24) The Structure of the Gospel of Matthew

 The Structure of the Gospel of Matthew

Prologue

                  Genealogy 1:1-17 ( Jesus’ place in God’s saving history – God with us - Immanuel)

                  Infancy narrative 1:18-2:23 ( in five scenes )

                                    Annunciation 1:18-25
                                    Magi 2:1-12
                                    Flight to Egypt 2:13-15
                                    Massacre of Innocents 2:16-18
                                    Return to Nazareth 2:19-23

Preparations for Jesus' ministry

                  The ministry of John the Baptist 3:1-12

                  Jesus' baptism (announced as Son) 3:13-17

                  Temptation 4:1-12 (tempted as Son)

                  The light dawns 4: 13-16

Jesus' Galilean ministry

                  Introduction  4: 17-25

                                 Summary of Jesus' message of the kingdom 4:17

                                 Call of  the first disciples 4:18-22

Summary of Jesus' ministry of teaching, preaching and healing 4:23- 25 ( Jesus reveals what the Good News looks like)

                  1st major discourse: The sermon on the Mount 5:1-7:29 ( Jesus as the New Moses )

A cycle of miracle stories 8:1-9:32 (themes of following and Jesus' authority ) ( Who is this? The suffering servant who carries us Mt 8:17))

                  2nd major discourse: The disciples are commissioned 10:1-11:1

Jesus' ministry and identity are questioned misunderstood and opposed 11:2-12:50 which leads Jesus to judge his own generation. ( Jesus the suffering servant  Mt 12:18-20)

                  3rd major discourse: The Parables of the Kingdom 13:1-52

Narrative section 13:53 -17:27 (section in which Jesus' identity continues to be questioned and witnesses Jesus' attention turning to the disciples who will recognize Jesus as Messiah and Son of God . Jesus turns towards Jerusalem but will need to educate the disciples to be prepared for the Passion) 

                  4th major discourse: The community rule 18:1-19:1

Narrative section 19:2-20:34 in which Jesus continues to prepare the disciples as they learn about the values of the kingdom.

Jesus' Jerusalem ministry

                  21:1-23:39 After Jesus' entry into the city the opposition is defeated and

                  judged in a number of scenes culminating in the woes upon the Pharisees and Jerusalem.

                  5th major discourse: The eschatological discourse 24:1-25:46

26:1-27:66 The Passion narrative (the Son who gives his life as a ransom for many is betrayed, abandoned, blasphemed and recognised)

28: 1-20 The Resurrection and commission to baptise and preach the gospel to all nations.   (The Risen One sends us to the world and will be with us till the end of time )

23) Welcome to New Testament studies at Holy Cross in 2015

Welcome to our second year of bible studies at Holy Cross following the Discipleship program.  For those of you who are new to the blog you are always welcome to ask questions, especially those you may feel reticent to ask when we are in the larger group.

I will do what I can to provide you with resources and point you in the right direction towards the answers!!

best wishes

Chris

22) Disciple program week 5 - History of the Exodus

In Psalm 136:10-16 God is praised as the one who intervened on behalf of the people of Israel 

        who struck Egypt through their firstborn,
for his steadfast love endures forever; 
        and brought Israel out from among them,
for his steadfast love endures forever; 
  with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
for his steadfast love endures forever; 
who divided the Red Sea in two,
for his steadfast love endures forever; 
and made Israel pass through the midst of it,
for his steadfast love endures forever; 
  but overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea,
for his steadfast love endures forever; 
  who led his people through the wilderness,
               for his steadfast love endures forever; 


From a historical point of view it is important to determine, as best we can, what happened when a group of people under the leadership of Moses left Egypt in a quest for freedom that would come to be known as the Exodus.  There is a natural and understandable desire to get behind the biblical narrative to the facts.  How are we to deal with the fact that an event that loomed so large for the people of Israel is not even mentioned in Egyptian sources? One one level the issue is one of whether the biblical narrative can be trusted or not as historically accurate. But there are other considerations as well, and these concern the ways in which events of national significance were recorded in the Ancient Near East at that time,  and the ways in which original events were then reinterpreted and used as a means of shaping the religious and national identity of the people of Israel. In some ways we are on firmer ground when our focus shifts from what happened, to what it came to mean. The Exodus was a moment that shaped Israel's national consciousness, and its understanding of God acting in history.

A contemporary example may be be helpful here. The Gallipoli landing in the first world war and the events that followed have shaped three nations: Australia, New Zealand and Turkey. For Australian and New Zealand troops it was a baptism of fire and, despite great courage and fortitude, a defeat. For Modern Turks it was the birth of a new nation and a victory in the face of almost overwhelming odds. One of the great ironies of history is that all these nations have great respect for one another, and the annual remembrance services that take place at Gallipoli have served to unify rather that divide! It has become a sacred place for all three nations. It is not that what happened and the subsequent understanding of these events are at odds with one another, so much a matter that the meaning and significance have grown with the passage of time in ways that the participants would never have expected. From a  Christian perspective it is easy to find a parallel in the brutal and shameful death of Jesus that came to be interpreted as an act of love, the definitive moment of God's saving activity, and as a model for Christian life. Yes, Jesus died on a Cross, but what it means for Christians is something that continues to grow and develop.

The portrayal of God as remembering the covenant and acting for the people of Israel is a powerful and moving one that comes through the narrative of the Exodus, but there are other disturbing elements from a Christian perspective, in particular,  the way in which  God hardens the heart of Pharaoh that leads to the suffering of the people of Egypt. What kind of God is portrayed here, and what might help us understand why God is depicted in this way? It is important to remember the function of these traditions for a wounded and often powerless people. Make no mistake, the people of Israel were often in the situation of being a powerless or subject people under the power of the  Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Seleucids or Romans. Part of the agenda in the theme of hardening the heart of Pharaoh was that showing Pharaoh, or any other foreign ruler for that matter, who really had the power of life and death.

The links below provide two contrasting views about what archaeology can confirm regarding some of the details of the Exodus narrative.

Egyptologists and the Exodus
Prof Dever speaks about memory, tradition and archeology

21) Why does the God of the Old Testament seem so different to the loving father spoken of by Jesus?

Just the other night in our Bible study the observation was made to the effect that the God of the Old Testament  seems a very different God to the one spoken of by Jesus. It can be a bit of a shock to encounter texts that portray God as vengeful, punishing, jealous and demanding.  At the same time there are comforting texts that speak of the mercy of God and God's compassion not only for Israel, but for all creation. How do we make sense of the strong contrasts between these points of view?

One of the first things to remember is that Israel's understanding of God developed over time and that the Old Testament preserves different perspectives, sometimes even within the same period. There are texts that will focus on God's power to punish such as:

Lev. 26:18 And if in spite of this you will not obey me, I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins.

Psa. 59:5 You, LORD God of hosts, are God of Israel.
Awake to punish all the nations;
spare none of those who treacherously plot evil.

Is. 13:11 I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,
and lay low the insolence of tyrants.

These texts, like all texts, need to be interpreted and their purpose understood within their original context. Israel was often in a situation where it needed to be reminded that their God was, despite appearances, a God of power more than equal to the high gods of the nations that surrounded them. It was only natural that their language would reflect that of their contemporaries. If God was not acting for them how was this to be understood? If they were suppressed by more powerful nations, or in exile was it that their God was powerless, or was God punishing them for their sins? The people of the Old Testament needed to understand their history and if calamities befell them then this was often seen through the filter of being a direct punishment for the sins of individuals, or the nation.

This is not the only point of view that we encounter in the Old Testament.  By way of contrast there are texts that speaks poignantly of  Israel's God as the one who listens to the cries of the people:

Ex. 3:7 Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings "

Deut. 26:7 we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 

 Psa. 40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry. 

The God of Israel's tradition was the one that Jesus called Father and there are plenty of texts that talk of the mercy of God rather than judgement.  A great example is God's self disclosure after the episode of the people's idolatry in Ex 32.

Ex. 34:6 The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed,
“The LORD, the LORD,
a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness"

The traditions found within the prophets will speak of judgement, but they also speak of graciousness and mercy.

Joel 2:13 "rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the LORD, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing."

It is worth reflecting on the fact that even among Christians today there are those more comfortable with a vengeful God rather than a merciful one. It should not surprise us that the same variation can be found within the Old Testament itself!

Karen Armstrong is well recognised for her work in the area of comparative religions and in tracing the development of the understanding of God. You may be interested in her work in this area and in the development of the idea of the Golden Rule and compassion within the major religions.

Karen Armstrong on the Roots of Religion

20) Covenant - Disciple Program week 4

One of the key concepts in the Old Testament is that of the covenant relationship between the people of Israel and their God. Being in this covenant relationship defined them as a people set apart, but it also challenged them to faithfulness to the living God, and living in right relationship with other members of the covenant community.

The first covenant is that with Noah:

 Gen. 9:11 "I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 

The next covenant is that with Abram and renewed under his new name Abraham in Gen 15.

 Gen. 15:18-21 "On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” 

Gen. 17:2 "And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly  numerous.” 

The covenant with the people of Israel looms large within the Pentateuch and it is the covenant with Moses at Sinai/Horeb that will take pride of place in Israel's imagination because now it is not just a covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but now the people are involved and must voice their own response. Moses is instructed by God to remind the people that:

 Exod. 19:5-6  "Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my   treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”  

For their own part the people now respond:  “Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do.” Exod 19:8.

This covenant will be renewed in the book of Deuteronomy (the second law) when the new generation of the people of Israel prepare to enter the land, and are reminded that the covenant made at Horeb is now made with them, and they are called to bind themselves to it.

Deut. 5:2-3  "The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.  Not with our ancestors did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. "

Photo By: G. Dall’Orto

Covenants and treaties in the Ancient Near East

This pattern of stipulations and acceptance is part of the making of treaties, agreements and covenants that were well established in the Ancient Near East.



Suzerainty/Vassal treaties were made between a great monarch and a lesser king and usually had six parts:

      1) Preamble
      2) Historical prologue
      3) Stipulations
      4) Provisions for treaty deposit & public reading
      5) List of Divine witnesses to the treaty
      6) Blessings & curses (for fidelity or infidelity to
          the treaty)

Parity treaties, as the name suggests, were made between two parties of equal status and these were made between rulers forging alliances, merchants in establishing trade agreements, and in marriage contracts between the father of the bride and the groom (the bride was not seen to be of equal status with the groom).

Another form of treaty was that of land that was gifted to a loyal subject as a reward for faithful service. In these treaties it is the donor who makes the promise of the land and there are no demands made of the recipient.

The Old Testament covenants share many of the elements of contemporary Ancient Near Eastern covenants and treaties, but they do not fit these patterns exactly. Clearly the God of Israel takes the role of the greater monarch, as in Vassal treaties but it is interesting to note that in Israel's history, for all the stipulations and agreed blessings and curses, God is always faithful, even when Israel is not.

Psa. 105:8-10  "He is mindful of his covenant forever, of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant "

Is. 54:10 "For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you."

19) Were there giants in Genesis?

The movie Noah has given rise to a number of questions from our study group, and one of those concerns the giants that feature in the movie, and whether there is any scriptural basis for them. The first thing to say is that the movie is a creative adaptation and there is no mention of eight-armed giants fighting with Noah in the Old Testament. In providing background for the Flood story Gen 6:1-4 mentions the Nephilim which some versions of the Bible translate as 'giants.' The New Revised Standard Version  transliterates the Hebrew word without indicating what it means, whereas other versions have opted to provide a meaning for the term such as giants. There are two texts in which the term Nephilim occurs in the Old Testament, the first being Gen 6:1-4.

When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the LORD said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown. 

The Nephilim are also mentioned in Numbers 13:33" There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”  

The passage from Numbers would certainly support the idea of these people being larger and stronger than the people of Israel. Gen 6:4 describes them as heroes and warriors. Whether they were a race of giants as we would consider it remains to be seen, and in our own experience there is considerable difference in the stature of races. On the basis of the report of the size and strength of the Nephilim the people of Israel lose faith in God, and their ability to enter into the land of promise. It is for this reason that the people will then be punished by having to remain in the desert wandering until the next generation who would have the courage and faith to enter the land. The tradition about Goliath might support the idea of a larger race of people, but it could just as easily refer to a person who was a great warrior who was larger and stronger than the usual range.

The meaning of the word Nephilim is uncertain and it has given rise to much speculation over the centuries. Because it comes from the Hebrew verb 'to fall' it later became associated with fallen angels. The Hebrew of  Gen 6:4 is unclear whether the Nephilim mentioned are the same as the sons of God that feature in the same verse. A verse such as this has been used as evidence for visitors from other planets and I would suggest that great care needs to be taken to establish the meaning of the text before engaging in such speculation. The phrase  'the sons of God' has been interpreted as meaning angels, royal figures, or the godly descendants of Seth. There are times when we have to admit to the limits of our ability to unravel the meaning of an ancient text that has been interpreted and reinterpreted over centuries, and this is one of them! It is difficult enough to determine what the tradition about the Nephilim meant in its original context, and this complexity is further increased by the manner in which this ancient tradition is then incorporated into the book of Genesis.

18) Were there Old Testament tools that helped Christians deal with Jesus' death?

Since we have entered into Holy Week it is an opportune time to take you back in time to the days of the first generation of Christians and the ways they made sense of the death of Jesus. St Paul in the letter to the Corinthians expressed succinctly the enormous challenge they faced: " For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles " 1 Cor. 1:22-23. Jesus' brutal death was seen as a punishment by Rome for a failed attempt to set up an alternate ruler to the Emperor. Jesus was killed under the charge of sedition. While that may not have been a problem for those Jewish circles that opposed Roman rule, such as the Zealots and Essenes, it was a problem for the ruling elite made up of the Herodians and the Sadducees. Jesus, and those who followed him, were naturally seen to be subversive and viewed with suspicion. 

One resource that lay readily at hand from the Old Testament was that of the suffering of the righteous a theme often explored in the Old Testament, particularly in the Wisdom literature and the martyr tradition that developed in the inter-testamental period.

Psa. 94:21 They band together against the life of the righteous,
and condemn the innocent to death. 
Psa. 37:32   The wicked watch for the righteous,
and seek to kill them. 

Wis. 2:12 “Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,
because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law"

Wis. 3:5 -6 Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good,
because God tested them and found them worthy of himself; 
 like gold in the furnace he tried them,
and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them. 

This rich tradition helps us to understand that when Jesus dies in Luke 23:47 the centurion will not declare Jesus to be the Son of God, as in Mark 15:39, but one who is just and innocent. In this Luke refers to the well developed tradition of the suffering and vindication of the righteous.

We are all used to the moving and powerful text from Isa 52:13-53:12 that has shaped the imagination of countless Christians over the centuries that speaks of the mysterious figure called the suffering servant who carries the burdens of others. Matthew makes use of this figure to unpack the meaning of the ministry and the death of Jesus as having a saving power for others “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases” Matt 8:17. 

The Passover also provides a rich background in which early Christians could see the death of Jesus, particularly with Jesus identifying his sacrifice of self  in Matt 26:28 as a new covenant in his blood that is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. The death of Jesus is then a means used to bring humanity into right relationship with God. Both Mark 10:45 and Matt 20:28 preserve the saying of  Jesus as the Son of Man who comes to give his life as a ransom for others.

It was only to be expected that Jewish Christians would delve deep into their own tradition to provide a frame of reference in which the death of Jesus could be appreciated, and its deeper meaning in God's saving plan be understood and then communicated to others. Their creative re-reading of their own tradition provided them with a means to convey their profound belief that the death of Jesus was no accident, on either God's part or by Jesus himself. As Gal 2:20 expresses it "the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."