Matthew

1
Matthew a revisionary gospelfirst lecture

• "When therefore a teacher of the law has become a
  learner in the kingdom of Heaven, he is like a
  householder who can produce from his store both
  the new and the old. Matthew 13 51-52.

2
Matthew and Mark

• Was Matthew dissatisfied with Mark?
• He swallows up Mark almost whole much more
  faithful in assimilating Mark than Luke is.
• And he includes a lot of material not in Mark (Q,
  infancy narrative, other narrative pericopes,
  parables, teachings, prophecies see hand-out).
• But also some ideological differences.
• Different portrayal of disciples.
• Different sense of intertexuality in relation
  to the Hebrew Scriptures.
• And a different attitude toward his readers.
• Significant disagreement with Mark at certain
  points.

3
Matthew -- authorship

• Again Papias (c. 140 A.D.) "Matthew compiled
  sayings in the Aramaic language literally "in
  the Hebrew dialect" and everyone translated them
  as best they could." 
• But not a very good description of this gospel
  ta logia?
• Not written in Aramaic, but Greek from the start.
• May have been associated with the name because
  its substituted for the figure called Levi in
  other gospels (99).
• But the gospel no where gives this name for
  authorship.
• So again, a mystery and an anonymous gospel.

4
The authors self-characterization?

• "When therefore a teacher of the law has become a
  learner in the kingdom of Heaven, he is like a
  householder who can produce from his store both
  the new and the old. Matthew 13 51-52.
• The writer brings forth the old, which is his
  knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures.
• And puts it into the service of the new, Jesus
  teachings and the kingdom of heaven (not of
  God.)
• A rabbi teaching the fulfillment of law, not its
  overturning (significant difference from Paul).

5
When and where?

• Dated in the early to middle 80s C.E., about 10
  or 15 years after Mark.
• A more developed sense of Christian community
  in Matthew.
• It required access to a considerable library of
  the Hebrew scriptures, probably in a city.
• Texts Mark, Q, Septuagint translation of H.S.,
  other written material for parables, infancy
  narrative, etc.
• Written for a community of Greek-speaking Jewish
  Christians. But Gentiles as well.
• Very likely Antioch, earliest church outside
  Palestine, where Acts says Jesus people were
  first called Christians.

6
Differences from Mark

• Matthew's is the only one of the gospels to
  mention the Church. 
• Which seems why it was given pride of place in
  4th century CE when the canon was formed.
• Matthews version of "Peter's confession," ch.
  16 13-20.
• Amplified from Mark.
• Similarly in Transfiguration, 17 1-8 subtly
  softens picture of disciples.
• Jesus comes and touches them, reassuring them.
• Wherever in Mark the disciples are unaware and
  blind to the meaning of Jesus, in Matthew they
  understand. 

7
Difference from Mark 2

• Intertextual relationship to Hebrew Scriptures.
  
• Matthew quotes the Hebrew Bible at least 60 times
  in an explicit way.
• A dozen or so of those times he introduces the
  quotation with "This was done in order to fulfill
  the words of Scripture.
• Uses Hebrew Scriptures in an essentialist,
  ahistorical way, which is way it was read at
  time.  
• A lawyer making his case.

8
Matthews beginning

• A genealogy! Why?
• Like one of those priestly genealogies from
  Pentateuch (or Torah)?
• Links Jesus directly with David.
• David 14 in numerical equivalent of the letters
  in Hebrew.
• 14 generations from Abraham to David.
• 14 from David to Babylonian captivity.
• 14 from Babylonian captivity to Jesus.
• David, David, David!
• Descending to Joseph, Jesus legal father.
• Joseph wasnt mentioned in Mark, though Mary was.
  
• Davidic significance of birth in Bethlehem 2
  5-6.

9
Matthews infancy narrative

• Entirely different from Lukes.
• They share only four things
• Names of parents
• Virgin birth (but described differently)
• Birth in Bethlehem (but explained differently).
• Nazareth and Galilee (but explained differently
  in each.)
• All other details completely different.
• In both Bethlehem has symbolic rather than
  literal significance.
• Mark and Paul say nothing of a miraculous
  conception for Jesus.
• Modern scholarship sees infancy stories as
  essentially mythic or legendary accounts.

10
Character of Matthews infancy narrative

• Darker than Lukes?
• Josephs desire to dismiss Mary.
• Story of Herod and magi, slaughter of children.
• Passages of Hebrew Scriptures seem to motivate
  and structure the account Hosea, Jeremiah.
• Matthews story neither historical nor fictional,
  rather symbolic and theological.
• The point being what the symbolic means, not what
  literally occurred.

11
Matthew and the Law

• Do not suppose that I have come to abolish the
  law or the prophets . . . 517.
• . . . until heaven and earth pass away, not one
  letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass
  away until all is accomplished.
• And whoever breaks one of the least commandments
  and teaches others to do so . . .
• Will be called least in the kingdom.
• Which must mean Paul!
• And everywhere Matthew ties his gospel to
  passages of Hebrew Scriptures.
• Golden rule at 7 12 This is the law and the
  prophets.
• Which was also the teaching of Rabbi Hillel, one
  of the two leading Pharisaic teachers
  contemporary with Jesus "do not unto another
  what you would abhor to have done to yourself.
• See also Js commission to disciples at 10 5-6.

12
Jesus and Pharisees in Matthew

• While being the most Jewish of the gospels, M.
  is also the most anti-Pharisaic.
• John attacks Pharisees and Saducees right at
  beginning 3 7-10.
• Various other attacks on hypocrites in ch. 6.
• And implied in ch. 10 17-23.
• Chapter 23 the harshest attack in the NT on the
  Pharisees. 
• In fact the historical Jesus probably agreed with
  much of the Pharisaic program.
• Agreed with them, against the Saducees, about the
  resurrection of the dead and judgment after
  death.
• Why the hostility in Matthew?
• The historical circumstances after 85 CE.