them, but looking for some of them simply makes us more intimately involved with what is happening.