You are allowed to choose a passage of your preference from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chs. 5
-7 (e.g., the section on oaths 5:33-37 or the section on asking in 7:7-11). Your passage should contain a
complete idea or story. You should not start in the middle of something or cut a unit off early. Generally,
your selection should be at least 3 verses long but no longer than 10 verses.
Once you have chosen your passage. You will want to read it closely, attending to its overall flow, the
structure of sentences, key nouns, key verbs, and any important descriptive elements. Then you will want
to consider the four contexts (immediate, literary, cultural-historical, and canonical) and see how they
may inform your understanding of the passage. Remember that you can draw on the videos on “Literary
Styles in the Bible,”
“Cultures in and of the Bible,” and “The Story of the Bible” to help provide some material for these various
contexts.
Sample Solution
