gospel of matthew as a parody of torah

Copyright (2006) JOHN HUDSON All Rights Reserved

1

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW AS A PARODY OF TORAH; A PAPER FOR THE EASTERN GREAT LAKES BIBLE SOCIETY

by John Hudson 1.1-2:12 THE BOOK OF THE GENESIS/ORIGINS OF JESUS 2:13-23 THE BOOK OF EXODUS OF JESUS (ESCAPE FROM EGYPT) 3:1-4:16 THE BOOK OF THE WILDERNESS (NUMBERS/ BEMIDBAR) THE BOOK OF THE NEW INSTRUCTIONS ( DEUTERONOMY) 4:17 From That Time forward by the sea Jesus began to proclaim 5:1-7:27 DISCOURSE ON TRUE DISCIPLES (Sermon on Mount) 7:28 When Jesus had finished this discourse END OF DISCOURSE No. 1 Paradoxes (Miracles)

*First Attack on Pharisees 9:9-9:17 9;27-31 Two Blind Men are healed (parallel to VESPASIAN)

9:36-11.1 DISCOURSE ON APOSTLES MISSION TO JUDEA 11:1 Jesus finished instructing his disciples END OF DISCOURSE No. 2

******11;2-12:23 APOCALYPTIC PASSAGE********** -condemnation of Chorazin and Bethsaida -healing of a withered hand (parallel to VESPASIAN)

*Second Attack on Pharisees 12:24-12:50 Parables 13.1-13:33 DISCOURSE ON PARABLES, SPEAKING INDIRECTLY

13:34-36 <Jesus spoke all these things to the crowds indirectly, in parables. <CENTER> Then he left the crowds and went into the house where he directly explained the

parables to the disciples.> 13:36-13:52 DISCOURSE ON PARABLES SPEAKING DIRECTLY 13:53 Jesus had finished these parables END OF DISCOURSE No. 3 Paradoxes (Miracles) 14:16-14:36 Feeding 5000

*Third Attack on Pharisees 15:1-15:21 15:22-15:39 Feeding 4000

*Fourth Attack on Pharisees (16:1-16:20 16:21 From That Time on Jesus made it clear Prophecies 17:24-19:1 DISCOURSE ON APOSTLES AND COMMUNITY 19:1 Jesus finished this instruction END OF DISCOURSE No. 4

*Fifth Attack on Pharisees 19:3-19:22 20:29 Two Blind Men Healed (parallel to VESPASIAN) Parables

*Sixth Attack on Pharisees 22:15-46) 23:1-23:33 DISCOURSE ON FALSE DISCIPLES Prophecies *******23:34-24:31 APOCALYPTIC PASSAGE cf. ‘LUNATIC JESUS’ (J. WAR 6,5)******* 26:1 Jesus concluded his discourse END OF DISCOURSE No. 5

THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS 26:2-28:16 The Sacrifice (follows circular pattern of Leviticus, as per M.Douglas) 26-6-29 Outside the temple 26;55-6 Temple portico/porch (compare Lev 8;3) 26;61-68 Blasphemy accusation (compare Lev. 10;1-2) 27;3-6 Outer Sanctuary 27;40 Blasphemy accusation (compare Lev. 24;10-22) 27:51 Door/curtain of Inner Sanctuary is torn (Lev 24;3) 28;1-6 Empty chamber guarded by an angel (Ex.25;17-22)


2

BACKGROUND Literary evidence shows that the gospel of Matthew is not the account of a

historical Jesus but was created as a parody of the Torah. This is compatible with the latest evidence in books like Joseph Atwill’s Caesar’s Messiah, which shows the gospels were created by the Romans as literary satires, after the end of the Roman-Jewish war.

THE TV INTERVIEWS THAT ACCOMPANY THIS PAPER ARE AT

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-113962347818445726

LITERARY STRUCTURE Like other works of classical literature, the Gospel of Matthew has a specific

center. The midpoint of the Gospel concerns whether Jesus is speaking directly

or indirectly (13;34-36). There are also two parallel discourses, one on true

disciples, the other on false disciples. Mixed in-between are separate groups of

parables, miracles and prophecies. Each of the major accounts is divided into a

Narrative in which Jesus interacts with other people and a Discourse in which he

basically gives speeches.i

Far from being a naturalistic account, the Gospel of Matthew is structured into

five books like an alternative rewritten Torahii although unfortunately no edition of

the Gospel makes this explicit. That is why it starts with an account of Genesis

(1;1-2;12). It moves next to an account of Exodus (2;13-23) then includes

passages about wilderness which remind us of the Book of Numbers (3;1-4;16)

which Jews call the book of ‘In the Wilderness’. Then most important of all, there

is a Book of Instruction (8;1-26;1) that opens in a similar way to how Moses

begins the Book of Deuteronomy and similarly comprises five sections. Finally

the last book about the passion story mirrors the Book of Leviticus which is about

sacrifice and atonement (23;34-.28;16). Each of the five books of the Torah has

their specific parallels in Matthew;


3

• Genesis Parallel The writers’ primary purpose in the first part of their Gospel was to provide an account of ‘genesis’, of birth, which would structurally parallel the Book of Genesis in Torah. However Matthew has performed a subtle reversal. Most genealogies say that a famous person has the son X who had the son Y. However, this genealogy goes backwards to Abraham and is being used as a way of connecting Jesus to the founder of the Israelite faith. It therefore is making the amusing, nonsensical and chronologically upside down claim that Abraham is famous because generations later his descendant was Jesus!

• Exodus Parallel; Exodus is the story of Moses, of Joseph’s dreams and

of Egypt. All of these themes were used to craft the infancy narrative in Matthew’s Gospel.iii Matthew began by creating a fixed literary pattern that he repeats three times in succession. He divides it up his three sections by using prophetic quotations. He then uses the passage about Herod threatening to kill the firstborn children in Judea, as a literary satire of the passage in Exodus where Pharaoh threatens to kill new born boys of the Hebrews. Writing after the destruction of Jerusalem, the writers of Matthew chose to use the imagery of Pharaoh’s threatened murder of the new born Hebrew sons, and to create their own equivalent scene, where the villain was not Pharaoh but Herod. Matthew then provides a simple reversal of Exodus. He uses language for Joseph going home to Israel that is almost identical to the language used in Exodus about Moses going back home to Egypt. Then he uses similar language to describe Joseph going into Egypt as the language that is used to describe Moses going out of Egypt.

• Numbers Parallel; The relevant passage in the Gospel of Matthew begins

‘In those days’ (Mt 3:1). This corresponds to the opening of the book of Numbers ‘On the first day’ (Num 1:1). However the Book of Numbers is known in Hebrew as Bemidbar (In the Wilderness), named after its fifth word. It is that theme of wilderness that the Gospel of Matthew especially emphasizes. Straight away, after the return from Egypt, Matthew provides two accounts of the Wilderness at Mt 3:1 and Mt 4:1. There are 41 verses which describe John the Baptist, his predictions of what Jesus will do, Jesus’ baptism, his temptation in the desert, and his recruitment of the first disciples. The first eleven verses, Mt. 4:1-11 is the story in which Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days and nights. The Deuteronomic theme of God’s son being tested for 40 years left hungry and without bread in a wilderness of useless stones is adapted slightly by the writers of Matthew. Jesus is in the wilderness only 40 nights and days like Elijah and Moses (rather than years like Israel).

• Deuteronomy Parallel The central and largest section of the Gospel of Matthew is based on Deuteronomy. Both books also have similar


4

beginnings since Deuteronomy would have been known among the Hebrews by its initial ‘these are the Words’ which is similar to Matthew’s initial ‘from that time forth Jesus began to say these Words’ (Mt 4:17). Like the five speeches by Moses in Deuteronomy, the central section is organized around a series of five great speeches—each of which is marked by formal wording announcing the end of the discourse.iv The similarities include the fact that the content of both books was in part given on a mountain, both consist of teaching or instruction, and both have very formal rhetorical endings.

• Leviticus Parallel; The general similarity between Leviticus and the Passion Narrative which describes the death of Jesus is in terms of their content. Both describe sacrifices, and both make references to the sacrificial goat. But that is simply anecdote. It is much more revealing to look not at the content but at its structure. One of the remarkable properties of The Book of Leviticus is that the different chapters are arranged around a virtual model of the temple. The early chapters refer to the outer courtyard, the later chapters refer to the gate of the Tent of Holiness, then go inside the tent, and the penultimate and most important chapter refers to the Ark itself inside the Holy of Holies. In this way the different chapters are associated with different parts of the building.vThis was an orator’s technique used in order to try and memorize long books. So the various chapters of the Book of Leviticus gradually proceed around the temple until at last the book ends up in the Holy of Holies.


5

Because the whole of Gospel of Matthew is modeled on the Torah, this is continued in the Passion Narrative , which uses the same principle of traveling around the geography in the outer areas and inner areas of the Temple. These mentions start outside the city, then around the city, then mention teaching in the Portico (the shaded colonnades of the court of Gentiles), throwing money into the sanctuary itself (the court of the priests), then the door-curtain of the inner sanctuary, and finally after the curtain—a stone cave. Why the cave?

In the place where in the Temple would be the Holy of Holies and two cherubims on the ark containing the stone tablets, we find the empty tomb with an angel sitting on a stone (it becomes more exact when two angels appear in Gospel of John which also adds in 100 pounds of spices to parallel those used in annointing the tent of meeting in Exodus 30). In other words, in Gospel of Matthew the empty tomb corresponds structurally to the Holy of Holies in the temple or the tabernacle. This strongly suggests that the writers of Matthew invented the empty tomb, to create a literary equivalent that corresponded with the (empty) Holy of Holies beyond the curtain.

Furthermore, there are two accounts of blasphemy in the Book of Leviticus. One takes place immediately in front of the outer door of the


6

tent (Lev 8;3) when Aaron’s sons try to enter with the wrong sort of blasphemous fire. They are burnt to death (Lev 10;1-2. The second takes place after the reference to the light being set up outside the curtain of the covenant, when a nameless blasphemer blasphemed the Name of God (Lev 24;10-22). Similarly in the Passion Narrative there are two accusations of blasphemy, in each case where Jesus is accused of having said he was God’s Son thus mentioning the divine name, and also threatening the temple; (a) there is a mention of teaching in the temple’s outer portico (26;55-6) and Jesus is accused of blasphemy (Mt 26:61-68) immediately after which is a reference to the sanctuary (27;3-6). (b) there is also a mention of the temple curtain (Mt 27:51) and immediately before it Jesus is accused of blasphemy again (Mt 27:40-41).

The writers of Gospel of Matthew have created the two accounts of Jesus being

accused of blasphemy in order to copy the positioning of the two blasphemy

accounts in the book of Leviticus. Whereas other aspects of the Passion

Narrative were based on other literary sources, the overall literary prototype of

the Torah had led to the creation of the empty tomb, the angel, the mention of

the curtain, and the two blasphemy accusations.

JOHN HUDSON

[email protected] ENDNOTES i David R Bauer The Structure of Mattthew’s Gospel (1988). ii The Temple scroll and Book of Jubilees are other examples see Sidnie White Crawford The Temple Scroll and related Texts (2000;17-19) Sheffield Academic Press; Sheffield iii Raymond Brown The Birth of the Messiah (1979) iv Back in the 1920s Bacon thought that these five divisions corresponded to the whole of the Torah. But that was not correct. They only match Deuteronomy. v Mary Douglas Leviticus as Literature (1999)

gospel of matthew as a parody of torah

Documents