Public Speaking Techniques One of the things you may hav.docx

Public Speaking Techniques
One of the things you may have noticed about this course is that
it took us nine sessions before
we start to talk in earnest today about speeches as a part of
leadership communication. This
was for a reason. While we as a society inherently focus on
speeches as a very public forum to
test a leader's ability to inspire a vision, take charge, and create
a sense of magnetism, the truth
is that most leaders communicate much more in other settings
which are not so public. Most
leaders spend much more time in small group meetings,
interacting with people
person-to-person, making calls, drafting memos, and the like,
than they will ever spend making
speeches. These other forms of communication are, in many
respects, just as important if not
more so than any speech a leader could giv
But nonetheless, speeches are an important part of a leader's
job. While they may be infrequent
for many leaders, speeches provide one of the best platforms for
a leader to inspire a collective
vision within his/her followers. They are a very public way of
displaying the pathos and ethos of
the leader's message and can provide a memorable way to
cement values into a corporate
culture
One of the reasons we spent so much time prior to this week on
the topic of knowing yourself,

knowing your audience, and crafting a message is that these are
essential elements of any
good speech. Great speeches don't just happen; they require a
great deal of foresight, practice,
and cultivation. One of the books we read for this course, Talk
Like TED, provides some of the
basics of what it takes to create a compelling speech. We will
look at some of these elements
together in this session by looking at Martin Luther King's "I
Have a Dream" speech. While most
of us will never have the chance to speak from the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of
tens of thousands, my hope is that, by dissecting his speech, we
can gain some insight into how
to create our own speeches that can inspire others towards a
common goal, much as MLK did
with his speech.
Text of the "I Have a Dream" Speech
First, let's read the text of the "I Have a Dream"
speech together:
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in
history as the greatest demonstration
for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic
shadow we stand today, signed the
Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a
great beacon light of hope to
millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of
withering injustice. It came as a
joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One

hundred years later, the life of the
Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and
the chains of discrimination.
One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of
poverty in the midst of a vast
ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro
is still languished in the
corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his
own land. And so we've come here
today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.
When the architects of our
republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and
the Declaration of Independence,
they were signing a promissory note to which every American
was to fall heir. This note was a
promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men,
would be guaranteed the
"unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of
Happiness." It is obvious today that
America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her
citizens of color are concerned.
Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given
the Negro people a bad check, a
check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We
refuse to believe that there are
insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this
nation. And so, we've come to cash
this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of
freedom and the security of

justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of
the fierce urgency of Now. This
is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the
tranquilizing drug of gradualism.
Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now
is the time to rise from the dark
and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial
justice. Now is the time to lift our
nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock
of brotherhood. Now is the time to
make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the
moment. This sweltering summer
of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is
an invigorating autumn of freedom
and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a
beginning. And those who hope that the
Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will
have a rude awakening if the
nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither
rest nor tranquility in America until
the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of
revolt will continue to shake the
foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice
emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand
on the warm threshold which
leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our
rightful place, we must not be guilty
of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for
freedom by drinking from the cup of
bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on

the high plane of dignity and
discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate
into physical violence. Again
and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting
physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro
community must not lead us to a
distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as
evidenced by their presence here
today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our
destiny. And they have come to
realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always
march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights,
"When will you be satisfied?" We
can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the
unspeakable horrors of police
brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy
with the fatigue of travel,
cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels
of the cities. We cannot be
satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller
ghetto to a larger one. We can
never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their
self-hood and robbed of their

dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be
satisfied as long as a Negro in
Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he
has nothing for which to vote. No,
no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until
"justice rolls down like waters, and
righteousness like a mighty stream."
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of
great trials and tribulations. Some of
you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you
have come from areas where your
quest-quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of
persecution and staggered by the
winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of
creative suffering. Continue to work with
the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to
Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go
back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to
Louisiana, go back to the slums and
ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this
situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today,
my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and
tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a
dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out
the true meaning of its creed:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons

of former slaves and the sons
of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the
table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state
sweltering with the heat of
injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be
transformed into an oasis of freedom
and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious
racists, with its governor having
his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and
"nullification"-one day right there in
Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join
hands with little white boys and white
girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and
every hill and mountain shall be
made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked
places will be made straight;
"and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall
see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South
with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of
despair a stone of hope. With this
faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our
nation into a beautiful symphony of
brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together,
to pray together, to struggle
together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together,
knowing that we will be free
one day.
And this will be the day—-this will be the day when all of God's
children will be able to sing with
new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of
the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New
Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when
we let it ring from every village
and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be
able to speed up that day when all
of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,
Protestants and Catholics, will
be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro
spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last! Thank God
Almighty, we are free at last!
What a powerful speech that was! Reading those words s
powerful, but let's watch it together to
see the true power behind its delivery, as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I47Y6VHc3Ms
Now, after reading the speech and listening to it being
delivered, let's unpack its key qualities
together.
Crafting a Speech which is Emotional
In his book, Talk Like TED, Carmine Gallo has three chapters
on the topic of making a speech
emotional: 1) Unleash the Master Within; 2) Master the Art of
Storytelling; and 3) Have a
Conversation. In the first chapter, he discusses the need for
speakers to find a topic they are
passionate about sharing with their audience. As he notes, many

speakers focus on mundane
topics, never bothering to bring forth topics they truly have a
passion for sharing. Yet Martin
Luther King, Jr. (MLK) exemplified the type of passion one
needs to truly make an emotional
appeal to one's audience. This is where watching the video is
particularly helpful, for in watching
MLK's body language, you can see that he is passionate: he
appears resolute, brings his whole
body into the message, and emphasizes his points with hand
gestures that are not contrived,
but come out of an overflow of his own emotions. It is clear that
he is not someone who is
delivering a mundane speech about a mundane topic; instead,
everyone who watched can see
that he is excited about delivering a speech that will hopefully
inspire a nation.
Gallo's second chapter discusses how a leader can utilize good
storytelling techniques to create
an emotional appeal. As he notes, most good speechwriters draft
messages that have a
combination of ethos (building credibility), logos (providing
evidence for your assertions), and
pathos (creating an emotional appeal), with the heavy emphasis
on pathos. Like most great
speakers, MLK did this well in his speech. In the first few
paragraphs alone, he devoted much of
his language to building an emotional appeal to his audience
through the use of word-images
such as "a great beacon light of hope," "seared in the flames of
withering injustice," "the
manacles of segregation," and "lonely islands of poverty in the
midst of a vast ocean of material
prosperity." Likewise, throughout the speech, he used phrases
and quotes from songs, the

Bible, and familiar quotes to connect emotionally with his
audience. He talks about his children
and the rest of the children of America, and talks of places that
each of them knew: Stone
Mountain, Lookout Mountain, and the molehills of Mississippi.
All of these phrases provided an
emotional undercurrent for the speech that allowed people to
understand and embrace his
deeper points (such as the imagery of a promissory note that
harkens back to the Declaration of
Independence itself). By creating the emotional bond with his
listeners, MLK was able to drive
home his deeper points about the need for a better future for
Black Americans.
Gallo's third chapter discusses a grab-bag of speaking
techniques that can help a speaker
connect emotionally with his/her audience—from tone, to rate
of speech, to hand gestures, and
more. While he gives some good advice on each of these topics,
even going so far as to
analyze the preferred rate of speech (he says it should be faster
than 150 words per minute), I
think his key point is that speakers should use a conversational
style that feels comfortable to
them and which they practice relentlessly. No two people are
alike, and thus no two speakers
are alike. For instance, communication theorists have praised
MLK's speech for decades, but
his average rate of speech is roughly 104 words per minute, far
lower than what Gallo
recommends. But the key to MLK's effectiveness is that he
crafted a style that fit his natural

giftedness and practiced it relentlessly until it became a
powerful technique. He used a tone that
worked for him, rising with the tide of his most passionate
words, and waning with the more
subtle moments in between. He used a rate of speech which
fluctuated to accentuate his most
important points and most emotional appeals (e.g., he ended the
speech talking much more
quickly than he began). Finally, he used hand gestures and
bodily movements that were natural
for him, and which emphasized the words he was saying. In
light of Gallo's recommendations
and MLK's speech, I think the takeaway for aspiring leaders is
to utilize a style that fits your
personality and practice it religiously so that you can draw out
the emotion using techniques that
work for you. Do not try to be MLK; be yourself, and let your
own passion drive the stylistic
techniques that show your own passion for the topic.
Crafting a Speech Which Is Novel
The next three chapters of Gallo's book focus on creating a
speech that is novel. In chapter 4,
"Teach Me Something New," he offers this bit of advice:
"Reveal information that's completely
new to your audience, is packaged differently, or offers a fresh
and novel way to solve an old
problem" (p. 134). MLK shined in this particular aspect. In
multiple places throughout the
speech, he recast the meaning of the Declaration of
Independence, the Constitution, and the
legacy of Abraham Lincoln and his Emancipation Proclamation.
As discussed before, he
focused his logos (evidentiary argument) around the ideal of a
promissory note created by the

"architects of our republic." This novel argument was both
extremely complex and deep while
also being easy enough for all of his listeners to understand.
Likewise, near the end of his
speech, he recasts one of the hallowed songs in American
society, "My Country 'Tis of Thee,"
and states that he hopes it can be sung by all Americans with
"new meaning." During the whole
of the speech, he constantly recasts old ideals into a new
imagery that spoke to the people of
his day (and even down the centuries to the people of our day).
Gallo's fifth chapter talks about delivering "jaw-dropping
moments." Again, MLK was masterful
at delivering just the type of rhetorical bombshells that made
his speech so evocative. For one,
his consistent, repetitive, and emotional phrases "I Have a
Dream" and "Let Freedom Ring"
created a cohesive pathos throughout the speech that drew
together all of his thoughts. But
much more than connecting the dots, these phrases punctuated
his ideas with words that each
man and woman present could remember. Whether they took
away nothing more from the
speech, each person could likely have recounted MLK's dream
to "Let Freedom Ring." Likewise,
MLK included other jaw-dropping moments such as when he
forcefully noted: "I have a dream
that my four little children will one day live in a nation where
they will not be judged by the color
of their skin but by the content of their character." What an
emotional appeal that any parent
could understand! And his closing lines, "Free at last! Free at

last! Thank God Almighty, we are
free at last!" created the type of emotional crescendo that made
this speech resonate in the
minds and hearts of his listeners.
While most leaders will never be able to deliver a speech with
such jaw-dropping moments as
MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, I do believe we can also look
for stories that create a
heart-tugging moment with our audience. Just as MLK, who was
a father, used the imagery of
his own children to evoke a deeper dream within his listeners,
so, too, can we use the stories
and images of our everyday lives to drive home our points. As I
prepare Sunday School
lessons, lectures, and speeches myself, I find that some of my
most powerful moments are
when I share a truth from a story about one of my own children.
Such stories make the speech
more relatable and stick with the listener long after the finer
points have been lost.
For the sake of time, we will skip over Gallo's chapter on
"lightening up," especially since this
concept was not particularly relevant to MLK's speech as he
was speaking on such a weighty
topic.
Crafting a Speech Which Is Memorable
Gallo's last three chapters focus on making a speech memorable.
Gallo argues that leaders
should "stick to the 18-minute rule," "paint a mental picture,"
and "stay in your lane." Once
again, MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech is a good example of
many of these concepts. MLK's

speech, lasting only 16 minutes, is one of the most remembered
speeches in American history.
His second paragraph ("Five score years ago, a great American,
in whose symbolic shadow we
stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation") harkens
back to another very short
speech, the Gettysburg Address. While both were short
speeches, they packed a rhetorical
punch that left listeners and readers inspired to change the
nation. I believe this was because
both painted mental pictures that drew people to a higher plane
of thinking. For MLK, this
imagery included the famous promissory note, the use of
phrases such as "a great beacon light
of hope," the imagery of specific places in the South, and even
of his own children. During his
speech, you can almost see yourself on a mountain top looking
down, listening to his words "Let
Freedom Ring!" Whether rich or poor, black or white, Northern
or Southern, everyone in his
audience could understand these simple images that evoked so
much meaning. These were not
images that he had conjured up out of nowhere; instead, they
were images from his own
childhood, from his own experiences, and from the places he
had been himself. He "stayed in
his lane" by not creating obtuse arguments, but instead sharing
his heart with his listeners
through the mental pictures he painted.
Conclusion
While most of us will never give a speech that has near the

significance that MLK's speech had,
it is still inspiring to analyze MLK's speechmaking abilities to
glean wisdom for our own
speeches. From Gallo's book and this analysis of MLK's speech,
we can see that it is important
for leaders to find their voice, craft a message that uses their
own experiences and stories, and
then practice that speech till they can deliver it with passion,
emotion, and confidence. As you
create your own speeches, I hope that you will take the time to
practically apply these lessons in
your own vocational context.
Paper 2 Grading Rubric – Option B
Requirement
Maximum Points
Comments
Points Earned
Accurate use of English including careful documentation
(including ability to paraphrase and use quotations) and good
organizational plan.
Type a 350-750-word paper using MLA formatting.
40 Points
You have some MLA formatting issues – header on page 1 is
incomplete and your subtitles of “how” and “why” are not
correct either.
You have several typos – names not correctly capitalized,
punctuation, etc.

25
Adequate research.
eBooks:
New Testament History and Literature by Martin (2012), pp.
106-108.
The Gospels by Barton and Muddiman (2010), p.56.
20 Points
20
Accurate and complete reflection of material read for
assignment.
Explain how and why Matthew may have edited Mark’s Gospel.
Use the following two sets of passages to support your claim.
According to course materials (Bible, textbook, digital materials
linked below, etc.):
1. How and why would Matthew have edited Mark 6:45-52
contrasted with Matthew 14:22-23?
.
40 points

I would have liked to have seen you include more on the “why”
from the sources; for example:
1) “Matthew adds several elements to the story and elaborates it
… Matthew has taken a rather simple ‘nature miracle’ and
turned into something like an allegory for the church of his day
… Finally, Matthew changes the ending he gets from Mark so
that the disciples perform the action he expects of members of
his own church; not confusion and misunderstanding [as in
Mark’s gospel], but worship of Jesus as Lord” (Martin, p. 106)
2) Mark – “For Mark, Jesus’ sonship is seen supremely in his
obedience which leads to death; thus, the declaration of Jesus as
Son of God her serves to reinforce 8:31 which has just been
given.” (Barton & Muddiman p. 109)
Matthew – “The major theme of this ephiphany is Jesus’ status
as the new Moses … Further, through the allusion of the voice
to Isa 42:1, Jesus is made out to be the suffering servant of
Isaiah.” (Barton & Muddiman p. 56)
Mark emphasizes secrecy and obedience while Matthew
emphasizes fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies in Jesus the
Messiah as the new church is established.
30
Total Points Earned
75
Paper 2 Grading Rubric – Option B
Requirement
Maximum Points

Comments
Points Earned
Accurate use of English including careful documentation
organizational plan.
Type a 350-750-word paper using MLA formatting.
40 Points
You have some MLA formatting issues – header on page 1 is
incomplete and your subtitles of “how” and “why” are not
correct either.
You have several typos – names not correctly capitalized,
punctuation, etc.
25
Adequate research.
eBooks:
New Testament History and Literature by Martin (2012), pp.
106-108.
The Gospels by Barton and Muddiman (2010), p.56.
20 Points
20
Accurate and complete reflection of material read for

assignment.
Explain how and why Matthew may have edited Mark’s Gospel.
.
40 points
I would have liked to have seen you include more on the “why”
from the sources; for example:
1) “Matthew adds several elements to the story and elaborates it
… Matthew has taken a rather simple ‘nature miracle’ and
turned into something like an allegory for the church of his day
… Finally, Matthew changes the ending he gets from Mark so
that the disciples perform the action he expects of members of
his own church; not confusion and misunderstanding [as in
Mark’s gospel], but worship of Jesus as Lord” (Martin, p. 106)
2) Mark – “For Mark, Jesus’ sonship is seen supremely in his
obedience which leads to death; thus, the declaration of Jesus as
Son of God her serves to reinforce 8:31 which has just been
given.” (Barton & Muddiman p. 109)
Matthew – “The major theme of this ephiphany is Jesus’ status
as the new Moses … Further, through the allusion of the voice

to Isa 42:1, Jesus is made out to be the suffering servant of
Isaiah.” (Barton & Muddiman p. 56)
Mark emphasizes secrecy and obedience while Matthew
emphasizes fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies in Jesus the
Messiah as the new church is established.
30
Total Points Earned
75
matthew 56
as Roman Catholic tradition has it. But he is surely more than a
representative disciple, as so many Protestants have anxiously
maintained. Rather, he is a man with a unique role in salvation
history. His person marks a change in the times. His
significance is akin to that of Abraham: his faith is the means
by which God brings a new people into being. In fact, one
should perhaps think of Gen 17. There too we witness the birth
of the people of God through an individual whose name is
changed to signify his crucial function (Abram becomes
Abraham, ‘father of a multitude’). Moreover, Abraham is, in Isa
51:1–2 (cf. the comments on 3:9), a rock from which the people
of God are quarried. Is not Peter the patriarch of the church?
That the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church is
not an allusion to Jesus’ death and resurrection, nor to the
general resurrection, nor to Christ’s descent into hell (a thing
otherwise unattested in this gospel). The most plausible
interpretation is that the gates of Hades are the ungodly powers
of the underworld who will assail the church in the latter days:
the church will emerge triumphant from the eschatological
assaults of evil. In the background is the end-time scenario of

powers which, unleashed from below, rage against the saints
(cf. 1 Enoch 56:8; Rev 11:7; 17:8). One may compare Rev 9:1–
11, where the demonic hosts, under their king, Abaddon, come
up from the bottomless pit to torment humanity. They prevail
against all except those with the seal of God.
In v. 19 Peter is given the keys to the kingdom, which is
explicated to mean that he has the authority to bind and loose
(cf. 18:18). This is not a statement about exorcism or the
forgiveness of sins (cf. Jn 20:23). Rather, Peter, as a sort of
supreme rabbi of the kingdom, is given teaching authority. His
decisions stand.
(16:21–3) Once it is evident that Israel as a corporate body is
not going to welcome Jesus as the Messiah, two things remain
to be done. First, Jesus must found a new community. Secondly,
he must give his life as a ransom for many. Having just begun
the first task in the previous paragraph, he now turns his eyes
towards the second. His prophetic foresight is such that he can
see the future, including his own death. But Peter, who here
goes from the heights to the depths and functions not as the
rock on which the church is built but as a stone of stumbling
(Isa 8:14), behaves like a fool and does not recognize the
necessity of messianic suffering. Jesus rebukes him in the
strongest possible terms—and shows that the Messiah goes to
his death as a free man: he chooses his own destiny.
Copyright © 2010. OUP Oxford. All rights reserved. May not be
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(16:24–8) After the brief narrative setting (v. 24a) there are
sayings on discipleship (vv. 24b–26) and the eschatological
future, which will come sooner rather than later (vv. 27–8). The
logic is clear: thought of the future should encourage acts of
discipleship in the present, for only the final state matters (cf.
v. 26). But discipleship is not easy of achievement. Jesus is not
a substitute but a leader who must be followed (v. 24; cf. 4:18–

22; 8:18–22; 9:9), and his life ends in suffering and crucifixion
(vv. 21–3). Further, Jesus calls for a surrender or denial of self
no matter what the cost or dangers (v. 25). This means above all
obedience to another’s will (cf. Gethsemane). Anything more
difficult could hardly be asked of human beings. Faith is
obedience, and obedience is the grave of the will.
(17:1–8) The major theme of this epiphany is Jesus’ status as a
new Moses. ‘Six days later’ (v. 1, an ambiguous reference, but
cf. Ex 24:16) Jesus’ face shines like the sun (v. 2) as does
Moses’ face in Ex 34:29–35 (cf. Philo, vit. Mos. 170; Ps.-Philo,
LAB 12:1). As in Ex 24:15–18; 34:5 a bright cloud appears, and
a voice speaks from it (so too Ex 24:16). The onlookers—a
special group of three (v. 1; cf. Ex 24:1)—are afraid (v. 6; cf.
Ex 34:29– 30). And all this takes place on a mountain (v. 1; cf.
Ex 24:12, 15–18; 34:3). Moreover, Moses and Elijah, who
converse with the transfigured Jesus, are the only figures in the
OT who speak with God on Mount Sinai, so their presence
together makes us think of that mountain. Jesus is the prophet
like Moses of Deut 18:15, 18.
The transfiguration relates itself to the immediately preceding
narrative. It illustrates 16:24–8 first by showing forth the glory
of the parousia foretold in vv. 27–9 (cf. 2 Pet 1:16–18) and
secondly by making concrete the resurrection hope of those who
follow the hard commands of Jesus issued in vv. 24–6. (In 13:43
the resurrected saints shine like the sun.) As for the prophecy of
passion and resurrection in 16:21– 3, the transfiguration
anticipates Jesus’ exaltation. Further, through the allusion of
the voice to Isa 42:1 (‘with him I am well pleased’) Jesus is
made out to be the suffering servant of Isaiah. Going back even
further, to 16:13–20, the divine confession of Jesus as the Son
of God confirms and underlines Peter’s confession.
EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed
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AN: 335554 ; Barton, John, Muddiman, John.; The Gospels
Account: stleocol

106 Gospels
“stilling of the storm” in Mark and Matthew, and I take the
example from a
famous essay publ
In Mark’s version, the story is rather simple (Mark 6:45–5 2).
Jesus sends his disciples across the Sea of Galilee in a boat
while he stays behind to dismiss the crowd and to pray. The e
disciples are straining at the oars against a strong headwind
when they see Jesus walking on the water, attempting to pass by
them. Th ey think they are seeing a ghost and cry out, at which
time Jesus calms them and gets into the boat. Th e wind
suddenly ceases.
Matthew adds several elements to the story and elaborates it
(Matt 14:22– 33). Instead of merely noting that there was a
strong headwind, Matthew says that the boat was “battered by
the waves” and was “far from the land,” a more precarious
scene than in Mark (Matt 14:24). Th en Matthew adds an
entirely new story. Aft er the disciples discover that they are
looking at Jesus himself, not a ghost, Peter asks to be allowed
to come to Jesus on the water. Jesus says, “Come.” But once
Peter is out of the boat, he becomes terrifi ed and begins to
sink. He cries, “Lord, save me!” Jesus pulls him up, but
admonishes him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Th
ey both get into the boat, and the wind ceases. Matthew ends his
version of the story not with the confusion and
misunderstanding of the disciples, as in Mark, but quite diff
erently: “And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly
you are the Son of God’ ” (14:33).
Copyright © 2012. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.
In Bornkamm’s interpretation, Matthew has taken a rather
simple “nature miracle” and turned it into something like an
allegory for the church of his day. Th e church, as Matthew has
already made clear, must experience persecution and opposition,
represented by the “battering” of the boat by waves and wind.

Christians, though, are to look to Jesus for their salvation, as
Peter did: “Lord, save me!” Peter here represents “every
Christian” who needs Jesus for salvation. But they are to
attempt to turn their “little faith” into full faith. Th e idea that
the church includes many people with “little faith” occurs
repeatedly in Matthew. In fact, the term seems to be a favorite
of the author to describe members of the church who have some,
ending he gets from Mark so that the disciples perform the
action he expects of members of his own church: not confusion
and misunderstanding, but worship of Jesus as Lord.
Bornkamm’s essay, published in the middle of the twentieth
century, was one of several early examples of what scholars call
“redaction criticism.” Th e word “redaction,” of course, merely
means “editing.” In fact, we use “redaction” also in English—
rather than the more colloquial “editorial criticism,” which
would mean the same thing— simply because English- language
Th e Gospel of Matthew 107
Scholarship learned the method from German scholars, and
Redaktion is the German word for “editing.” Th e method
examines how authors alter (edit or redact) stories or sayings
they seem to have found in another source— in this case Mark,
although scholars do the same thing when they speculate about
how Matthew or Luke may have altered something they found in
Q. By studying how the Gospel writer changed materials he got
from someone else, we can better see his own intentions in
writing.
In this case, we come up with interpretations of Matthew that
help us imagine his setting: his church, his purpose in writing,
and his intentions. “Matthew” (recall that I use the name only
for conv en ience; we don’t know the name of the actual author)
is writing in a church that does include gentiles but that, in his
opinion at least, must remain linked to Israel by obedience to
the law of Moses. It seems that he expects the members of his
church to keep kosher, to observe the Sabbath (though in a less
strict way than some other Jews), and to continue circumcising

male members of the church, probably both their male children
and gentile converts. He sees himself and them as a community
of teachers and scribes, passing along the teachings of Jesus and
interpreting Jewish scripture rightly. Th ey suff er persecution
for following this crucifi ed Messiah, and perhaps because of
their own diff erent interpretations of the law. But they are to
endure, to follow and worship Jesus, and to fl ee from
persecution when they can, but to use that retreat as an
opportunity to evangelize further.
Th is is a version of Christianity quite unlike what most people
today know about. It is hard for us to imagine a version of
Christianity that takes Jesus to be the Messiah and accepts
gentiles into the church but insists on the continuing
observation of the law of Moses. But that is apparently what we
see in the Gospel of Matthew. Th e author would certainly not
believe that he was off ering a diff erent “religion” from
Judaism. He sees himself rather as teaching the proper way to
be “Israel.” Th is Gospel was certainly written aft er 70 c.e.,
and no doubt before the end of the fi rst century. Most scholars
would date its composition to sometime around 85 c.e., but that
is only a guess. Here, toward the end of the fi rst century, we
have a Jesus-b elieving, law- abiding sect of Judaism that calls
itself “church.”
chapter 8Th e Gospel of Th omas
Overview: Th e existence of the Gospel of Th omas had been
known from ancient writers, but it was only aft er the discovery
of the Nag Hammadi codices that the actual text became
available. Th e Gospel of Th omas is basically a collection of
sayings, or logia, that sometimes seem similar to, though
perhaps more primitive than, sayings found in the canonical
Gospels. Sometimes, however, the sayings seem better
explained as refl ecting a certain “Platonizing” understanding of
the world similar to what would later be held by “Gnostics.” Th
is involves a rejection of the material world and a desire for

gnosis, a secret knowledge, in order to escape the world and
return to the divine being.
Th e Nag Hammadi Codices and Th omas Literature
Perhaps the single most pers ist ent theme of this book is the
diversity of early Christianity. In fact, scholars now can
sometimes be heard talking about “early Christianities” to stress
how varied the movement was in its early years, all the way
through the second century. An excellent way to illustrate that
variety is an examination of Christian documents that did not
make it into the canon, that w ere not considered “orthodox” by
later Christians, and that are therefore relatively unknown to
modern people. Th e Gospel
108
Martin, Dale B.. <i>New Testament History and Literature</i>,
Yale University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/saintleo/detail.action?docI
D=3421168.
Created from saintleo on 2019-10-21 08:47:50.
D=3421168.
D=3421168.
Directions
Option B
Explain how and why Matthew may have edited Mark's Gospel.

contrasted with Matthew 14:25-27, 32-33?
Be sure to distinguish between paraphrase and direct quotes.
Type a 350-750 word paper using MLA formatting.
Resources for this paper:
New Testament history and literature. By Martin (2012), pp.
106-108.
The gospels by Barton and Muddiman (2010), p. 56.
· Accurate use of English including careful documentation
organizational plan. 40 pts
· Adequate research. 20 pts
· Accurate and complete reflection of material read for
assignment. 40 pts

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