Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you
concerning the Apocrypha-- There are many things contained therein that are
true, and it is mostly translated correct. (D&C 91:1)
Unlike many
Protestants, Latter-day Saints have no issue with there being inspired (θεόπνευστος, to
borrow from 2
Tim 3:16) portions
of the Apocrypha (“Deuterocanonical” books as our RC friends call them) based
on D&C 91. For that reason, we would have no issue with much of the
following from Catholic apologist Gary Michuta who argues that Matthew 27:39-43
is dependent, not just upon Psa 22, but the Wisdom of Solomon:
Mathew 27:39-43
And those who passed by derided him, wagging
their heads and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and build it in three
days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So
also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He
saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel; let him come
down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God
deliver him now, if he desires him; for he said, ‘I am the Son of God (Matt.
27:39-43).”
Wisdom 2:17-22
“Let us see if his words are true, and let us
test what will happen at the end of his life; for if the righteous man is God’s
son, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries (Wis.
2:17-22)
In the Mathew passage, many modern bibles
will direct the reader to the Suffering Servant passage in Psalm 22:7-8, which
reads,
All who see me mock at me, they make mouths
at me, they wag their heads; “he committed his cause to the Lord; let him
deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him.”
Bibles that include the deuterocanon will
likely provide a second cross-reference to Wisdom 2:17-18. No one would deny
that the two texts have a certain affinity with one another. For example, both
Psalms 22:8-9 and Wisdom 2:17-18 speak about God rescuing the just man who
places his trust in him (Matthew 27:43, Wisdom 2:17018, and Psalm 22:8 [LXX]
all use the same Greek word for rescue).
However, the taunts of the chief priests, scribes, and elders in Matthew 27:43
suggest something more specific; Christ is being mocked not merely for being “loved
by God” (as a comparison to Psalm 22:7-8 would suggest), but specifically
because he “said ‘I am the Son of God.’” Notice how Wisdom 2:17 takes the truthful
claim to be the “Son of God” as a condition for God’s deliverance:
For if the just one be the Son of God, he
will defend him and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
This is the only passage in the Old Testament
that expresses a direct expectation that the true Son of God would be rescued
and delivered from persecution by mockers and detractors; and it is precisely
Christ’s claim of divine sonship that led the Jewish leaders in Matthew 27:43
to express their feigned expectation of such a rescue. Given this close
interconnection, it is not surprising to find Protestant sources recognizing
this dependency on Wisdom in Matthew 27:41-43. What, if anything, however, does
this usage tell us about the inspired status of Wisdom?
First, the elders must have understood the
book of Wisdom to be an authoritative, perhaps even predictive, sacred text;
otherwise, their taunt would have been meaningless, perhaps even blasphemous,
since it would then have amounted to a demand for a miraculous rescue that God
never promised. Only a recognized inspired text would have given these words
power and avoided blasphemous presumption.
Second, the chief priests, scribes, and elders
must have had a reasonable expectation that those present would recognize their
citation of Wisdom 2:17-18; otherwise, their words would have been lost on
their hearers. Third, Matthew’s inclusion of these words in his Gospel
narrative indicates that he saw them as having some significance for Jewish
Christian readers, seeing perhaps, as the apostle Paul did, Christ’s ultimate
rescue in the Resurrection as a vindication or demonstration of his divine
sonship (Wisdom 2:17-18 cf. Romans 1:4) Finally, Matthew apparently expected
his readers to know this text as well and accept it as a genuine prophecy. From
earliest times, Christians used Wisdom 2:17-18 as a genuine prophecy of Christ’s
passion.
There is something stronger than an allusion
or even a quote here; Matthew is employing
Wisdom in this text (or rather the Jewish elders are employing Wisdom, and
Matthew records it). It suggests that Matthew, the chief priests, scribes, and
elders, as well as their hearers and readers, understood this text to be
prophetic. Yet despite the significance of this employment, by Matthew and
others, this reference to the inspired book of Wisdom has been systematically
omitted from most Protestant bibles. (Gary Michuta, Why Catholic Bibles are Bigger [2d ed.; El Cajon, Calif.: Catholic
Answers Press, 2017], 51-53; cf. Mario Lopez ["Matt1618"], "Wisdom 2:12-20: Prophecy Fulfilled in Jesus Christ"))
In a scholarly
commentary on Matthew by a Protestant, we read the following about Matthew’s
possible use of Wisdom:
In the larger context of the mockery, the addition
of the Son-of-God clause to the material echoing Ps. 22:9 produces something
which has a striking similarity to Wis. 2:13, 16–20:
He
claims to have knowledge of God and names himself a child (παῖδα) of [the] Lord.… He
pretends falsely that God is his Father. Let us see if his words are true, and
let us test what will happen at the end of his life; for if the righteous man
is a Son of God, he will come to his aid and rescue him from the hand of his
opponents. Let us test him with insult and torture, so that we may know his
forbearance and make trial of his patient endurance. Let us condemn him to a
shameful death, for, according to what he says, there will be a visitation [of
God] for him (αὐτοῦ ἐπισκοπή).
The fit is so good that surely this material was in
Matthew’s mind as he wrote. If so, Matthew will expect his readers to
understand how benighted the attitude of the opponents of the righteous man of
the book of Wisdom is and will be shown to be as the book unfolds (The very
next verse in Wis. 2:21 says, ‘They were led astray, for their wickedness
blinded them’). Matthew will be seeing the present scene of mocking very much
in relation to the coming vindication, first in the events of 27:45–54 and then
in the resurrection. (John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew: A Commentary on the Greek
Text [New International Greek Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, 2005], 1199-1200)
I do not
believe Latter-day Saints should, as some Protestants are wont to do, have a
knee-jerk reaction and reject such. In my opinion, Matthew is employing both Psa 22 and Wisdom 2 as prophecies that are being
fulfilled in some way in Matt 27.
For a
book-length discussion of the Apocrypha from an LDS perspective, see:
Jared W.
Ludlow, Exploring
the Apocrypha from a Latter-day Saint Perspective (Springville, Utah:
CFI, 2018)
Jeff Lindsay
has a short review of this book at:
