THE MATTHEAN ANTITHESES IN RELATION TO THEIR OLD TESTAMENT THESES
THE MATTHEAN ANTITHESES IN RELATION TO THEIR OLD TESTAMENT THESES
Author(s): Joel MarcusSubject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Jewish studies, Theology and Religion
Published by: Universitatea Babes-Bolyai - Centrul de Studii Biblice
Keywords: Matthew; Second Temple Judaism; Torah; legal revisionism; Antitheses;
Summary/Abstract: A pervasive emphasis in the work of Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr has been the relation between ancient Judaism and the New Testament. In an early treatment of the Matthean Antitheses (Matt 5:21-43), Niebuhr emphasized the consonance between the teaching of the Antitheses and Second Temple Jewish thought: the Matthean Jesus is expanding the Torah rather than replacing it. This essay applauds the anti-Marcionite and ecumenical impulse behind Niebuhr’s argument and notes a number of points of agreement with it, but presents a different interpretation of the third, fourth, and fifth Antitheses. Like many biblical writers and later Jewish exegetes, the Matthean Jesus sometimes radically revises the Torah while claiming to uphold it.
Journal: Sacra Scripta
- Issue Year: XIX/2021
- Issue No: 1-2
- Page Range: 123-138
- Page Count: 16
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF