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NOTE: I've asked a few people to send their exegetical papers to me as good examples of what I was hoping to see. I have both praise and critiques for the papers, so they are not 'the answers,' but they do let you see how they presented the exegetical material and then composed a thesis for which they presented arguments in the integrative summary part of the paper.

Matthew 5.43-48

• KlauckS Exegetical Paper: Particularly note her observation on pertaining to the "You have heard it said..., BUT I say..." Note that it is a δε and not an αλλα. It would be better, therefore, to have something like, "You have heard it said..., and what's more, I say..." It expands/continues the former. It is not an adversative contrast. This reinforces the important recognition that Jesus is not giving a "new" law. He is giving a new/true/fuller interpretation of the one and only law.

• LangdonT Gospels Integrative Matt5.43x48.pdf
• HoggM NEWS BROADCAST SKIT Matt5.43x48.pdf
• Klauck Matthew5.43x48 GameTheory.pdf (9Mb)
• AdamsR Bible Study on Matthew 5.43-48
• SherfeyJ Matthew5.43x48.pdf
• SchroederK Matthew 5.43-48.pdf

Mark 10.46-52

• HaugenA Exegetical Paper
• FinneyM Exegetical Paper: There is something to Bartimaeus' persistence, but it could just as well be described as his desperation. In the end, does it really matter whether one's faith in Jesus is the result of persistence (one's own or the persistence of others) or simply in the desperate recognition that only God can help/save?

• LudwickD Mark10.46x52.pdf

Luke 7.11-17

• SmithL Exegetical Summary – Luke 7-11-17: Consider: What does Luke gain by portraying Jesus as similar to but greater than Elijah? Why does Luke omit Mark 9.11-13 as he tells his story?
• MayM Exegetical Paper

• NovakS Comic.html (Seth's work anticipates further developments described here. Way to go, Seth!)
• MayM Sacred Viscera.doc
• SmithL IntegrativeProject Luke 7.11x17.pdf
• HillhouseR final project luke 7.pdf
   
• Here's a multimedia representation of the story. What do you think?

John 12.1-8

• FrigmC Exegetical Paper: (Cris didn't quite follow the assigned form, but it worked out okay here. I am not persuaded by the argument he adduces of Esler/Piper that Mary's perfume = stuff used by Joseph and Nicodemus. They are trying too hard too make sense of 12.7.)
• There is considerable discussion about what exactly Mary was doing, and it is complicated by the matter of her hair. To understand the scene better, read Charles H. Cosgrove's article, "A Woman's Unbound Hair in the Greco-Roman World, with Special Reference to the Story of the 'Sinful Woman' in Luke 7:36-50." (Journal of Biblical Literature, 124.4 Winter 2005, 675-692) Though dealing with Luke, it does pertain to the Johannine version of the story. Here's part of his conclusion:

This study has clarified the meaning of the woman’s gesture with her hair in Luke 7:38 by describing the social symbolism of a woman’s unbound hair in the ancient Mediterranean world. When a woman wears her hair unbound/unbinds her hair, this can be a sexually suggestive act, an expression of religious devotion, a hairstyle for unmarried girls, a sign of mourning, a symbolic expression of distress or proleptic grief in the face of impending danger (and a way of pleading with or currying the favor of those in power, whether gods or men), a hairstyle associated with conjury, a means of presenting oneself in a natural state in religious initiations, and a precaution against carrying demons or foreign objects into the waters of baptism. As these examples show, in certain social situations it is right for an ancient Mediterranean woman to unbind her hair in public, to do “the opposite” (recall Plutarch) of what is conventionally decorous, often (but not always) to express a state of extremity or liminality.

He suggests in passing that in John, Mary's act is one of grateful devotion.