Reading the Old Testament in the New: The Gospel of Matthew
Lesson Two
Son of David, Son of Abraham
Lesson Objectives
1. To read Matthew 1-2 with understanding.
2. To learn the Old Testament history and background behind the quotations and allusions used in the prologue to Matthew's gospel.
3. To gain a fuller appreciation of Matthew's depiction of Jesus as a "new Moses."
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Lesson Outline
I. Review and Overview
II. Matthew's 'Book of the Law'
III. The Genesis of Jesus
a. Son of Abraham, Son of David
b. Formula for a Divine Birth
IV. Putting the Messiah in His 'Place'
a. The King from Bethlehem
b. Magi from the East
c. Son Out of Egypt
V. Study Questions
I. Review and Overview
In our last lesson, we talked generally about the changing attitudes of scholars studying the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament.
We wrapped up by looking at the findings of C.H. Dodd. He concluded that the Old Testament formed the "narrative sub-structure" for the New Testament. What he meant was that the history of Israel - events, characters, places - form the background for everything we read in the New Testament.
What that means for us, as readers of the New Testament, is that we have to pay close attention, not only to direct quotes from Old Testament sources, but also to echoes, allusions, and other more subtle references to the Old Testament.
In this lesson we want to explore what it means to read this way. We're going to take as our text, the Gospel of Matthew, which has been called the "most Jewish" of the Gospels. Matthew appears to have been a Jew writing for other Jews sometime between the years 50 and 70 A.D. Unlike other Gospel writers, he doesn't feel the need to explain his numerous references to Jewish customs and laws. And he laces his Gospel with at least 100 references to the Old Testament.
In the next five lessons, we're going to read Matthew in its entirety, studying closely how his use of the Old Testament shapes not only his story-telling but the spiritual message he wants to convey.
II. Matthew's 'Book of the Law'
The Old Testament isn't just the background for Matthew's Gospel - it forms the backbone, the structure of his Gospel.
Many scholars, most notably the Protestant scholar at Yale B.W. Bacon in the 1920s, have noticed that Matthew reads like a "mini-Penteteuch" - that it seems deliberately arranged to resemble the first five books of the Old Testament, known as the Law.
Bacon pointed out that the five books of the Pentateuch, or Law, each contain a body of commandments of Moses. In each book, those commandments are introduced by a "narrative" section that describes events in the life of Israel and highlights God's mighty deeds.
We see the same pattern in Matthew: five distinct "books" divided the same way - a narrative portion in which Jesus debates His adversaries or performs miracles, followed by His commandments or teachings. Each of the five books ends with a formula-like statement - "And when Jesus had finished..." The five books of Matthew's "Book of the Law" are "book-ended" by a prologue that describes Jesus' birth and an epilogue that describes His death and Resurrection.
Scholars today aren't universally sold on this thesis about the structure of Matthew. But it makes the most sense to us. Matthew seems to be writing in a very deliberate literary style for the purpose of calling readers' attention to these divisions in his book. And it's clear that there's a five-fold structure to the Gospel and a two-fold movement within each book - from narrative or story-telling to discourse or teaching.
This gives us the following basic outline:
Outline of the Gospel According to MatthewPrologue: The Birth of Jesus Matthew 1-2
Book I: John the Baptist / Early Ministry of JesusNarrative: 3:1-4:25
Discourse: 5:1-7:27 (Sermon on the Mount)
Formula: 7:28-29: "When Jesus finished...."
Book II: Miracles and Commissioning of Apostles Narrative: 8:1-9:35
Discourse: 9:36-10:42 (Missionary Sermon for Apostles)
Formula: 11:1: "When Jesus had finished...."
Book III: Controversy and the New Kingdom
Narrative: 11:2-12:50
Discourse: 13:1-52 (Teaching on the Kingdom of Heaven)
Formula: 13:53: "When Jesus finished...."
Book IV: Teaching the Church
Narrative: 13:54-17:21
Discourse: 17:22-18:35 (On Life in the Church)
Formula: 19:1: "When Jesus finished..."
Book V: Jesus Enters JerusalemNarrative: 19:2-22:46
Discourse: 23:1-25:46 (On End Times, Farewell)
Formula: 26:1: "When Jesus finished
all these words..."
Epilogue: Passion and Resurrection of Jesus
Matthew 26:3-28:20
III. The Genesis of Jesus
a. Son of Abraham, Son of DavidMatthew's prologue does two things - it tells us
Who Jesus is and
how He came into the world. And for Matthew, the Old Testament background is critical to understanding both.
The first words of his Gospel are the title of the first book of the Old Testament - the Book of Genesis (the Greek word
genesis is translated "genealogy" in the New American Bible and elsewhere).
One modern commentator has suggested that the first line could most accurately be translated: "The book of the new genesis wrought by Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham."
This is how St. Jerome and others in the early Church read these first sentences of the Gospel.
What's happening with Jesus is a new creation, a new beginning for creation, for the world and the human race (see too
John 1:1-18;
2 Corinthians 5:17;
Galatians 6:15;
Romans 5:17-21;
1 Corinthians 15:47-50).
Unlike the first creation, however, God isn't creating
ex nihlo ("out of nothing") this time around. Jesus comes as the fulfillment of all God's earlier promises to His chosen people Israel. In fact, He's presented as the culmination off Israel's history.
Matthew wants us to know in this prologue, that while Jesus is specially born "through the Holy Spirit," He is a true Israelite, descended from the founding father of the people, Abraham (see
Matthew 1:20).
And he wants us to see Jesus as the fulfillment of God's covenant with Abraham. God had promised Abraham: "in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing" (see
Genesis 22:18).
Jesus, "the Son of Abraham," will bring that to pass. And we'll see throughout Matthew's Gospel that Jesus has a mission, not only to Israel, but to "make disciples of all nations" (see
Matthew 8:10-12;
28:18-20).
Heir to Abraham, Jesus is also heir to "David the King" (see
Matthew 1:6). David is the real center of attention in this prologue - and throughout the Gospel. His name is mentioned six times in the first four chapters of the Gospel, and his birthplace, Bethlehem becomes the subject of the drama in Matthew 2.
And much of the plot and the tension in the rest of the Gospel will turn on the question: "Could this perhaps be the son of David?" (see
Matthew 12:23;
20:30-31;
21:9,15;
22:44-45).
God had sworn to David that his sons would sit on his throne forever (see
2 Samuel 7:12-13;
Psalm 89;
Psalm 132:11-12). But David's kingdom crumbled and appeared to be lost forever when the Jews were exiled and deported to Babylon by the King Nebuchadnezzar around 586 B.C. (see
Matthew 1:11;
2 Kings 24:14).
From that time forward, Israel's prophets had taught them to hope for a Messiah, a savior sent by God who would gather the scattered tribes of Israel and reunite them in a new kingdom of David (see
Isaiah 9:5-6;
55:3;
Ezekiel 34:23-25,30;
37:25).
This seeming failure of God's plan - "the Babylonian exile" - is the pivot in Matthew's genealogy, the phrase repeated four times (see
Matthew 1:11,12,17). In Matthew division of Israel's history, there are 14 generations from the David's reign to the Babylonian captivity, and 14 more after it, until Jesus comes as "the Messiah."
Note also that in the genealogy only Jesus and David are identified by their titles - David as King (
1:6), Jesus as Messiah (
1:16). Matthew wants us to see that Jesus is the promised Royal Messiah and Davidic King. He receives His royal birthright through Joseph, "the husband of Mary," and the "son of David" (see
Matthew 1:16, 18).
b. Formula for a Divine Birth
With Joseph, Matthew's prologue moves from "who" Jesus is to "how" He came among us.
The "how" is a miracle. And Matthew tells us this in the first of four "formula citations" we find in his prologue (see Matthew 1:23; 2:6,15,18, 23).
As we'll see, these citations, which appear to be straitforward quotes from the Old Testament, play a key role in Matthew's narrative (4:15-16; 8:17; 12:18-21; 13:35; 21:4-5).
Matthew uses these formulas in his effort to "prove" that Jesus is the "fulfillment" of what Israel's Scriptures and prophets had hoped for (see Matthew 26:54,56).
The idea of "fulfillment," so prominent in this Gospel, reflects an overarching biblical worldview shared by all the New Testament writers. They believe a "plan" has been in place from the foundation of the world, that God revealed Himself and His plan slowly in the history of Israel and in His words given to the prophets; they believer, finally, that in Jesus, God brings His plan to completion or fulfillment (see Ephesians 1:3-10; Acts 3:18; Mark 14:49).
Here, Matthew describes the virgin birth of Jesus to Mary "through the Holy Spirit" as fulfilling a prophecy of Isaiah (see Matthew 1:18,22-23; Isaiah 7:14).
What's interesting is that Matthew cites a text that rabbis of his time didn't consider to be "messianic."
The rabbis read this passage as a fairly cut-and-dried prediction of the birth of King Hezekiah to King Ahaz and his mother Abi. Hezekiah was a kind of savior-figure among the Israelite kings (see 2 Kings 18:1-6). They apparently believed Isaiah's prophecy had been fulfilled long ago and had nothing to do with the Messiah who was to come.
In the original Hebrew, Isaiah prophesied of a "young girl" or "maiden" to be found with child ('alma in Hebrew). But Matthew picks up on the Greek translation of parthenos, which more specifically refers to a "virgin."
For Matthew, apparently, the prophesying of a virgin, ties in with Jesus' "fatherless" conception.
A question remains: How is the prophecy of a child prophesied to be named Emmanuel, fulfilled in a child who Joseph has been ordered to name Jesus? (see Matthew 1:21).
Emmanuel, which Matthew translates for his reader as "God is with us" is who Jesus is (see Isaiah 43:5; Ezekiel 37:27; Zechariah 8:23)
And we will see in Matthew numerous places where Jesus describes how He will be "with us" for all time (see Matthew 18:20, 25:40,45), most especially in instituting the Eucharist (see Matthew 26:26-28).
And in the very last lines of Matthew's Gospel, we'll hear an echo of Isaiah's Emmanuel prophecy, as Jesus promises: "And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age" (see Matthew 28:20).
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