Cohesive Chains in the Transfiguration Narrative of Matthew 17:1-13

Justin R. Woods

McMaster Divinity College, Ontario, Canada.

DOI: 10.4236/ojml.2015.53027                

Abstract

While much work in biblical studies has been offered in the form of theological exposition and historical critical speculation of literary origins of the gospels, few modern biblical studies scrutinize the language of these gospels from rigorous linguistic criteria. This paper takes a discourse analytic approach from the field of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) founded by M. A. K. Halliday. The notion of cohesive chaining is taken in order to evaluate the level of literary unity in the original Greek of the episode of the transfiguration narrative found within the Gospel of Matthew. Cohesive chaining will be defined; its function within the greater sociolinguistic theory of SFL will be examined, and then the concept will be directly applied. The study concludes with a unique contribution demonstrating how these cohesive chains are then unified via choices in verbal aspect as the grammar that not only solidifies semantic continuity among those chains, but contours the discourse using a scheme of markedness that signals the prioritization of its message. The hope of this study is to reinforce the recent paradigm shift of biblical research utilizing modern linguistic paradigms as tools to transform biblical interpretation and exegesis into a rigorously discourse-centered linguistic methodology.

Keywords

Cohesion, Discourse Analysis, Linguistics, Markedness, Verbal Aspect

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Basset, L. (2009). The Use of the Imperfect to Express Completed States of Affairs: The Imperfect as a Marker of Narrative Cohesion. In S. Bakker, & G. Wakker (Eds.), Discourse Cohesion in Ancient Greek (pp. 205-220). Leiden: Brill. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004174726.i-284.61
[2]	Black, S.L. (2002). Sentence Conjunctions in the Gospel of Matthew: Kai, de, Tote, Gar, Syn and Asyndeton in Narrative Discourse (Volume 216). London: Sheffield Academic.
[3]	Blomberg, C. (1992). Matthew. NAC 22. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.
[4]	Brown, A. (1989). Piggybook. London: Little Mammoth.
[5]	Comrie, B. (1976). Aspect (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University.
[6]	Davies, W. D., and Allison Jr., D. C. (2004). A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew (Volume 2). ICC. New York: T&T Clark.
[7]	Duling, D.C. (2012). A Marginal Scribe: Studies of the Gospel of Matthew in Social-Scientific Perspective (Matrix: The Bible in Mediterranean Context 7). Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
[8]	Eriksson, Anders. (2002). Contrary Arguments in Paul’s Letters. In S. E. Porter, & D. Stamps (Eds.), Rhetorical Criticism and the Bible (pp. 336-354). JSNTS 195. London: Sheffield Academic.
[9]	Fawcett, R. P. (2000). A Theory of Syntax for Systemic Functional Linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/cilt.206
[10]	France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew (NICNT). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans.
[11]	Gledhill, C. (2009). Colligation and the Cohesive Function of Present and Past Tense in the Scientific Research Article. In D. Banks (Ed.), Les Temps et les Textes de Specialite (pp. 65-84). Paris: L’Harmattan.
[12]	Gregory, M. (1988). Generic Situation and Register: A Functional View of Communication. In J. D. Benson, & W. S. Greaves (Eds.), Linguistics in a Systemic Perspective (pp. 301-330). Amsterdam: John Benja-mins. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/cilt.39.12gre
[13]	Hagner, D. A. (1998). Matthew 14-28. WBC 33B, Dallas: Word.
[14]	Halliday, M. A. K. (1976). Anti-Languages. American Anthropologist, 78, 570-584. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/aa.1976.78.3.02a00050
[15]	Halliday, M. A. K. (1985). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (3rd ed.). London: E. Arnold.
[16]	Halliday, M. A. K. (2007). Language and Society. London: Continuum.
[17]	Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Edward Arnold.
[18]	Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2006). Construing Experience through Meaning: A Language-Based Approach to Cognition. Open Linguistics Series, London: Continuum.
[19]	Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. English Language Series, London: Longman.
[20]	Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1989). Language, Context, and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University.
[21]	Hasan, R. (2009). The Place of Context in a Systemic Functional Model. In J. Webster, & M. A. K. Halliday (Eds.), Continuum Companion to Systemic Functional Linguistics (pp. 166-189). London: Continuum.
[22]	Hasan, R. (1995). The Conception of Context in Text. In P. H. Fries, & M. Gregory (Eds.), Discourse in Society: Systemic Functional Perspectives (pp. 183-284). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/cilt.118
[23]	Hudson, R. A. (2001). Sociolinguistics (2nd ed.). Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics, Cambridge: Cambridge University.
[24]	Keener, C. S. (2009). The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans.
[25]	Kress, G. (1989). Linguistic Processes in Sociocultural Practice. Oxford: Oxford University.
[26]	Levinsohn, S. H. (1995). A Discourse Study of Constituent Order and the Article in Philippians. In S. E. Porter, & D. A. Carson (Eds.), Discourse Analysis and Other Topics in Biblical Greek (pp. 60-74). JSNTS 113, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic.
[27]	Longacre, R. E. (1999). A Top-Down, Template-Driven Narrative Analysis, Illustrated by Application to Mark’s Gospel. In S. E. Porter, & J. T. Reed (Eds.), Discourse Analysis and the New Testament: Approaches and Results (pp. 140-196). JSNTS 170, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic.
[28]	Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (2 Vols.). New York: United Bible Societies.
[29]	Lukin, A., Moore, A. R., Herke, M., Wegener, R., & Wu, C. Z. (2011). Halliday’s Model of Register Revisited and Explored. Linguistics and the Human Sciences, 4, 187-213. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/lhs.v4i2.187
[30]	Luz, U. (2001). Matthew: A Commentary. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.
[31]	Martin, J. R. (2001). Cohesion and Texture. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, & H. E. Hamilton (Eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 35-53). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
[32]	Martin, J. R. (1992). English Text: System and Structure. Amsterdam: Benjamins. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/z.59
[33]	Martin-Asensio, G. (2000). Transitivity-Based Foregrounding in the Acts of the Apostles: A Functional-Grammatical Approach to the Lukan Perspective. JSNTS 202, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic.
[34]	Martin, J. R., & Rose, D. (2007). Working with Discourse: Meaning Beyond the Clause (2nd ed.). Open Linguistics Series, London: Bloomsbury.
[35]	Meeks, W. (1986). The Moral World of the First Christians. Library of Early Christianity 6, Philadelphia, PA: Westminster.
[36]	Metzger, B. M. (1994). A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (2nd ed.). a Companion Volume to the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament (4th Rev. Ed.). New York: United Bible Societies.
[37]	Morley, J. (2009). Lexical Cohesion and Rhetorical Structure. In J. Flowerdew, & M. Mahlberg (Eds.), Lexical Cohesion and Corpus Linguistics (pp. 5-22). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/bct.17.02mor
[38]	Newman, B. M., & Stine, P. C. (1992). A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. UBS Handbook Series, New York: United Bible Societies.
[39]	Nolland, J. (2005). The Gospel of Matthew: A Commentary on the Greek Text. NIGTC, Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
[40]	O’Donnell, M. B. (1999). Linguistic Fingerprints or Style by Numbers? The Use of Statistics in the Discussion of Authorship of New Testament Documents. In S. E. Porter, & D. A. Carson (Eds.), Linguistics and the New Testament: Critical Junctures (pp. 206-255). JSNTS 168, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic.
[41]	Porter, S. E. (1999). Idioms of the Greek New Testament. Sheffield: JSOT.
[42]	Porter, S. E. (2004). The Criteria for Authenticity in Historical-Jesus Research: Previous Discussion and New Proposals. JSNTS 191, London: T & T Clark.
[43]	Porter, S. E. (1989). Verbal Aspect in the Greek of the New Testament with Reference to Tense and Mood. New York: Peter Lang.
[44]	Porter, S. E., & O’Donnell, M. B. (2007). Conjunctions, Clines and Levels of Discourse. Filologia Neotestamentaria, 20, 3-14.
[45]	Porter, S. E., O’Donnell, M. B., & Reed, J. (2006). The OpenText.org Syntactically Analyzed Greek New Testament. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
[46]	Reed, J. T. (1995). Identifying Theme in the New Testament: Insights from Discourse Analysis. In S. E. Porter, & D. A. Carson (Eds.), Discourse Analysis and Other Topics in Biblical Greek (pp. 75-101). JSNTS 113, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic.
[47]	Reed, J. T. (1997). A Discourse Analysis of Philippians: Method and Rhetoric in the Debate over Literary Integrity. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic.
[48]	Reed, J. T. (1997). Discourse Analysis. In S. E. Porter (Ed.), Handbook to Exegesis of the New Testament (pp. 188-218). New Testament Tools and Studies 25, New York: Brill.
[49]	Reed, J. T. (1999). The Cohesiveness of Discourse: Towards a Model of Linguistic Criteria for Analyzing New Testament Discourse. In S. E. Porter, & J. T. Reed (Eds.), Discourse Analysis and the New Testament: Approaches and Results (pp. 28-46). JSNTS 170, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic.
[50]	Reed, J. T. (2000). Language of Change and the Changing of Language: A Sociolinguistic Approach to Pauline Discourse. In S. E. Porter (Ed.), Diglossia and Other Topics in New Testament Linguistics (pp. 121-53). JSNTS 193, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic.
[51]	Revuelta Puigdollers, A. R. (2009). The Particles ΑΥ and ΑΥΤΕ in Ancient Greek as Topicalizing Devices. In S. Bakker, & G. Wakker (Eds.), Discourse Cohesion in Ancient Greek (pp. 83-110). Leiden: Brill.
[52]	Rohrbaugh, R. L. (2007). The New Testament in Cross-Cultural Perspective/Matrix: The Bible in Mediterranean Context 1. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
[53]	Schiffrin, D. (1994). Approaches to Discourse. Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics, Oxford: Blackwell.
[54]	Schmidt, F. (2001). How the Temple Thinks: Identity and Social Cohesion in Ancient Judaism. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic.
[55]	Stoddard, S. (1991). Text and Texture: Patterns of Cohesion. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
[56]	Stubbs, M. (1983). Discourse Analysis: The Sociolinguistic Analysis of Natural Language. Language in Society 4, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.
[57]	Teich, E. (2009). Linguistic Computing. In J. Webster, & M. A. K. Halliday (Eds.), Continuum Companion to Systemic Functional Linguistics (pp. 113-127). London: Continuum.
[58]	Tucker, G. H. (1998). The Lexicogrammar of Adjectives: A Systemic Functional Approach to Lexis. Functional Descriptions of Language Series, London: Cassell.
[59]	Van Neste, R. (2004). Cohesion and Structure in the Pastoral Epistles. JSNTS 280, London: T & T Clark International.
[60]	Woods, J. (2013). Antilanguage in the Synoptic Gospels: A Sociolinguistic Inquiry. Master’s Thesis, Virginia Beach, VA: Regent University.