90. Sirach parallels wisdom and treasure in Sir. 1:25; 20:30; 41:14 (see also Isa. 33:6). Baruch does as well (2 Bar. 44.14; 54.13).
91. In Exod. 35:31, 35 and 36:1 Bezalel and Oholiab are filled with wisdom (σοφίας) and understanding (συνέσεως) to perform a task of understanding (συνίημι). See also Ps. 107:43; Prov. 21:11; Hosea 14:9; Dan. 1:4, 17; 2:21; 2 Chron. 1:10–12; 2:12–13, where wisdom and understanding are linked.
92. Yieh (One Teacher, 248–52) notes that Jesus’s teaching tasks can be categorized under four banners: (1) interpreting the Law and the Prophets, (2) speaking the words of God, (3) preaching the kingdom of heaven, (4) calling disciples and building his church. My analysis is complementary and not contradictory to Yieh.
93. Irenaeus, Haer. 4.9.1. Blomberg (Matthew, 225) says it refers to the teaching and meaning of the Hebrew Scriptures while showing how they are fulfilled in the kingdom age.
94. Sirach parallels the Law and Prophets with instruction and wisdom (Sir. prologue 1, 5, 10).
95. Hagner, How New Is the New Testament?, 12. Hagner continues by asserting, “While there is plenty of continuity here, at the same time the extent of newness in the Gospels—and indeed the whole of the NT—is such that an unavoidable discontinuity with Judaism is created. Fulfillment includes forward movement and thus inevitably involves discontinuity” (20, emphasis original).
96. Barton, “Gospel of Matthew,” 122.
97. Morris, Gospel according to Matthew, 363. Phillips (“Casting Out the Treasure,” 19) notes that the old does precede the new, and apart from ecclesiastical commentary, the new before the old appears only three times in the whole of Greek literature.
98. The other books that could rival Matthew on this alternation between the new and the old are John, Hebrews, and Revelation.
99. For more reflection on this, see Pennington, Reading the Gospels Wisely.
100. Pennington, Reading the Gospels Wisely, 43.
101. Hays, Reading Backwards.
102. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, 109.
103. Hagner, “Balancing the Old and the New,” 21. France (Gospel of Matthew, 11) states, “But among the gospels Matthew stands out for his sustained and creative presentation of this theme of fulfillment in Jesus.”
104. France, Matthew: Evangelist and Teacher, 167, emphasis added.
105. Orton, Understanding Scribe, 168.
106. Orton, Understanding Scribe, 168.
107. Stanton, “Matthew as a Creative Interpreter.”
108. Stanton, “Matthew as a Creative Interpreter,” 287.
109. These categories come from Longman’s book on “sources of wisdom.” Longman, Fear of the Lord Is Wisdom, 111–26.
110. Keith, Jesus against the Scribal Elite, 6. Keith more specifically argues that Jesus’s reputation as an authoritative teacher of the law was itself debated because Jesus was part of the manual-labor populace, a carpenter. The elite class did not like that Jesus claimed authority as an interpreter of the Torah.
111. Keener, Historical Jesus of the Gospels, 38.
112. The new scribal school does not need to be understood in the technical sense, but Jesus’s disciples are the ones who will transmit the teachings of Jesus to future generations. Most scholars would say that the first clear evidence of scribal schools comes from Ben Sira (Sir. 51:23), but it is likely that by around 700 BCE there was an informal class of sages. Proverbs 25:1 speaks of a group of people who produced a body of oral and written wisdom material. Witherington, Jesus the Sage, 4. Later Israelite kings had sage counselors (2 Sam. 16:23; 1 Kings 4:1–19; 10:1). This data is supported by the fact of early scribal schools in Egypt.
113. Keith, Jesus against the Scribal Elite, 112.
114. Yieh, One Teacher. Matthew also emphasizes the small size of the group of disciples and contrasts the disciples with two other groups in his Gospel: the crowd and the religious leaders.
115. I am thus taking the dative as indicating advantage or interest: “for.” See note 8.
116. Gundry, “True and False Disciples.”
117. The Gospel of Matthew contains twenty-two references to “scribe(s).” This is compared to ten from Mark, thus showing Matthew’s special interest in scribes. Overman (Matthew’s Gospel, 115) is right to note that in Matthew’s perspective there are good and bad scribes. The three positive references are in 8:19; 13:52; and 23:34.
118. Juce, “Wisdom in Matthew,” 126.
119. Horsley, Scribes, Visionaries, 74.
120. Cited in Horsley, Scribes, Visionaries, 74.
121. The Hebrew word Qohelet in Ecclesiastes is the feminine active participle of the Hebrew verb qhl, which means “to assemble, to gather together.”
2
The Scribe’s Convictions and Methods
Different maps serve different purposes. Online maps allow people to choose whether they want to see a street view, a satellite view, or a road-map view. Other websites provide elevation cartography, climate statistics, county boundaries, political precincts, or school-district borders. None of these maps is better than the others; they merely serve different purposes. In the same way, while the rest of the book may be compared to a road map with all the same items (such as restaurants) in one area selected, then this chapter can be related to an altitude perspective, where the basic shape of nations or states can be viewed. Before we zoom in on Matthew’s wisdom through his narrative, it is helpful to back up and get a wide and expansive view of Matthew’s convictions and methods.1 If Matthew is the discipled scribe who learned wisdom from his sage, then his convictions and method are a part of the wisdom he seeks to transmit to the nations.
While my larger argument is that Matthew brings forth treasures new and old, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Below the water are assumptions and methods that need to be explored. My proposal for what subtly rests beneath the surface for Matthew is the following: Matthew learned from his teacher that the arrival of the apocalyptic sage-messiah fulfills the hopes of Israel; this results in the unification of Jewish history. The method Matthew employs to communicate this conviction is “gospel-narration” through the use of shadow stories. Matthew as the scribe brings out treasures new and old because his teacher-sage has revealed to him the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven (11:25–30; 13:51–52). The rest of this chapter expands on each of these assertions.
Conviction Israel’s hopes fulfilled
Basis/grounds The arrival of the apocalyptic sage-messiah
Result Jewish history is unified
Method Shadow stories
Fulfillment
Matthew’s main conviction concerning the relationship between the old and the new can be summed up in the word “fulfillment” (πλήρωμα).2 Jesus himself taught Matthew this in his statement about the messiah’s relationship to the Law and Prophets. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17). He fulfills the Law and Prophets as the wise messiah. Law and wisdom are fashioned together, as evidenced by Deut. 4:5–8: “I have taught you decrees and laws . . . so that you may follow them. . . . Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations” (NIV).3 Matthew uses πληρόω or a form of it sixteen times in his Gospel compared to twice in Mark and nine times in Luke.4 This section will assert two things. First, I will argue that “fulfillment” means to bring something to fruition in the eschatological sense and is not always tied to predictive prophecy. Second, I will examine the location of the fulfillment formulas, displaying that the theme of fulfillment covers not only sections of the First Gospel but Matthew as a whole.
Declaring fulfillment to be a central theme might seem like a simple statement, one many have made, but the proposals for what πληρόω means are legion.5 Lexically, BDAG (827) gives at least three options for the gloss of the term: (1) to make full; (2) to complete a period of time, or that which was already begun; (3) to finish, c
omplete, or bring to a designated end. Three depictions are contained in these descriptions. “To make full” is a spatial metaphor, like filling a cup. “To complete a period of time” is a temporal comparison, such as when a person reaches a certain age. “To bring to a designated end” is a logical association. These assorted descriptions are not contradictory but complementary. Words are not like hardwoods, which are difficult to twist and cut through. Words are more like softwoods, with flexibility and pliability but also strength determined by their respective contexts. “Fulfill” has a variety of meanings, and in different contexts certain aspects might be highlighted. Yet largely, we can say that it means that Jesus fills up Jewish history, he completes the time of Israel, and he brings Israel to its logical telos. Another way to put it is that Matthew learned from his teacher that all things are brought to fruition in and through Jesus.
The term πληρόω should thus be understood in an eschatological sense: Jesus becomes all that the Law and Prophets have pointed to. He is the terminus, the telos of the Hebrew Scriptures. A new epoch has come with Jesus. The nature of πληρόω assumes a before, center, and after. What came before was not the peak of fulfillment; only at the pinnacle of time is fulfillment found (Gal. 4:4). Fulfillment uncovers its substance at the crosshairs of time. Matthew uses this term because he sees it as bridging the gap between the new and the old. All of the promises made in the OT, all of the predictions spoken, are now “filled up” in Jesus Christ. He fulfills the Law and the Prophets by becoming the one to whom the Law and Prophets point. Jesus is the end of the law, the satisfaction of all of Israel’s history. As Moule says, “Jesus is . . . the goal, the convergence-point of God’s plan for Israel, his covenant-promise.”6 Jesus, through his coming, begins a new era.
“Fulfillment” also means more than prediction. According to Matthew, the OT gives us types and predictions.7 As Hays affirms, contrary to first impressions, it is inaccurate to characterize Matthew’s method as prooftexting or on a prediction/fulfillment model.8 This is because Matthew’s use of “fulfillment” does not simply mean the completion of a previous prediction, although that is what English readers normally assume. For example, the following formula quotations arguably do not introduce a messianic prophecy in their strict historical context: 1:22 (virgin birth); 2:15 (son called out of Egypt); 2:17 (Rachel weeping); 13:35 (opening mouth in parables); and 27:9 (thirty pieces of silver). They are messianic after Jesus has come but only because he fills up their meaning. For Matthew, the word “fulfillment” “stands as an invitation to view Israel’s Scriptures as the symbolic world in which his characters and his readers live and move.”9
Pennington therefore speaks of a fulfillment spectrum. “Fulfillment . . . does not depend on prediction per se, while it still leans forward to a time when God will bring to full consummation all his good redemptive plans.”10 Prediction is a subset of the bigger ideas of fulfillment or figurations.11 According to the fulfillment spectrum that Pennington proposes, “The way the Jewish Scriptures are re-contextualized and re-read and re-understood in light of Jesus is varied—sometimes predictions are fulfilled, while sometimes texts are taken up and re-applied in a new way, and everything in between.”12 He represents it visually like this.
Matthew seems to represent all of these ways of reading, and we must have a model that accommodates all of Matthew’s strategies and does not sideline some of them or overemphasize one of them.13 The overall point is that “fulfillment” is the word Matthew employs to teach future disciples about the relationship between the new and the old, and it expresses the eschatological, spatial, temporal, and logical dimensions of Jesus’s relationship to Jewish history. It includes predictions, but also much more because it is an eschatological concept.
The Location of the Fulfillment Formulas
While it would be a mistake to focus only on the times the word πληρόω is used, now is a good time to look at the fulfillment quotations as a whole since they will be divided up and parsed throughout the rest of the work.14 As is well known, Matthew’s Gospel contains ten fulfillment quotations that follow a certain formula: “to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet, saying . . .”15 The existence of the fulfillment quotations helps readers ascertain the fulfillment theme. Of all the Gospels, Matthew is the most explicit in letting his readers know that Jesus fulfills the hopes of Israel. Yet the placement of these quotations has caused much consternation. At first glance, the distribution seems haphazard.
The two chapters of the infancy narrative contain four fulfillment quotations. The next thirteen chapters of Matthew’s Gospel concerning Jesus’s Galilean ministry also include four, and then the rest of the Gospel (almost thirteen chapters long) contains only two fulfillment quotations. The fulfillment quotations drop off at a stunning rate.
Location Number of fulfillment quotations Percentage per chapter
Infancy narrative (1–2) 4 20%
Galilean ministry (3:1–16:12) 4 3%
Jerusalem and beyond (16:13–28:20) 2 1.5%
This distribution is odd because Matthew is a rather systematic author. Is Matthew indicating that the beginning of Jesus’s life fulfills Israel’s Scriptures more than the end? M. J. J. Menken has provided a convincing explanation for the uneven distribution of the fulfillment quotations:16 “The distribution seems at first sight rather arbitrary but on closer consideration it appears to be well-thought out.”17 Matthew sets up his story in the infancy narrative, making sure his readers don’t miss the fulfillment theme. Then the rest of the fulfillment quotations in the Gospel are placed in summary sections that do not cover only one little detail of Jesus’s life but rather large swaths of Matthew’s narrative. In other words, as the fulfillment quotations continue, they function like hedges blocking in large gardens of Matthew’s material. For example, during Jesus’s ministry in Galilee, the four fulfillment quotations (4:14–16; 8:17; 12:17–21; 13:35) have been added not to individual narratives but to summaries that describe the general traits of Jesus’s ministry.
In Matt. 4:14–16 the fulfillment quotation is a summary of Jesus’s ministry in Capernaum: “The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned” (4:16). In. 8:17 the quotation speaks of Jesus taking illness and bearing diseases: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.” This comes in the middle of two chapters (8–9) and covers all of Matthew’s first presentation of Jesus’s deeds. In chapter 12 the antagonism against Jesus grows while Jesus heals outsiders, and a significant shift toward a gentile audience occurs. So, in 12:17–21 Matthew quotes from Isaiah, speaking of Jesus as proclaiming justice to the gentiles (12:18). Finally, 13:35 comes partway through the kingdom parables chapter, and there Matthew quotes from Ps. 78:2, saying that Jesus will speak to them in parables. Matthew therefore, as the narrative continues, inserts the fulfillment quotations at key junctures of his narrative to summarize Jesus’s words and actions for multiple chapters.
The same pattern occurs in the Jerusalem narrative (16:13–28:20). Although here Matthew uses only two explicit fulfillment quotations, his strategy has not changed. The first fulfillment quotation occurs in 21:4–5 and tells of Jesus coming to Zion on a donkey. “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden” (21:5). This quote again does not merely summarize the chapter in front of it, but reaches all the way back to Peter’s confession, when Jesus says he must go to Jerusalem (16:21). A few times Matthew draws attention to Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem (19:1; 20:17–18; 21:1), and Jerusalem is finally reached in 21:10. Therefore the journey to Jerusalem, started back in chapter 16, comes to fulfillment when Matthew (21:5) quotes Zechariah (9:9).
In a similar way, the function of the fulfillment quotation in 27:9–10 is the final point of rejection by the Jewish authorities. “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Isra
el” (27:9). Though this is a specific quotation, the antagonism toward Jesus in the narrative thread actually begins in chapter 12, when the Pharisees decide that they will destroy Jesus (12:14). In chapter 27 this antagonism and betrayal comes to a climax. So both fulfillment quotations in Matt. 16:13–28:20 are part of pericopes in which important narrative threads come to an end: Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem and his rejection by the Jewish authorities.18
The Fulfillment Quotations and Large Narrative Blocks
Topic Fulfillment quotation Narrative block
Ministry in Galilee 4:14–16 4:12–16:20
Suffering servant who heals 8:17 8:1–9:38
Servant’s ministry to Gentiles 12:17–21 4:12–16:20
Speaks in parables 13:35 13:1–58
King comes humbly to Jerusalem 21:4–5 16:21–21:10
Rejection of Jesus 27:9–10 12:14–28:20
Although Matthew’s use of fulfillment quotations sharply declines throughout his narrative, Matthew is not haphazard with his placement of them, and they color the way readers engage the entire Gospel. Matthew begins with more fulfillment quotations to let his readers in on his strategy. It is as if he shouts his themes at the beginning to wake his readers up, and then he quiets down when he knows they have caught on.19 Therefore he diminishes his explicit use of OT quotations, allowing his interpreters to go searching for more clues in his narrative. It is not merely the infancy narrative where Jesus’s life is mimicking OT events, institutions, and persons but his entire life. At key junctures in the narrative, Matthew places fulfillment quotations to show that all of Jesus’s life is in fulfillment of Jewish hopes.
Matthew, Disciple and Scribe Page 7
