Matthew 22:7 contains imagery
found elsewhere in the ancient Near East and indeed in the Jewish Scriptures (cf.
Josh. 6:21-24; Judg. 1:8; 18:27; 20:48; and 1 Macc. 5:28, 35). It particularly
resonates with Judah 1:7-15, which reports that Nebuchadnezzar waged
destructive war against nations that refused to heed his messengers’ call to
join him, as well as 2 Chronicles 36:15-19, which depicts the destruction of
the first temple as a consequence of Israel’s failure to accept God’s prophets.
Such material suffices to demonstrates that a scenario much like that found in
Matthew 22;1-7 was intelligible prior to 70.
The above considerations do not
prove fatal to the hypothesis that Matthew 22:7 refers to the destruction of
the temple after the fact, but neither are they particularly friendly to that
hypothesis. They do create a scenario in which Matthew 22:7 is at least as intelligible
before 70 as after. The passage is best considered to be nonprobative for
establish the date of Matthew’s Gospel. (Jonathan Bernier, Rethinking the
Dates of the New Testament: The Evidence for Early Composition [Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2022], 41-42)
