I just posted my notes (about 21 pages) on chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew, for any who are interested, and particularly for those of my FB friends and others whove been part of the Matthew Discussion Group at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church for the past year. Coming between what are usually called the Sermon on the Mount and the Missionary Discourse, this section mainly deals with the question of Jesus authority. Thus Ive called my commentary, Where Is Jesus Coming From? In general, Im trying to approach Matthew as a *book* with a structure, plot, and development of its own, rather than as a collection of unrelated episodes aimed somewhat at showing that Jesus was the Son of God or building faith or whatever. In particular, the section on the centurion and his boy (Mt 8.5-13) has turned out to be very interesting. Regardless of the identity of the boy (which I discussed with a number of people separately a week ago or so), it seems unquestionable that *both* the centurion and the Pharisees of 9.32-34 have the same view of Jesus as a centurion of demons, though the centurion regards him positively and the Pharisees negatively. Also unexpected is the fact that Matthew is not trying to assert or prove Jesus authority, but (as a good storyteller would) letting us see how the people around Jesus actually *struggled* to understand what kind of man this is (8.27). You can download the notes by clicking the fourth item listed at jbburnett/theology/theol-bib-nt-mt.html. Comments invited, either here or on my blog or by email.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 07:21:53 +0000
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