Structural Method:
a)Formal Surface Structuration (or formal level): vocabulary, particularly the key-words (like semitic inclusion, link-word or mot-crochet, chiasmus, concentric symmetry), grammatical constructions, formulas strategically repeated in the course of reading, sequences and sections, internal articulations.
Key-words: Topology (Spatial Framework of the Story): i)Geographical Space: Everything begins in Jerusalem (without naming it, Lk 1:9): Nazareth in Galilee, where Jesus is announced and conceived, a lowly peasant tow, object of popular scorn (Jn 1:46; 7:41.52). The culmination of the Infancy Gospel is realized in the Temple of Jerusalem, where it began (see Lukan Gospel: Lk 24:53,”and were continually in the Temple blessing God”) (cf.”going up to Jerusalem”, 2:4.42/”go down to Nazareth”, 2:51). ii)Sacred Space: Sanctuary (NAOS), cf.1:9.19; presentation and finding in the Temple–his first public manifestation; iii)Divine Space (Lk 1:32, Most High, designation found only 10 times in NT, 7 times of which in Lk-Acts; 1:52; 2:14). iv)Domestic Space (Zechariah’s residence (1:23.40) and Mary’s (1:56). v)Corporeal Space : in the womb (en gastri, 1:31, cf.bekirbek, Zeph 3:15); en koilia (1:15.41.42.44; 2:21). vi)Interior, spiritual Space (three persons are filled with the holy Spirit, John [1:15]; Elizabeth [1:41); Zechariah [1:67]). Time: hour (Lk 1:10; 2:38); day (20 times); month (4 times), year (4 times), genea (age or generation, 1:48.50), aion (century) or major duration (thrice in lyrical contexts, 1:33.35.70), time (khronos, once: 1:57). In Lk time is not an indefinite flow, but a fulfillment (hemera=day + pimplemi=fulfill, “after the days were fulfilled”, cf.1:23; 2:6; 2:21f). What is important to Lk is the interior duration, inspired, accomplished, and fulfilled by God himself. Prophetic aorists and futures characterize this time of God, who causes the eskhaton and the new creation to emerge. Tenses of Verbs: Aorists in the narrative; futures in the prophetic announcements (Lk 1:13-17.32.35). In Mt 1-2, Joseph is the subject of the active verbs, whereas in Lk 1 Mary is active. Link-words: The verb egeneto (“it came to pass, it happened”) recurs 14 times and comes at strategic points for the division of sequences: Lk 1:8; 1:24; 1:59; 2:6; 2:15; 2:46).
Sequences and Sections: The parallelism of the two annunciations, clearly defined by changes in actants, locations, and times, determines our division: 1)1-2 Announcements to Zechariah and Mary (1:5-25 and 1:26-38); 2)Visitation, the key-stone of the two preceding sequences (1:39-56); 3)Birth and Circumcision of JBAP and Jesus (1:57-80 and 2:1-20); 4)Circumcision and Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (2:21-40); 5)The second manifestation at the Temple and Conclusion (2:41-52).
Internal Articulations: This plan takes its point of departure in the parallelism of the annunciations (sequence 1), then of the nativities (seq.3), each of the two parallel narratives leading to a sequence whose object is the manifestation of Christ. The visitation (seq.2) effects an admirable convergence of the two annunciations and a harmonious transition between the two sequences ending (1:5-25) and beginning (1:57-80) with Elizabeth. The three final sequences (3b-5) set aside JBap, hidden in the desert (1:80), to highlight the double manifestation of the Christ Child (2:21-52).
b)Deep Semantic Structuration (semantic level): Key-moments of ch.1 are indicated by the recurrence of the formula “filled with the Holy Spirit” (1:15.41.67): JBap, Elizabeth, and Zechariah. There is triple Pentecost, since Lk characterizes that event by the same formula, “They were all filled with the HS” (Ac 2:4 and 4:31).
The family of JBap, exemplary according to the Law, received by anticipation the gift of the Spirit. The transformation of the narrative leads us from the Law, symbolized by this elder couple, to the Spirit, from the Old Covenant to the New, Inner Covenant of Pentecost. The child conceived through the power of the Spirit as the new presence of God in the new Ark (Mary) is the source of
the proto-Pentecost of his Precursor. The transition from the Law to the Spirit, which characterizes the infancy of JBap, is thus achieved by Christ.
and c)narrative structuration of manifestation (narrative level):
SENDER=GOD; OBJECT=SALVATION; RECEIVER=PEOPLE (LAOS);
HELPER=None; SUBJECT=JESUS-SAVIOUR; OPPONENT= None.
There are parallel/isotopic expressions for “salvation”: the consolation of Israel (2:25), redemption of Jerusalem (2:38), even the purification of Jerusalem (2:22). The word “people” (LAOS) recurs eight times in Lk 1-2 (1:10.17.21.68.77; 2:10.31.32). Jesus is at once the subject and object (Saviour and Salvation). Jesus is also identified at once with God as SENDER (or ADDRESSER) and with human beings as RECEIVERS 9or ADDRESSEES): God with God (Lord, Holy, Great, Son of God); a human with human beings (baby child, growing boy, one of the poor). Lukan program is non-conflictual: opponents are practically non-existent. Also helpers find no important place. According to GREIMAS, HELPERS and OPPONENTS are not actants, but modalities of the SUBJECT.
SEMIOTIC SQUARE:
The semiotic square is found in Apuleius (mid-second century, Opera, Leipzig, 1832, 2, 165). On the basis of linguistic technique, it became a procedure instead of a theory. It works on material and objective indices by explaining the genesis of meaning from significative base-elements (called sememes) which produce it. What matters is not the elements themselves but their relations and correlations: their organization, as a design or caricature is the effect of well-ordered contrasts between blacks and whites. The marks of a designer or a caricaturist puts on paper allows us to recognize a person, a landscape, a scene. We explain today the complex by the combination of simple elements, the higher by the lower, meaning by the organization of elementary signs. It studies the texts not by intuition, but by a methodical exploration of the elements whose combination and succession produce meaning.
It is based on the contrast between Law and Grace, according to the following schema:
A-LAW B-GRACE
B’-Not-GRACE A’-Not-LAW
Law recurs in Lk 2:22.23.24.27.39; grace (kharis) in 1:28 (kekharitwomene) and 1:30 (“you have found grace“), which is the commentary on this name given from above. The word “grace” forms an inclusion in Lk 1-2, from the Annunciation to Mary to the last verse indicating Jesus’ growth in grace (2:52).
The negative poles we find Zechariah’s lack of faith (1:20); the proud powerful in Magnificat (1:51-53); adversaries of Christ in the prophecy of Simeon (2:34-35).
In the horizontal axes of contraries: AB=Law/Grace, as exterior and interior norms, as rule and freedom, as framework and impetus (like haste of Mary at the Visitation). A’B’=not-Law/non-grace=enemies mentioned in the Benedictus (1:71), antithesis of the people of God (contraries of Grace (impiety) and Law (injustice). In the diagonal axes of contradictories: BB’=’Grace’ and ‘non-Grace’=revolution of God (=grace) in favour of the ANAWIM, against those who triumph according to the law of the world by knowledge, possession, and power (1:51-53). AA’=’Law’ and ‘non-Law’=opposition between the people of God and the Gentiles to whom the Messiah will bring light (1:79; 2:32a). This opposition will be overcome by Grace.
In the vertical axes of correlations: AB’=correlation between Law and not-Grace concerns the case of Zechariah, who is just according to the Law, but, failing at first according to Grace, enters into Grace by passing through the test of punishment. BA’=correlation grace and not-Law sheds light on the most unusual paradoxes of Lk 1-2, where the impetus of Grace and the motions of the Spirit overturn norms and customs (Jesus’ impulse towards his Father prompts him to leave his parents and violates the rules of “custom” (2:42) and of the caravan (2:43). Jesus is subtle to the Law and transcends it; he does not abolish it but fulfills it but fulfills it by updating and transferring its meaning.
Mt 1:18-26: VERBAL TENSES: Future in fulfilment formulae (“he shall be called a Nazarene, 2:23); in the dreams (“you shall call his name Jesus“. The verb egeneto (“it came to pass, it happened“) is absent in Mt; the subject of active verbs is not Mary, but Joseph; also the Magi and King Herod, the opponent of Christ, are subjects.
SPACE: Babylon captivity (located event, Mt 1:11.17); Nazareth (2:23); Jerusalem (2:1); Bethlehem (1:9-12); Egypt (2:15). TIME: No chronology, only succession of Kings (measure of time and history) ; Babylonian captivity (event, 1:17); days and death of Herod the King (2:1.15). SOCIAL REFERENCE: Clash of King (Herod) against King (Jesus). MODAL CATEGORIES: i)Having: rich gifts of the Magi. ii)Willing: Herod opposes the will of God; Magi will go to pay homage to the King-Messiah (2:2); Joseph wanted to divorce Mary, but obeys God’s Will. iii)Obligation: It appears at the same time in Joseph, the just JOSEPH (=God adds-is DIKAIOS), whose decisions are regulated by justice (1:19) or by the orders of God himself. iv)Knowing: It acts as an organizing principle in Mt 1-2. It belongs to God, who leads the “genesis” to its completion, despite apparently chance events and human vicissitudes, like foreign or inexplicable women in the genealogy, that is, exile and persecution of the Messiah . All this was predicted in Scripture; events reveal their hidden significance. The “oracles of God” remedy the incidental deviations of events. God’s “knowledge” thwarts King Herod in gathering information and keeps him from identifying the Messiah and locating him; the “star” also pertained to God, according to the mentality of that time; “knowing” guides Joseph to correct his “just” decision to dismiss Mary (cf.2:22). God’s “knowing” is royal and theocratic, but it comes to terms with earthly realities. v)Power: Inspite of Herod’s totalitarian “power“, God’s power (through dreams) reduces Herod to helplessness, culminating in his death (cf.2:15.19.20.22). God guides the events through human beings. vi)Being: Messiah, qualified as Son of David (1.17.20), “God-with-us (1:23, IMMANU-EL), “King of the Jews“. vii)Doing: God directs the action through dreams, in the direction of the prophecies. Herod uses priests, magi and soldiers in the arena of the powers of this world. Herod’s action is exterior, deceiving (2:8), violent (2:16-18), whereas that of God is interior, informative, inspiring. God does not “manipulate“.
NARRATIVE ACTANTIAL MODEL:
SENDERS: GOD and HEROD; SUBJECT: JESUS; RECEIVER: JESUS
and PEOPLE.
HELPER=JOSEPH, MARY, WISE MEN. OBJECT=SALVATION of PEOPLE. OPPONENT=HEROD, SOLDIERS, PRIESTS.
There are two addressers, God and Herod, who manipulates human beings, through his secretiveness and crookedness (2:8), with anger and violence (2:16). God, the Lord of the Angels and dreams, guides though angels, dreams and prophecies, explicit (1:23; 2:6.15.18.23) and implicit/typological (star and gifts of the wise men). At the anecdotal level, there are other subjects: David, Joseph, wise men. The receivers (addressees) are Jesus, (connected with David and protected by Joseph), people (1:21; 2:6, cf.Mi 5:2 and 2 Sm 5:2), all Jerusalem (2:3), wise men from the East (symbolizing the Gentile peoples). The universalist opening is reinforced by the implicit reference to prophecies (Is 49:23; cf.60:6; Ps 72:10-15; and Mt 2:11). During his public life, Jesus says that he was sent only “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 15:24; cf.10:6). Only at the end of the Gospel (28:19f), salvation is extended to “all nations”, By prophetic anticipation the episode of the wise men suggests universalism–again we find the prefigurative character of the infancy narratives. On the earthly level, there are places functioning as helpers: Bethlehem, Nazareth. On the heavenly level, we have the star, five dreams, biblical prophecies, Holy Spirit.
SEMIOTIC SQUARE:
The square takes shape in relation to two poles which are always linked: generation and kingship.
GENERATION: The vb BEGET (EGENNESEN) recurs forty-three times, ninety-nine times in 3rd prs.sg. of the aorist active in the pattern, “A BEGOT B”, “B BEGOT C”, “C BEGOT D“. But after the 39th occurrence the chain breaks: Joseph does not beget Jesus. But it continues to be the key-word: it occurs four more times (1:18.20; 2:1.4), but in the passive voice: Jesus is begotten. The actant in this begetting remains shrouded in mystery, because the begetting takes place in a quite different, transcendent way (theophoric, divine passive). God is the addresser, the first cause and totally different from secondary causes). It does not appear after 2:4, but the idea of generation is implied in the relation of sonship and fatherhood (1:20.21.23.25; 2:15; 2:22). Death, inherent in a succession of generations, recurs four times, in connection with Herod (2:15.19.20.22); it is closely connected with his destructive plan. The two opposing genealogies–Messiah (1:1-16) and Herod (2:22)–are both dynastic and connected with the correlative idea of kingship.
KINGSHIP: “King” (BASILEUS) recurs five times (Mt 1:16; 2:1.2.3.9) and “reign” (basileia) once in 2:22. The word “Messiah” (MeSHIAH, KHRISTOS, Anointed), with the isotopy Spirit=Anointing, explicit in Lk, implied in Mt, recurs as inclusion in Mt 1:1 and in 1:16 and 17. It recurs as “God-with-Us” (1:23). The sememe “Kingship” underlies the entire narrative with its significant contrasts and plays a determining role: He is King, less because he is Son of David, since he is connected with David only by adoption and topographic coincidence, than by divine investiture (=anointing by the Holy Spirit) as Son of God.
The next sequence (Mt 2) opens with an opposition between “King Herod” (2:1) and “the King of the Jews who has just been begotten” (2:2). Once his destructive intention is made known in the narrative, Herod ceases to be described as king, except at his death; nor is the “messiah” mentioned again except in reference to his exile as a Nazarene (NAZIR=holy). Kingship and generation are the warp and woof of Mt 1-2. The Messiah is from God (1:16.18.20; cf.1:23; 28:20): a transfer was made from human and political kingship to divine kingship and, at the same time, from human generation to divine sonship.
A/GENERATION B/KINGSHIP
B’/Non-KINGSHIP
A’/Non-GENERATION
There are non-kings in the first and third series of fourteen generations: before David (1:1-5) and after the Babylonian captivity (1:12-16). Herod, king (2:1.3.9), loses this title after he is emphatically described in reference to this death. Non-generation pole is repreented symmetrically at the beginning and end of the genealogy which moves from the ‘non-begotten begetter’, Abraham (1:2), to two ‘non-begetting begottens’: Jospeh and Jesus (inclusion; also tho this negative pole may be linked the slain children of Bethlehem (2:16-18): ‘non-begetting begottens’, prefiguring the suffering of Christ.
Kingship is perpetuated only through an alternation of generations and death. In order to protect his own kingship, Herod slaughters the children. Men die, but the kingship continues (“The king is dead, long live the king!”). It is the function of the dynasty to ensure permanence. Kings would claim divine status (cf.Ac 12:21-23). But individual kingship ends with death. GENERATION and DYNASTIC ETERNITY are thus contrasted as succession and permanence, mortality and immortality, humanity and divinity. Christ overcomes the contrariety between dynastic permanence and renewal through birth: he does not beget a successor, but his dynasty is eternal being the Son of God. The Messiah transcends the dynastic model in two ways: a)In political terms: he is non-king under the sign of the Babylonian captivity (1:11.12.17), powerless in contrast to Herod; source of mockery for his enemeies (27:29 and 42). b)There is a two-stage break in the chain of generations: i)Joseph does not beget; ii)Jesus’ generation is due solely to God, and is not a part of any dynasty.
The pattern of transformations is as follows: Being king from the very beginning (1:18.20), Jesus is acknowledged at his birth by the wise men (cf.”King of the Jews”, 2:2) and, in some sense, by King Herod himself (2:8). But despite his apparent power Herod is only a puppet and doomed to failure and death (2:15.19-22). Beyond the outward semblances of power stands Jesus, the true King, born of God. The virginal generation is the sign of his transcendence over the kings of earth. It prepares the way for the revelation of his being as Son of God.
In horizontal axes of the Contraries, AB:GENERATION/KINGSHIP–the contrariety is between the chain of successions, each doomed to death, and the messianic kingship of Jesus the Christ.
On the lower horizontal B’A’: non-KINGSHIP/non-GENERATION— between non-Kingship from Abraham to Jesse, the father of David, and esp.from the Babylonian captivity to Jesus (fall of dynasty); and non-generation (biologically extinct, but real through the virginal conception of the Messiah, GOD-WITH-US.
On the diagonal axes (positions of the contradictories): BB’–the contradiction between KINGSHIP and Non-KINGSHIP is clearly visible in the relationship between the three groups of ancestral kings and non-kings (1:1.12.17); Jesus is a non-king according to power and appearance. AA’–the contradiction between GENERATION and Non-GENERATION which is suggested at the very beginning of the genealogy by the abrupt introduction of Abraham (begetting but seemingly non-begotten) is brought into the open at the other end of the chain in the two begottens who do not beget: Joseph and Jesus, with Joseph prefiguring Jesus insofar as he is placed beyond the condition of begetter.
Vertical Correlations: AB’: GENERATION without KINGSHIP describes the condition of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the collapse of the dynasty at the time of the deportation (1:11). They were followed by the successive generations of a non-reigning royal line, upto and including Jesus (non-kings). BA’:KINGSHIP without GENERATION belongs to the Messiah, who is not begotten and does not beget. His mission is to save–he is the Ruler and the Shepherd: he gathers them by a new process which is neither dynastic nor domineering. In short, the termination of generations in 1:16 simply puts a biological end to a kingship that had already fallen politically. It is within this fallen state that the kingdom preached by Christ takes on a new
and dine meaning, as Jesus reveals himself to be Son of God and Saviour. This is the meaning of the kingship in the Kingdom which plays such an essential role in Mt (cf.3:2), Gospel of Kingdom.
Towns and Countries can be linked with the four poles of the square:
A.GENERATION: Bethlehem, place of Jesus’ birth, Son of David (cf.Lk 2:1-5, Mi 5:1, quoted in Mt 2:6). At the topographical level, Davidic definition is transcended rather than merely fulfilled. B-KINGSHIP: Jerusalem: City of David, dynastic place, in which the first anointed one established his dynasty; the three wise men look for “the king of the Jews who was just born” (2:2). But they find only King Herod (2:1) who plots the death of the Messiah-King (2:16-19) comes into the picture as the Messiah’s place of Exile, a foreign land, in contrast (contradictory) to the royal birthplace. This foreign place of Exile of the chosen people (cf.2:15) is the counterpart of Babylon (4 times in 1:11-12 and 17) as the place of Exile for the people and their fallen kings. B’:Non-KINGSHIP: Nazareth in Galilee is a true contrary, another place of exile, not in a foreign country but in the marginal, paganized outskirts (Galilee of the Gentiles, 4:15). This northern province is seen as an anti-dynastic place (2:22-23): it was the schismatic place where Jeroboam established an alternate kingdom.
SEMIOTIC EXPLANATION: In the first sequence (GENEALOGY), the only place (Babylon of the captivity) is mentioned, there the dynastic kingship came to an end. The second sequence (origin of Jesus), is strictly atopical. Mt does not speak of Nazareth, localization is clear in Lk (1:26-27). For Mt, kingship of the Messiah is not topographical/political. Born of the Spirit, who
alone qualifies Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God (1:18 and 20; cf.2:15), his kingship does not depend on generation from David through Joseph but on God alone.
The third sequence begins with a topographical connection with Bethlehem. For Mt, it is a superficial sign. Davidic place (unlike Lk 2:1-4), fulfillment of a messianic prophecy (Mi 5:2, cited in 2:6). Mt’s emphasis on the disjunction Christ/Jerusalem–this dynastic city is opposed to him (2:3), it even threatens him. Through its anti-king it would kill him, were it not for God’s protection. When it becomes possible for Jesus to return to Israel after the death of Herod, the threat represented by Archaelaus, the dynastic successor of Herod, keeps him out of Judea (the king’s province). The Infancy Gospel begins with a significant atopy and ends with two places of exile–Egypt (counterpart of Babylon, place of dynastic downfall) and Bethlehem, transformed into a place of carnage and desolation (2:16-18). In Mt’s Gospel, Jerusalem is the city of death, the city that kills the prophets and the Messiah: it is neither the place of preaching nor the place where the Risen Christ manifests himself. The classic topographical values are both revolutionized and transcended–Galilee of the Gentiles becomes the place of the Messiah’s manifestation (4:15), of his post-resurrectional appearances (28:10 and 16), and of the missionary sending of the apostles (28:16-20). The Messiah transcends the accepted genealogy and topography. The Gospel overturns the established values of the culture.
SQUARE OF VERIDICTION:
The semiotic square can be modalized by the squares of veridiction: BEING/APPEARING: there are isotopic parallels between being and generation and between appearing and kingship.
i)AA’–The being of the kings of earth is destined to turn into the non-being of death, as transpires with Herod. ii)BB’–Appearing of their Kingship dies out and disappears for the, passed on with difficulty through the dynastic institution and destroyed by the ceaseless erosion of time. iii)AB–Messiah is the fulfilled being who does not disappear or pass away; he renders ineffectual the appearing of human kingship, at the time when the dynasty of David lies in the shadows and when the awe-being of Christ (Son of God and God-with-us) is hidden and threatened by the apparently powerful kingship of Herod. iv)BB–This kingship(appearing without being) ends for Herod in death, which brings to light the provisional, misleading, condemned character of his being. His
kingship is a lie. v)AB’–The kingship of the Messiah exists but does not appear, it is secret. The function of the narrative is to manifest this hidden kingship–to declare the titles which reveal his being,his signs, his victory over threats of death, a victory infallibly guaranteed by God. There is a gradual elucidation of the symbol of new creation (GENNESIS, 1:1 and 16) and the role of the HSpirit, connected with the origin of creation. This semiotic study illustrates how Mt decodes the prophetic program hidden in insignificant or disturbing incidents. The transcendence of the Messiah hidden in the disconcerting virginal conception. The begotten child is the SAVIOUR, GOD-with-us (1:23). The promised kingship has come via this obscure birth, the birth of the Son of God, this hunted exile (2:15)–the holy one, this obscure Nazarene (2:23), whose name, lacking in earthly glory, reveals his true greatness. By modalizing the generation-kingship square by the square of veridiction we have a revelation from Mt 1-2: the truth of God, communicated in the vicissitudes of this world is the basis of an utterly different, non-political, non-dynastic kingship, vicissitudes and permanence, is overcome, not at the level of appearing but at the level of the revealed being who transcends appearing and brings about a new reconciliation of being and appearing. The key to all this is the wholly different KING, who is unknown to the powers of this world and whom the Scripture defines as “GOD-WITH-US“, the image which begins and closes Matthean Gospel.
Scribbling 