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Matthew among the GospelsAn introduction to the Year of Matthew

Introduction to the Year of Matthew



A Three Year Lectionary Cycle

• Lectionary = set of readings

• One of the great ecumenical achievements

• Focus on a chosen Gospel each year

• Avoiding a ‘harmony’ of the gospels

• Three-year cycle for ‘Synoptics’

• Matthew, Mark, Luke

• Gospel of John features in Lent & Easter

• This year we spend time with Matthew



Matthew outside the Lectionary One way to approach this is to note the portions of Matthew omitted from the lectionary. Items unique to Matthew are shown in red.

1:1–17 The Genealogy 4:24–25 Jesus’ Fame spreads 6:7–15 The Lord’s Prayer 6:22–23 The Light of the Body 7:1–5 Judging Others/Speck and Log 7:6 Profaning what is Holy 7:7–12 Ask, Seek, Knock 7:13–14 The Narrow Gate 7:15–20 The Test of a Good Person 8:1–4 Leper cleansed 8:5–13 Centurion’s Servant healed 8:14–17 Peter’s Mother-in-law healed

and many others at sunset 8:18–22 Wannabe Disciples 8:23–27 Jesus calms a Storm at Sea 8:28–34 Jesus heals Two (!!) Gadarene

Demoniacs 9:1–8 Jesus heals a Paralysed Man 9:15–17 New wine old wineskins

9:27–31 Jesus heals Two Blind Men 9:32–34 Jesus heals a Mute Demoniac 11:1 Jesus moves on 11:12–15 John Baptist and Elijah 12:1–8 Grain and Sabbath 12:9–14 Jesus heals a man with withered

hand on the Sabbath 12:15–21 The chosen Servant 12:22–32 Jesus and Beelzebul 12:33–37 Tree and Fruit 12:38–42 Demand for a Sign 12:43–45 Return of the Unclean Spirit 12:46–50 Jesus’ true Family 13:10–17 Why parables? 13:34–35 Only in parables 13:53–58 Jesus rejected at Nazareth 14:1-12 Death of John the Baptist 14:34–36 Healing the sick in Gennesaret 15:1–9 Traditions of the Elders



Matthew outside the Lectionary

15:29–31 Many People healed 15:32–39 Feeding of the Four Thousand 16:1–4 Demand for a Sign 16:5–12 Leaven of the Pharisees and

Scribes 17:10–13 Questions after Transfiguration 17:14–21 Healing of Boy with a Demon 17:22–23 Second Prediction of Death and

Resurrection 17:24–27 Fish and Coin (Temple Tax) 18:1–5 Child and Kingdom 18:6–9 Temptation to sin 18:10–14 Parable of the Lost Sheep 19:1–12 Against Divorce 19:13–15 Jesus blesses the Children 19:16–30 Man with Money 20:17–19 Third Prediction of Death and

Resurrection

20:20–28 Request of James and John 20:29–34 Jesus heals Two Blind Men

at Jericho 21:12–17 Jesus and the Temple money-

changers 21:18–22 Jesus curses a Fig Tree 22:23–33 Questions about the Resurrection 23:13–36 Woe to Scribes and Pharisees 23:37–39 Lament over Jerusalem 24:1–2 Not one Stone 24:3–14 Beginning of Woes 24:15–28 The Great Tribulation 24:29–31 Coming of the Son of Man 24:32–35 Lesson of the Fig Tree 24:45–51 Faithful and Unfaithful Servants 26:6–13 Jesus anointed at Bethany 28:11–15 The Guards’ Report



Matthew outside the Lectionary

• Choices are necessary

• Only 52 Sundays each year

• What are consequences of all these omissions during our current year?

• Has Matthew been domesticated?

• What strategies can we deploy to deal with these omissions?



Spending a year with Matthew

In order to enter more deeply into the reading of [a] Gospel, one needs to ...

• consider its place among the Gospels,

• recognize its distinctive structure,

• sensitize oneself to its dominant Christological emphases,

• and summarize its leading themes.Culpepper, NIB VII,4



MAPPING THE GOSPELS



How many Gospels?

• One?

• Four?

• Five?

• Twenty Two?

• Thirty?

• www.earlychristianwritings.com





Early Gospels: Sayings Gospels

• Sayings Gospel Q

• Gospel of Thomas

• Secret Book (Apocryphon) of James

• Dialogue of the Savior

• Gospel of Mary

• Gospel of Judas

• Gospel Oxyrhynchus 1224



Early Gospels: Narrative Gospels

• Gospel of Mark

• Gospel of Matthew

• Signs Gospel

• Gospel of John

• Gospel of Luke


• Gospel of the Nazoreans

All four NT Gospels from this sub-type



Early Gospels: Infancy Gospels

• Infancy Gospel of James

• Infancy Gospel of Thomas



Early Gospels: Fragmentary Gospels

• Gospel of Peter

• Gospel of the Savior

• Mystical Gospel of Mark

• Egerton Gospel





Early Gospels: Jewish-Christian Gospels

• Gospel of the Hebrews

• Gospel of the Ebionites

• Gospel of the Nazoreans



MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE FOR MATTHEW



Manuscript data for the GospelsPapyrus Date ContentsP52 125 A tiny fragment of the Gospel of JohnPOxy 409 150 Fragment of the Gospel of Peter?P90 175 Fragment of the Gospel of JohnP98 2nd cent. Fragment of ActsPOxy 2949 200 Fragments of the Gospel of PeterPOxy 1 200 Fragments of the Gospel of ThomasPOxy 654 200 Fragments of the Gospel of ThomasPOxy 655 200 Fragments of the Gospel of ThomasP66 200 Gospel of JohnP46 200 Letters of PaulP64,67 200 Fragments of the Gospel of MatthewP45 250 Four Gospels + ActsP69, POxy 2383 250 Fragment of Marcion’s Euangelion?



Manuscript data for the Gospels

Codex Date ContentsP13 3C/4C HebrewsP45 3C Four Gospels and ActsP46 200 Letters of PaulP47 3C RevelationP66 200 JohnP69 3C Luke 22P72 3C/4C 1 and 2 Peter, JudeP75 3C Luke, John




Codices of single books

John 16Matthew 14Acts 10Luke 7Romans 6Hebrews 5Revelation 51 Corinthians 4James 3Mark 1

1 John 1Philippians 11 Thessalonians 1Titus 1Ephesians 1Galatians 1Philemon 11 Peter 1Jude 1




Codices of 2 books

Luke, John 2Matthew, John 1Mark, John 1Matthew, Acts 1John, James 11 & 2 Corinthians 11 & 2 Thessalonians 1Ephesians & 2 Thess 1




Codices with 3 or more books

P46 200 Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, Hebrews

P45 3C Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, ActsP72 3C/4C 1 and 2 Peter, JudeP61 700 Romans, 1 Corinthians, Philippians,

Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, Titus, PhilemonP74 7C Acts, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1,2 & 3 John, Jude



Preliminary Observations

• Matthew is attested from early 3C

• Equally popular as John

• Much more popular than Mark or Luke

• Sometimes circulated alongside John



LITERARY DATA



Narrative shape

Narrative Segment Matthew Mark Luke

1 Jesus’ background 1:1–4:11 1:1–13 1:1–4:13

2 Jesus teaches in Galilee 4:12–9:17 1:14–3:19 4:14–7:10

2a Jesus’ Sermon 5:1–7:27 6:20–49

3 Jesus’ prophetic mission 9:18–12:50 3:19–35 7:11–50

4 Jesus uses parables 12:46–13:52 3:31–4:34 8:1–21

5 Who is Jesus? 13:53–18:25 4:35–9:50 8:22–9:50

6 Jesus journeys to Judea 19:1–20:34 10:1–52 9:51–19:27

7 Jesus at Jerusalem 21:1–25:46 11:1–13:37 19:28–21:38

8 Jesus’ last days 26:1–27:66 14:1–15:47 22:1–23:56

9 Resurrection reports 28:1–20 16:1–8 (9–20) 24:1–53

Source: Mahlon Smith, Synoptic Gospels Primer http://virtualreligion.net/primer/outlines/outlines.html



Length

Separate Matt Mark Luke

verses 1068 661 1098

scenes 117 95 120

sayings 225 80 182



Repeated Content

Repeated Mt+Mk+Lktriple tradition

Mt+Mk Mk+Lk Mt+Lkdouble tradition

verses 232 454 350 450

scenes 59 77 67 64

sayings 60 77 62 137



Omissions

OMITTED BY by Luke by Matthew by Mark

verses 222 118 218

scenes 18 8 5

sayings 17 2 77



Unique Materials

Unique to … MATT“M” tradition

MARK LUKE“L” tradition

MATT + LUKEdouble tradition

verses 396 89 530 218

scenes 35 10 48 5

sayings 38 1 39 77



Patterns of Agreement

• If we compare a pair of gospels at a time:

• Matthew & Mark and Mark & Luke as sets have about 100% more agreements than all three gospels

• But Matthew & Luke do not agree with each other’s order except where they each copy Mark.

• suggests pivotal role for Mark in the web of relations



• Matthew & Luke each have double the material in Mark's order as each other's.

• Matthew & Luke agree in sequence only where they also agree with Mark.

• Matthew & Luke include almost 75 of the same non-Markan sayings at different points in their gospels.

• Reaffirms pivotal role for Mark in the web of relations



Questions of Style

• Mark: the least polished & most “oral”

• Matthew has better grammar & smoother literary transitions between passages than Mark.

• Luke writes the most literate Greek in the NT.

• Yet, in reporting the same passage, Luke's wording is almost always closer to Mark than to Matthew.

• While Luke's transitions between scenes & sayings rely on more sophisticated rhetoric than Mark's they are never the same as the transitions in Matthew.



Preliminary Observations

• Matthew is one of several early Christian Gospels

• Matthew & Luke share a literary relationship to Mark

• Narrative Gospel form for all 4 NT gospels

• Unlike Luke, Matthew ends story with Easter

• Unlike Luke (1:1–4) and John (20:30–31) Matthew has no explicit statement of purpose

• We need to ‘read between the lines’



TRACING THE SYNOPTIC RELATIONSHIPS



A theory of Gospel composition

Mark 75

Q Gospel 60s

Matthew 85

Luke (85–115)



Alternative theory of Gospel composition (no Q)

Mark 75

Matthew 85

Luke-Acts 85–115



Another theory of Gospel composition (Luke first)

Mark 75

Matthew 85

Luke-Acts 120

Proto-Luke 60s



READING MATTHEW



Literary Strategies of author

• Narrator (implied author) — almost invisible

• Jesus — dominates narrative and the dialogue

• Disciples — play a more positive role than in Mark

• Others — who come to Jesus for help/instruction/healing, etc

• Pharisees, Jewish leaders, the Jewish people — opponents of Jesus



Assumed ‘ideal reader’

(based on commentary by Luz, 1:15f)

• literate—able to read/hear a lengthy story

• memory—capacity for intertextuality

• biblically literate—familiar with LXX

• knows history of Israel

• familiar with Jesus traditions (allowing Matt to abbreviate them at times)

• may be familiar with Mark’s story of Jesus



Assumed ‘ideal reader’ (cont’d)

• participates in Christian worship

• accepts Jesus as Lord and supreme Torah teacher

• familiar with rabbinic practices but critical of them

• Greek was primary language

• ordinary church members, not leaders

• males

• some wealthy people (but wealth is criticised)



Matthew Among the Gospels

• Matthew is a revised and enlarged edition of Mark

• Supplements Mark with Q Sayings Gospel materials

• Adds infancy narrative

• Expands teaching material considerably

• Adds (preserves original Markan?) ending

• Strongly Jewish ‘reading’ of Jesus

• Reflects tensions between church and synagogue

• Reflects need for internal church discipline



Working assumptions as we read

(again, derived from commentary by Luz)

• GMatt tells the story of Jesus’ activity in Israel (conflict leading to schism)

• GMatt reflects the experience of a Jewish Christian community who has failed in its mission to Israel and is now coming to terms with a new mission to the Gentiles after a painful separation from majority Judaism



Working assumptions as we read

• The 5 major discourses are addressed to the readers as direct instructions of the Lord to the reader and play virtually no part in the narrative of the Gospel (whereas other discourses are “primarily valid” for the addressees in the narrative)

• Matthew integrated the itinerant prophetic tradition of Q with the story of Jesus’ activity in Mark to create a new story for a community at a critical point in its development



Matthew’s special interests

• Since Matthew takes over so much of Mark, we may expect that he shares Mark’s theology. At the same time, by seeing how Matthew redacts the Markan material, we gain insight into Matthew’s particular theological interests. Even more, we may determine Matthew’s perspective by the material that is unique to his Gospel, the material drawn from his special source.

Donald Hagner, Word commentary, lx



Matthew’s special interests

• Fulfillment: the kingdom of heaven. • Christology • Righteousness and discipleship (dikaiosune, dikaios) • Law and grace • Community (church) • Eschatology • Salvation history

Donald Hagner, Word commentary



Imagine … a NT without Matthew

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