{"id":2073,"date":"2015-01-04T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2015-01-04T14:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=2073"},"modified":"2015-01-02T16:00:25","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T20:00:25","slug":"gaining-a-deeper-understanding-of-the-new-testament-20150104","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=2073","title":{"rendered":"Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20150104"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gospel-of-Matthew-Banner\"<\/a>In the last issue I suggested that the last three sentences of Matthew\u2019s Gospel combine affirmation, imperative and promise. I shared with you the affirmation that is there. The affirmation was that Jesus proclaimed that He had been granted \u201call authority in heaven and on earth. <\/em>Then follows the imperative.<\/p>\n

Imperative<\/em><\/strong>: <\/em>\u201cGo therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.\u201d This is commonly known as \u201cthe Great Commission\u201d and has been the classic foundation for Christian missionary work, especially since about 1800 and the birth of the modern missionary movement. Its purpose has been to convert the whole world to Christianity.<\/p>\n

In Matthew, \u201cnations\u201d has a more limited meaning. In first-century Judaism and Christianity, it meant \u201cGentiles.\u201d It did not mean then what it means today when we speak of the nations of the world. Rather, Matthew was affirming the validity of the mission to Gentiles, even though Jesus during His earthly life restricted His mission to Jews and told his followers to do likewise. Now, as the gospel ends, the risen Christ authorizes the mission to non-Jews.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Promise:<\/em><\/strong> In the final words of the gospel, the Jesus of Matthew promises his followers: \u201cRemember, I am with you\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 always, to the end of the age.\u201d The ending returns to a theme announced at the beginning of Matthew\u2019s gospel. In his story of Jesus\u2019 birth, he names Jesus as \u201cEmmanuel\u201d (citing Isaiah 7:14<\/em>) and explains that it means \u201cGod is with us\u201d (1:23). Now the risen Christ says the same thing about Himself in first-person language: I am with you always. <\/em>Jesus is Emmanuel, \u201cGod With us\u201d Thus Matthew ends.<\/p>\n

The gospel of Matthew does not produce well-balanced parts. Compared to Mark and Luke, Matthew is more obviously artificial, even contrived in its arrangement (recall that it has five parts that parallel the five books of the Torah<\/em>). This does not imply that Mark and Luke are without any artificiality in their arrangement of the material. Even Mark, who seems to be most na\u00efve and unstudied of the Evangelists, has arranged his narrative in an order other than the simple order of events. Matthew apparently wishes to make it clear that his arrangement is his own. He emphasizes the sayings of Jesus both in discourses and in narratives. This interest in his teaching is in sharp contrast to Mark. The same interest appears in Luke and John is almost entirely a report of the discourses of Jesus.<\/p>\n

It is no accident that the words of Jesus are quoted more frequently from Matthew than from any other Gospel. Matthew was deeply interested in Jesus\u2019 teaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last issue I suggested that the last three sentences of Matthew\u2019s Gospel combine affirmation, imperative and promise. I shared with you the affirmation that is there. The affirmation was that Jesus proclaimed that He had been granted \u201call … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-look-at-the-new-testament","category-gosple-of-mathew"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2074,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073\/revisions\/2074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}