The Gospel of Matthew and Judaic Traditions: A Relevance-Based Commentary
Herbert W. Basser, Marsha B. Cohen
Language: English
Pages: 817
ISBN: B01K14Z6G2
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In The Gospel of Matthew and Judaic Traditions, Herbert W. Basser, with the editorial help of Marsha Cohen, utilizes his encyclopaedic knowledge of Judaism to navigate Matthew’s Gospel. This close, original reading explicates Matthew’s use of Jewish concepts and legal traditions that have not been fully understood in the past. Basser highlights Gospel sources that are congruent with a wide swath of extant Jewish writings from various provenances. Matthew affirms Jesus’ end-of-days—the coming of the Kingdom—salvation message: initially meant for Jews, it is the Gentiles who embraced his message and teachings that encouraged their faith and simple trust. Matthew’s literary art manages to preserve the Jewish details in his sources while disclosing an anti-Jewish and pro-Gentile bias.
11:4; y. Pe’ah 2:4; b. B. Bat. 108b; b. Naz. 2b; b.’ Erub. 21b. General Introduction 15 materials that would become embedded in classical Jewish literature after the formulation of the New Testament. Generally, Jewish sources explicitly cite Hebrew Scripture and then follow the citation with an interpretation. In the case of Matthew, the biblical proofs and interpretive frameworks are often hidden from the Gospel reader, but once the guiding source is located, many passages take on new
symbolically even today) there was a twofold process by which a Jewish man and woman came to be married. There was first the betrothal, and then about a year later the marriage, after which the man and the woman lived together (m. Ketub. 5.2). Marriages were considered to be literally made in heaven. According to Prov 19:14, “And from the Lord a woman is betrothed [perhaps, more accurately, bound] to a man.”20 This understanding is reflected in some rabbinic sources, which understand that
interpretive sources to follow more closely the formulaic Near Eastern pattern even if Rank, drawing from the biblical account alone, includes Moses among those whom he sees as fitting into this pattern. It is, however, instructive to look at the language of the Jewish stories in the midrash/targumic tradition about a dream that preceded Pharaoh’s decree to kill every Israelite infant male (preserved among other places in Yalqut Šim‘oni, Exod 164). Here we find that, both in language and in
God.” 19 LXX Deut 6:13: “You shall be made to fear the Lord your God, and serve him.” 20 It may be possible to read into Jesus’ response to this third test a rebuke to early Christians who worshipped Jesus. If this were true, it would indicate that at least in Matthew’s church it was held that neither angels nor Jesus were to be worshipped. However, I find Chapter 4 109 valid response. This is where Satan was going all along and now he is sent away, so to speak, with his tail between
one day,” concerning which the Targum comments: My people, the children of Israel, just as our [var. your] Father is merciful in heaven [var. in heaven is merciful], so shall you be merciful on earth.67 The substance of Luke 6:35–36 was likely available as a midrash, not unlike Tg. Ps-J. to Lev 22:28. As noted, Jesus does not cite any verse for his assertion that God is kind to the thankless and the wicked, relying instead on the well-known fact that God is kind, which he appends to his