Ask Me Help Desk - The book of Matthew

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diamond7191

what is the culture of the people in the book of Matthew?

People of various cultures, languages, and backgrounds are found in the Book of Matthew. However, Matthew's target audience is that of Palestinian proto-rabbinic Judaism.

It is written for the remnant of Israel, and the author is clearly a Jew himself. He writes when the sky over the heads of the faithful who have turned to Christ is dark overhead, and Jerusalem had probably already fallen to the Roman army, and for those with eyes to see, carnal Israel was no longer considered to be God's kingdom (21.43), although Christ had come in judgement (10.23; 26,64) the second coming was still awaited. These events and non-events was a time of great temptation for even the most faithful to abandon their Christianity, as people are often won't to do in times of high anxiety or present danger.

Wickedness was increasing and the love of many was already growing cold (24.12), and many who had been stunned by what had happened to the Holy City and its temple, were re-establishing their national life and calling people back to the Pharisaic fold. Matthew, like the author of Hebrews, wriotes to say, "Stand firm, that no one take thy crown."

His gospel is an appeal to waverers of all sorts to trust the King, whose reign is in heaven and depends on the actions of God, not on the actions of men, and urging them not to become involved in the current of a false national ideal.

The chariots of the Lord might still be tarrying, but the Lord Himself and no other is all that Christians have believed him to be. He is the Messiah of Israel's hope, as the fulfilment of the Hebrew scriptural prophecies proves. He is the true seed of Abraham, the last Redeemer, just as Moshe was the first, the true son of David, the final judge of his people and of the world.

It is, Matthew avers, his church, not the old carnal Israel, that is the true Israel of God, and the heir to its blessings. It is his law, not the old law which he has superceded, which is the true guide of his people's life. It is his name, which must be openly confessed by all who will have to meet his judgement.

These trials which his people have to meet are all trials that have been foretold, just as the ceaseless controversies with the Pharisees are the controversies of Christ continuing even when he is not present, and are the old conflict that his people must sustain. But they must do much more than simply stand fast, they must evangelise. He promises to be with them until the end.

It is in this Jewish outlook that the unity and value of Matthew's gospel lie, for Matthew enables us to see (as Mark and Luke do not) the real background of the earthly life of Jesus, and the contunuity of the old Israel with the Church of Jesus Christ, and the later form of the Church into which it was developed by later theologians.

Mark and Luke wrote for Gentile Christians, and, although they cannot tell us of the ministry of Jesus withjout showing us something of the mileu in which it was exercised, they leave aside what they think we do not think we need, or that of which they are afraid we will misunderstand. Compare, for example, Matthew 15.24-26 with Mark 7.27. What do we need to know of the offerings of the temple (5.23-24) or the bad language of quarrelling Jews (5.22)? Indeed, what have we to do with the Mosaic Code at all, or the relation of the teaching of Jesus to it? That Law, the Mosaic, they insist, has passed away forever.

Gentile Christians of their time knew little of the Hebrew scriptures (OT), and have little if any interest in the Jewish national hope. Why, then, trouble our Gentile (non-Jewish) minds with detailed fulfilments of Israelitish prophecies, which Matthew probably draws from a recognised collection of OT fulfilments.

Matthew also emphasises the role of Jesus as the Messiah, something missing from Mark and Luke, and which is, for most Christians, almost forgotten as a higher and more universal aspect of Jesus the Mashiach.

Although there is a demonstrable dependency in Matthew on both Mark's gospel and Quelle, he is not confined to these. As a member of the Palestinian Church he is in touch with its traditions, and we often fuind incindents as well a steachings wich have no parallel elsewhere. He has, for example, a cycle of traditions connected with peter, and another connected with Pontius Pilate. These are called Matthean additions, and not all Bible scholars trust them completely, but they are not without merit and seem to be authentic when they relate to the words of Jesus.

The presence of suffering in the lives of Christians of Matthew's time is borne out by the strong eschatalogical flavour of his gospel.

The casuistic discussions of the rabbis or the first and second Christian centuries, as well as their haggadic (ethico-religious) exegesis of scripture are preserved in the Midrash of early rabbinic scriptural interpretation, primarily owing to their connection with the Lessons taught in Synagogues from the Law (Torah) and the Prophets (Neb'iim), and it is propbable that the gospel tradition was preserved and fixed in writing using a similar liturgical schema.

Thus we conclude that the major tensions in Matthews time that were significant contributors to the form of his book, were:

Roman oppression
Wholesale slaughter and enslavement of Jews
The destruction of the temple
The loss of the Sadduccees (Priests)
The movement to restore Jewish nationalism by...
A return to Pharisaic traditions and teachings.

In these circumstances, Jewish Christians were often torn between several poles, and Matthew attempts to provide sufficient information to them based on traditional scriptures to keep them firm under duress, and faithful under strenuous efforts to lure them back into their ancient ways, and abandon Christ and Christianity.

Hard times.

M:)RGANITE