For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.
Emphases of Matthew
- Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.
- Jesus a teacher and lawgiver like Moses.
- 5 Teaching Tracts – like Torah (Pentateuch) and Psalms.
- Suggests Jesus' teaching is scripture (follows the O.T. model).
- Suggests Jesus is a second Moses.
- Matthew 5:17: He came not to abolish, but to fulfill, Torah.
- OT fulfillment formulae (11x).
Observations chapter by chapter in Matthew
- 1:1 -- Son of Abraham, Son of David: Jesus is Jewish through and through.
- 2:1 -- Born in the town of David, Bethlehem.
- 2:1-2 -- King of the Jews (legitimately)
- 4:1ff -- Tested in the desert, like the people of Israel. For more on the parallels, listen to Night of Redemption: A Study of Exodus (10 lessons).
- 5-7 -- Teaching like Moses
- Goes up a mountainside (as Moses twice went up Mt. Sinai).
- Authority higher than that of the rabbis or Pharisees; Jesus speaks on his own (divine) authority. See 7:28-29.
- Updates God's Word, reinterpreting Torah.
- 10:23 (15:24) -- Preaching to the Jews.
- 12:1ff -- Lord of the Sabbath.
- 28:16-20 -- Make disciples of all the Gentiles (nations)
- Mountain -- Moses.
- Worship -- Deity.
- Fulfilling the Abrahamic promise (Genesis 12:3; Exodus 19:6).
Next: Luke: A Universal Vision from the Center to the Margins