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I picked up a copy of The Interpretation of
Matthew recently. It's a compilation of some of the most important
articles on Matthew's written over the past century - many of which had
never been available in English translation before.
The first article, by Ernst von Dobshütz from 1928, predating the
rise of redation criticism, focuses on the changes that Matthew made
to Mark, adding many phrases numerous times. (He notes the use of "and
it happened, when Jesus had finished these sayings" to conclude each
of the five passages of sayings, but doesn't draw any parallel to the
Pentateuch. I must investigate when this idea arose...)
He then goes on to posit that Matthew had obviously undergone rabbinic
schooling - probably under R. Jochanan ben Zakkai who was also fond
of reciting Hosea's "I desire mercy and not sacrifice" to console his
dicsciples after the loss of the Temple.
This ties in quite neatly with another book I'm reading at the minute:
Harvey Falk's Jesus The Pharisee. In it he argues that
in the ongoing battle between the two Pharisaic camps of Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel, Jesus, and later Paul (who trained under Gamaliel, Hillel's grandson), were followers of Hillel, attempting to spread knowledge of the seven Noahide commandments to the Gentiles.
In Northern Ireland, of course, all Jews still have to be
either Protestant or Catholic. The concept that Paul, Matthew, or
Jesus would have been Jewish isn't one that comes naturally to most
people. Even though I've theoretically studied this stuff I really don't know enough about it all. Guess its time to get that univeristy library associate membership...
12:44:28 PM 
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