Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 64:1 (NA 2013)
Article: ‘I Will Save My People From Their Sins’ The Influence Of Ezekiel 36:28b-29a; 37:23b On Matthew 1:21
Author: Nicholas G. Piotrowski

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‘I Will Save My People From Their Sins’
The Influence Of Ezekiel 36:28b-29a; 37:23b
On Matthew 1:21

Nicholas G. Piotrowski

Summary

Matthean scholars are nearly unanimous that LXX Psalm 129:8 [MT 130:8] is the allusive background to Matthew 1:21 notwithstanding formidable semantic differences. Ezekiel 36:28b-29a; 37:23b, however, provides a more convincing and more fruitful conceptual background for Matthew’s programmatic verse. Semantic and thematic considerations bear this out. The result of reading Matthew 1:21 through the lens of Ezekiel 36:28b-29a; 37:23b is the selection of frames for reading the rest of the gospel in terms of the prophet’s vision for Israel’s restoration from exile.

1. Introduction

The first gospel begins with a startling declaration that Jesus ‘will save his people from their sins’. There are only two verses in the entire Old Testament where salvation is from an internal moral enemy. Ezekiel 36:29a reads, ‘And I will save you from all your defilements’.1 Ezekiel 37:23b reads, ‘But I will save them from all their assemblies in which they sinned’. All other uses of יָשַׁע/σῴζω (‘save’) in the OT regard historically identifiable oppressors external to a group or individual.2

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Given this rarity, Matthew’s declaration at 1:21 that Jesus will ‘save his people from their sins’ is extraordinary on a semantic level. Should this direct interpreters back to these two texts in the OT to reflect on the meaning of Jesus’ name and calling?3 If so, the reader’s surprise is doubled by the observation that in Ezekiel 36:28b-29a; 37:23b it is Yhwh himself who saves from sins.4 But the evangelist asserts that

TynBull 64:1 (2013) p. 35

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