T&T Clark Study Guides: Matthew

by John Riches

Publisher:

T&T Clark

, 1997

Overview

In this informative guide, John K. Riches concentrates on the literary origins, character, and history of Matthew’s Gospel. He is interested in oral traditions and the way truth is conveyed, the theological positions adopted by Matthew, the Gospel author’s Christology, and the reception of Matthew’s Gospel in the early church.

Contents

Top Highlights

“According to Allison, Matthew ‘draped the Messiah in the familiar mantle of Moses, by which dress he made Jesus the full bearer of God’s authority’ (p. 277).” (Page 96)

“In short, we may say that Matthew’s Gospel forms one of a group of three which are marked out by their very close agreements in order and detailed phraseology; that they share a common pattern for Jesus’ ministry and agree significantly both in the kinds of activity which they ascribe to him: preaching, teaching, healing and exorcism and in the kind of teaching which he is portrayed as giving: very broadly of a kind for which it is not difficult to find formal parallels in the contemporary Jewish world.” (Page 11)

“Matthew’s community seems to be growing away from the earlier stage of Christianity where wandering, prophetic figures exercised power and influence over small gathered groups.” (Pages 54–55)

“Fundamentally, Matthew, by developing the comparison between Jesus and Moses, is attempting to root the new dispensation in the old, ‘to pour new wine into old wineskins’. Matthew draws freely on the typological resources of the tradition: Jesus, by dint of the comparison with Moses, is seen as the prophet-king, as the Messiah, the miracle worker, the giver of Torah, the medi­ator for Israel and the suffering servant.” (Page 96)

“The claims to authority made for Moses and Jesus are in one sense analogous, inviting us to see them as comparable figures; in another sense they are rivalrous, precisely because of their scope. To say that ‘all authority is given to me’ is by implication to deny that others possess authority. Matthew wants to preserve his lines with the Jewish tradition; but he wants to be the judge of the nature of that continuity.” (Page 98)

Product Details

• Title: T&T Clark Study Guides: Matthew
• Author: John K. Riches
• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Publication Date: 1996
• Pages: 113

About John Riches

John Riches is emeritus professor of divinity and biblical criticism at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of Conflicting Mythologies and T & T Clark Study Guides: Matthew.