Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Hans Dieter Betz on those Condemned in Matthew 7:15-20 and 7:21-23

  

Who then are the people targeted in 7:15-20 and 7:21-23? Are they real opponents or fictitious projections of heresy to come in the future? Are the same persons addressed in vss 15-20 and in vss 21-23? Based on the SM as a whole, one can conclude that the opposition consists of people who for the author(s) of the SM really exist, not merely hypothetical constructs of what might happen in the future. It seems also clear that the "false prophets" of vss 15-20 are not to be confused with the rejected petitioners of vss 21-23.  The latter are the victims of the former, the ones who have been deluded by the false prophets.  It is also important to distinguish between opponents recognized by the pre-Matthean SM and Matthew's ideas about the heretics in his own church (cf. Matt 24:5, 10-12, 23-24; also 23:28).

 

The question has frequently been discussed whether the group of people described in vss 22-23 are "charismatics" or "antinomians." The evidence leaves little room for doubt that they are indeed charismatics. They claim to have prophesied, exorcised demons, and performed miracles, deeds that involve ecstatic phenomena typical of charismatics.

 

Are these people also antinomians? They may be to some extent, for they use, at least in this description, their charismatic experiences as substitutes for their obedience to the Torah. Thus operating outside the Torah, they are in the situation of "lawlessness" (ανομια). This verdict is polemical. It does not mean that the real intentions of the people portrayed were to be immoral and lawless. They should not be stamped as anarchists denying the validity of all law. Rather, it appears from the description in the SM that these people end up being "lawless" against their own intention and to their surprise, when Jesus rejects them and lets the verdict of condemnation stand unopposed. They are the victims of self-deception caused by false teachers who have set aside the teaching of Jesus (cf. 5: 19) and have led them to ignore the Torah. They were led to think that charismatic experiences are the greater accomplishments in the eyes of God. (Hans Dieter Betz, The Sermon on the Mount [Hermeneia—A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1995], 541)