| Using
Greek for Sunday Text Preparations
EXEGETICAL CONSIDERATIONS
18TH
Sunday after Pentecost/ Matthew 20:1-16
September 22, 2002
1.
What is the literary context for this passage?
a.
How does that literary context impact a reading of this text?
2.
In the story, who is the intended audience of this parable?
a.
How is this parable intended to affect that storied audience?
3.
In the social and theological context of the church in the
late first century world, who might have been the intended real
audience of this parable?
a.
How is this parable intended to affect that real 1st
century audience?
4.
How do 19:30 and 20:16 serve as an inclusio for this parable?
a.
In what ways do they steer an interpretation of the parable?
5.
What is a broad understanding of the basileia ton
ouranon in Matthew’s gospel?
a.
In what ways does this parable provide a window into the
reality of the basileia ton ouranon?
6.
How might the theological imagery of vineyard in the Old
Testament impact a reading of this passage?
a.
How might 19:28-29 relate to or contribute to such a reading?
7.
ow do concepts of that which is righteous and that which is
judged to be unrighteous relate to this parable’s interpretation,
especially through the use of dikaion in v. 4
and adiko in v. 13?
a.
How might that relate to Matthew’s understanding of
dikaiosune as expressed in such passages as 5:20 or
6:33?
8.
How does the use of thelo in 20:14-15
recall/relate to its use in such passages as 19:21; 9:13; 12:7?
a.
What is being claimed about that which God/Jesus wills and
appropriate/inappropriate responses to this?
9.
How are the questions of v. 15 to be answered by the readers?
a.
How does this relate to their praxis and their notions of
community?
10.
How does the reference to evil eye in v. 15 recall 6:23?
11.
How is this passage related to the passion prediction of
20:17-19 and the subsequent request of the mother of James and John
in 20:20ff?
12. How does this passage impact how
Christians determine what which is “fair”?
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