Begging for Their Daily Bread - Beggar-Centric Interpretations of Matthew 6

In Begging for Their Daily Bread, Zhenya Gurina-Rodriguez formulates a beggars-centric hermeneutic and interprets Matthew 6 through this lense, arguing that this text could be both engaging and alienating to beggars in the first-century Jesus movement. Gurina-Rodriguez establishes that beggars come from different backgrounds and diverse perspectives on their realities of life while sharing particular life experiences marked by destitution, homelessness, lack of any safety net, and controversial reactions from the public to their means of survival. Gurina-Rodriguez constructs three beggar characters, explores the differences and similarities in their possible interpretations of a portion of the Sermon on the Mount, and brings to our attention some of the blind spots that many traditional readings of the text written by non-poor Western scholars have concerning life in poverty.

List of contents

Chapter 1: Positioning a Beggars-Centric Hermeneutic in New Testament Studies
Chapter 2: Socio-Economic Profile of Beggars in Antiquity
Chapter 3: On Receiving Alms (Matthew 6:1-4)
Chapter 4: On Praying and Fasting (Matthew 6:5-18)
Chapter 5: On Treasures, Eyes, Masters, and Worries (Matthew 6:19-34)
Chapter 6: Conclusion

About the author

Zhenya Gurina-Rodriguez (Ph.D., Brite Divinity School) currently serves as an Associate Pastor of Discipleship at First United Methodist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Product details

• Authors: Zhenya Gurina-Rodriguez, Zhenya Gurina-Rodríguez
• Publisher: Rowman and Littlefield
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 15.10.2022
• EAN: 9781978710627
• ISBN: 978-1-978710-62-7
• No. of pages: 152
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Christianity; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Poverty & Homelessness, RELIGION / Biblical Studies / Exegesis & Hermeneutics, Christianity, Poverty & unemployment, Poverty & precarity, Housing & homelessness, Biblical Studies & Exegesis, Criticism & Exegesis Of Sacred Texts