Matthew

MATTHEW: THE RABBINIC GOSPEL

pdf

Dr. Paul Manuel—1998

Statue of St Matthew by Camillo Rusconi, Archbasilica of St John Lateran, Vatican

Because of its length (211 pages) the complete study isn't available online but, along with its Bibliography and Endnotes, it can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Below find a table of contents and an introductory prologue.

Contents

• Prologue

Query: Is the New Testament anti-Semitic?

I. Narrative: Jesus’ Birth to Early Ministry, Matt. 1:1-4:25

A. Matthew records his genealogy. 1:1-17
B. Matthew recounts his birth. 1:18-23

Excursus: The use of puns in names (79x)
Quiz: Old Testament Quotes in the New Testament

C. Magi visit him. 2:1-12
D. He escapes to Egypt. 2:13-23
E. John baptizes him. 3:1-17
F. Satan tempts him. 4:1-11
G. He ministers in Galilee. 4:12-25

II. Discourse: The Sermon on the Mount, Matt 5:1-7:29

A. He teaches the beatitudes. 5:1-12
B. He teaches about salt and light. 5:13-16
C. He teaches about the Torah. 5:17-48

Query: Is Jesus prohibiting divorce?
Query: Is Jesus forbidding oaths?
Query: Is Jesus advocating pacifism?

D. He teaches about acts of righteous. 6:1-18

Query: Is Jesus condemning public…prayer?
Charts: The Halakah of Jesus in Matt 5 and 6

E. He teaches about wealth. 6:19-34
F. He teaches about judgments. 7:1-29

III. Narrative: Jesus’ First Ministry in Galilee, Matt 8:1-9:38

A. He heals many. 8:1-17
B. He explains about discipleship. 8:18-22
C. He calms the sea. 8:23-27
D. He heals more. 8:28-9:8
E. He summons Matthew. 9:9-13
F. He explains about fasting. 9:14-17
G. He heals even more. 9:18-34
H. He calls for workers. 9:35-38

IV. Discourse: The Mission of the Disciples, Matt 10:1-42

Chart: Jesus’ Commissions to the Disciples

A. He commissions them. 10:1-16
B. He warns them. 10:17-42

V. Narrative: Jesus’ Second Ministry in Galilee, Matt 11:1-12:50

A. He confirms his identity. 11:1-19
B. He condemns the cities. 11:20-24
C. He invites the weary. 11:25-30
D. He is Lord of the Sabbath. 12:1-14

Query: Does Jesus support a change of Sabbath to Sunday?

E. He heals many. 12:15-37
F. He cites an unforgivable sin. 12:30-37
G. He elevates the sign of Jonah. 12:38-45

VI. Discourse: Some Parables of the Kingdom, Matt 13:1-52

A. “The Different Soils” 13:1-23
B. “The Meddlesome Weeds”13:24-30, 36-43
C. “The Mustard Seed” 13:31-32
D. “The Leavened Loaf” 13:33
E. “The Hidden Treasure” 13:44
F. “The Precious Pearl” 13:45-46
G. “The Fisherman’s Net” 13:47-50
H. “The Productive Scribe” 13:51-52

VII. Narrative: Jesus’ Third Ministry in Galilee, Matt 13:53-17:27

A. He is a prophet without honor. 13:53-58
B. Herod executes John. 14:1-12
C. He feeds 5000. 14:13-21
D. He walks on water. 14:22-36
E. He explains uncleanness. 15:1-20

Excursus: Degrees of defilement
Charts: Personal Defilement in Matt 15

F. He heals a gentile woman. 15:21-28
G. He feeds 4000. 15:29-39
H. He elevates the sign of Jonah. 16:1-4
I. He warns about yeast. 16:5-12
J. Peter declares his identity. 16:13-20

Query: Was Peter the first pope?

K. He predicts his death. 16:21-28
L. He is transfigured. 17:1-13
M. He heals more. 17:14-21
N. He predicts his death again. 17:22-23
O. He pays the temple tax. 17:24-27

VIII. Discourse: More Information about the Kingdom, Matt 18:1-35

A. He identifies the greatest. 18:1-9
B. “The Lost Sheep” 18:10-14
C. He explains church discipline. 18:15-20
D. “The Unmerciful Servant” 18:21-35

IX. Narrative: Jesus’ Ministry in Judea, Matt 19:1-22:46

A. He rules about divorce again. 19:1-12
B. He blesses the children. 19:13-15
C. He counsels the wealthy. 19:16-30
D. “The Vineyard Workers” 20:1-16
E. He predicts his death. 20:17-19
F. He teaches about honor. 20:20-28

Query: How does a believer’s position here relate…?

G. He heals many. 20:29-34
H. He enters Jerusalem. 21:1-11
I. He cleanses the temple. 21:12-17
J. He withers the fig tree. 21:18-22
K. He asserts his authority. 21:23-27
L. “The Two Sons” 21:28-32
M. “The Wicked Tenants” 21:33-46
N. “The Wedding Banquet” 22:1-14
O. He recognizes Caesar’s tax. 22:15-22
P. He explains resurrection and marriage. 22:23-33
Q. He extols the greatest commands. 22:34-40
R. He identifies as the Son of David. 22:41-46
S. He issues woes against Pharisees. 23:1-36

List: A Rabbinic Description of Pharisees
Diagram: The seven woes form a chiastic pattern.
Query: Why does Jesus rail against these Pharisees?

T. He laments over Jerusalem. 23:37-39

X. Discourse: The Teaching about the Last Days, Matt 23:1-25:46

A. He marks signs of the end. 24:1-35
B. He notes division at the end. 24:36-46

XI. Narrative: Jesus’ Death and Resurrection, Matt 26:1-28:20

A. He faces intensified opposition. 26:1-5
B. He is anointed by Mary. 26:6-13
C. Judas plots to betray him. 26:14-16
D. He observes his final seder. 26:17-30
E. He predicts their desertion.26:31-35
F. He prays in Gethsemane. 26:31-35
G. The soldiers arrest him. 26:47-56
H. The Sanhedrin tries him. 26:57-68
I. Peter denies him. 26:69-75
J. Judas commits suicide. 27:1-10
K. Pilate sentences him. 27:11-31

Review: Building Support for Jesus’ Messianic Authority

L. The Romans crucify him. 27:32-56
M. Some disciples bury him. 27:57-66
N. He is raised from the dead. 28:1-15

Query: Is the resurrection of Jesus really that important?

O. He commissions the disciples. 28:16-20

• Appendix: Additional Artistic Renderings of Matthew
• Bibliography
• Endnotes

Prologue—Matthew: The Rabbinic Gospel

This study will run concurrently with a sermon series on the same book.[2] The sermons will cover part of a different chapter each week. The classroom work will cover background material, historical, and cultural information that helps illuminate the passage of the message, as well as aspects of the book that come between the messages. Those who attend the sermons should get a good sense of the content of Matthew’s gospel, but those who attend both the study and the sermons should get a fuller understanding of the gospel’s structure and development as well. More than any of the other three accounts of Jesus’ life, Matthew’s gospel presents a version that is distinctly Jewish and that reflects the perspectives of that community, including views of the most influential religious group in the first century, the Pharisees. Of the various movements that were active at that time, not only was Pharisaism the most popular and influential, it was the most enduring, having survived and flourished in Rabbinic Judaism to this day. Even Messianism, with its many instantiations, bears some resemblance and struggles with its relationship to Pharisaic Judaism. That said, Matthew’s gospel also presents perhaps the greatest challenge for modern gentile Christians to comprehend, separated from them by time and culture. Perhaps for that reason, a study of this book is valuable, offering readers a unique view of the savior’s ministry and informing their appreciation of the Old Testament as Jesus understood it.

• Author

• Name: The writer was Matthew, or Levi (as Mark and Luke call him).
• Occupation: He was a tax collector by profession and “left everything” (Luke 5:28) to become a disciple, one of the inner circle of twelve.

• Characteristics

• Concise and orderly: His occupation required accurate record keeping, a practice that led him to take similar care in organizing his material (e.g., alternating between narrative and discourse), which may be why it was widely used in liturgy and instruction of the early Church.
• Messianic focus: He used the Old Testament extensively (mostly the LXX, often the Hebrew text) in order to make his point—and this may also have been the primary creed in the early Church—Jesus is the messiah.
• Eschatological interest: Matthew has collected what Jesus said about the future, both in lengthy sermons (e.g., The Olivet Discourse in chapters 24- 25) and in selected stories (e.g., the kingdom parables in chapter 13).
• Ecclesiastical references

• Audience

• Jewish believers: Several features indicate Matthew is addressing Jews.

1. He quotes Jesus’ statements about his ministry being only to the Jewish people.
2. He mentions many aspects of Judaism that would be unfamiliar to gentile readers.
3. He claims that Jesus is Israel’s long-awaited messiah.
4. There is an early tradition that Matthew first wrote in Hebrew or Aramaic, and an increasing number of New Testament scholars is advocating a Hebrew or Aramaic source for Matthew (and other New Testament documents; cf. Howard 1986:15; Zimmerman 1979:33).

• Gentile converts: Nevertheless, Matthew indicates that Jesus’ message and instruction also appeal to gentiles.

Query: Is the New Testament anti-Semitic?

Some charge that the gospels are anti-Semitic, that Jesus’ condemnation of that Pharisees (e.g., Matt 23, “Woe…”), John’s apparently pejorative phrase “the Jews” (John 1:19; passim), and Peter’s blaming of his Jewish listeners for the messiah’s death (Acts 3:15) are illustrations of the antipathy that Christians have born against Judaism from the beginning (Sandmel 1978a:155-156, 160). What do you think? Is the New Testament anti-Semitic? …What’s wrong with this assumption?

This assumption ignores the context. It treats Jesus as the first Christian and views Peter as the first pope, rather than recognizing them as Jews who were addressing Jewish issues. Moreover, it imposes on the text a notion that arose later in history, that a Jew is no longer a Jew once he recognizes Jesus as the messiah; he has then become a Christian. (It assumes that one cannot be both, that a Jew can be atheistic but not messianic.)

It is like the story of the three Jews who wanted to convert to Christianity (a phrase that already prejudices the issue): Standing outside a church they drew lots to see which one of them would go in first and then come back to tell the other two what happened. When the one chosen came out of the church, the other two ran up to him and asked, “How’d it go?” The new convert replied, “Get away from me, you Christ-killers!” Evidently, once that Jew became a Christian, he was no longer a Jew.

There is a different story about a Jew who lived in a Catholic neighborhood and who, during the summer, liked to broil steak on his grill for Shabbat dinner: The aroma tormented his neighbors who, being good Catholics, only had fish on Friday evening. Nothing they could say would dissuade him from having his steak. Their only hope was in converting him to Catholicism. So one Saturday, the priest pays a visit to the Jew and after many hours convinces him to convert. The next day in church, the priest sprinkles holy water on the new convert and says, “I hereby baptize you. You are no longer a Jew; now you’re a Catholic.” The following Friday, however, the familiar aroma of broiling steak is again wafting its way through that good Catholic neighborhood. The priest rushes to the new convert’s home and, sure enough, there’s a steak sizzling on the grill. “What are you doing?” he asks. “You’re supposed to be eating fish!” “Vell it’s like dis,” the Jew replies. “I took this poifectly good steak, sprinkled some water on it and said, ‘You’re no longer a steak; now you’re a fish.’” The point of this story is that a Jew who recognizes Jesus as the messiah does not become a gentile even as a steak cannot become a fish.

So it is with Jesus and Peter—who are both Jews and both an integral part of the Jewish society in which they live. When they talk to other Jews about things that concern that community, as when Jesus condemns the Pharisees, their statements cannot be anti-Semitic anymore than similar statements by the prophets (comp. Isa 5:8-23 and Matt 23; cf. Rabbinic condemnation as well in Sandmel 1978b:160-161). In no case is the object of displeasure the people of Israel as a whole but rather a group within Israel that is ignoring some aspect of Torah (God’s law). Therefore, when we read statements in Matthew (and elsewhere in the New Testament) that are not particularly complimentary, we must remember that this gospel is an in-house document. That is, it is written by a Jew, about a Jew, and primarily for Jewish readers.

• Structure

• Discourse and narrative (classwork and fieldwork): Matthew groups together collections of both Jesus’ sayings (words) and his actions (works) in order to make the point: Jesus = Messiah
• Numerical clusters: As a tax collector; Matthew had a professional interest in figures. He particularly liked “three,” which may signify a sufficient amount of something, especially in legal matters (Manuel 2010c). To strengthen his contention that Jesus is the messiah, Matthew will often organize his material in groups of three, as if to say, “This should be enough to convince you."

As we read the book, I want to place us—as much as possible—in the context of its original audience. I want you to see how Matthew crafted his Gospel so that the message would grab his Jewish reader’s attention and challenge him to revise his thinking about God and His messiah. Remember that this is a very important term in Matthew. We are more familiar with the Greek translation, Christ. Unfortunately, we have lost most of the proper associations. So we tend to use the term as Jesus’ last name rather than as his title; after all, that’s the way it sounds: Jesus Christ. To counteract this tendency to gloss over the title, every time you come across “Christ,” substitute “the messiah.” That may keep us from running by it without pausing to see why it is there.

Because of its length (211 pages) the complete study isn't available online. "MATTHEW: THE RABBINIC GOSPEL" along with its Bibliography and Endnotes, can be downloaded as a pdf here.