Sunday, November 15, 2020

Tom Holland vs. Wisdom Christology in Matthew 11:28-30

  

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matt 11:28-30)

 

Many believe Matt 11:28-30 is evidence of Wisdom Christology. Against this interpretation, Tom Holland noted a better explanation for the Old Testament background to this passage:

 

Matthew is the gospel of the kingdom in which Jesus is presented as the ideal king for whom Israel has been waiting. It was Rehoboam who threatened to multiply the burden of his father when Jeroboam came to him on behalf of the people. Rehoboam rejected the advice of his father’s counsellors who advised him to make himself the servant of the people (1 Kings 12:8-11). He refused to lighten the yoke that they had had to bear under Solomon and threatened to multiply it. It is this that Matthew is alluding to, for in the following chapter he presents Jesus as the true son of David (Matt. 12:3), who is the perfect servant (12:15-21). He is the one who is greater than Solomon (12:42). Matthew is not pointing to personified Wisdom, but to the true king who is wiser than Solomon, and who is the true Son of David, the true burden bearer of his people. The ultimate yoke as seen by the law (Lev. 26:13) and the prophets (Isa. 14:35) was the exile itself. Such a description, within the sacred writings, could hardly be missed by first century Jews. Thus Jesus could well be referring to the freedom that he had come to bring was the release from bondage (exile). (Tom Holland, Contours of Pauline Theology: A Radical New Survey of the Influences on Paul’s Biblical Writings [Ross-shire, Scotland: Mentor, 2010], 345)

 

For a good refutation of "Wisdom Christology," see chapter 8, "A Critique of the Wisdom Christology Hypothesis" in Simon Gathercole, The Preexistent Son: Recovering the Christologies of Matthew, Mark, and Luke