Friday, December 16, 2022

William L. Kynes on Matthew 2:6; 15; 18 and 23

  

It may appear that the correspondence between the Old Testament text and the events to which it is related by the evangelist is simply verbal. Thus in 2:23, some unknown Old Testament expression relates to the description of Jesus as a Ναζωραιος; while 2:15 simply applies an Old Testament text with the appropriate ideas of “God’s son” and “Egypt” to the experience of Jesus with no regard to the original context. . . . Whatever may be said of the enigmatic 2:23, several factors suggest that Matthew’s use of the Old Testament in 2:15 is more than merely atomistic. First, in the following formula quotations (2:17, 18) another Old Testament text referring to an event in the history of Israel is also used to refer to an event associated with the life of Jesus. In citing Jer. 31:15 in which the prophet alludes to the exiles of the northern kingdom, the evangelist sees a fulfilment in Herod’s massacre of the children of Bethlehem. Second, the Old Testament context of the Hosea text cited by Matthew (Hos. 11:1) supports a connection between Israel and the infancy of Jesus, as the immediately preceding words in Hosea read, “When Israel was a child, I loved him,” words which would “compellingly suggest the infancy of Jesus.” And third, the Israel typology suggested by the use of Hos. 11:1 is supported by Jesus’ clear association with Israel later in the temptation narrative. One can say, then, that in his citation of Hos. 11:1, an association with Israel appears likely.

 

In addition, the narrative itself is rich with allusions to important people and events in the life of the nation of Israel. The idea of a new Moses theme is often suggested, especially because of the allusion to Exod. 4:19 in Mt. 2:20. The case for the Moses typology is made stronger when one considers the tradition about Moses’ birth found in Josephus and rabbinic sources as a possible background for Matthew’s narrative. A number of similarities occur, but there are also major differences, differences which suggest only allusion to rather than dependence on this tradition. But as the story of a national deliverer, such allusions are not unexpected in Matthew’s narrative.

 

Apart from the tradition about Moses, several other biblical stories have been suggested as background. The Joseph cycle in Genesis 37-50 is a possibility, with the identical names of two of the protagonists (the patriarch and the father of Jesus), the interest in dreams, the mention of Egypt all providing contact. The episode centered on Balaam in Numbers 22-24 is another important candidate: he comes from the east (απ ανατολων; Num. 23:7 LXX), is called a μαγος by Philo, and is the tool of a wicked king who tries to destroy Israel. Certainly, Num. 24:17, “a star will rise from Jacob,” had a messianic significance in Matthew’s day. Finally, some scholars have looked to the journey of Jacob/Israel to Egypt after his persecution by Laban (Gen. 46:2-4), especially in its developed form in the ancient Passover Haggadah. Laban (who is identified as Balaam in Tg. Ps.-J. Num. 22:5) seeks to destroy Jacob and his family, and this tradition is linked with Jacob’s journey into Egypt.

 

Though each is possible, one of these suggested allusions to Old Testament characters is explicit, nor should any be considered as the interpretive key to the narrative in its present form. Rather, we agree with Nolan when he says, “What is really remarkable in Matthew 1-2 is the thematic richness, the density of evocation which defies confinement to any single typology” (Royal Son, p 89) The Jewish background is “of a broader nature,” (Stendahl, “Quis,” p. 99) highly suggestive of many events and important figures in Israel’s past. IT is best, then, to see an allusion to the history of Israel as a whole in these opening chapters of the gospel. One can see this in the first three fulfilment citations mentioned in chap. 2 which,

 

by mentioning Bethlehem, the city of David, Egypt, the land of the Exodus, and Ramah, the mourning-place of the Exile, offers a theological history of Israel in geographic miniature. Just as Jesus sums up the history of the people named in his genealogy, so his early career sums up the history of these prophetically significant places. (R. Brown, Birth, p. 217)

 

Matthew’s geography betrays a theological interest, and the phrase “Out of Egypt I called my son” from the formula quotation of 2:15 is a fitting encapsulating summary of that concern. It recalls the Exodus suggesting, perhaps the attending notion that Jesus is a new Moses, but more importantly it puts Jesus in the place of Israel as he assumes the filial relationship with God once predicated of the nation (cf. Exod. 4:22; Hos. 11:1; Jer. 31:9, 20). In using a variety of figures and events from the history of Israel, Matthew’s infancy narrative points to Jesus as the one in whom the history of that nation is recapitulated and fulfilled. (William L. Kynes, A Christology of Solidarity: Jesus as the Representative of His People in Matthew Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1991], 17-20, emphasis in bold added)

 

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