Matthew himself was a tax collector who gathered money from his own people for the Roman government, and Jesus calls him to repentance. When Jesus sees Matthew sitting at the tax booth, he calls to him and says, “Follow me.” Matthew rises and follows him (Matt. 9:9), thus acknowledging his deprivation. This Greek word for “follow” (ἀκολουθέω) means to go in the same direction, to obey, comply with. Matthew becomes a pupil of Jesus. A discipled scribe is first and foremost someone who has heard the call of Jesus and risen from his tax booth and followed Jesus. Barton concludes his chapter on wisdom in Matthew by rightly stating: “Jesus the wisdom of God teaches the way of wisdom, authorizes the way of wisdom, and gives access to it both by his invitation to the ‘weary and heavy-laden’ and by exemplifying it in the humble servanthood of his own life.”16As Paul argues, Christ is our God-given wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30). For Matthew and a few other scribes, this also means that they remember and pass down the sayings and deeds of Jesus. They inscribe them for generations to come.17
Practical Wisdom
Second, a discipled scribe is a true interpreter of the law who understands the relationship between the new and the old (practical). They realize that they can only understand if wisdom is revealed to them. So they pray for understanding and call on God for a spirit of wisdom (Wis. 7:7); they ask God for daily bread, forgiveness, and deliverance from evil (Matt. 6:11–13). “The beginning of wisdom is the most sincere desire for instruction” (Wis. 6:7). In Matthew, the crowds don’t understand Jesus’s teaching (13:13–15), and the opponents are blind leaders (15:14; 23:16, 24), but they ask questions not to understand but to trap Jesus. Though the Pharisees and Sadducees search the Scriptures, they don’t find life in them because they don’t understand that Jesus fulfills the Law and the Prophets.
However, a trained scribe is one who realizes that Jesus brings forth treasures both new and old, for they now understand the secrets of the kingdom of heaven (13:11, 51–52). They appreciate that the kingdom spreads slowly, it is carried along by words, and there will be evil in its midst. They know that Jesus fulfills the law, his yoke is easy, he has come to welcome all those who have faith in him, he is the new Moses who brings them on the new exodus, and he must be the rejected king who is strung up on a cross. They understand that the presence of Jesus is the presence of the kingdom, but most of all they realize that Jesus has conquered death by his resurrection. A new exodus and return from exile has come through following this rabbi. The messiah unifies all of the Jewish ancient texts because he is the one to whom they pointed all along. True disciples let Jesus complete the Torah and then live into the Torah by the power of the Spirit. A discipled scribe understands, interprets, and communicates the relationship between the new and the old through the lens of Jesus.
Ethical Wisdom
Third, a discipled scribe is someone who practices justice and mercy––not hypocrisy (ethical). They don’t merely rightly interpret the law but rightly live it; this is wisdom. In a text parallel to Matt. 13:52, Jesus says, “The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil” (12:35; cf. 7:15–23). The good person has a good treasure, while an evil person has an evil treasure. Those who don’t know Jesus are workers of lawlessness (Matt. 7:22–23). Sirach says, “If you desire wisdom, keep the commandments, and the Lord will lavish her upon you. . . . Do not be a hypocrite before others. . . . Do not exalt yourself” (Sir. 1:26, 29, 30). The scribes who follow Jesus are not hypocrites, like Judas, who sought the riches of the earth rather than the treasures of the kingdom of heaven.
The trained scribes perform their righteousness, not to receive praise from others, but to receive a reward from their Father in heaven. They don’t neglect “the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Matt. 23:23). As Luz asserts, the definition of discipleship in Matthew can be summed up in the phrase “doing the will of God” (cf. 12:50).18 Jesus called his disciples to pray that God’s will would be done (6:10). Disciples are to take Jesus’s yoke because he is meek and humble (11:29). To understand requires more than merely intellectual effort; understanding involves the heart. “This people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear” (13:15a), yet it is with the heart that people understand (13:15b). The one who understands is also the one who brings forth fruit (13:23). Understanding therefore means doing—or as Jesus summarizes, it means being whole (τέλειος, cf. 5:48). This is the wholeness that Jesus calls his disciples to in the Sermon on the Mount. The purpose of wisdom is to impart “righteousness, justice, and virtue” (Prov. 1:3b AT).
Forming the Nations
I began the book by saying that the purpose of scribal training is the formation of a certain type of community, a certain type of individual.19 Scribes were the teacher-king’s representatives, who shaped ideal humanity after the image of the king.20 They would copy the king’s texts and thereby train others as they transmitted the εὐαγγέλιον (good news) of the king. They would therefore (1) learn, (2) write/interpret, (3) distribute, and (4) teach. Andrew Lincoln argues that in Matthew the disciples are models for teachers.21 “Matthew’s gospel should be read as a story for would-be teachers. The implied author is in effect saying to the implied reader, ‘So you want to be a teacher? Let me tell you a story.’”22
As Philip Davies notes, “The scribal duties embraced a range of activities, amounting to a good deal of ideological control.”23 Their tasks naturally concerned the past, present, and future: “archiving (possession and control of the present), historiography (possession and control of the past), didactic writing (maintenance of social values among the elite), predictive writing (possession and control of the future).”24 This may be why Matthew portrays his task as a scribe with respect to the new and the old (13:52). If the scribes’ task necessarily related to the future, what did Matthew learn about the future? One way to explore this is to juxtapose Matthew’s learning with the frustration expressed by the Qohelet in Ecclesiastes. The Qohelet says that everything is meaningless because of injustice, death, and time. Even wisdom becomes meaningless because of death.
But I also understand that the same fate awaits both of them. I said to myself, “Even I will meet the same fate as the fool, why then have I become so wise?” So I said to myself, “This too is meaningless.” For the memory of neither the wise nor the fool endures forever. The days arrive only too soon when both will be forgotten. How will the wise person die? Like a fool! (Eccles. 2:14b–16 AT)
Matthew’s teacher of wisdom also died like a fool. But death was not the last word. While death has always rendered wisdom lifeless, through Jesus’s resurrection, wisdom was vindicated. Matthew learned from his sage that the future of wisdom is life because life and wisdom come only by enduring and bearing death, not bypassing it.
Though scribes molded and interpreted the content to suit their purposes, they were not always the originators of the content, and boundaries were in place to make sure they would faithfully communicate the message of the king or sage. They were essentially mediators between the people and the ruler, and so is Matthew. That is why in Matt. 23:34 Jesus says, “I send you prophets and wise men and scribes” (emphasis added).25 In this passage Jesus looks back on the history of Israel, but in Matthew’s Gospel the statement also points to the present and future, where Jesus will also send his “prophets and wise men and scribes.”26 First Enoch 12.4 says, “Enoch, scribe of righteousness, go and make known.” Likewise, the commission given to Matthew is to teach righteousness on the basis of the revelation of the secrets of his sage (13:11). The message of Matthew can be partly understood by drawing a line under the following three Greek words:27
μάθετε ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ
Learn from me. (11:29)
πᾶς γραμματεὺς μαθητευθεὶς . . . ἐκβάλλει ἐκ τοῦ θησαυροῦ
Every discipled scribe . . . brings out treasure. (13:52 AT)
πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. (28:19)
Matthew stood in the gap between his teacher and the nations of whom Jesus had commanded Matthew to make disciples.28 As the scribe Ben Sira said,
How different the one who devotes himself
to the study of the law of the Most High!
He seeks out the wisdom of all the ancients,
and is concerned with prophecies;
he preserves the sayings of the famous
and penetrates the subtleties of parables.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
If the great Lord is willing,
he will be filled with the spirit of understanding;
he will pour forth words of wisdom of his own.
(Sir. 38:34b–39:2, 6)
It is hard to imagine that Matthew did not see himself fulfilling the command to make disciples by the writing of his ancient biography laced with the Hebrew Scriptures so that other followers of Jesus might also gain wisdom.
1. As noted earlier in the book, what is secret or hidden is regularly connected to wisdom.
2. Not all of my examples will pertain specifically to scribes but apply more generally to those who oppose Jesus and his ministry.
3. Matthew uses the phrase “their synagogue(s)” five times (4:23; 9:35; 10:17; 12:9; 13:54) and “your synagogue” once (23:34) to emphasize the distance between Jesus and the current synagogue community.
4. Longman (Fear of the Lord Is Wisdom, chaps. 1–3) argues that although wisdom has been portrayed as mainly practical in the past, it is theological, ethical, and practical. Though these three realities can be distinguished, they ultimately interweave. The foolish scribes lack righteousness and wisdom because they are not following their messiah. They are twisted interpreters because they are hypocrites, and they can’t rightly interpret the new and the old because they don’t accept Jesus as the embodiment of wisdom.
5. Longman, Fear of the Lord Is Wisdom, 13.
6. Dave Bland (Proverbs and the Formation of Character) has argued that the proverbs lead to a change of character that reshapes the inner person.
7. Deut. 16:19; Ps. 37:30; Prov. 1:3; 9:9; 10:31; Eccles. 7:16; 9:1; 10:2; Jer. 23:5; 1 Cor. 1:30.
8. Lewis, Magician’s Nephew, 51.
9. “For those who despise wisdom and instruction are miserable. Their hope is in vain, their labors are unprofitable, and their works useless” (Wis. 3:11).
10. J. Brown, Disciples in Narrative Perspective, 145.
11. He gives the examples of Elijah and Elisha, Elisha and the sons of the prophets, Isaiah and his disciples, Jeremiah and his followers, Ezekiel and his followers, Jesus ben Sira and his “sons,” the righteous teacher and the Qumran community, and the rabbis and their pupils. Byrskog, Jesus the Only Teacher, 36–53.
12. Byrskog presents a whole chapter arguing that Matthew’s presentation of Jesus reflects didactic motives of transmission. Byrskog, Jesus the Only Teacher, 237–308.
13. The reference could also more generally refer to Jews in Chorazin and Bethsaida who have rejected him (11:21).
14. Deutsch, Hidden Wisdom, 32; Betz, “Logion of the Easy Yoke.”
15. Luz, Matthew, 163.
16. Barton, “Gospel Wisdom,” 98.
17. Overman (Matthew’s Gospel, 135–36) argues that Matthew idealizes the disciples. While his case is overstated, there is some truth to his argument. “In his idealizing of the disciples and their emergence in the Gospel as followers who truly learn, understand, and now teach others, Matthew provides a model for the life and behavior of the community member. While Jesus is the hero and agent of God in Matthew’s story, it is really the life and ministry of the disciples, centering as it does on learning, understanding, and instruction, which constitutes the primary focus of the member’s own ministry in the present. The community members are to identify and emulate the disciples of Jesus as they are portrayed in the Gospel.”
18. Luz, “Disciples in the Gospel,” 123.
19. Bird (Gospel of the Lord, 64–66) is right to note that the Jesus tradition belonged not to individuals but to communities, and thus acting as custodian of the Jesus tradition was a community effort. One should also look to the “social memory” school on this point: Tom Thatcher, Jens Schröter, Alan Kirk, Chris Keith, Anthony Le Donne, and Rafael Rodríguez.
20. Hannan (Nature and Demands of the Sovereign Rule of God) asserts that Matthew’s Gospel becomes a manual of instruction on the nature and demands of God’s sovereignty.
21. Minear (Good News) argues similarly that Matthew’s Gospel is a training manual.
22. Lincoln, “Matthew,” 124–25.
23. P. Davies, Scribes and Schools, 75.
24. P. Davies, Scribes and Schools, 75.
25. Patte (Gospel according to Matthew, 199) even claims that Matthew’s entire Gospel is aimed at training scribes for the kingdom, though Patte overstates his case if he means it in a technical sense. My perspective is more that Matthew provides a portrait of wisdom through his presentation of Jesus that trains others in how to become disciples.
26. Juce (“Wisdom in Matthew,” 135) ties the three offices (prophets, wise men, and scribes) to the threefold division of the Hebrew Scriptures. I am not entirely convinced, though it is an intriguing suggestion.
27. I copied this helpful chart from Jeff Blair, “Cultivating a Culture of Wisdom,” 99.
28. Justification for linking Matt. 13:52 with 28:18–20 comes not only conceptually but also linguistically. Matthew uses the verbal form μαθητεύω only in 13:52; 27:57; and 28:19.
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