O Woman, Great is Your Faith! Faith in the Gospel of Matthew
Ebook
Overview
The concept of “faith” holds a central position in New Testament and early Christian thought, yet this concept has not received the careful attention it deserves in the Synoptic Gospels. The present study offers a comprehensive analysis of “faith” as a key motif in the Gospel of Matthew, where it plays a major role in communicating this Gospel’s vision for how readers should respond to the person and message of Jesus. The argument propounded is that Matthew’s unique narrative portrayal of the Canaanite woman’s faith (15:21-28) is used for pedagogical purposes, namely, that by comparing and contrasting her “great faith” with those characters expressing “no faith” and “little faith,” Matthew uses Jesus’s quantitative πίστ-terms to teach on the nature of true faith. She embodies Matthew’s theological vision of faith! Even though she is a gentile outsider/enemy, she comprehends the universal scope and abundant blessings of Jesus’s mission. Moreover, she acknowledges Jesus’s messianic identity, correctly perceiving him to be both David’s royal heir and David’s Lord. Finally, based on who she perceives Jesus to be and the purpose of his mission, she demonstrates faith as trust manifested in action.
“Douglas O’Donnell takes his readers down into the depths of the
meanings of ‘faith’ in the Gospel of Matthew in ways that no other
author I know has ever done. Using the Canaanite woman’s faith as
his major model through all of Matthew’s multiple faith passages,
one comes away from his Aberdeen doctoral dissertation longing to
re-incarnate that dear woman’s spirit.”
—Frederick Dale Bruner, Fuller Theological Seminary
“The nature of faith in the Gospel of Matthew has not been
previously explored in any detail. Through his exploration of this
topic O’Donnell demonstrates his scholarly creativity with fresh
insights in a persuasive argument that, beyond its own immediate
topic, contributes as well to a greater understanding of the
Gospel’s thematic structure and theological message.”
—John Nolland, Trinity College, Bristol
“Douglas O’Donnell’s monograph is by far the most thorough
treatment of the theme of faith in Matthew. Rightly grasping the
centrality of the story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew’s vision
of faith, he has succeeded not only in explicating the
relationships among ‘no faith,’ ‘little faith,’ and ‘great faith’
in the First Gospel, but also in synthesizing Matthew’s portrayal
of faith in Jesus that might well be a narrative counterpart of
faith in Pauline theology.”
—Maureen Yeung Marshall, Evangel Seminary, Hong Kong
- Title: O Woman, Great is Your Faith! Faith in the Gospel of Matthew
- Author: Douglas Sean O'Donnell
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2021
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781725295926, 9781725295902, 9781725295919, 172529592X, 1725295903, 1725295911
- Resource ID: LLS:9781725295926
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-05-25T10:38:43Z