Matthew’s gospel – second lecture

1. Matthew’s gospel – second lecture “Secret Mark” Matthew’s infancy narrative Themes of Matthew The “five discourses”

2. A backward glance at “Secret Mark” • “Secret Mark” was discovered (if it was discovered) in 1958 by Morton Smith, a biblical scholar, in an 18th cent. text of Clement of Alexandria, handwritten into the endpapers of the book. • Smith photographed it, and the original was apparently seen by four other scholars in the library. • The book was transferred from the Mar Saba library to the Patriarchal library in Jerusalem, and no one has seen the mss. pages since. • So there’s considerable doubt about authenticity – two books in 2005, one in 2006 make the case that this was a forgery by Morton Smith (who died in 1991). • The suggestion, in the handwritten text purporting to be by Clement, is that another version of Mark existed, which told the events given in Secret Mark. • Was the boy understood to be coming for initiation, baptism? • The Carpocratians gave an alternate interpretation, implying a homosexual affair with Jesus. • But the Carpocratians were a notorious gnostic sect, believing one needed to liberate oneself from the world by a multitude of illicit practices. • So is “Secret Mark” a trace of another version of the gospel of Mark? • An ancient forgery (perhaps by the Carpocratians)? • Or a modern forgery?

3. Matthew’s infancy narrative • Entirely different from Luke’s. • They share only four things: • Names of parents; • Virgin birth (but described differently); • Birth in Bethlehem (but explained differently). • Nazareth and Galilee (but explained differently in each.) • All other details completely different. • In both Bethlehem has symbolic rather than literal significance. • Mark and Paul say nothing of a miraculous conception for Jesus. • Modern scholarship sees infancy stories as essentially mythic or legendary accounts.

4. Character of Matthew’s infancy narrative • Darker than Luke’s? • Joseph’s desire to dismiss Mary. • Story of Herod and magi, slaughter of children. • Passages of Hebrew Scriptures seem to motivate the account: Hosea, Jeremiah. • Matthew’s story neither historical nor fictional, rather symbolic and theological. • The point being what the symbolic means, not what literally occurred.

5. Matthew and the Law • “Do not suppose that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets . . .” 5:17. • “. . . until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass away until all is accomplished.” • And “whoever breaks one of the least commandments and teaches others to do so . . .” • Will be called least in the kingdom. • Which must mean Paul! • And everywhere Matthew ties his gospel to passages of Hebrew Scriptures. • “Golden rule” at 7: 12: “This is the law and the prophets.” • Which was also the teaching of Rabbi Hillel, one of the two leading Pharisaic teachers contemporary with Jesus: "do not unto another what you would abhor to have done to yourself.“ • See also J’s commission to disciples at 10: 5-6.

6. Jesus and Pharisees in Matthew • While being the most “Jewish” of the gospels, M. is also the most anti-Pharisaic. • John attacks Pharisees and Saducees right at beginning: 3: 7-10. • Various other attacks on “hypocrites” in ch. 6. • And implied in ch. 10: 17-23. • Chapter 23 the harshest attack in the NT on the Pharisees.  • In fact the historical Jesus probably agreed with much of the Pharisaic program. • Agreed with them, against the Saducees, about the “resurrection of the dead” and judgment after death. • Why the hostility in Matthew? • The historical circumstances after 85 CE.

7. What Matthew adds to the portrait of Jesus he found in Mark. • First, how can we define, summarize the Jesus portrayed in Mark? • Teaches, yes, but between active works that define the kingdom. • Something of a wonder-worker? • Matthew’s Jesus? • Predominantly a teacher, a rabbi. • See the added amount of teaching material in Matthew: all of Q, plus 8 parables, 14 separate teachings.

8. Matthew’s organization of the teaching material • Into five discourses: • “Sermon on the Mount,” Chapters 5 to 7. • "Missionary discourse", ch. 10. • Parables of the kingdom, ch. 13. • Teaching about church (actually rather miscellaneous teaching), ch. 18. • Anathemas and discipleship, chs. 23, 24-25.

9. The “Sermon on the Mount” • The mountain setting may be chosen to suggest authority (Luke puts the discourse “on the plain”). • Not really a sermon, but a group of sayings. • The “beatitudes” from Q: four sayings: the poor, the hungry, those who mourn, those who are reviled. • Luke’s version: 6:20-22. • Matthew’s discourse expands this to nine. • Adding sayings on meek, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, those “persecuted for righteousness.” • And changes the focus somewhat of those directed toward “poor,” “hunger,” “mourning.” • The effect of the additions in Matthew?

10. “Sermon” continued: other themes: • Refinement of teachings from Law: • Murder > anger; • Adultery > looking with lust; • Divorce > no divorce (“except for unchastity”); • Swearing falsely > no swearing at all; • “Eye for an eye” > no resistance at all. • Love your neighbor > love your enemy! • Interiority of righteousness: • Hide your almsgiving. • Pray in secret. • Fast secretly. • Avoidance of anxiety: set kingdom first

11. “Lord’s prayer” • The Aramaic Kaddish and the Lord's Prayer: • Kaddish, now the Jewish prayer at death, was a simple benediction of God. • Kaddish: “Magnified and sanctified be his great name in the world which He hath created according to his will.” • Lord’s prayer: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed [sanctified] be your name.” • Kaddish: “May He establish his kingdom during your life and during your days, and during the life of all the house of Israel, ever speedily and at a near time, and say ye, Amen.” • Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

12. “Do unto others”: • “In everything do unto others as you would have them do unto you; for this is the Law and the prophets” (7:12). • Rabbi Hillel: “Do not do unto others what you would not have them do to you.” • Both this teaching and the Lord’s Prayer indicate the rabbinic nature of these teachings. • Including the use of “Abba” to refer to God – “an invocation in which reverence and intimacy are mingled” (Geza Vermes). • Dead sea scrolls (Qumran) also address God as Father. • A close relationship between these teachings of Jesus and the Judaism of his time.

13. “Missionary discourse”: ch. 10 • Coordinates with passages in Mark (6:8-11) and Luke (6: 12-16, 9: 2-5) • But Matt. 10: 17-25 is almost entirely unique -- • Suggesting the time when Matthew was written and the tensions and hostilities of that time. • Persecution in synagogues, “before governors and kings.” • Betrayal within families. • “Hated by all” because of his name. • Reflective of time late in the first century. • As we saw, there’s a kind of dual time scheme – Jesus speaks over the decades to Matthew’s community.

14. Parables of the kingdom • The reason for speaking in parables explicitly fulfills prophecy: 13: 14-16. • Parable of the weeds growing in grain – its meaning? 13: 36-43. • Parable of hidden treasure and the pearl of great value. • Parable of the net. • Any connections among them? • Judgment?