full text analysis of gospels

"Five Pivotal Texts" at present is in its first edition. There have been some minor changes and adjustments made to this over the past few years and a newer edition is in the process of being made available.

At present the full edition of "Five Pivotal Texts" is already available on the web site www.realityworkshops.org. The presentation of the paraphrased text is updated, coloured and with a page by page format. Theoretically the htm pages could be downloaded one by one but the download of nearly 300 pages would prove a tedious task. On this site a person can click on a heading to bring up relevant pages. There is also a copy of the literal version of the text. This demonstrates the accuracy of the paraphrase though at present some edit updates are still being made.

The minor adjustments being made to the "Five Pivotal Texts" pdf file are mainly in the Section C of John's gospel and around the Sections of D and E in Matthew. For example it was found practically all of Matthew's paragraph "hooks" are a time statement made or implied.

These adjustments were mainly made when compiling the Reality Search workshops available for downloading on www.realityworkshops.com (as distinct from the .org site). During the compilation of the workshops (c/f www.realityworkshops.com) it was found that not only are there parallels in the paragraph "hooks" of the gospel paragraph patterns (in Mark, Luke and John) but there are also many parallels between the paragraphs themselves. The workshops pick up on these parallels but not so the "Five Pivotal Texts".

The pdf file of "Five Pivotal Texts" is an invaluable resource because, in its A4 printed form, it is easy to flip from gospel reference to gospel reference, handle the material manually and also see the Reality Search formatting of the texts as a whole. It can also throw light on the daily Mass readings as it shows how many of these readings have parallel paragraphs.

In terms of a classification of the approach being made in the Reality Search analysis, this could be described as using a structural method (as a subdivision of literary criticism) with the approach of sociology of religion. In the case of Reality Search, the gospel structure is worked out according to the strict wording of the text. Then a possible meaning for the structure thus uncovered, is proposed. The proposed meaning supports the Reality Search claim that the gospels provide a critique of both Judaic and Hellenistic societies. The approach being taken to the text differs from doing an interpretation a text's meaning and then proposing a structure for it.

Have a look at:

Five Pivotal Texts

and NOTE a paperback copy of Five Pivotal Texts is available on Amazon

Type in "Michelle Nailon CSB" to see the Reality Search list on Amazon
(Nailon is the one word!).

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