Take-home Quiz (Quiz 2)
Wedding in Galilee:

Preparing for the Task

The story of this contemporary film is set in the occupied West Bank of Israel.  It sheds some helpful light on familiar Bible passages.  Here are some characteristics of Mediterranean culture which you should find in the film, as well as in the Bible passages.

Honor and shame: the core cultural values:

 • Honor is any word or deed that make a public claim to worth and a public acknowledgement of that claim by others.

 • Shame in a positive sense is a concern for one's honor, an effort to safeguard and protect it.

 • Shame in a negative sense is a willingness to lose one's honor, a "shamelessness," or the very fact of being shamed by another.

Group consciousness, or lack of individualism:

 This involves a primary and basic concern for group interests and group reputation rather than personal interests.  The family or the village interests take precedence.  Individual interests must always be subjected to the group interests.

Concern for the "evil eye," the "fierce look," and care in the paying of compliments.

The idea of patronage,

 a Patron being someone who can obtain a favor for a client which the client could not obtain for self, or on better terms than a client can obtain for self.  This is a relationship of a superior to an inferior.

Dyadic contract (the word dyad means "two" or "a couple"),

 or the idea that "I do you a favor, then you do me a favor; then I repay you with a favor, and you return my favor; and on and on.
 

Look for these cultural patterns as you view the film.
 

As you prepare to write the second quiz, consider the following gospel passages:

Matt 9:14-17//Mark 2:18-22//Luke 5:33-39
 Jesus presents himself as a bridegroom.  What kind of references does he make to the marriage feast?

Matt 19:13-15//Mark 10:13-16//Luke 18:15-17
 Children's freedom to roam about freely and "snoop" on what the adults are doing.

Matthew 22:1-14//Luke 14:16-24
 A king has prepared a wedding banquet for his son.  What kind of arrangements does a father make for his son's wedding in the Mediterranean world?

Matthew 25:1-13
 It is a first century Palestinian custom for the bridegroom to fetch his bride from the parent's home to his own.  What is supposed to happen when he brings her there?  Are these bridesmaids supposed to be among the official "witnesses" of the sheet when it is hung outside the window of the wedding chamber? (see Deut 22:13-21 for "evidence of the daughter's virginity")

Luke 14:7-11
 How is the seating arrangement determined at a Mediterranean wedding?  How does it occur here?  How does it occur in the film with the visitors?

John 2:1-11
 Who is able to interfere in the conduct of a marriage feast: a stranger? or a relative?

The Take-home Quiz Task

Identify three Mediterranean cultural aspects that you begin to recognize in these Jesus traditions that you didn't see before.  Write a multiple paragraph essay, two pages minimum, in which you discuss your findings.  You may think about these issues for as long as you like between now and 1:00 PM tomorrow.  However, you may only write on the take-home for one hour at most.

Remember also to look at the parables in Mark 4; Matt 13; 25; Luke 10; 12; 15; John ? (Are there any parables in John?  Why not?)  These comparative stories have been identified in modern Jesus studies as the most characteristic element of Jesus' teaching.