The Matthean Antitheses In Relation To Their Old Testament Theses
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/sacrascripta.2021.09Keywords:
Matthew, Second Temple Judaism, Torah, legal revisionism, AntithesesAbstract
A pervasive emphasis in the work of Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr has been the relation between ancient Judaism and the New Testament. In an early treatment of the Matthean Antitheses (Matt 5:21-43), Niebuhr emphasized the consonance between the teaching of the Antitheses and Second Temple Jewish thought: the Matthean Jesus is expanding the Torah rather than replacing it. This essay applauds the anti-Marcionite and ecumenical impulse behind Niebuhr’s argument and notes a number of points of agreement with it, but presents a different interpretation of the third, fourth, and fifth Antitheses. Like many biblical writers and later Jewish exegetes, the Matthean Jesus sometimes radically revises the Torah while claiming to uphold it.
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