|
|
Jesus Traditions |
The
reader’s patience is requested in the fact that these Jesus
pages are in effect a kind of sub-Web, “piggy-backing” on the
principal Web, http://www.paulonpaul.org,
and thus that the As Paul Tells It . .
. designation at the top of each page is not quite accurate.
The Jesus
Traditions Home Page is readily accessible by clicking on Contents,
to be found at the top and bottom of each page.
|
|
Material
in red = Mark .. in blue
= Q
.. in green = Special Matthew ..
in fuchsia = Special Luke
|
Contents
Matthew’s Tendencies (1)
.. § Jewishness .. Torah as Obligatory .. Fulfillment
of Scripture .. “Kingdom of Heaven” .. Exclusivism
.. § Universalism .. § Anti-Pharisaism
Matthew’s Tendencies (2)
.. § Heightening of End-of-Time Expectation .. § Heightening
of the Miraculous
|
Matthew's Tendencies (3) .. § Theological
Tendency: Toward a Higher Christology .. § Toward
the Idealization of the Apostles
Matthew’s Tendencies (4)
.. § Popular Anecdotal Material .. § Concluding
Observations
|
|
|
It is not surprising that a Christian author, writing
between A.D. 80 and 90, should reflect elements of the church’s Christology
in his gospel account. Once again, this is evident in Matthew’s treatment of Mark.
1. Son of the Living God
Not only does Simon
(Peter) acknowledge Jesus as Messiah, as in Mark, but adds the phrase,
“the Son of the living God”. In effect, Peter in the pre-Easter period
is acknowledging the theology of the church a half century later. (Of
course, it would be difficult to prove that Mark himself is free from
later beliefs.)
|
Matthew 16:15-16 |
Mark 8:29 |
Luke 9:20 |
| 15[Jesus] said to
them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16Simon
Peter answered, “You are the Messiah
[or, the Christ], the Son of the living
God.” |
29[Jesus] asked them, “But who
do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah
[or, the Christ].”
|
20He said
to them, “But
who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Messiah [or the Christ]
of God.”
|
A similar heightening of the
Christology is evident in a previous chapter (Matthew 14:33), in
connection with his walking on the water and calming the sea. Jesus is
represented as receiving the worship of the disciples, who say, “Truly
you are the Son of God.” This text is without parallel in Mark or
Luke, and has the effect of making Peter’s confession in chapter 16
somewhat anticlimactic.
2. The Sinlessness of Jesus, Preserved
As
already noted, Matthew (in 3:15)
at least tries to solve the problem of why Jesus
would submit to baptism by John if he was sinless, by having Jesus declare
that this was the way to fulfill righteousness—and leaving us to wonder
how this would be so. In another passage, The author also takes another precautionary measure,
in his subtle re-working of Jesus’ conversation with the rich man
(called a ruler in Luke, and young in Matthew): Matthew 19:16-30 ||
Mark 10:17-31 || Luke 18:18-30. As will be seen below,
Matthew rewords both the man’s question and Jesus’ answer, so as to remove any
doubt that Jesus was good.
|
Matthew 19:16-17 |
Mark 10:17-19 |
Luke 18:18-20 |
16Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed
must I do to have eternal life?”
|
17As he was setting out on a
journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good
Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
|
18A certain ruler
asked him, “Good
Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
|
17And he said to him, “Why do
you ask me about what is
good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life,
keep the commandments.”
|
18Jesus said to him, “Why do you
call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19You know the
commandments: ‘You shall not murder . . . .’”
|
19Jesus said to him, “Why do you
call me good? No one is good but God alone. 20You know the
commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery . . . .’” |
|
In Mark and Luke, Jesus seems to exclude himself from ranking as good,
whereas in Matthew it is a discussion about what the good is. By stating
that there is only one who is good, Matthew at least leaves open the
possibility that Jesus is the good one.
3. Jesus Not Limited in Power
Lest his readers should
suppose that there was some defect in Jesus’ power, Matthew introduces a
slight change in Mark’s report of the less than successful visit to his
home town of Nazareth.
|
Matthew 13:57-58 |
Mark 6:4-6 |
[Luke] |
| 57. . . But Jesus said to them,
“Prophets are not without honor except in their own country
[= hometown] and in their own house.” |
4Then Jesus said to
them,
“Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown,
and among their own kin, and in their own house.”
|
Cp. 4:16-30
|
| 58And he did not do
many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.
|
5And
he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his
hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6And he was
amazed at their unbelief.
|
|
Perhaps it is this conviction that the power of Jesus is not limited which
lies behind the quasi-legendary material in Matthew 26:52-54.....
|
|
|
§ Toward the Idealization of
the Apostles |
|
It is hardly surprising, in the period A.D. 80-90 when (probably) none of the
apostles still survived, that their portraits should be touched up
here and there by the author of Matthew.
1. James and John
The reputations of James and John are partially
salvaged in that their ill-considered request in Mark for positions of
privilege in Jesus’ kingdom comes out in Matthew as a request made on
their behalf by
their mother!
|
Matthew 20:20 |
Mark 10:35 |
[Luke] |
Then the mother of the
sons of Zebedee came to [Jesus] with
her sons, and kneeling before him, she
asked a favor of him.
|
James and John, the sons
of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you
to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
|
|
|
2. Peter
Peter figures prominently in two enhancements of the esteem in which
people would hold him:
 |
He walks on water (at least for a brief
time), as does Jesus
(Matthew 14:28-31), in an expansion of the narrative in Mark 6:45-52;
and |
|
Later in Matthew, Peter is the one who announces Jesus’ messiahship
and his divine sonship (see above);
then Peter is singled out for further distinction: a blessing is pronounced upon
him; he is named Peter, the rock; the announcement is made that the church is founded upon him (or upon his
confession, as some have argued); and the keys of the kingdom are
bestowed upon him (Matthew 16:16-19). |
|
Matthew 16:15-16 |
Mark 8:29 |
Luke 9:20 |
| 15[Jesus] said to
them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16Simon
Peter answered, “You are the Messiah
[or, the Christ], the Son of the living
God.”
|
29[Jesus] asked them, “But who
do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah
[or, the Christ].”
|
20He said
to them, “But
who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Messiah [or the Christ] of God.”
|
17And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you,
Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this
to you, but my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you, you
are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church (ekklêsia),
and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19I will
give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on
earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be
loosed in heaven.”
|
|
|
In all fairness to Matthew, he does carry over from Mark the rebuke
addressed to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” But otherwise, the
transition into the post-apostolic age (sometimes referred to as the
period of the apostolic fathers) is well under way. In
Matthew’s gospel, Peter is a commanding figure, likely in the interests
of holding the line for
observant Christian Jews in pluralistic centers like Antioch. Ironically,
this prominence of Peter in the Jewish gospel of Matthew seems to have
contributed to a Petrine primacy for what became eventually an exclusively
gentile church, centered in Rome.
3. Institutionalization
Thus we see in these enhancements an
important stage in the institutionalization of the Christian community:
apostolic authority (for better or for worse) is being defined, and, as
the following citation from Matthew implies, church
discipline is being formulated, with the beginnings of what we might call
canon law. |
|
|
Matthew
18:15-18 |
[Mark] |
Luke
17:3 |
| 15If your brother sins
against you, go and tell him his fault,
between you and him alone. If he
listens to you, you have gained
your brother. |
|
Take heed to yourselves;
if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. [RSV]
|
16But if he
does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word
may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17If
he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church (ekklêsia);
and if he refuses to listen even to the church (ekklêsia), let him be to you as
a Gentile and a tax collector. 18Truly, I say to you,
whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. [RSV]
|
|
|
Thus Matthew seems
to have a special interest in the church. Of the synoptic gospels, only Matthew
uses the word
church (ekklêsia). It is not entirely anachronistic for
him to do so, but it does suggest a concern for ecclesiastical discipline
and authority that is different from an earlier, more charismatic period.
|
| Revised
February 15, 2003
|
|
Click Next
button below to continue, with Matthew’s Tendencies (4)
|
|
