Divine Wrath and Salvation in Matthew

The Narrative World of the First Gospel

Anders Runesson

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780800699598
• eBook ISBN:
  9781451452259
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

Winner of the 2017 F. W. BEARE AWARD

Judgment and the wrath of God are prominent themes in Matthew's Gospel. Because judgment is announced not only on the hypocritical but also on those who reject God's messengersand because this rejection is implicitly connected with the destruction of Jerusalemthe Gospel has often been read in terms of God's rejection of Israel, with catastrophic results. Anders Runesson sets out to show, through careful study of Matthew's composition and comparison with contemporary Jewish literature, that the theme of divine judgment plays very different and distinct roles regarding diverse groups of Jews (including Jesus' disciples) and non-Jews in this Gospel. Runesson examines various assumptions regarding the criteria of judgment in each case and finds that Matthew does not support some of the most popular slogans in Christian theology. The results and implications for our historical understanding of Christian origins and our theological estimation of Matthew's place in that story will be of vital interest to scholars and students for years to come.

1

Judging and Saving the Jewish People

1

When Will Israel’s God Judge His People?

In order to better understand how the theme of divine judgment is developed in Matthew’s narrative, it is of some importance to address the issue of when the God of Israel will judge his people. Such considerations will, as we shall see, shed light on the eschatological nature of the Gospel, which, contrary to claims made by some Matthean scholars, does not exclude a retained notion of judgment as implemented also in the present world. Since the scholarly discussion of the timing of divine judgment in Matthew has been made dependent on the idea that our Gospel proposes a new covenant replacing an old abolished covenant, we shall begin this chapter with some comments on Matthew’s “when” in relation to Israel’s covenant with God. Then we shall move on to outline three basic times of judgment, giving examples of passages that will be discussed throughout Part I. As we shall see, the criteria of judgment, of what is at stake, will differ based on which judgment we are considering. For example, while a positive outcome in the final judgment does presume obedience to the law of Moses, as Jesus interprets it, salvation ultimately depends on a covenant based on a genealogy going back to the patriarchs; it can only be inherited. Rewards and punishments in this world and in the world to come, however, are dependent entirely on what has traditionally been called works of law.

With regard to judgment and covenant, Blaine Charette has argued that Matthew’s emphasis on the threat of judgment should be understood as the author’s way of stressing that his people must take seriously the requirements of the law within the covenant. For Charette, however, the covenant in Matthew is a new covenant, which replaces the failed Sinai covenant. While the new covenant “operates on the same level as the old in respect of the requirement of obedience for the continuing maintenance of the covenant relationship,” there is no ethnic component to the new as there was in the old: both Jews and non-Jews are now included in the covenant.^[1] I agree with Charette that Matthew displays a form of covenantal nomism, based on E. P. Sanders’s definition.^[2] However, in terms of the relationship between covenant and law, there is, in my opinion, no support for his claim that this covenant would abolish the distinction between Jews and non-Jews. Matthew does not speak of a “new” covenant,^[3] nor does he contrast “new” and “old” in such a way that “new” replaces “old.”^[4] Instead, as we shall see, the Matthean Jesus’s task is, indeed, to make sure that the Sinaitic covenant is restored after the defilement of the temple and before the coming final judgment.

The new–old covenant distinction leads Charette to a further contrast. In the “old covenant,” he argues, punishment was executed in history, whereas in the “new covenant” punishment is implemented at the end of the present age.^[5] Similarly, Charette shapes his argument regarding rewards as if such will be delivered only on the day of the final judgment. He further defines reward to mean the receiving of an inheritance (i.e., the kingdom).^[6] While there certainly is an emphasis on the eschatological judgment in Matthew’s Gospel, such a focus does not completely exclude or replace God’s intervention in this world in terms of rewards and punishments. In light of Charette’s arguments, and in order to contextualize Matthew’s approach to judgment, let us consider briefly passages from the Hebrew Bible before we move on to categorize the relevant Matthean passages.

In most of the texts included in the Hebrew Bible, rewards and punishments are directly related to the law and executed primarily in this world. This combination of law and continual judgment in history seems to serve the purpose of shaping Israel in the image of God:^[7] as God is holy, so shall the people be holy.^[8] Some prophets also relate the status of Israel to the world beyond this religio-ethnic group in the sense that the people should be a light among the nations.^[9] Experiences of unremitting evil, both within Israel and as directed against Israel by the nations, lead to the development of the notion that God (and the oppressed) will ultimately triumph over the oppressor, even if that does not seem likely in the current situation. This day of final judgment often goes under the name “the day of the Lord,” or simply, “that day.”^[10] To this notion was later attached the idea of a final judgment at the end of time,^[11] and resurrection—an idea that we find among the Pharisees as well as in the Jesus movement. Neither the idea of a final judgment removing oppressors, or the notion of a final judgment following after a general resurrection, meant, however, that the idea of reward and punishment in history vanished altogether.^[12]

In the Gospel of Matthew, we can discern three different types of judgment, which may be categorized as follows: a) Punishment and reward as distributed in this world; b) Punishment and reward to be paid in the world to come; c) The final judgment. Beginning with the last of these types the final judgment will take place “chronologically” between the other two; it prepares the way for coming punishments and “payments,”^[13] which will be implemented in the world to come, based on how life was lived in the present world. The main outcome of the final judgment, though, is either what we call salvation, which refers to inclusion in the world to come, or condemnation, which refers to exclusion from life in the coming kingdom. The vast majority of judgment texts in Matthew refer to the final judgment, a fact that indicates clearly the eschatological emphasis of the text.

The idea of punishment and reward in the world to come, the second category of judgment discourse in the Gospel, makes statements about how people, through the way they live in this world, prepare for their treatment after the final judgment, i.e., in the kingdom.^[14] This category is distinguished from the final judgment in that all are judged on the last day, but of the ones that are allowed into the kingdom, some will be in a better position than others; roles will be reversed and hierarchies rearranged.

Finally, Matthew includes a few references to judgment that is executed in this world. This type of judgment is focused on punishment rather than reward. It seems Matthew generally prefers, like later Rabbinic Judaism,^[15] to transfer this type of judgment to the world to come, as can be seen in the programmatic statement in parable form in Matt 13:24–30, 36–43, as well as in Matt 19:29. Beginning with the latter text, a comparison with the parallel texts in Mark and Luke is instructive. In Mark 10:29–30, those who have left the good things in life to follow Jesus will receive reward “now in this age” (nyn en tō kairō toutō) as well as in the world to come (en tō aioni tō erchomenō). The reward in relation to the world to come is defined specifically as “eternal life”/“life in the new age” (zōēn aiōnion).

Luke 18:29–30 has the same perspective as Mark, saying that people will be receiving already in this world “much more” than what they have given up for the sake of the kingdom; in the world to come, the reward will be eternal life. Matthew’s version of this saying differs significantly from the other two with regard to two important themes. First, Matthew sets the scene by introducing an eschatological context. This is done through the claim that when the world is re-born (en tē paliggenesia), the twelve disciples will judge/rule^[16] the twelve tribes of Israel. It is at this time, when the world is being re-born, that (abundant) rewards will be given to those who have left houses, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, or children for Jesus’s name’s sake; they will receive “hundredfold,” but what exactly is to be received is, contrary to Mark, left unspecified. What in Mark and Luke is a saying about judgment resulting in this-worldly rewards is, in Matthew, a reassurance that recompense will be given in the world to come.

There is a further detail in Matthew’s version of the saying, one which we shall return to, but which needs a brief comment here. While Mark and Luke seem to define eternal life as a reward, Matthew is careful to use the word “inherit” (klēronomeō) when he describes what is to take place. In fact, Matthew consistently applies this term when speaking about eternal life in judgment contexts; such a distinction between reward/recompense and inheritance is not present in Mark and Luke. It would seem that, for Matthew, eternal life cannot be “earned” as a reward, but has to be given to an individual as an inheritance in accordance with God’s covenantal promises to the patriarchs.^[17] As will be shown below, salvation is thus to be understood in Matthew as related to, or entangled with, genealogy, although this is conceptualized in ways that move beyond the world of ideas present in some other Jewish texts contemporary with the Gospel.

Now if Matt 19:29 was, unlike its parallel passages in other Gospels, transferring “wages” to the world to come, Matt 13:24–30, 36–43, i.e., the parable about the weeds and the wheat, seems to do the same with regard to punishment. Some scholars have argued that the purpose of this parable is to restrain the impatience resulting from the fact that no immediate division between good and evil had come with the first signs of the arrival of the kingdom; humans (and angels; 13:28, 38) must not get ahead of the coming judgment, but must wait patiently for God to execute judgment through his agents.^[18] While this may be true, the issue of impatience is not mentioned or dealt with in the parable itself, nor in its explanation. The parable seems, rather, to contain material addressing more generally what is often referred to as the problem of evil, or theodicy. In other words, the text answers the classic question, dealt with frequently in the Psalter too,^[19] why the wicked are not punished in this world if God is righteous in his judgment. Matthew’s solution is to claim that God is indeed righteous, and “those who break the law” (tous poiountas tēn anomian) will be gathered and destroyed (Matt 13:41–42). The parable and its explanation thus respond to concerns that may arise among people socialized in a setting in which the judgment theme is defined by the writings of the Hebrew Bible; in the majority of these texts, judgment takes place in history. The parable so...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Additional praise for Divine Wrath and Salvation in Matthew
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Tables and Figures
• Preface
• Introduction: To Distinguish Good from Evil
• Judging and Saving the Jewish People
• Judging and Saving the Nations
• Conclusion: Divine Wrath and Salvation in Matthew’s Narrative World
• Bibliography
• Ancient Sources Index
• Subject Index