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    Matthew
    Matthew
    Matthew
    Ebook2,463 pages34 hours

    Matthew

    By Grant R. Osborne

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    About this ebook

    Concentrate on the biblical author’s message as it unfolds.

    Designed to assist the pastor and Bible teacher in conveying the significance of God’s Word, the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series treats the literary context and structure of every passage of the New Testament book in the original Greek.

    With a unique layout designed to help you comprehend the form and flow of each passage, the ZECNT unpacks:

    • The key message.
    • The author’s original translation.
    • An exegetical outline.
    • Verse-by-verse commentary.
    • Theology in application.

     

    While primarily designed for those with a basic knowledge of biblical Greek, all who strive to understand and teach the New Testament will benefit from the depth, format, and scholarship of these volumes.

    In this volume, Grant Osborne offers pastors, students, and teachers a focused resource for reading the Gospel of Matthew. Through the use of graphic representations of translations, succinct summaries of main ideas, exegetical outlines, and other features, Osborne presents the Gospel of Matthew with precision and accuracy. Because of this series’ focus on the textual structure of the scriptures, readers will better understand the literary elements of Matthew, comprehend the author’s revolutionary goals, and ultimately discovering their vital claims upon the church today.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZondervan
    Release dateOct 19, 2010
    ISBN9780310323709
    Matthew
    Author

    Grant R. Osborne

    Grant R. Osborne (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has been at Trinity since 1977. His areas of expertise include the Gospels, hermeneutics, and the book of Revelation. His numerous publications include The Hermeneutical Spiral and commentaries on Revelation, Romans, John, and Matthew.

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    • 5/5
      Quality exegetical framework and verse by verse understanding as well as application close to the text.
    • 2/5
      I was hoping to find a lot more layers in this book. Matthew is so Jewish, I was expecting to be taken into the Jewish world, to learn more about rabbinic teachings, etc. Instead I got a run of the mill commentary...then again I never did finish it.

    Book preview

    Matthew - Grant R. Osborne

    Zondervan Exegetical Commentary Series: New Testament

    Editorial Board

    General Editor

    Clinton E. Arnold

    Talbot School of Theology

    Associate Editors

    George H. Guthrie

    Union University

    William D. Mounce

    Portland, Oregon

    Thomas R. Schreiner

    Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

    Mark L. Strauss

    Bethel Seminary San Diego

    Zondervan Editors

    Editorial Advisor: David Frees

    Development Editor: Verlyn D. Verbrugge

    Consulting Editors

    Richard Bewes, Rector, All Souls Church, Langham Place, London, UK

    Craig Blomberg, Professor of New Testament, Denver Seminary

    Ajith Fernando, National Director of Youth for Christ, Sri Lanka

    David E. Garland, Professor of New Testament, George W. Truett Theological Seminary

    Paul Gardner, Archdeacon of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Carolyn Custis James, Author and Speaker, Orlando, FL

    Karen H. Jobes, Gerald F. Hawthorne Professor of New Testament Greek and Exegesis, Wheaton College and Graduate School

    David W. Pao, Professor of New Testament and Chair of the New Testament Department at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

    Frank Thielman, Presbyterian Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School

    Tite Tienou, Academic Dean and Professor of Theology of Mission, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

    Matthew

    Zondervan Exegetical Commentary Series on the New Testament

    Grant R. Osborne

    Clinton E. Arnold

    General Editor

    For my wife, Nancy

    Her faithful love and patience with me

    are a treasure beyond compare.

    ZONDERVAN

    Matthew

    Copyright © 2010 by Grant R. Osborne

    This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook.

    Visit www.zondervan.com/ebooks.

    Requests for information should be addressed to:

    Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

    ePub Edition May 2016: 978-0-310-32370-9

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Osborne, Grant R.

    Matthew / Grant R. Osborne ; Clinton E. Arnold, general editor.

    p. cm. — (Zondervan exegetical commentary series on the New Testament ; v. 1)

    Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

    ISBN 978-0-310-24357-1 (hardcover, printed)

    1. Bible. N.T. Matthew—Commentaries. I. Arnold, Clinton E. II. Title.

    BS2575.53.O83 2009

    226.2'07—dc22 2009043783

    All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version™, TNIV®. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

    Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

    Contents

    A Note about Translation Outlines in this eBook

    Series Introduction

    Author’s Preface

    Abbreviations

    Introduction

    Select Bibliography on Matthew

    Commentary on Matthew

    Theology of Matthew

    Scripture Index

    Subject Index

    Author Index

    Commentary on Matthew

    Chapter 1. Matthew 1:1–17

    Chapter 2. Matthew 1:18–25

    Chapter 3. Matthew 2:1–12

    Chapter 4. Matthew 2:13–23

    Chapter 5. Matthew 3:1–12

    Chapter 6. Matthew 3:13–17

    Chapter 7. Matthew 4:1–11

    Chapter 8. Matthew 4:12–17

    Chapter 9. Matthew 4:18–22

    Chapter 10. Matthew 4:23–25

    Chapter 11. Matthew 5:1–12

    Chapter 12. Matthew 5:13–16

    Chapter 13. Matthew 5:17–20

    Chapter 14. Matthew 5:21–26

    Chapter 15. Matthew 5:27–30

    Chapter 16. Matthew 5:31–32

    Chapter 17. Matthew 5:33–37

    Chapter 18. Matthew 5:38–42

    Chapter 19. Matthew 5:43–48

    Chapter 20. Matthew 6:1–4

    Chapter 21. Matthew 6:5–15

    Chapter 22. Matthew 6:16–18

    Chapter 23. Matthew 6:19–24

    Chapter 24. Matthew 6:25–34

    Chapter 25. Matthew 7:1–12

    Chapter 26. Matthew 7:13–29

    Chapter 27. Matthew 8:1–4

    Chapter 28. Matthew 8:5–13

    Chapter 29. Matthew 8:14–17

    Chapter 30. Matthew 8:18–22

    Chapter 31. Matthew 8:23–27

    Chapter 32. Matthew 8:28–34

    Chapter 33. Matthew 9:1–8

    Chapter 34. Matthew 9:9–13

    Chapter 35. Matthew 9:14–17

    Chapter 36. Matthew 9:18–26

    Chapter 37. Matthew 9:27–31

    Chapter 38. Matthew 9:32–34

    Chapter 39. Matthew 9:35–38

    Chapter 40. Matthew 10:1–4

    Chapter 41. Matthew 10:5–15

    Chapter 42. Matthew 10:16–23

    Chapter 43. Matthew 10:24–31

    Chapter 44. Matthew 10:32–11:1

    Chapter 45. Matthew 11:2–6

    Chapter 46. Matthew 11:7–15

    Chapter 47. Matthew 11:16–19

    Chapter 48. Matthew 11:20–24

    Chapter 49. Matthew 11:25–30

    Chapter 50. Matthew 12:1–8

    Chapter 51. Matthew 12:9–14

    Chapter 52. Matthew 12:15–21

    Chapter 53. Matthew 12:22–37

    Chapter 54. Matthew 12:38–45

    Chapter 55. Matthew 12:46–50

    Chapter 56. Matthew 13:1–23

    Chapter 57. Matthew 13:24–30

    Chapter 58. Matthew 13:31–35

    Chapter 59. Matthew 13:36–43

    Chapter 60. Matthew 13:44–53

    Chapter 61. Matthew 13:54–58

    Chapter 62. Matthew 14:1–12

    Chapter 63. Matthew 14:13–21

    Chapter 64. Matthew 14:22–33

    Chapter 65. Matthew 14:34–36

    Chapter 66. Matthew 15:1–20

    Chapter 67. Matthew 15:21–31

    Chapter 68. Matthew 15:32–39

    Chapter 69. Matthew 16:1–4

    Chapter 70. Matthew 16:5–12

    Chapter 71. Matthew 16:13–20

    Chapter 72. Matthew 16:21–28

    Chapter 73. Matthew 17:1–13

    Chapter 74. Matthew 17:14–21

    Chapter 75. Matthew 17:22–27

    Chapter 76. Matthew 18:1–4

    Chapter 77. Matthew 18:5–9

    Chapter 78. Matthew 18:10–14

    Chapter 79. Matthew 18:15–20

    Chapter 80. Matthew 18:21–35

    Chapter 81. Matthew 19:1–12

    Chapter 82. Matthew 19:13–15

    Chapter 83. Matthew 19:16–30

    Chapter 84. Matthew 20:1–16

    Chapter 85. Matthew 20:17–28

    Chapter 86. Matthew 20:29–34

    Chapter 87. Matthew 21:1–11

    Chapter 88. Matthew 21:12–17

    Chapter 89. Matthew 21:18–22

    Chapter 90. Matthew 21:23–27

    Chapter 91. Matthew 21:28–32

    Chapter 92. Matthew 21:33–46

    Chapter 93. Matthew 22:1–14

    Chapter 94. Matthew 22:15–22

    Chapter 95. Matthew 22:23–33

    Chapter 96. Matthew 22:34–40

    Chapter 97. Matthew 22:41–46

    Chapter 98. Matthew 23:1–12

    Chapter 99. Matthew 23:13–36

    Chapter 100. Matthew 23:37–39

    Chapter 101. Matthew 24:1–3

    Chapter 102. Matthew 24:4–14

    Chapter 103. Matthew 24:15–28

    Chapter 104. Matthew 24:29–31

    Chapter 105. Matthew 24:32–35

    Chapter 106. Matthew 24:36–44

    Chapter 107. Matthew 24:45–51

    Chapter 108. Matthew 25:1–13

    Chapter 109. Matthew 25:14–30

    Chapter 110. Matthew 25:31–46

    Chapter 111. Matthew 26:1–5

    Chapter 112. Matthew 26:6–13

    Chapter 113. Matthew 26:14–16

    Chapter 114. Matthew 26:17–30

    Chapter 115. Matthew 26:31–56

    Chapter 116. Matthew 26:57–75

    Chapter 117. Matthew 27:1–26

    Chapter 118. Matthew 27:27–50

    Chapter 119. Matthew 27:51–61

    Chapter 120. Matthew 27:62–28:1

    Chapter 121. Matthew 28:2–10

    Chapter 122. Matthew 28:11–20

    A Note about Translation Outlines in this eBook

    The Translation Outlines in this book have been rendered as images in the eBook edition in order to accurately display the complex formatting on various eReader devices and platforms.

    Use your reader’s image zoom feature for the best view of these images.

    Series Introduction

    This generation has been blessed with an abundance of excellent commentaries. Some are technical and do a good job of addressing issues that the critics have raised; other commentaries are long and provide extensive information about word usage and catalog nearly every opinion expressed on the various interpretive issues; still other commentaries focus on providing cultural and historical background information; and then there are those commentaries that endeavor to draw out many applicational insights.

    The key question to ask is: What are you looking for in a commentary? This commentary series might be for you if

    • you have taken Greek and would like a commentary that helps you apply what you have learned without assuming you are a well-trained scholar.

    • you would find it useful to see a concise, one- or two-sentence statement of what the commentator thinks the main point of each passage is.

    • you would like help interpreting the words of Scripture without getting bogged down in scholarly issues that seem irrelevant to the life of the church.

    • you would like to see a visual representation (a graphical display) of the flow of thought in each passage.

    • you would like expert guidance from solid evangelical scholars who set out to explain the meaning of the original text in the clearest way possible and to help you navigate through the main interpretive issues.

    • you want to benefit from the results of the latest and best scholarly studies and historical information that help to illuminate the meaning of the text.

    • you would find it useful to see a brief summary of the key theological insights that can be gleaned from each passage and some discussion of the relevance of these for Christians today.

    These are just some of the features that characterize the new Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series. The idea for this series was refined over time by an editorial board who listened to pastors and teachers express what they wanted to see in a commentary series based on the Greek text. That board consisted of myself, George H. Guthrie, William D. Mounce, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Mark L. Strauss along with Zondervan senior editor at large, Verlyn Verbrugge, and former Zondervan senior acquisitions editor, Jack Kuhatschek. We also enlisted a board of consulting editors who are active pastors, ministry leaders, and seminary professors to help in the process of designing a commentary series that will be useful to the church. Zondervan senior acquisitions editor David Frees has now been shepherding the process to completion.

    We arrived at a design that includes seven components for the treatment of each biblical passage. What follows is a brief orientation to these primary components of the commentary.

    Literary Context

    In this section, you will find a concise discussion of how the passage functions in the broader literary context of the book. The commentator highlights connections with the preceding and following material in the book and makes observations on the key literary features of this text.

    Main Idea

    Many readers will find this to be an enormously helpful feature of this series. For each passage, the commentator carefully crafts a one- or two-sentence statement of the big idea or central thrust of the passage.

    Translation and Graphical Layout

    Another unique feature of this series is the presentation of each commentator’s translation of the Greek text in a graphical layout. The purpose of this diagram is to help the reader visualize, and thus better understand, the flow of thought within the text. The translation itself reflects the interpretive decisions made by each commentator in the Explanation section of the commentary. Here are a few insights that will help you to understand the way these are put together:

    1. On the far left side next to the verse numbers is a series of interpretive labels that indicate the function of each clause or phrase of the biblical text. The corresponding portion of the text is on the same line to the right of the label. We have not used technical linguistic jargon for these, so they should be easily understood.

    2. In general, we place every clause (a group of words containing a subject and a predicate) on a separate line and identify how it is supporting the principal assertion of the text (namely, is it saying when the action occurred, how it took place, or why it took place). We sometimes place longer phrases or a series of items on separate lines as well.

    3. Subordinate (or dependent) clauses and phrases are indented and placed directly under the words that they modify. This helps the reader to more easily see the nature of the relationship of clauses and phrases in the flow of the text.

    4. Every main clause has been placed in bold print and pushed to the left margin for clear identification.

    5. Sometimes when the level of subordination moves too far to the right—as often happens with some of Paul’s long, involved sentences!—we reposition the flow to the left of the diagram, but use an arrow to indicate that this has happened.

    6. The overall process we have followed has been deeply informed by principles of discourse analysis and narrative criticism (for the gospels and Acts).

    Structure

    Immediately following the translation, the commentator describes the flow of thought in the passage and explains how certain interpretive decisions regarding the relationship of the clauses were made in the passage.

    Exegetical Outline

    The overall structure of the passage is described in a detailed exegetical outline. This will be particularly helpful for those who are looking for a way to concisely explain the flow of thought in the passage in a teaching or preaching setting.

    Explanation of the Text

    As an exegetical commentary, this work makes use of the Greek language to interpret the meaning of the text. If your Greek is rather rusty (or even somewhat limited), don’t be too concerned. All of the Greek words are cited in parentheses following an English translation. We have made every effort to make this commentary as readable and useful as possible even for the nonspecialist.

    Those who will benefit the most from this commentary will have had the equivalent of two years of Greek in college or seminary. This would include a semester or two of working through an intermediate grammar (such as Wallace, Porter, Brooks and Winberry, or Dana and Mantey). The authors use the grammatical language that is found in these kinds of grammars. The details of the grammar of the passage, however, are only discussed when it has a bearing on the interpretation of the text.

    The emphasis on this section of the text is to convey the meaning. Commentators examine words and images, grammatical details, relevant OT and Jewish background to a particular concept, historical and cultural context, important text-critical issues, and various interpretational issues that surface.

    Theology in Application

    This, too, is a unique feature for an exegetical commentary series. We felt it was important for each author not only to describe what the text means in its various details, but also to take a moment and reflect on the theological contribution that it makes. In this section, the theological message of the passage is summarized. The authors discuss the theology of the text in terms of its place within the book and in a broader biblical-theological context. Finally, each commentator provides some suggestions on what the message of the passage is for the church today. At the conclusion of each volume in this series is a summary of the whole range of theological themes touched on by this book of the Bible.

    Our sincere hope and prayer is that you find this series helpful not only for your own understanding of the text of the New Testament, but as you are actively engaged in teaching and preaching God’s Word to people who are hungry to be fed on its truth.

    CLINTON E. ARNOLD, general editor

    Author’s Preface

    On my very first sabbatical, in Fall 1979–80, I spent a semester at Tyndale House working on the gospel of Matthew in the hopes of writing a commentary. The commentary did not work out at that time, but since then I have been waiting for an opportunity to do so. I have also taught Matthew for over thirty years in my Gospels class at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and have done two editions of extended class notes for the students. Needless to say, when the chance to produce a commentary on Matthew for the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary series arrived, I rejoiced at the opportunity. I can honestly say it was a labor of love, and the deeper I have gone into this wondrous gospel, the more I have marveled at the intricacy of its structure, the depth of its insight, and the practical value of its theological message. I pray I have somehow been able to communicate that message for the reader.

    In addition, I cannot think of a format with more value for the busy pastor who wishes to do justice to the text for the church. If I were to dedicate the rest of my life to one single thing, it would be bringing the Bible back into the center of the church’s life. One of my greatest worries is the dumbing down of the church, and in my forty-plus years of ministry I have seen biblical preaching receive less and less place in the life of the church. I cannot help but wonder if some actually believe the Bible is the Word of God when they do not care what it means and do not want to proclaim its truths to their congregations. My life verse is 2 Tim 2:15, Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. This means that when I stand before God and give account for my ministry (Heb 13:17), I will stand in shame if I have not had a Bible-centered ministry. Thanks be to God that there are many pastors who are standing sure on the Word and proclaiming it to the best of their abilities. This commentary is for them.

    The problem for the busy pastor is finding the time for the exegetical analysis necessary for expository preaching or for a topical series that is biblical and asks, What does the Word of God have to say on this issue? Enter the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary series, with its discussion of literary context, main idea (perfect for the proposition or big idea in the sermon), and the structural analysis (perfect for the sermon outline). When I saw how the exegetical analysis was to be done point-by-point through the text, I was especially excited, for the criteria for deciding what to cover was always, What does the pastor need? rather than What do the scholars want to see? Having been pastor of two churches and interim pastor of two others, that was music to my ears. Also, the final section on Theology in Application fits exactly with what overwhelmed pastors need for the biblical theology and application side of their message. Finally, this commentary uses others more than most because as a pastor I had always wanted to know which scholars held the various positions on a problem I was studying. So there are longer lists of who holds what in this commentary.

    Finally, one goal in this commentary series is to summarize briefly the current state of scholarship on key issues; thus on debated passages, I usually list scholars on the various sides of the point. In doing so, I avoid laborious, complicated details that satisfy the scholar but are too much detail for the busy pastor. Instead, I summarize the sides as simply and practically as possible so that the pastor can decide which of the possibilities to choose on the issue. In other words, every aspect of this project got my juices flowing, and I feel that it is at a perfect level for someone preaching through Matthew and wanting to know what the issues are, how to solve the interpretive problems, and how to develop a series of messages through Matthew’s gospel.

    There are so many people to thank on a project such as this. First, I want to express my appreciation to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for the sabbatical I received to devote to this commentary. I also want to thank two research assistants, Justin Fuhrmann and especially Stephen Smith, for their invaluable help with bibliography and the line diagrams. Stephen deserves special thanks for compiling the indices as well. Thanks are also due my administrative assistant, Jessica Langenhahn. Then there are the helpful critiques of the series editor, Clint Arnold; the associate editor, Mark Strauss; and the even more detailed reading of my Zondervan editor, Verlyn Verbrugge. Without their thoughtful readings and suggestions, there would be many more errors than there are now. The entire Zondervan team deserves my gratitude for a job well done. Any mistakes are mine and mine alone.

    Most of all, I want to thank the Lord for using this undeserving servant and for giving me the most wonderful calling I could possibly have. To spend my life proclaiming, teaching, and writing on the Word of God is a privilege beyond compare, and I wake up every morning so grateful to the Lord for allowing me to share the only reliable and final truth this world will ever know, his inspired Word. May this commentary play some small part in encouraging pastors and teachers to fall in love with his Word and to experience, as I do, the joy of preaching its unbelievably deep truths.

    Abbreviations

    1 En. 1 Enoch

    2 Bar. 2 Baruch

    2 Clem. 2 Clement

    3 Bar. 3 Baruch

    4 Bar. 4 Baruch

    AB Anchor Bible

    ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by David Noel Freedman. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

    Adv. Haer. Against Heresies (Irenaeus)

    AnBib Analecta biblica

    Ant. Antiquities (Josephus)

    ANTC Abingdon New Testament Commentaries

    Apoc. Abr. Apocalypse of Abraham

    Apoc. Elijah Apocalypse of Elijah

    ASTI Annual of the Swedish Theological Institute

    AUSS Andrews University Seminary Studies

    b. Bat. Babylonian Talmud: Baba Batra

    b. Ber. Babylonian Talmud: Berakot

    b. ʿErub. Babylonian Talmud: ʿErubin

    b. Ḥag. Babylonian Talmud: Ḥagigah

    b. Ketub. Babylonian Talmud: Ketubbot

    b. Mak. Babylonian Talmud: Makkot

    b. Menaḥ. Babylonian Talmud: Menaḥ

    b. Qidd. Babylonian Talmud: Qiddušin

    b. Pesaḥ Babylonian Talmud: Pesaḥim

    b. Sanh. Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin

    b. Šabb. Babylonian Talmud: Šabbat

    b. Soṭah Babylonian Talmud: Soṭah

    b. Taʿan Babylonian Talmud: Taʿanit

    b. Yoma Babylonian Talmud: Yoma (= Kippurim)

    BA Biblical Archaeologist

    BAGD Bauer, W., W. F. Arndt, F. W. Gingrich, and F. W. Danker. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 2nd ed. Chicago, 1979.

    BAR Biblical Archaeology Review

    BBR Bulletin for Biblical Research

    BDF Blass, F., A. Debrunner, and R. W. Funk. A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago, 1961.

    BECNT Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

    Bib Biblica

    BibInt Biblical Interpretation

    BibOr Biblica et orientalia

    BJRL Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester

    BK Bibel und Kirche

    BNTC Black’s New Testament Commentaries

    BR Biblical Research

    BRev Bible Review

    BSac Bibliotheca Sacra

    BT Bible Translator

    BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin

    BurH Buried History

    Byz. Byzantine

    BZ Biblische Zeitschrift

    BZNW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft

    CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly

    ChrTo Christianity Today

    ConBNT Coniectanea biblica: New Testament Series

    CurTM Currents in Theology and Missions

    Did. Didache

    DJG Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. Edited by Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight, and I. Howard Marshall. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1992.

    DNTB Dictionary of New Testament Background. Edited by Craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2000.

    DOTP Dictionary of Old Testament: Pentateuch. Edited by David W. Baker and T. Desmond Alexander. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2003.

    DPL Dictionary of Paul and His Letters. Edited by Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1993.

    DRev Downside Review

    DSD Dead Sea Discoveries

    Dt. Rab. Deuteronomy Rabbah

    EDNT Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited by H. Balz, G. Schneider. English translation. Grand Rapids, 1990–1993.

    EstBib Estudios bíblicos

    ETL Ephemerides theologicae lovanienses

    ETR Etudes theologiques et religieuses

    EvT Evangelische Theologie

    EvQ Evangelical Quarterly

    Exod. Rab. Exodus Rabbah

    ExpTim Expository Times

    FiloNT Filología Neotestamentaria

    FoiVie Foi et vie

    FS Festschrift

    Gen. Rab. Genesis Rabbah

    GTJ Grace Theological Journal

    HeyJ Heythrop Journal

    Hist. Eccl. Historia ecclesiastica (Eusebius)

    HTR Harvard Theological Review

    IBS Irish Biblical Studies

    ICC International Critical Commentary

    Int Interpretation

    IVP InterVarsity Press

    JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

    JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

    JJS Journal of Jewish Studies

    JosAsen Joseph and Asenath

    JQR Jewish Quarterly Review

    JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament

    JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series

    JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

    JSP Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha

    JTS Journal of Theological Studies

    Jub. Jubilees

    J.W. Jewish War (Josephus)

    KJV King James Version

    LB Living Bible

    LTJ Lutheran Theological Journal

    LXX Septuagint

    m. ʾAbot Mishnah: ʾAbot

    m. Ber. Mishnah: Berakot

    m. Demai Mishnah: Demai

    m. Giṭ. Mishnah: Giṭṭin

    m. Ḥag. Mishnah: Ḥagigah

    m. Ker. Mishnah: Kerithot

    m. Ketub. Mishnah: Ketubbot

    m. Maʿaś. Mishnah: Maʿaśerot

    m. Neg. Mishnah: Negaʿim

    m. Pesaḥ Mishnah: Pesaḥim

    m. Sanh. Mishnah: Sanhedrin

    m. Šabb. Mishnah: Šabbat

    m. Šeb. Mishnah: Šebi ʿit

    m. Šeqal. Mishnah: Šeqalim

    m. Soṭah Mishnah: Soṭah

    m. Yeb. Mishnah: Yebamot

    m. Yoma Mishnah: Yoma (= Kippurim)

    Midr. Cant. Midrash on Canticles

    Midr. Pss. Midrash on Psalms

    MSJ Master’s Seminary Journal

    MT Masoretic Text

    NASB New American Standard Bible

    NCBC New Century Bible Commentary

    NEB New English Bible

    NET New English Translation

    NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament

    NICOT New International Commentary on the Old Testament

    NIDNTT New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology. Edited by C. Brown. 4 vols. Grand Rapids, 1986.

    NIGTC New International Greek Testament Commentary

    NIV New International Version

    NIVAC NIV Application Commentary

    NJB New Jerusalem Bible

    NLT New Living Translation

    NovT Novum Testamentum

    NovTSup Novum Testamentum Supplements

    NRSV New Revised Standard Version

    NRTh La nouvelle revue théologique

    n.s. new series

    NSBT New Studies in Biblical Theology

    NTL New Testament Library

    NTS New Testament Studies

    Num. Rab. Numbers Rabbah

    PNTC Pillar New Testament Commentary

    Prot. Jas. Protoevangelium of James

    Pss. Sol. Psalms of Solomon

    Qoh. Rab. Qohelet Rabbah

    RB Revue biblique

    RelS Religious Studies

    RelStTh Religious Studies and Theology

    ResQ Restoration Quarterly

    RevExp Review and Expositor

    RevQ Revue de Qumran

    RHPR Revue d’histoire et de philosophie religieuses

    RRelRes Review of Religious Research

    RSR Recherches de science religieuse

    RSV Revised Standard Version

    RR Review of Religion

    SBL Society of Biblical Literature

    SBLDS Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series

    SBLMS Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series

    SBLSymS Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Studies

    SBLSP Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers

    Scr Scripture

    SE Studia evangelica

    Sib. Or. Sibylline Oracles

    SJT Scottish Journal of Theology

    SNT Studien zum Neuen Testament

    SNTSMS Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series

    SNTSSup Society for New Testament Studies Supplement Series

    SNTSU Studien zum Neuen Testament und seiner Umwelt

    SP Sacra pagina

    ST Studia theologica

    Str-B Strack, H. L., and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch. 6 vols. Munich, 1922–1961.

    t. Ber. Tosefta Berakot

    t. Soṭah Tosefta Soṭah

    T. Abr. Testament of Abraham

    T. Benj. Testament of Benjamin

    T. Isaac Testament of Isaac

    T. Iss. Testament of Issachar

    T. Jac. Testament of Jacob

    T. Job Testament of Job

    T. Jos. Testament of Joseph

    T. Jud. Testament of Judah

    T. Levi Testament of Levi

    T. Mos. Testament of Moses

    T. Sol. Testament of Solomon

    TBei Theologische Beiträge

    TBT The Bible Today

    TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited by Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. 10 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–1976.

    Tg. Isa. Targum of Isaiah

    Tg. Neof. Targum Neofiti

    Tg. Zech. Targum of Zechariah

    TGl Theologie und Glaube

    Them Themelios

    ThSt Theologische Studiën

    ThTo Theology Today

    TJ Trinity Journal

    TNIV Today’s New International Version

    TNTC Tyndale New Testament Commentary

    TR Textus Receptus

    TS Theological Studies

    TTZ Trierer theologische Zeitschrift

    TynBul Tyndale Bulletin

    TZ Theologische Zeitschrift

    USQR Union Seminary Quarterly Review

    VC Vigiliae christianae

    WBC Word Biblical Commentary

    Wallace Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.

    WTJ Westminster Theological Journal

    WUNT Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament und die Kunde der älteren Kirche

    WW Word and World

    y. Ber. Jerusalem Talmud: Berakot

    y. Qidd. Jerusalem Talmud: Qiddušin

    ZDPV Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins

    ZNW Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft

    Introduction

    Matthew has always been the gospel most widely read and the one first consulted for details about the life of Christ. It has been considered the church’s gospel from the time of Augustine. Until the nineteenth century it was thought to be the first gospel written, the one that provided the material behind Mark and Luke (see further below). There are several reasons for this popularity. Matthew (along with Luke) contains the most stories and the most famous discourses, especially the Sermon on the Mount (chs. 5–7) but also the longer versions of the Mission Discourse (ch. 10), the Parable Discourse (ch. 13), and the Olivet Discourse (chs. 24–25). So Matthew centers on Jesus’ teaching and his ethical mandate, and there are key messages for the life of the church. People have always gravitated to the Jesus who says, God blesses the poor in spirit (5:3), and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven (16:19).

    How to Study and Preach the Gospel of Matthew

    I pastored my first church in Ohio between my college and seminary years. I was a young twenty-two-year-old preacher and enjoyed the pulpit ministry more than I can say. However, while I had good success with the OT, especially with the poets and prophecy, and dearly loved to preach the NT epistles, I had virtually no success with the gospels. Every time I tried, my preaching seemed to fall flat. In seminary I gravitated to the narrative portions of the OT and especially to the gospels, wanting to fill my gaps. There I discovered my basic mistake. I was preaching the gospels similar to how my high school history teacher taught me history—names, dates, places, brute facts. What I needed to realize was my weakness in understanding history and especially the gospels—they are not just brute history; they are history seen through theological eyes.

    The word gospel is not just good news; the verb used (euaggelizomai) means to preach the good news. They are history with a message, carefully crafted stories to bring out the heavenly truths embedded into the earthly events. Now the gospels are my favorite passages to preach and teach! In the gospels (and the narrative portions of the OT) theology comes alive and is dramatized in story form. Let me say here explicitly that the details I chose to include in this commentary, both exegetical and theological, were chosen on the basis of one major question: What would I want to know as a pastor preparing a sermon on this passage? But how do we do that? What is the process for preaching a sermon series through Matthew? Here I will sum up the principles of general and special hermeneutics.¹

    First, we must utilize the basic hermeneutical principles of grammatical-historical exegesis to understand what Matthew was trying to say. General or basic hermeneutics for every type of biblical text have been attempted in the commentary proper in order to ascertain the essential message Matthew was trying to give when he produced his form of the gospel vis-à-vis the other sacred evangelists. This process consists of studying the context (the developing themes Matthew was presenting as he organized his story of Jesus), grammar (the way he worded his sentences and organized his thoughts), semantics (the words he chose to produce the meaning he intended to communicate), syntax (the whole of his thought development in uttering his message to his readers), background (the customs and cultures that he was assuming and within which he presented his story), and theology (the themes he was communicating by the way he organized his material).

    Second, special hermeneutics recognizes the elements of narrative that go into understanding how Matthew’s stories function.² Literary theorists realize that stories contain point of view (the perspective taken by the author, the shape given to the story, and the intended effect on the readers), narrative or story time (not chronological because it relates to the order of events in the developing work as a whole rather than the historical progression of them in the life of Christ),³ plot development (the sequence of events in terms of conflict and climax), characterization and dialogue (the way the characters in a story relate to each other and to the events of the story), and the implied reader (the original audience the author had in mind when writing the story). The goal of analyzing biblical narrative is to see how the stories function at each of these levels and then to put them together in terms of their message and effect on the reader.

    Study the Plot at the Macro Level

    Each gospel has its own unique metanarrative and plot development. One of the difficult tasks in any serious study is to determine the major and minor points of the plot, ascertain the structural development, and decide on the plot of the major sections. The difficulty is shown by the fact that if you consult ten commentaries, you will on the average discover six to seven different structures among them. So in the end you must do the work yourself and see which outline fits best.

    The most helpful tool for doing this is text-linguistics, which is part of discourse analysis and studies the way the author has stylistically developed his narrative. By looking at the text in terms of its macro level (changes of genre and boundaries in the text as a whole) and its micro level (the structure and communication within each discourse unit within the larger structure), one can see how the author has organized and presented his or her developing argument.⁴ This is accomplished by considering introductory particles, changes of verbal aspect or mood, and shifts of focus, by which we try to demarcate the author’s developing emphases. Then we look at the major section as a whole and map these changes into a literary structure, tracing the plot of the whole.

    Matthew has structured his gospel very differently from the others and organized it around the five discourse units (chs. 5–7; 10; 13; 18; 23–35), interspersing carefully planned narrative units between each of the discourses. For instance, chs. 8–9 form the first extended narrative in Matthew and take place between the Sermon on the Mount (chs. 5–7) and Missionary Discourse (ch. 10). An analysis of this section finds three blocks of three miracles each (8:1–17; 8:23–9:8; 9:18–34), broken by discipleship sections (8:18–22; 9:9–13, 14–17). The first set concerns authority over illness, the second set authority over nature, demons, and paralysis, and the third set authority over disabilities and death.⁵ The primary thrust is Jesus’ all-embracing power and authority, with a second theme being the place of faith in the process, as seen in the leper, the centurion, the woman with the hemorrhage, and the two blind men. With this analysis, each pericope or episode/section is seen in its place as contributing to the overall effect of the Matthean narrative.

    Study the Plot at the Micro Level

    Here we do the same type of structural analysis, but of the individual story. The same text-linguistic principles are used but in the smaller passage. We are looking for the primary sections where the focus changes to a new unit and then determine the plot of the individual story. An excellent example here would be the parable of the wedding banquet in 22:1–14, the third of a triad of parables (21:28–22:14) detailing God’s gracious invitation to Israel, their refusal to respond, and the judgment that resulted. There are three parts, each with its own individual emphasis—the first (the original invitation, its rejection, and the punishment meted out by the king, vv. 1–7) centers on Israel’s rejection of Jesus; the second (the invitation and its acceptance by the bad and good, vv. 8–10) turns to the Gentiles; and the third (the guest who tries to enter the banquet dressed inappropriately along with his punishment by the king, vv. 11–13) turns to the church. So this becomes a salvation-historical parable tracing the movement of God’s salvation and the resultant responsibility to respond from Israel to the church.

    Study the Redactional (Editorial) Changes

    Redaction criticism, which developed in the 1960s and 1970s, centers on the way the gospels used their sources. By noting the changes between Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we can see more clearly how they organized their individual works and the theological intentions they had in doing so. Of course, the theology flows out of the whole of the literary passage, but the changes guide us in seeing how they structured their material. Robert Stein suggests looking at the seams between episodes, insertions, arrangement, introductions, vocabulary, christological titles, selection or omission of material, and conclusions.⁶ The student studies what the author selected for his rendition of the story, how he organized it, what context he placed it in, and what the theological implications are.

    As the example of this, let us consider the walking on the water miracle in Mark 6:45–52 and Matt 14:22–33. Both follow the feeding of the five thousand, which demonstrates that God will provide for his people; yet when the disciples are sent across the lake and the storm arises, they forget all about that and fear for their lives (see on 6:30–44). In Mark 6:48 (only in Mark) we are told that Jesus was about to pass by them, which demonstrates that Christ is Lord of the water; that is, as Yahweh passed by at Mount Sinai (Exod 33:18ff.) and Mount Horeb (1 Kgs 19:11ff.), so Jesus does likewise.⁷ His purpose is to ensure them that God is with them and will care for them. Yet the disciples miss the signal entirely, look at Jesus walking on the water, and think he is a ghost. They are probably thinking, What he is, is what we are going to be in another minute—ghosts!! Mark stops the story right there and deliberately (most likely) draws his conclusion—the disciples fail because they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened (Mark 6:52).

    Matthew follows Mark to that point and denotes their failure but goes on. He like many newscasters adds the rest of the story. After the episode of Peter walking on the water and failing, the disciples then conclude, Truly you are the Son of God! (Matt 14:33). There could not be a greater polarity than the conclusions of Mark and Matthew, from hardened hearts to a christological affirmation greater than the disciples ever do in Mark (they never get beyond Messiah)! Yet the conclusions do not contradict one another, for Matthew recognizes the failure but passes on to the later victory. The difference is in the theological purposes of each author. Mark for the rest of his gospel centers on the disciples’ repeated failures (true discipleship is seen in the little people—see on discipleship below) while Matthew recognizes failure but wants to show that the presence of Jesus makes the difference and allows the disciples to find victory. This is seen also after the feeding of the four thousand in both gospels; Mark ends with Do you still not understand? (Mark 8:21), while Matthew ends with Then they understood…. (Matt 16:12). This is in keeping with the discipleship themes in their respective gospels, as Mark centers on the disciples’ failure while Matthew centers on their growing understanding.⁸

    Study the Characters and Dialogue

    As shown above, characterization is essential to all biblical narrative. As we see the interaction between the characters and between the characters and God/Jesus, the themes come to the fore. In all four gospels, the basic story centers on the impact between Jesus and four groups—the disciples, the crowds, the leaders, and the demons—in a descending order of growing opposition to Jesus. Let me give two examples of this. The first is the cosmic encounter with the two demon-possessed men in Gedara in Matt 8:28–34. The dialogue with Jesus and the demon is critical. While some think the demon’s What is it to us and to you, Son of God? (lit. trans.) is just supernatural knowledge of Jesus on the part of the demon, it is more likely that this is spiritual warfare. The first part is an idiom meaning We have nothing in common and leave us alone (cf. Judg 11:12; 2 Sam 16:10; Mark 1:24) and is an attempt to gain control over Jesus. Marcus says that in ancient magical texts a magician says I know you to a god in order to gain control over it.⁹ Jesus’ Be silent then forces the submission of the demonic realm to himself. The dialogue shows that spiritual warfare is taking place, and the exorcism is a tying up of Satan (cf. Mark 3:27).

    Study the Implied Reader and Perform Reader Identification

    The significance of narrative texts for us cannot be understood until we have studied how the author intended to draw his original readers into the story (the illocutionary aspect) and what he wanted them to do with it (the perlocutionary aspect).¹⁰ We then consciously align ourselves with that original message and ascertain what the parallel situation is with that today; in other words, if the author were here in my congregation, what issues would he address in this text? (reader identification).

    To illustrate this, let us consider the temptation narrative (Matt 4:1–11/Luke 4:1–13). This used to be a sermon I had my students write in my course on the gospels until I realized that hardly any of them got it right. Now I use it as my example in class. They made two mistakes: first, they had always heard this taught as a discipleship passage, i.e., if we memorize Scripture, we can defeat the devil any time. Second, they neglected to study seriously the passages Jesus quoted against the devil.

    Let us take these one at a time. (1) If we look at this passage in context, it is the final preparatory event in Jesus’ ministry (after his baptism), and the major theme is Jesus as Son of God. Luke 4 demonstrates this best; Jesus is proclaimed God’s Son, whom I love at his baptism (3:22), and then Luke inserts the genealogy here, running in opposite order to the genealogy in Matthew and going all the way to Adam, who is called finally the son of God (3:38). These passages prepare for the temptations, with the first being, If [a condition of fact, meaning virtually ‘since’] you are the Son of God (4:3). Satan knows Jesus is Son of God and tempts him to selfishly prove it to the world.

    (2) All three of Jesus’ quotes stem from Deut 6–8, and each time the quote occurs at that place in Deuteronomy where Israel failed in the very test Jesus is enduring. In other words, Jesus is saying to Satan, I know what you are doing; it worked with Israel, but it will not work with me. So the thrust of the temptation is clear; it is Christology, not discipleship. Jesus begins his ministry by taking on Satan in open combat and defeating him, thereby proving himself to be Son of God. The reader is called to worship, to recognize Jesus as Son of God. There may be a secondary application as the reader says, I will not fail as Israel did, but the primary thrust is that victory comes through recognizing Jesus to be Son of God.

    The purpose of this commentary is to aid in the task of proclaiming the truths of Matthew to the church and world of our day. The basic process is quite simple.¹¹

    1. Do a structural analysis, noting its place in the developing story of Matthew and then the actantial units of the story itself, i.e., the story line of the pericope and the development of its plot within its setting.

    2. Consider the style by which Matthew tells the story (inclusion, repetition, symbolic language, irony, antitheses, etc.) to ascertain the way he has colored the narrative.

    3. Do a redactional analysis by comparing it with the same story in other gospels in order to see additions and omissions that will give clues to Matthew’s major emphases.

    4. Exegete the details both syntactically (how the various grammatical and semantic components add meaning) and historically (the customs and cultural background to the story) to unlock the deep meaning of the passage.

    5. Perform a theological analysis, discovering which aspects of Matthean theology are highlighted in the passage. There are two aspects—the propositional (= biblical theology) and the dramatic or commissive (= the praxis demanded by the passage). The commentary discusses these aspects in the final section on each passage (Theology in Application).

    6. Develop the contextualization of the passage for today. The sermon must build a bridge from the message of Matthew for his day (what it meant) to its significance for our day (what it means). We can perform a deep and accurate study of its original meaning, but if it is not applied carefully, our detailed analysis is wasted. God’s Word is meant to change lives, not just lead to head knowledge, but that application must be tied closely to the meaning of the text. We should ask, If Matthew was standing in my pulpit, what would he ask my congregation to do as a result of this passage?

    The Historical Trustworthiness of Matthew’s Gospel

    There has been a huge debate over the last two centuries over the veracity of the gospel stories about Jesus. In my recent History and Theology in the Synoptic Gospels,¹² I delineate three stages in the debate.

    1. History or Theology (1900–1970). This is the period of radical skepticism, as Bultmann and others assumed a complete break between the history behind the gospels and the theological portrait within them. For them the historic Christ was a product of the early church and the Jesus of history a mere presupposition of NT theology.¹³ R. H. Lightfoot said the gospels yield little more than a whisper of his voice; we trace in them but the outskirts of his ways.¹⁴ The quest of the recent Jesus Seminar is a throwback to the radical doubt period.

    2. History and Theology (1970–85). This is a period of reappraisal as a set of works on each gospel argued for the interdependence of history and theology, with I. H. Marshall asserting that Luke followed historical sources and combined history and theology in a faithful portrait of the historical Jesus;¹⁵he was followed by Ralph Martin on Mark, Stephen Smalley on John, and R. T. France on Matthew.¹⁶ Then the six-volume Gospel Perspective series (1980–1986) was summed up in Craig Blomberg’s Historical Reliability of the Gospels (1987),¹⁷ showing in great depth the basic validity of the gospels’ historical portraits. Ben Meyer’s Aims of Jesus argued that both the events and their significance are valid goals of the historian in Jesus study.¹⁸

    3. Theologically Motivated History (1985 to the present). The third quest for the historical Jesus now recognizes that theology is a partner and a path to history, an essential aspect of all historical enquiry into the life of Jesus. E. P. Sanders argued that the historical Jesus can be found by situating Jesus within the Judaism of his day and by explaining how his movement eventually broke with Judaism.¹⁹ J. P. Meier is even more open and seeks objectivity with the evidence, impossible in a final sense but somewhat possible by bracketing one’s worldview and presuppositions.²⁰ Then N. T. Wright states that the gospels were indeed ancient biographies and for the most part were reliable documents. He seeks what is real in the narrative and subjects it to critical examination to determine what is a valid reflection of the historical record, both factual event and theological reflection.²¹ This is a huge step forward in historical Jesus studies.

    In terms of genre, we can differentiate historical writing from fictive writing²² by considering the authorial stance, i.e., the fictive stance of the novelist and the assertive stance of the historian, as the historian claims—asserts—that the projected world (the story) of the text together with the authorial point of view counts as a story and an interpretation of events as they actually occurred.²³ Anthony Thiselton speaks of extratextual factors, especially the illocutionary stance of the author that either creates an imaginary world or ties the reader to the real world implied in the text.²⁴ Walhout provides three criteria for doing so: (1) The world behind the text is factually accurate, presenting events it claims actually occurred; (2) the author’s techniques of presentation (e.g., phrasing, genealogies, etc.) fit the state of affairs at that time; (3) there is an atmosphere of history (factually conceived) behind the details.²⁵

    In short, historical narrative will tell it like it was and interpret events written as they happened, while fiction will build an imaginary world, often with background details that fit the period but with a quite different stance. In fact, one can disagree with the interpretive stance of the historian and yet recognize the historical facts behind the narration. While there is theological assertion in the biblical narratives, that does not obviate their basic historical stance.

    Biblical narratives contain both narrative and historical elements. As narrative, they exemplify real/implied author and reader, point of view, story time, plot, characterization, and dialogue. As history, they attempt to trace what actually happened. A good definition will help:

    Narrative history involves an attempt to express through language … the meaning … that is, a particular understanding/explanation … of the relationship of a selected sequence of actual events from the past … and to convince others through various means, including the theological force and aesthetic appeal of the rendering … that the sequence under review has meaning and that this meaning has been rightly perceived.²⁶

    Our task, then, is to compare the historical story to external data on the event in history and to evaluate the event portrayed in terms of its contribution to historical knowledge. By ascertaining the implicit commentary and point of view, one can see how the author is not only telling what happened but also developing the significance and moral content of the story. It is clear that in the historical narratives of the Scriptures, the authors believed they were retelling the historical past of Israel and the early church so as to solidify the self-conscious identity of the people in their present time. In other words, there was a historical purpose throughout.²⁷

    The reader attempts to enter the world of the story and reconstruct the historical nucleus as well as to evaluate the original theological interpretation. The story has a performative function and draws the reader into its narrative world, thereby communicating the intended meaning, i.e., either an imaginary fictive world or a reconstructed historical world. The historical narrative in Scripture (and the early church) claims to proclaim events that actually happened (Luke 1:1–4; John 19:35; 21:24; 1 Cor 15:6; 2 Pe 1:16–18), and these claims should be taken seriously. There is no theoretical reason why literary and historical interests cannot coincide in the gospels and why the stories cannot be trustworthy representations of what really happened. One of the purposes of this commentary is to show how this is so in Matthew.²⁸

    The Genre of Matthew

    Primarily, of course, Matthew is a gospel (lit., good news) about Jesus the Messiah, but as a genre a gospel refers to a theological biography of the life of Christ. There has been much debate regarding the exact genre of Matthew and the other gospels. Gundry has argued that Matthew is creative midrash (referring to Jewish theological interpretations of OT texts), with ancient readers able to distinguish between the historical parts and the nonhistorical midrash.²⁹ However, while there is midrashic use of OT texts in Matthew, his gospel is more of a hermeneutical appropriation of the OT than a genre seen in his stories as a whole (a use not seen until the fourth century AD).³⁰ The current consensus is that the closest parallel is Greco-Roman biography,³¹ but that should probably be widened to include Jewish as well as Hellenistic biographies. Aune argues, in fact, that no parallel is sufficient and that the evangelists reworked the forms of their day to produce a new type of biography, the gospel.³²

    Keener does a fine job of discussing the similarities and differences.³³ Like the evangelists, ancient biographers did not try to cover the whole life of the person and often used a topical rather than chronological order. They were free to expand or shorten stories (Matthew normally abbreviates Mark) but still for the most part sought to present accurate history (especially historians like Tacitus and Suetonius). Jewish biographies were often novel-type expansions of OT stories (1 Enoch, Assumption of Moses, Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs), and the closest Jewish parallels for the historiography of Matthew are indeed the OT stories (books like Esther, Job, Ruth, Jonah, Daniel; cf. also Judith, Tobit). Parallel to the differences in the four gospels would be the differences in Samuel-Kings/Chronicles. The gospels combined this with Hellenistic patterns (it was common for Jewish works in Greek to adopt Greek style: cf. Philo). Keener concludes (italics his):

    Matthew did not write his Gospel without forethought; he was a historian-biographer and interpreter and not just a storyteller…. Like other writers, Matthew would follow one main source (in this case Mark) and weave his other sources around it…. If Matthew’s basic genre suggests historical intention, his relatively conservative use of sources … indicates that Matthew’s other purposes did not obscure an essential historical intention.³⁴

    The Purpose and Audience of Matthew’s Gospel

    It has been common for scholars to argue for one purpose for Matthew’s gospel. This is a mistake; few books have a single purpose. Matthew is a multifaceted work, and there are several purposes. (1) Perhaps the major one has already been discussed—to tell the story of Jesus. Moreover, when the gospel is seen as a whole, Matthew is telling the impact of Jesus on four groups—the leaders, the crowds, the disciples, and the demons. In doing so he asks the reader to identify herself with each and ask, Which group am I? Am I opposed to Jesus like the leaders, excited on the surface but refusing to commit like the crowds, committed and growing in spite of repeated failures like the disciples, or being influenced in the cosmic war by the demonic forces? Jesus confronts each group at their own level and displays the authority and wisdom of the Son of God.

    (2) The second purpose is apologetic and evangelistic. One major consensus is that Matthew writes a Jewish gospel. It has been a mainstay of gospel studies for the last fifty years to assume they were written to particular communities led by the author, and so the primary historical dimension is not the historical Jesus but uncovering the life of that community (this is called the Sitz im Leben approach or the situation in the life of the [later] church). This is now widely regarded as erroneous, for the gospels were written for the whole church as well as for unbelievers.³⁵ Matthew especially had the Jewish Christian church and the Jewish people in mind. With the preponderance of OT fulfillment quotations (in order to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet), the rabbinic style of the reasoning in several passages (e.g., 15:1–20; 19:1–9), the centrality of Jesus’ fulfilling the law in the Sermon on the Mount (5:17–19), and the way Jesus relates to the Jewish people throughout, it seems clear that Jewish issues are uppermost.

    Moreover, there is a strong apologetic air to the whole. Jesus is in constant debate with the leaders, and it is clear that he, not they, is the final interpreter of Torah, as seen in 7:28–29: The crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching as one who had great authority, not like their teachers of law. Throughout the first gospel it is your synagogues (23:34) or their synagogues (4:23; 9:35; 10:17; 12:9; 13:54) and the Jews until this very day (28:15), reflecting ongoing debates between Jews and Christians right up to Matthew’s time. The conflict is especially keen between Jesus and the Pharisees/scribes. This is evident in 21:23–22:46, a series of controversies between Jesus and the leaders in the temple court. In them Jesus’ messianic teaching authority is seen in contrast to the growing rejection of the leaders. In each debate Jesus demonstrates his superiority to the religious experts as he takes them on in rabbinic fashion and decimates them with his handling of Torah.

    At the same time it is clear that Matthew wants to evangelize the Jewish people, not just prove them wrong. Jesus is presented as Messiah and Son of God, the one whose mission is to present himself as the atoning sacrifice and ransom for the people (20:28; 26:28). Jesus restricts his and the disciples’ mission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (10:5–6; 15:24; more on this below). Clearly his primary desire is to see the Jewish people repent and become his followers. At the same time, Matthew shows that the Jewish people for the most part rejected his call and followed the leaders in their opposition to Jesus. This is seen especially in chs. 11–12 and throughout Passion Week.

    There are two results of this theme of Jewish rejection. First, there is an emphasis on the judgment of the Jewish people. In 11:22, 24 Jesus says, God will be more tolerant toward Tyre and Sidon [and Sodom] on the day of judgment than to you (cf. 10:15) because they repented. In 12:32 he warns them about committing the unpardonable sin; in 12:35–37 he warns that they will be condemned at the final judgment for their evil; and in 12:39, 41–42 he calls them a evil and adulterous generation who will be condemned by Nineveh and the Queen of the South for their refusal to repent. The rejection theme comes to a head in the parables of the wicked tenants (21:41, He will destroy those evil people in an evil way) and the wedding banquet (22:13, throw him out into the outermost darkness) and in the woes against the leaders (23:33, Snakes! Offspring of vipers! How will you escape from the judgment of Gehenna?).

    Second, the kingdom promises are taken from the Jewish people and given to the righteous remnant (the few who believe) and to the Gentiles. The first glimpse of this theme is remarkably at Jesus’ first miracle, the healing of the centurion’s servant, when Jesus lauded the centurion’s faith and then said, Many from the east and the west will come and will sit down at the feast … but the children of the kingdom will be thrown into outermost darkness (8:11–12). Then in 21:43 he says that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit; and in 22:9–10 the wedding invitation is extended to everyone they found, the bad and the good. This theme of the Gentile mission will be explored further later.

    (3) Matthew wants to explore the true meaning of the reality of the kingdom that has been inaugurated by Jesus. All three Synoptic Gospels present the kingdom as coming in the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus; but Matthew especially centers on the ethical implications of this. The church is the kingdom community, and the Sermon on the Mount is the final Torah of the kingdom reality. For Matthew righteousness is a life lived in accordance with these kingdom demands (a life lived by the will of God), and every citizen of the kingdom will be judged according to the way they have lived their lives (16:27, the Son of Man … will reward each one on the basis of their deed). The parables of 24:45–25:46 develop this theme, centering on the punishment of those who had not lived according to God’s commands and, therefore, were not prepared for the Master’s return.

    (4) There is a catechetical aspect to this gospel. Although Stendahl went too far in positing the genesis of this work in a school of Matthew,³⁶ it is probably true that the centrality of the five discourses does likely relate to the catechetical needs of the church. Matthew centers on the teaching discourses of Jesus and their ethical implications, and this redactional choice likely arises in part from catechetical interests.

    Authorship and Date

    Like all four gospels, the first gospel never names its author, probably to give all the glory to Jesus. Yet the unanimous witness of the church fathers (e.g., Papias, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius, Origen) is that the apostle Matthew was the author. In this gospel the name is found in 9:9; 10:3, where he is a tax collector whom Jesus calls to follow him; then he becomes one of the Twelve. Interestingly, in Mark 2:14 he is called Levi (though he is called Matthew in Mark 3:18). Two names were common in the ancient world (e.g., Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus), sometimes from birth and other times a Christian addition. The only actual incident recorded of Matthew is the banquet he gave in Mark 2/Matt 9/Luke 5.

    Papias (bishop of Hierapolis in the province of Asia) said early in the second century:³⁷ "Matthew compiled the oracles [logia] in the Hebrew dialect, and everyone

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