First Book of the New Testament, Matthew - Term Paper Example

?Insert Insert Grade Insert An Investigative Study on the Book of Matthew Introduction This is an investigative study on the first book of the New Testament, Matthew. The study will involve a thorough evaluation of the scriptures, concentrating on such aspects as its original language, genre, social setting, author, theological perspective, later reception, etc. The historical context of the study will focus on the possible place of writing, the historical time the book was written, and the purpose for which the book was written. Discussion The book of Matthew has no direct author. However, various deductions will be made by comparing different parts of the book. By concentrating on the Jewish tradition, the writer leads to a conclusion that he must have been a Jew and that the book was written in a Jewish community. It is speculated that the book was written in the first century AD. Also, the writer concentrates a lot on the Old Testament prophecies of the coming of Messiah, and this, too, leads to the same conclusion, i.e. that he must have been a Jew. The chronology of the book of Matthew covers a vast spun of time. It dates back before the birth of Jesus Christ, as is revealed by the prophecies, dwells on the life and work of Jesus on the Earth and also touches on the future when Jesus would come again. Scholars have also noted that the book of Matthew borrows a lot from the book of Mark, the writings commonly referred to as the Q-source and Jewish custom material. The original language was Greek. Following the closeness between the book of Matthew and Luke, the conclusion follows that the book was written by Matthew, one of Jesus’ disciples, who was a tax collector (Freeborn 156). David Sim, in his article “Matthew and the Pauline Corpus,” shows that the writer of this book had much knowledge of the epistles written by Paul. He argues that not only do the scriptures rhyme, but also the scriptures in the book of Matthew speak defensively on various topical issues that are addressed by the Apostle Paul in the epistles. Matthew is portrayed in his writings to be a strict law-obeying Jew, unlike the Apostle Paul, who is depicted as a gentile, by and large arrogant and ignorant of the law. The close comparison brings much of inter-textual relation to the two scriptural contexts. Matthew closely alludes to the ideologies addressed by the Apostle Paul and also borrows a lot from Mark. This is clearly illustrated in the narrative mode of describing Jesus’ lifestyle, and this, to a large extent, supports the thematic concern of inter-textuality (Sim 403). As a matter of fact, the comparison of the book of Matthew and other books written by the disciples simply affirms the possibility that the book was written by a Jew and that this happened after the ministry of Jesus on the Earth. There is a great correlation between the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and much contrast emanates from the epistles of Paul. A close evaluation indicates that just as Mark and Luke, Matthew is a Synoptic. However, critics point out that Matthew happened to live and write before the other gospels were created as a lot is likely to be borrowed from the scriptures of Matthew by the other gospels. However, the gospel, according to the book of John, is clearly distinct and cannot fit in such a comparison (Constable 3-4). Cartel Warren, in his article “Matthew and the Gentiles,” elaborates further on the purpose of the book as having been meant specifically for the gospel. The book, thus, engages in a very detiled discussion on the contemporary gentile world alluded to in the gospel. The writer highlights some key indicators from the book of Matthew that suggest an already predefined mission of writing the scripture. To begin with, the story of creation found in the book of Genesis is clearly addressed in the opening scripture of Matthew. The sovereignty of God’s purpose for Jesus is clearly depicted here. He compares the purpose of Jesus to Abraham’s. Abraham was a gentile, yet God walked with him, and a promise was given that God would bless the whole world through him (Gen.12.1-3). Matthew concentrates on the elaboration of these contemporary issues. Matthew portrays Abraham as God’s inclusion of the gentiles in his purpose. Thus, according to Matthew, Jesus comes to fulfill the purpose of God in the Abraham promise of blessing the whole world through him. Matthew asserts that God’s intention was not to bless individual gentiles only but rather the whole world. God’s saving presence, Emmanuel, is clearly evoked when Matthew refers to the book of Isaiah in the opening chapters (Isa. 7–9). Matthew 7.14 alludes to God’s saving presence and establishes Jesus’ commission on the Earth. Jesus’ ministry, as portrayed in the gospel, is to heal the sick, bringing liberty to captives and also showing concern to the poor. All this referred to the gentile way of oppression by the imperial systems of governance. The depicted salvation, therefore, suggests ways of freedom to the already oppression-dominated world. The gospel systematically discusses the Rome-dominated world, as opposed to the life-giving purposes of God. People are depicted as being governed by an authority that is opposed to God’s. Such leaders or rulers lead the subjects with brutality, harshness, and force and deprive them of food, care, and even clothing. Jesus is, however, commissioned to bring back God’s purposes to the nations, to the Jews, and to the gentiles. This is notably contrary to the already existing purposes of the world. The hope in Jesus’ name still runs where gentiles can still wait for the accomplishment of his purpose in his return (Carter 262-281). Another thematic concern brought forth in the book of Matthew is tax and obedience. Warren Carter, in his journal of the study of the New Testament, discusses the exception of tax and taxation regime, as portrayed in the scripture. The paper majorly dwells on the Roman tax required for the temple, for the Jews and also for the non-Jews. This is well illustrated in Matthew 17.24-27. The Romans’ control of cities, such as Antioch, meant that levies on taxes and other tolls were necessary. Taxes symbolized great infrastructure for the economic performance in the imperial rule. Therefore, taxes were seen as the better way of imposing imperial power on the subjects, and defiance meant an act of un-submissiveness to the authority. This set a good debate between Jesus and the disciples about the place of the gospel and taxes. Taxes expressed submission to the Roman rule. He reveals that in the context at hand, paying taxes did not symbolize submission to the authorities as such but rather an honor and obedience to God’s sovereignty. God expressed His power by providing the fish with the taxes. It was symbolic that God’s power in providence was equally at work even when it came the controversial issue of paying taxes to the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, the Matthean context does not provide a clear theological lesson for the taxation concern, but a number of conclusions can be drawn from the tax context. The encounter illustrates God’s supreme love, and God is portrayed as a loving God. Moreover, the tax episode brought about the topics of rejection in Israel and freedom from temple bondages, giving it as a Christian voluntary habit, as opposed to the Roman taxation, and most of all, the theme of exercising Christian freedom (Carter 1-9). The gospel, according to Matthew, is a piece of apocalyptic literature. An apocalyptic literary work speaks of a person who lived before the actual writing of the piece of literature. Jesus was a celebrated person, who is the main point of focus in the gospels. Schuyler Brown, in his journal article “The Matthean Apocalypse,” studies the book of Matthew as an apocalypse. He states that the Book of Matthew starts by prophecies of the Messiah to come. Prophesies are clearly recorded in the Old Testament. The chronology develops clearly, and the Messiah is born. After upbringing, Jesus embarks on his mission that is clearly portrayed by the numerous teachings, miracles, and his general relation with the people. Brown paints a picture of an already dead and risen Messiah, who commissions his disciples on the great commission to reach the entire world and make everybody his disciple. Many controversies arise as the book is thought to have been written by one of the Messiah’s disciples long after his ascension. However, the choice of words and a unique line of chronology appear in this book to alienate it from other gospels, which are, nevertheless, similarly written. Jesus’ teachings on the goodness of God and the plan of God to have all mankind saved is clear. Jesus’ teachings also illustrated God’s sovereignty to the rulers of the world. Judgment and eternal grief or happiness are major concerns highlighted in this part of scriptures. The Matthean, the Lucan and the Marcan gospels all rhyme in the perspective. Matthew dwells largely on the historical perspective of the Jewish people unlike the case of Mark, who largely concentrates on the present Jewish set-up. Nevertheless, despite the historical set up in Matthew, he is still in a position to affirm the fulfilled prophesies in a current state. Matthew also uses reporting mechanism to quote Jesus’ future happenings. He categorically states judgments to Jerusalem and predicts his own fate far before the time has come. However, in Matthew 16.27 (his prediction for his second coming) Jesus alludes to a choice that has to be made by the readers of the scriptures and that judgment will basically follow them. In the conclusion of the book, Jesus is recorded commissioning the disciples to go over the whole world and make more people convert to the religion professed by Jesus. This was amidst a common feeling of hatred towards the gentiles by the Jews, who because of the fact of Jesus coming to them, felt that they were most fit for the Kingship of the Messiah even in his return (Brown 14-21). Other redaction criticism studies reveal that Matthew’s gospels are not a less important theological scripture than the rest of the gospels, mainly for the historical perspective that takes predominance in the book. Another concern came up that the Bible ought to be studied as a unit, as opposed to the current evaluation of specific books as separate entities. Only the book of Matthew uses the term church to refer to the continuity of the mission of Christ in a more cohesive community. The book clearly describes the three pillars of Christian faith. These are the Church, Eschatology and Christology. Matthew clearly portrays a composed church where mission work takes central stage. The Holy Spirit also comes up here in preparation of the final judgment to come. The basic question for the book of Matthew then remains: how much should the Law of Moses be followed? The scriptures affirm the validity of this law on one hand, while on the other, Jesus’ reinterpretation of the law becomes the norm (Kealy 167-177). The King and the gospel of the King get much attention in the book of Matthew. By the King, the book alludes to Jesus, and the Kingdom simply refers to the one thousand year period during which Jesus will reign on the Earth. A time is set when the Kingdom of God will rule over the Earth, with Jesus as the King of Kings and the lord of lords. This has already been alluded to in the twenty first chapter of Matthew as it speaks of the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The Kingdom is important not only to the Jews alone but also to the gentiles, too. The book portrays the evidence of the coming of the King to the Jews, who rejected him, and thus the Kingdom was withdrawn from them till the second coming. Thus, the gospel is universal in the approach where gentiles are recorded to have had an opportunity to share the Kingdom with the Jews, whom they rejected first. Crawford, in his article “Jesus Christ: the King in the book of Matthew,” says that the main themes in this book are the King and his Kingdom. His main message to the readers is that the King came and is to come again. The article studies the book under subtitles, which also serve as the main thematic concerns of the book. These are that the coming of the King was prophesied, the King had and will have his constitution; the King was to be rejected by his subjects; the death of the King and also the second glorious coming of the King for the millennium Kingship. Repentance is also highlighted mainly for the Jews and their nation. To the gentiles, the scripture was meant to bring the reality that only one God existed, and that is the God of the Jews. The love of God, righteousness, seeking the Kingdom of God passionately and the fear of God forms the basis of acquiring the Kingdom of God (Crawford 1-8). The gospel, according to Matthew, portrays an range of literacy character. It was first passed on from one generation to another by word of mouth as education in the ancient world remained by memorization. The Bible was first learnt by heart. Rabbis were respected as the teachers of the Bible, and Matthew reveals the competency of Jesus when referred to as Rabbi. However, the passages learnt by word of mouth and by heart later came to be documented when writing was discovered and widely spread, and this is how the scriptures were written. Nevertheless, Wansbrough, in his article titled “The Gospels of Matthew,” argues that there was an intermediary stage between the tradition way of learning the scriptures and also the coming of the written scripture (Wansbrough 7, 14). A study on the book of Matthew by Kingsburry brought into context the correlation of the name of Jesus as the son of God, as depicted in the prophecies in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The book shows that the son of Mary can legitimately be called the son of David, as the prophecy was. His birth was a fulfillment of a promise given to the house of David by God. Matthew also shows that Jesus was conceived by the means of Holy Spirit, which justifies the title the son of God, and by divine command, Joseph names the child Emmanuel. Another aspect of Christ being son of God is portrayed during his baptism. Matthew argues that Jesus, the son of God, enjoys a great relationship with God as he was chosen to be God’s representative among men. Matthew says that Jesus’ purpose was clear, and that was to reveal the will of God to the world. He does it perfectly through his teaching, healing, raising the dead, feeding multitudes, and his overall lifestyle represented God (Kincsbury 29-31). Another key aspect that the gospel of Matthew brings across is the relationship between the prophets who came before him, such as John the Baptist, and the fulfillment of the prophecies. Chapter 3-4 of the book of Matthew compare the lives of Jesus and that of John the Baptist. John’s life was just as Christ’s in that John preached the Kingdom of God as Jesus did. Jesus came and baptized in the river Jordan as was the habit of John, though John depicts Jesus as more powerful and as God. Jesus, too, is tempted in the wilderness for forty days. Wilderness was John’s dwelling place. This categorical comparison comes in to compare and contrast the assignments given to different personalities by God. There are, therefore, many ways in which one may study the scripture. One major way is through such an analysis as was carried out for the third and fourth chapters of the book of Matthew (Wainwright 36). The book of Matthew has over a long time been ranked first among other gospel books, but only until the recent past as the book is slowly being overtaken by Mark and Luke in popularity. However, this does not necessarily imply that Matthew was the first book to be written. As a matter of fact, some letters of Paul date even forty years before the writing of Matthew while the book of Mark actually dates back as far as twenty five years before the writing of Matthew. A possible reason of the great popularity enjoyed by the book in the past was due to the fact that it contains, basically, all the inscriptions from Mark and some parts from the book of Luke. In a thorough analysis of the modern approach to the gospel, Kealy analyzed a number of recent studies done on the book. A study that took place in West Africa found out that indeed Matthew had been on the lead among other gospel popularity. The sermon on the mountains came to be the most popular among the passages thereon. On the life of Jesus, the legendary triumph entry of Jesus to Jerusalem took the central stage while Jesus’ miracles took the lead in practical living. However, in the contemporary studies Matthew has been noted to lag behind the rest of the gospels; notably, because there are a number of unclear episodes, and there are claims of content dilution due to the influence of the Jewish culture (Kealy 165-166). Conclusion The book of Matthew has been studied over time by scholars. Great interest has always been to understand the rise of the book, the content therein, the writer, and the comparison between the book and other scriptures. A great diversity lies between the book and other pieces of the scripture, such as the other gospels: Mark, Luke and John, the epistles and other books in the Old Testament. However, the book is very rich in message as it is a sum of the other gospels. It is rich in cultural depictions, narrations and other literature forms. The review has cited a chronological arrangement in the format of the book. Having been written by presumably one of the Disciples of Christ, the book is very rich in Jewish customs. However, the message is clearly addressed to the gentiles, as a close comparison between the book and the epistles by the Apostle Paul would show. The supremacy of God is revealed through the ministry of Jesus, right from the prophecies referring to the coming of Messiah. A number of thematic concerns are also illustrated; this range from the prophecy of Christ, the coming of Christ, His ministry, the Sonship, Kingship, and the purpose of God for all mankind being among other key themes. The social setting of the book and theological concerns about the book has also been clearly illustrated. The book is very expansive but very interesting in the contents, and more can still be studied from it. Works Cited Brown, Schuyler. "The Matthean Apocalypse." Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 4 (1979): 2-27. Carter, Warren. “Matthew and the Gentiles: Individual Conversion and/or Systemic Transformation?” Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 26.3 (2004): 259-282. Carter, Warren. “Paying the Tax to Rome as Subversive Praxis: Matthew 17.24-27." Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 76 (1999): 3-31. Constable, Thomas (Dr.). “Notes on Matthew." 2 0 1 2. Web. 16 Nov. 2012. Crawford, Scott. “Jesus Christ: The King in the Book of Matthew.” Bibleone, Web. 17 Nov. 2012. Freeborn, Jack. "The Presence of Christ in Matthew." The Expository Times. Kealy, Sean. “The Modern Approach To Matthew.” Kenyatta College Nairobi, Kenya. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. Kincsbury, Jack Dean. “The Title; Son Of God in Matthew's Gospel.” Sim, David. “Matthew and the Pauline Corpus: A Preliminary Intertextual Study.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 31.4 (2009): 401-422. Wainwright, Elaine."Reading Matthew 3-4: Jesus - Sage, Seer, Sophia, Son Of God." Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 77 (2000): 25-43. Wansbrough, Henry. “The Gospels of Matthew”.1998. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. Read More