Madison N. Pierce

@WTruesdale9 Quite a bit of recent research has challenged various aspects of that characterization. You might check out this book on the Pharisees from a few years ago. amzn.eu/d/03ZsxXR4

@MadisonPierce Definitely a hot take! Seems to fit Luke’s narrative characterization of the scribes and Pharisees too.

I'm excited to be teaching on the Gospel of Luke this afternoon. I'll be doing some 'mythbusting' for several of the passages. Any myths about Luke (and its background) you would include?

@hofferNTPhD @criscardozomin Sorry for my misunderstanding, but how does that present challenges for “within Judaism” readings?

@MadisonPierce @criscardozomin I think that's precisely it! The argument of the parable assumes an expectation for the priest and Levite to help, which they fail to do. That wouldn't necessarily entail any anti-Jewish angle in the parable.

@hofferNTPhD @criscardozomin I can understand what you’re after here. My explanation would be that the figures represent levels of proximity relevant to the neighbor question. If my mother ignored my needs, that would be more egregious than my cousin, and that more egregious than my classmate.

@MadisonPierce @criscardozomin It's a challenge for some Jesus/Paul/Luke (etc.) within Judaism readings: certain attempts to contextualize pericopae "within Judaism" can lose or even subvert the rhetorical and literary flow of the text.

@andrewhwaller Amen. We talked about the weird ways that these arguments are made with Luke and how they don’t match the judgments in Pauline studies, e.g.

@MadisonPierce This isn't really specific to any one passage (maybe the prologue), but the idea that Luke was some sort of utterly Greek/Gentile investigative reporter is something I hear repeated a lot. Or the idea that Luke is the "most literary" (what does this even mean???) NT author.

@criscardozomin 2. The (presumably non-priestly Levite), in my understanding, does not have the same prohibitions in place regarding corpse impurity. But I recognise the question is one of different interpretations of the law in the first century.

@criscardozomin I think Thiessen, Bauckham, and I are in general agreement (now that I have a refresher in place). I don't think they're bad, but I do think they're potentially culpable. 1. The priest could decide to 'override' the law in order to preserve a life (if he knew the man was alive).

@nathancreitz @criscardozomin The dialogue that precedes the parable where Jesus and the religious leader agree that 'love' is the key to reading the law and that reading the law reveals how to 'inherit eternal life' makes that reading quite difficult for me.

@MadisonPierce @criscardozomin I'm respectfully disagreeing with him. Not that I would categorize the Priest and the Levite as "bad guys" but that Jesus seems to be using them as evidence that the religious system was incapable of "loving neighbor."

@shaw_davidm Thanks for sharing this! I'm still inclined to imagine her as a Jewish woman, but I think you raise some useful points. I'll continue to consider them.

@MadisonPierce Also, I think the bleeding woman is a gentile: hcommons.org/docs/restoring…

@shaw_davidm Thanks! 😃 (And I think that grouping is super important too!)

@MadisonPierce FWIW: you can’t understand the parable of the Prodigal Son(s) without understanding the parable of the lost sheep and lost coin that come prior. Happy teaching, Dr Pierce 😊 : au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/lost-a…

@nathancreitz @criscardozomin I don’t think that was Dr Cordozo’s contention. He’s noted some resources that may be helpful.

@criscardozomin @MadisonPierce “Priests and levites” often act as a merism in the Bible to refer to the entire religious establishment. Jesus uses them in the parable to contrast with the Samaritan who proved to be a neighbor. The Priest and the Levite were incapable of fulfilling the 2nd command.

@criscardozomin *dead or dying

@criscardozomin But I suppose if he appears to be dead, then the priest in particular may have license to avoid since it is a stranger.

@yeeeks Yes—that is such an important one. That was on my ‘maybe’ list. (The levels of biblical literacy in the class vary wildly, and I imagine this text is not well known, sadly.)

@MadisonPierce The shrewd manager is not a figure put up for emulation but a critique of the world, i.e. it isn't teaching Christians to be shrewd with money

@griffingulledge @coramdeo1 @pjgurry Thank you, Griffin. Yes. That’s right.

Gentlemen, I think you may be misunderstanding the Poem. “Easily won” isn’t referring to his credential or the hard work he put in to earn it. It’s referring to the fact that he can set his credential aside and still retain his respect based on a culturally conditioned assumption. And what she’s saying, is that women, scholars, when they set aside their credential, are often then not treated with the same respect that is due to their scholarship and credentials.

About once a year, I like to share this poem about using titles in the classroom. I also heartily recommend the article linked below about how "Untitling" affects minoritized faculty.

@AaronBrianDavis Thank you for sharing this and your other story. I’m grateful to hear them.

@MadisonPierce Dr. Katie Cannon made a point like this in her Intro to Ethics class, reminding us, that even though the institutional culture was more-or-less to just use first names, in practice this applied much more to women/minority scholars than to their white, male peers

@neulsaem I do too!

@MadisonPierce Thanks. I hate to do it, but I often feel the need to dress "up" as well.

@AleahMarsden @johndyer I’m glad you felt you could raise this were heard. Mistakes still can hurt, but openness and “sorry” goes a long way.

@MadisonPierce @johndyer Also why I use Rev. for work emails. I had this exact conversation with an older professor who made the same kind of comment to me. To his credit, he admitted that the perspective had never occurred to him & that he needed to apologize to a female colleague he had teased about it