Matthew, Disciple and Scribe

by Patrick Schreiner

  The LORD possessed me [wisdom] at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.

  Wisdom thus is the architectonic being who establishes the world.22 Matthew’s genealogy concerns Wisdom taking on flesh.

  After four hundred years of deafening silence since Malachi’s final prophecy, people are wondering, What has happened to God’s promises? Will God lead them out of exile? Will he rescue them? Matthew breaks the stillness with the opening proclamation that Jesus is the new creation, the new genesis, the new beginning, and new wisdom. Matthew launches his Gospel by showing how the return from exile will take place. While Solomon’s sons have led the people into exile, the birth of Solomon redivivus, the wise king, will bring them back from exile.23 Therefore, the plausibility of Matthew retracing the footsteps of Israel commences with the explicit lexical references to the beginning of Genesis. Matthew begins by presenting Jesus not only as the new David and the new Abraham but also the new genesis.

  New Abraham in Matthew 1:18–25

  The genealogy largely echoes Genesis and the start of a new creation, but then Matt. 1:18–25 moves to the birth of the figure who will bring these blessings to all people and lead them back to their home.24 This mirrors the structure of Gen. 1 and Gen. 2. Genesis 1 gives a broad poetic presentation (cf. Matt. 1:1–17), while Gen. 2 zooms in on the birth of humankind (cf. Matt. 1:18–25). Rather than mirroring the “birth” of Adam, however, Matthew moves on to the next most significant birth in the OT: the birth of Isaac. Richard Erickson argues that the birth narrative in 1:18–25 reflects the story of Abraham and the birth of Isaac in Gen. 12–17.25 If the people are going to be led back to the presence of God (Immanuel), it will be, as in the OT, through an unnatural birth. Sarah was barren and Mary was a virgin, yet God grants both of them a promised child. Seven features point toward a connection between the Abraham story and the Matthean Joseph story.

  As the word of the Lord comes to Abram in a vision (Gen. 15:1), so the angel appears to Joseph in a dream (Matt. 1:20).

  As the Lord tells Abram not to fear (Gen. 15:1), so the angel comforts the dreaming Joseph with the words “Do not fear” (Matt. 1:20).

  Abraham complains that he has been left childless (Gen. 15:2), and a form of this same verb is used in Matt. 1:19 to refer to Joseph’s thought of rejecting Mary.

  Jesus, like Isaac, is born to a barren woman.

  Abraham rejects Hagar, but God reverses the rejection (Gen. 16:5–6, 9); Joseph contemplates rejecting Mary, but God has a greater plan for salvation and divine reversal in relation to the birth of Jesus (Matt. 1:20–21).

  As Joseph is described as “a just man” (1:19), so too Abraham’s faith in the Lord is counted to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6).

  The actual wording of the angel’s announcement to Joseph corresponds almost exactly to the LXX’s wording of the promise that God delivers to Abraham in Gen. 17:19:

  Matthew 1:21: τέξεται δὲ υἱόν, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν.

  Matthew 1:23: καὶ τέξεται υἱόν, καὶ καλέσουσιν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἐμμανουήλ.

  Genesis 17:19 LXX: τέξεταί σοι υἱόν, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ισαακ.

  Thus Erickson concludes that we should read Matt. 1:18–25 in an Abrahamic way. As God promised Abraham a child in a miraculous way, so too God promised Adam and Eve and Israel a miracle child. This child will be Immanuel, God with his people, as God will dwell with Abraham’s child Isaac. Matthew began his Gospel with the theme of “new creation” from Genesis, and he immediately moves on to the story of Abraham and his children in 1:18–25. The person through whom the whole world would be blessed, who would bring the people back to the presence of God, is Abraham’s seed. Jesus’s children are the promised ones who will return the people of God from their wanderings and exile. Matthew has structurally moved from Genesis (1:1–17) to the story of Abraham (1:18–25).

  New Moses and Israel in Matthew 2–4

  In Matt. 2 the scribe then enters into the Exodus story, portraying the early life of Jesus under the banner of the early life of Moses and Israel as a whole. In chapter 5 I covered how Jesus is the new Moses when he is confronted by Herod in 2:1–23, so it need not be repeated here. But readers should note the sequence. After 1:18–25 the story transitions to a king seeking to destroy God’s chosen people and a flight “out of Egypt” (2:15). Then Jesus crosses the water (3:13–17) and goes into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days (4:1–11). This foreshadows the escape from exile that Jesus takes his people on.26

  antagonistic king → flight out of Egypt → through the water → into the wilderness

  The movement of Jesus is remarkably similar to the exodus. Israel is sent into Egypt, meets an antagonistic king, comes out of Egypt, goes through the water, and then retreats into the wilderness. Israel’s redemption is a foretaste of the redemption that is to come, just as Jesus’s redemption prefigures the exile out of which he will bring the people. Jesus’s footsteps follow the beginning of the Torah so far.27

  Understanding this movement helps one appreciate the fulfillment quotations in Matt. 2:15 and 2:18.28 Mary and Joseph grab Jesus and flee to Egypt because of the threat of King Herod. Matthew says this act is to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Hosea (11:1), “Out of Egypt I called my son.” This verse has been the subject of much debate.29 Some argue that this is a form of midrash or pesher by Matthew. Others think it is typology or sensus plenior. Still others think Hosea is predictive prophecy. While most quickly go to the contextual argument, and this partly solves the problem, additional help comes from recognizing what Matthew is doing structurally. If Jesus is viewed as the new Israel, then Jesus’s journey out of Egypt and Matthew’s use of Hosea 11:1 are not so odd. There is a rich tradition of Israel coming out of Egypt.30

  The departure from Egypt loomed large for Israel and shaped the people’s imaginations in a unique way. This departure theme is confirmed in Matt. 2:18, when he cites from Jer. 31:15 as Rachel mourns for her children who are deported to Babylon (Jer. 40:1). Both places (Ramah and Egypt) and both prophets (Hosea and Jeremiah) declare that God will both send his people into exile and reach out in mercy and bring them back. Thus Matthew is not playing fast and loose with Hosea 11 but reading the movement of Jesus figurally.31 As Richard Hays says, “The fulfillment of the words can only be discerned through the act of the imagination that perceives the typological correspondence between the two stories of the exodus and the Gospel and therefore discerns that Jesus embodies the destiny of Israel.”32 In other words, time collapses in Matthew’s view of these two stories.33 Jewish exegetes kept in mind something we may tend to overlook: from the perspective of God in eternity, the Scriptures are really a “timeless unity in which each and every verse is simultaneous with every other, temporally and semantically.”34 The movement of Jesus mirrors and completes the struggle of Israel as a nation. Not only does Matthew begin echoing Genesis and Abraham, but he also quickly transitions to the early movement of Israel as they come out of Egypt. The new Israel foreshadows a future return from exile in his geographical movements.35 Jesus not only walks in the footsteps of Israel––he is Israel.r />
  New Moses in Matthew 5–9

  After mirroring the redemption from Egypt, in chapters 5–7 Matthew has Jesus ascend the mountain and instruct his people as the new Moses. A number of intertextual connections have already been noted in a previous chapter, but a few more rise to the surface.36 First, when Jesus begins teaching, Matthew employs the phrase “and opening his mouth” (ἀνοίξας τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ), using words similar to those employed in Ps. 78:2 LXX, where the speaker says, “I will open my mouth in parables” (ἀνοίξω ἐν παραβολαῖς τὸ στόμα μου).37 Psalm 78 recounts the time of Moses with the Israelites at Sinai and in the wilderness, and therefore these words from the Psalms also point to Moses connections. Second, Jesus presents them with the way of blessedness and the way of death in the Sermon on the Mount (like Deuteronomy). Third, the Torah becomes the focal point in the Sermon. In Matt. 5:17–20, the Torah is upheld by Jesus, and he clarifies the intention of the Torah in 5:21–48.

  Moses may also be in view in 5:5 when Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (μακάριοι οἱ πραεῖς, ὅτι αὐτοὶ κληρονομήσουσιν τὴν γῆν). The church fathers made a connection between this text and Num. 12:3.38 Finally, at the conclusion to the Sermon, Matthew has Jesus coming down the mountain (καταβάντος δὲ αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄρους, 8:1). This is similar to the language of Exod. 34:29 (ὡς δὲ κατέβαινεν Μωυσῆς ἐκ τοῦ ὄρους), where Moses comes down the mountain. The phrase forms a bookend to the Sermon as a new Torah, like what Moses received while on Mount Sinai. Jesus has therefore followed the history of Israel all the way to Sinai in Matt. 1–7, and therefore chapters 8–9 recount what it “looks like” to enact the law and reverse the curse.

  Jesus enacts the law in chapters 8–9, and thus Matt. 5–9 can be compared to a recounting of Exodus–Deuteronomy.39 He heals a leper, welcomes an outsider, cures an ailing mother, relieves a paralytic, and brings life from death. These miracles deal with some of the same issues that appear in Leviticus. But Jesus also confronts the demonic forces (8:28–34; 9:32–34), showing that the sin problem is sourced in a deeper cosmic battle that has been raging from the beginning of time. Leithart has also proposed that these ten miracles may mirror the ten rebellions of Israel in the wilderness (Num. 14:22). Chapters 8–9 show that Israel has not been faithful to the covenant, and the ten rebellions take place after Sinai like the ten healings that take place after the Sermon.40 As Jesus heals a leper first (8:1–4), so one of the first rebellions after Sinai results in Miriam being made leprous and then healed (Num. 12:1–15).

  Matthew 5–9 stretches from Sinai to the end of Deuteronomy because both of these narratives center on Moses. Though at times it might feel as though Matthew moves back and forth between Exodus and Deuteronomy, Leviticus through Deuteronomy also does not travel in a straight line. Leviticus zooms in on the laws from Exodus, and Deuteronomy gives a summary account of how the people are to act. Neither Matthew nor the Pentateuch needs to move in strictly chronological fashion. The narratives pause, zoom in, go backward, and thrust forward at different times, but they still deal with the same large block of time.

  The large narrative structure from Matt. 1 to 9 recounts the story from new creation to the end of the Pentateuch. Matthew begins with Gen. 1–2 and the birth of the new creation, then indicates that a return from exile is coming. This new hope will come through one family and one child (Matt. 1:18–25). God preserves his redeemer, brings him out of Egypt, takes him through the water and into the wilderness. Then Jesus ascends the mountain and delivers the new Torah (Matt. 5–9). The law is given so that the people of God can walk rightly before him. Finally, the law is explained and embodied, and warnings are given of what will happen if they don’t follow the law. In sum, the narrative from Matt. 1–9 largely follows the narrative of the Pentateuch and prepares readers for the ultimate rescue from exile. It can schematically be portrayed as follows:

  Matthew and the Pentateuch

  Matthew Old Testament

  1:1: Book of Genesis Gen. 2:4; 5:1

  1:1–17: son of Abraham Gen. 12–26

  1:18–25: son of Abraham; Israel is birthed Gen. 18

  2:13–15: Herod kills children Exod. 1–2: Pharaoh kills children

  2:14: Jesus rescued, flees Exod. 2: Moses rescued, flees

  2:19–23: Jesus returns to Israel Exod. 3–4: Moses returns to Egypt

  3:13–17: Jesus passes through waters Exod. 14: The exodus

  4:1–11: Temptation in the wilderness Exod. 17–19 or Numbers // Travel to Sinai, or Travel in the wilderness

  4:18–22: Jesus calls disciples Exod. 18: Moses appoints rulers

  5–7: Sermon on the Mount Exod. 18 or Exodus–Deuteronomy // Giving of the Torah

  8–9: Healings Leviticus–Deuteronomy // Blessings of the Torah

  Source: This chart is largely adapted from Leithart, Jesus as Israel, 15. I’ve made only minor changes.

  Conquest in Matthew 10

  Matthew 1–9 recounts the movement of the Pentateuch, and then Matt. 10 begins with the conquest and entry into the land. Just as the Sermon on the Mount was bracketed by Jesus ascending and descending the mountain, the Mission Discourse is bracketed by an inclusio of “his twelve disciples” in 10:1 and 11:1.41 Matthew 10 mirrors both the sending of the twelve spies into the land and the commissioning of Joshua as Moses’s successor. The picture presented by this discourse is one of taking territory for the kingdom of God, similar to the conquest. At the end of Matt. 9 Jesus describes Israel as “harassed and helpless, like a sheep without a shepherd” (9:36). This parallels the text in Num. 27:15–18, where Joshua is appointed because Moses will no longer lead them. “Moses spoke to the LORD, saying, ‘Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.’ So the LORD said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.’”

  In verse 20 the Lord says, “You shall invest him with some of your authority.” So Moses “laid his hands on [Joshua] and commissioned him as the LORD directed through Moses” (27:23). In the same way, Jesus calls the Twelve to him and gives them “authority over unclean spirits” (Matt. 10:1). Like Moses, Jesus instructs the heads of Israel of their duties once they enter the land. The apostles are sent out like the twelve spies and like Joshua on a military operation. They are to go into the land (only a certain land) and let their peace fall on houses who welcome them (think Rahab) and who will receive a reward (10:40–42).42 When they enter the land, they will face persecution, and they may be tempted to be afraid. But they are told not to be anxious (10:19) because their Father cares for them. This is the same language with which Moses instructs his people and specifically Joshua before the conquest (Num. 14:9; 21:34; Deut. 1:21; 3:2, 22; 31:8; Josh. 8:1; 10:8, 25).43

  Though there seems to be some back and forth between the sending of the twelve spies into the land and the conquest of Joshua, this should not trouble the readers. For in some sense, this is the same event. One recounts the people’s failure to enter the land; the other recounts the success (though partial) of the people entering the land. Thus it is not odd in the least for Matthew to combine these events in his retelling of the sending of the Twelve. The persecution, trouble, and sword they will face also reminds us of the books of the former prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings). Because of the lack of good leadership, persecution and the sword fall on the nation until the true king of Israel arises. Similarly, the Twelve prepare the way for Jesus, the true king. Jesus sends his messengers to recapture the land, but they will need his resurrection life to truly enter the new creation.

  Monarchy in Matthew 11–12

  As chapter 10 is about the conquest, so chapters 11–12 concern th
e monarchy. The opening of chapter 11 speaks of the prophet John the Baptist, who prepares the way for Jesus. Like Samuel, who anointed David, John is somewhat confused about the one he anoints, but Jesus confirms that he is the one promised from long ago. John is thus a Samuel-type figure, while Jesus is the new David. As in the time of David, the people of Israel don’t always welcome the king. Jesus condemns “this generation” for their response to him (11:16). Yet Jesus offers to give Sabbath rest to the people as God promised to Israel after the conquest (11:25–30) and as David provided for the people by conquering their enemies. “Of the ten uses of the word ‘Sabbath’ in Matthew, eight are in chapter 12.”44 But the people quarrel about what Jesus is doing on the Sabbath rather than accepting the rest he offers to them.

  In this section Jesus is presented not only as the new David, but Jesus also speaks of himself as greater than the temple (12:6), which pushes readers into the latter days of the monarchy. Jesus is also the one who can enter into the temple and eat the bread (12:1–8; 1 Sam. 21). As N. T. Wright has asserted, this assigns to the Pharisees the role of the persecuting Saul or spying Doeg; the disciples are the companions of David, and Jesus is David himself. Just as David flees from Saul, Jesus, knowing the Pharisees’ plot against him, withdraws after the encounter with the Pharisees (Matt. 12:14–15).45 “Like David, Jesus is approved by the crowds, but opposed by the leaders of Israel (1 Sam. 17–18).”46 Some welcome Jesus, but many reject the king. Even the religious leaders accuse Jesus of possessing a false spirit, as Saul accused David of deceitful motives. Jesus makes plain in this section that the religious leaders, like Saul, are the ones with the false spirit. They are the unresponsive generation from whom the kingdom will be torn. Jesus is creating his true family (Matt. 12:46–50) around himself, and even the gentiles will hope in him (12:15–21).

  One more argument confirms the monarchy theme in chapters 11–12. In the middle of chapter 12, Matthew employs the longest fulfillment quotation in his Gospel: