The Gospel of Matthew

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The Gospel of Matthew

• Jesus The Jewish Messiah

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• Date 80-85, give or take a decade
• Written in Greek
• Aka- 1) the most Jewish gospel and 2) churchs
  gospel

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Most Jewish gospel

• 130 passages refer directly or indirectly to the
  OT

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Churchs gospel

• This is the only gospel to use the word church
• It is concerned with the churchs organization
• It is concerned with the communal life and
  teaching among the believers

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Author by traditional attribution

• Matthew, a tax-collector among the Twelve

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Author detectable from contents

• a Greek-speaker, who knew Aramaic or Hebrew or
  both
• was not an eyewitness of Jesus ministry
• drew on Mark and a collection of the sayings of
  the Lord (Q), as well as on other available
  traditions, oral and written.
• Probably a Jewish Christian.

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• Matthews community
• Ethnicity mainly Jew ( a few Gentiles)
• Location the Antioch region
• Situation they are not allowed to enter to the
  synagogues
• They are not considered to be Jews anymore- by
  the Jewish community that did not accept Jesus as
  the Messiah

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Sources in the GMt

• The majority of the Mk is used in Mt
• Matt reproduces about 80 percent of Mark
• Q (approx. 235 sayings)
• Special M
• Tale of the Magi
• Herods massacre of Bethlehems children
• Flight into Egypt

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The Infancy Narratives

• Matthew and Luke began their Gospels with
  writings that have come to be known as the
  infancy narratives
• Stories about the birth of Jesus and his early
  life.

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• The introduction begins with the genealogy, or
  family tree, of Jesus, tracing his roots back to
  Abraham

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• The genealogy is followed by the story of Mary
  and Joseph
• GENEALOGY- CLOSE READING

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The Genealogy

• 1. How is Jesus identified in 11- who are the
  two patriarchs mentioned and how are they
  related to Jesus?
• The Messiah, son of David and of Abraham
• 2. List the patriarchs mentioned in 12-11 and
  write a brief explanation of how they influence
  the Jewish history. Kings are considered
  patriarchs as well.
• Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah- his brothers-
  Joseph Benjamin, Boaz, David, Solomon, Rehoboam
  
• 3. What happened in 112? Why do you think that
  was included?
• Deportation to Babylon- oppression, disaster
• 4. Who is the main descendant of all the
  patriarchs in 116?
• Joseph
• 5. a. How many generations are from Abraham to
  David? b. How many from David to the deportation
  to Babylon? c. And how many from the deportation
  to the Messiah?
• a. _14____, b. _14____, c. _14 ___

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The Genealogy

• What is the purpose of a genealogy?
• Why does this genealogy begin with Abraham and
  explicitly mention David?
• What is significant about this being Josephs
  family tree?
• Why do you think Matthew included women in his
  genealogy?
•  Do you recall who was Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba?
  If so, describe who they are
• All are gentiles
• Mixed congregation- Jews and Gentiles

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Jesus the Jewish Messiah

• The Jewish identity of Jesus is confirmed by the
  genealogy provided by Matthew
• Tracing his family line all the way back to the
  father of the Jews,
• Abraham himself
• The genealogy is structured around several key
  persons in the history of the nation Israel
• It traces fathers and sons

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A problem

• A problem arises it turns out that the genealogy
  is of Joseph, the husband of Mary
• For this reason, Matthew is forced to shift from
  his description of father and son relationships

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Question

• But what would be the point of tracing Jesus
  bloodline back to David and Abraham, when in fact
  he is not connected to this line?
• His only link is through Joseph, a man who is not
  his father.
• He is trying to show that Jesus has Jewish roots
• and that he can legitimately claim to be of the
  line of David
• as would be necessary for the the Messiah
• Regardless of the situation, Joseph is Jesus
  father

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Fourteen Generations

• There were 14 generations between Abraham and
  David
• 14 between David and the deportation to Babylon
  and
• 14 between the deportation to Babylon and the
  messiah, Jesus

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• The genealogy demonstrates that the entire course
  of Israels history has proceeded according to
  divine providence.
• This history has culminated in Jesus
• At every fourteenth generation something
  cataclysmic happens in Israels history
• Their greatest king, their worst disaster, and
  now their ultimate salvation

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More problems

• The genealogy is incorrect
• E.g. Joram is said to be the father of Uzziah
• Joram was Uzziahs great-great-grandfather
• The final sequence contains only thirteen names,
  even though Matthew claims fourteen.
• Why?
• To be able to have his fourteen generations

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Is there something significant about the number
14 itself?

• Two suggestions
• In ancient Israel, the number 7 was of supreme
  importance as a symbol of perfection or divinity
• The ancients divided the week into seven days-
  believed there were seven planets
• For some ancient Jews
• - There were seven stages in a persons life and
  seven parts to the human soul
• - There were seven classes of angels and seven
  attributes of God
• - If seven is a perfect , then what is 14?
  TWICE SEVEN
• Doubly perfect number

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Suggestion 2

• Ancient languages used the letters of the
  alphabet to represent numerals
• So that one could add up the letters in a name
  and come up with a numerical value
• Matthew emphasizes Jesus messianic character as
  a descendant of King David.
• In Hebrew, Davids name is spelled with three
  letters D, V, and D (ancient Hebrew did not use
  vowels)
• The D in Hebrew is worth 4 and the V is worth 6,
  so the numerical value of Davids name is
  fourteen!