Perspektiewe op die interpretasie van die Evangelie van Matteus

Abstract

Perspectives on the interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew. The article focuses on the interconnectedness between the notion eschatology and the Jesus profile in the Gospel of Matthew against the background of Donald Hagner and David Sim’s respective views. It consists of a discussion of Matthew’s messianic interpretation of Jesus. The presumption is that the concept ‘messiah’ conveys an eschatological connotation. The article argues that Matthew’s messianism is an allusion to Second Baruch’s apocalyptic messianism. From the perspective of this implied reference, the article demonstrates the correlation between Matthew’s narration of Jesus’ genealogical list and Jesus’ commission commandment which concludes the narration – however with an open-ended appeal to the Matthean ekklēsia to overcome hypocrisy and doubt. In the article the Matthean community is located in Syria Palestine in the midst of the parting of the ways between ‘Church’ and ‘Synagogue’. The article’s thesis concludes with the view that the relatedness between Matthew’s eschatology to Jesus’ life constitutes the narration’s plot formed by the two sequences of the pre-Paschal and post-Paschal commissions and the connectedness between birth (genesis) and rebirth (palingenesia), i.e. genealogy and resurrection.