Episode 7: The Gospel According to Matthew, Chapters 1-7

Back from a loooooooong break. I did a 10-week summer intensive training for chaplaincy at a hospital that's roughly 45mins from where we live. The commute, the work itself, the rest of life that still needed tending to = intense.  

So glad to be back at it here...Hope you all are hanging in there. 

On this episode, we dip our toes in the water of what's known as the New Testament. We start with Gospel According to Matthew, the first book sequentially in the NT. 

The book kicks off with a long list of names. This is the only account of Jesus's lineage that we have in Scripture. It's interesting to note that the author includes female relatives, especially as this was a patriarchal culture. 

We learn a bit about the cultural context into which Jesus was born through the writings about his parents and Herod. 

We meet John the Baptizer/Baptist. Jesus gets baptized, and we hear a declaration from Heaven about the identity of Jesus. 

We have the appearance of Satan and hear about Jesus's temptation. 

We cover the Beatitudes ("Blessed are...") and get all the way through, what's commonly called, the Sermon on the Mount. The "mount" where this speech happened is debated, but many agree it's a hill in northern Israel, in the Korazim Plateau, that has now been named, "The Mount of Beatitudes". 

Lots of ground is covered....

I'll look forward to being back soon(er) with more from the book of Matthew!