Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 73:2 (Fall 2011)
Article: Matthew’s Vision Of The Old And New In Jesus: The Social World Of The Matthean Community Vis-À-Vis Matthew’s Understanding Of Torah
Author: Kangtaek Peter Lee

---

WTJ 73:2 (Fall201 1) p. 376

Matthew’s Vision Of The Old And New In Jesus: The Social World Of The Matthean Community Vis-À-Vis Matthew’s Understanding Of Torah

Kangtaek Peter Lee

The emerging consensus of Matthean scholars is that, with regard to its view of the law, Matthew’s Gospel is the most “conservative” or traditionally Jewish document in the NT. This evaluation is largely based upon the “conservative” attitude toward Torah allegedly evinced in Matt 5:17-19. Scholars argue that the Matthean community is a law-observing Jewish-Christian group, which was operating within the framework of broader first-century Judaism. There was a resultant struggle between the Matthean group and contemporary Pharisaic Judaism (intra muros).

In this dissertation, I argue that Matthew’s view of the law is not, as is often claimed, “conservative,” “traditional,” or “reactionary,” but radical in its redefinition of the function and character of Torah. Current Matthean scholarship is fundamentally flawed in neglecting first-century Jewish-Christian hermeneutical concerns in its handling of Matthew’s understanding of Torah. Since Matthew is most likely a Jewish Christian, his thought world is based upon the dominant story of God’s creation, fall, and selection of Israel, of which Torah is a part. For this very reason, in order to understand Matthew’s view of Torah, I first investigate the dominant story of Israel (Israel’s calling, the temple, and the promised land) and then the function of Torah within this story. Keeping the Jewish worldview in mind, I then examine the view of Torah in the early phase of the Second Temple period and in the Second Temple documents respectively. While the works of those periods proclaim “the immutability of Torah” and the application of the covenant charter to the everyday life of the covenant community, it can be seen that Matthew’s understanding of Torah does not precisely reflect this idea. Rather, his understanding of Torah is radically christotelic, and some halakhic stipulations are refocused by this christotelic perspective. I argue that his radical hermeneutics must be understood from the perspective of the renewed story of Israel. When Jesus, through the resurrection, became the unexpected and surprising ending to the dominant story, all of its components had to be reinterpreted in line with this astonishing ending.

The majority of current Matthean scholars are of the opinion that (1) Matt 5:17-20 shows Matthew’s conservative, traditional, or reactionary understanding of Torah, and (2) the driving force behind placing this passage’s statement of the law into the mouth of the Matthean Jesus is either ...

visitor : : uid: ()