Part Two: New Testament Literature
Chapter 9
The Gospel of Matthew
HOME | contents | The
Gospel of Matthew | Vocabulary and StyleFrom the time of Irenaeus (c.180)
the Gospel
of Matthew has been regarded as the earliest of the four gospels to be written,
probably because of a theory of development according to which
Jewish elements
in the Christian books are regarded as prior to universal-Hellenistic ones.
In any event, Matthew is the first gospel for which we have fairly conclusive
external evidence.
Ignatius, writing about 110, almost certainly alludes
to it in one letter (Philad.8, 2)
and makes use of the birth story
in another (Eph.19, 2-3).
II Clement, a Roman document of about
140, refers to Matthew 9:13 as scripture,
and Barnabas, about the same time,
uses Matthew 22:14 in the same way.
If we date the Didache early,
as we probably should, we find frequent references and allusions to Matthew
in it.
It may be that Papias, writing early in the second century,
refers to an
earlier form of our gospel
when he says that
"Matthew compiled the oracles in a Hebrew dialect,
and each one interpreted (translated?) them as best he could"
(Eusebius, H.E.3, 39, 17).
This statement seems to
imply the existence of various Greek versions in Papias's time;
our gospel
would then be one of these.
We do not know exactly what "oracles" means;
it usually is used of Old Testament prophecies understood in relation to
Jesus,
but by extension it may also have included the words of Jesus himself,
or the fulfilment of the prophecies.
Against Papias, it has been claimed,
however, that Matthew cannot be a translation from Hebrew or Aramaic
(even
though some of the Old Testament quotations seem to have come from the Hebrew
Bible).
Especially since it is written in a clear Greek, which reflects an
advance over Mark's style and language.
There is a play on the Greek words "kopsontai" and "opsontai" in
Matthew 24:30.
This claim neglects the wide variety to be found in the work
of translators.
And the play on Greek words can be balanced by Matthew 1:21:
"you shall call his name Jesus,
for it is he who will save his people from their sins"
- "Jesus" and "save" are related in Hebrew ("ieshua" - "ieshoa").
top
Vocabulary and Style
Matthew contains a total of 18,300 words and uses a vocabulary of 1,690
words;
he is the only New Testament writer to use 112 of these (of which seventy-six
occur in the Septuagint).
Among his favourite expressions are these:
mention of God as "Father" forty-live times
(compared with five in Mark, seventeen in Luke) -
including "our
Father", "your Father", "the
Father in the heavens", "the heavenly
Father"
-
and of the kingdom as "the kingdom of the heavens"
"fulfil" (in regard to prophecy), "righteousness,
hypocrite" "weeping and gnashing of teeth".
In addition, there are some words which are less significant theologically
but equally characteristic of his vocabulary:
verbs of motion such as "withdraw" ("anachorein") and
"come to" or ("approach" ("proserchesthai"),
and
favourite connectives like "then" ("tote", ninety
times), "thence" ("ekeithen"), and "just
as" ("hosper").
Less significant, but rather striking, is his repetition of "formulas" such as
"from then he began" (4:17, 16:21),
"do not suppose that I came" (5:17, 10:34),
"sons of the kingdom" (8:12, 13:38),
"to outer darkness" (8:12, 22:13, 25:30),
"the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (10:6, 15:24).
Special notice should be given to the formula,
"He who has ears, let him hear" (11:15,13:9,43)
and the summaries of Jesus' healings (4:23-4, 8:16, 9:35, 14:35).
Matthew also likes to end sections of teaching with the expression,
"And it happened when Jesus finished" (these words, or equivalent).
It occurs five times (7.28, 11:1, 13:53, 19:1, 26:1),
perhaps as a reflection
of the five books of Moses.
He arranges his materials rather systematically;
thus his gospel begins
with a listing of the fourteen generations from Abraham to David,
the fourteen
generations from David to the Babylonian captivity,
and the fourteen generations
from the Babylonian captivity to Jesus Christ (1:1-17).
The sayings of Jesus
are often arranged in groups of threes, fives and sevens.
It is thus all the more surprising when we find more than a dozen sayings
of Jesus given twice,
as well as four sections of narrative.
Since almost
all of the sayings are paralleled once in Mark (usually in the same context
as in Mark),
the most likely explanation is that when Matthew found them
not only in Mark but also in some other source - perhaps oral tradition -
he used them twice.
It is possible that he had already written something
like a gospel (Papias's "compilation of dominical oracles"?) and then revised
it completely by incorporating Mark in it.
The theory of Augustine that Mark is nothing but an abbreviation of Matthew
is untenable because where the two gospels are parallel the style of Matthew
is almost always superior to that of Mark.
It is reasonable to suppose that
Matthew improved upon Mark's style, not that Mark perverted Matthew's.
It
has been claimed that because of its use of Mark, an apostle cannot have
written the gospel;
an apostle cannot have relied upon a book written by
one who was not an apostle.
This claim does not seem very convincing.
We
cannot tell whether or not an apostle would have followed such a procedure.
An apostle might have believed that Mark's outline was largely correct but
needed some revision and some supplementation.
An apostle who proclaimed
the gospel among Jews might have believed that Jewish Christianity, though
ultimately only a part of Catholic Christianity, deserved more adequate representation
than it found in Mark.
But to say what he might or might not have thought
is no substitute for examining the gospel itself.
The author of this gospel presents his portrait of Jesus in a manner not
unlike that used by the rabbis.
He is deeply concerned with the fulfilment
of prophecy; indeed, most of what Jesus did he regards as taking place
"that the scripture might be fulfilled."
Thus the virginal conception was foretold in Isaiah 7:14,
the birth
of Jesus at Bethlehem in Micah 5:2,
the "massacre of the innocents" in Jeremiah
31:15,
and Jesus' absence in Egypt in Hosea 11:1.
Other events in the
life of Jesus are given prophetic antecedents in the same way.
The call of Jesus from Egypt is related to another Old Testament analogy
that the author finds significant.
For him, Jesus is the new Moses.
Just as Pharaoh tried to kill all the sons born to the Hebrews (Exod.1.22),
so Herod slew the little boys of Bethlehem (Matt. 2:16);
but both Moses and Jesus escaped (compare Matt.2.14 with Exod.2.15).
After the king's death both Moses and Jesus returned to the lands where
they were to do God's work (Exod.2.23; 4:19; Matt.2.19-20).
From a mountain top both Moses and Jesus delivered the law which God has
given them (Exod.19-20; Matt.5.1).
In the sermon on the mount Jesus states that he has come to "fulfil" the
law of Moses,
from which no smallest fragment shall pass away until the end of the age
(5:17-18).
To a considerable extent Matthew presents Christianity as a reformed and heightened Judaism.
Whoever breaks one of the least of the commandments will be called least
in the kingdom of heaven
(5:19; Matthew substitutes "heaven" for "God");
What is holy must not be given to dogs, i.e. outsiders (7:6);
The disciples' mission is not to gentiles or Samaritans
but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (10:5-6; cf. 15:24).
Those who take flight in the last times will be fortunate if the crisis does
not come in the winter (as in Mark 13:18)
or on a Sabbath (Matthew's addition,
24:20).
Matthew's model is the scribe to whom he refers (13:52),
one who brings out of his treasure things new and old -
and arranges them systematically.
At the same time, Matthew's interests are not solely rabbinical.
He is concerned with Mark's Greek style and often improves it as he copies
from the earlier gospel.
He also seems to have some definite theological
interests as he sets forth his picture of Jesus and the disciples.
For
one thing, he omits nine Marcan references to the human indignation, anxiety
or compassion of Jesus, and four references to his human inability to do
what he wished.
He modifies eleven instances of questions, which Jesus
asked.
The best example of this tendency is to be found in Matthew 19:17
Mark 10:18) - this has already been discussed.
In addition, Matthew omits
some of the passages in which Jesus rebuked his ignorant or faithless disciples.
He regards the apostles (a word he uses as Mark did not) more highly than
Mark did, and he represents Peter as receiving a special promise (16:17-19)
and, like Jesus, walking on water (14:28-31).
Matthew is a Christian who knows that the gospel was intended not only for Jews but also for gentiles - or rather,
"to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Rom.1.16).
The original "sons of the kingdom" will be
cast into outer darkness (8:12);
the kingdom will be taken away from the Jews and given to a nation, which
brings forth its fruits (21:43);
and at the crucifixion the whole people declares,
"His blood be upon us and upon our children" (27:25).
The kingdom is for the Church.
Matthew is the only evangelist who uses the word "ecclesia" and he does so at two significant points.
- In Mark, Peter's confession (8:27) is at least partly rejected by
Jesus.
In Matthew (16:17-19) Jesus blesses Peter because his confession comes from God, not from man;
and he declares that on the rock (either of the confession-revelation or of Peter himself) he will build his Church,
against which the gates of Hades will not be able to prevail.
The Church's decisions will be ratified in heaven. - Again, Matthew provides a procedure for the consideration
of wrongs done to Christians by Christians.
If private consultation proves unsuccessful, the matter is to be brought before the Church;
and if the offender refuses to hear the Church, he is to be excommunicated (18:15-18; cf. I Cor.5.1-6.11).
The Church's decision, again, will be confirmed by God, and by Christ (18:19-20; cf. I Cor.5.4).
Because of his concern for the situation of the Church,
Matthew expresses the Lord's Prayer (6:9-13) in a form more "liturgical" than that in Luke (11:2-4).
He also modifies Mark's absolute prohibition of divorce (10:9-12)
by adding an escape clause, "except for fornication" (Matt.19.9; cf. 5:32).
His interest in the contemporary situation is also reflected in his report of a contemporary controversy between Jews and Christians about the empty tomb (27:62-6; 28:11-15).
Apparently, as in the example provided by this controversy, he has a tendency
to accept legends without much, if any, critical analysis.
In this regard
he is not very different from most people in his time.
For him, more than
for the other evangelists, prophetic dreams are significant;
examples are
provided by the dreams of Joseph (analogous to those of the Old Testament
Joseph?)
which predict the early events in Jesus? life (1:20-3; 2:13, 19-22),
the dream of the Magi (2:12), and the dream of Pilate's wife (27:19),
which
showed Pilate that Jesus was a "righteous man" (27:24).
A certain field in Jerusalem is called "the field
of blood"
because
the priests bought it with the money, which Judas refused to keep (27:3-10).
At the time of Jesus' death there was an earthquake (as not in the other
gospels)
and
"many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,
and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection
they entered into the holy city [note the Jewish expression] and appeared to many" (27:52-3).
Matthew's story of the coin in the fish's mouth (resembling a tale told by Herodotus 3, 42) is found only in his gospel (17:24-7).
The presence of these legendary elements, however, does not prove that Matthew
transmits nothing but legend.
It shows only that in some instances he did
transmit legends, and that his book was not aimed directly at those who preferred
historical testimony (Luke tells none of these stories).
It may be that he
included them simply to illustrate the universal outreach of the gospel,
on
which he lays great emphasis at the end of his book. In the last chapter
Jesus appears to two women near Jerusalem (28:9),
but whereas Luke and John
make Jerusalem the centre of the appearances of the risen Lord,
Matthew remains
faithful to the Marcan tradition that he appeared to his disciples in "Galilee
of the gentiles" (28:10, 16; cf. 4:15).
There he commanded them to make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
and teaching them to keep his commandments;
for he would be with them until the end of the age (28:19-20).
Matthew's universalizing concern is also reflected in the great apocalyptic
parables, which he alone relates.
He is deeply interested in the end of the
age,
when the wicked will finally be separated from the good by the angels
(13:47-50),
and the nature of the end is illustrated in the parables of the
Wise and Foolish Virgins (25:1-12)
and of the Sheep and the Goats at the
last judgement (25:31-46).
He is also interested in the fact that in this
present age no such separation takes place.
The special materials of Matthew, then,
and his own religious interpretation
of the story of Jesus
point in the direction of an apocalyptic-minded Christianity
emerging from Judaism in the direction of a universalizing Catholicism.
Since
this gospel was a favorite of the second-century Church,
it is not only obvious
that Matthew's emphases strongly influenced his successors
but also that
these successors were in sympathy with the emphases.
This conclusion does
not imply, however, that the materials and emphases were necessarily selected
because of the "needs of the situation" alone.
There was something about
the teaching of Jesus which Matthew found meaningful
and which he transmitted
because of his belief that it not only was meaningful
but also came from
Jesus himself.
top