What is meant by κρίνοντες? Many have understood the verb to refer not to lordship but to a
one-time judgement: Israel will be judged—some would say condemned—by the
twelve at the consummation. In support of this conclusion, many ancient Jewish
and Christian texts foresee a group of saints judging the world in the sense
indicated. Further, 19:28 recalls 25:31, which introduces a depiction of the
last judgement. But it is better to hold that for Matthew and his tradition, κρίνοντες had the range of the Hebrew šāpaṭ. In this case, the sitting on the
throne designates the exercise of authority over a period of time. As the
twelve phylarchs once directed the twelve tribes under Moses, and as Israel was
once ruled by judges, so shall it be at the end. Compare the Shemoneh ‘Esreh, benediction 18:
‘Restore our judges as in former times.’ Consider these points:
(i) There is no parallel to the idea that Israel will be gathered only
to be condemned. It could not be otherwise. The restoration of the lost tribes
was a great eschatological hope, beginning with the OT itself. It was to be a
proof of God’s power and faithfulness, a joyful miracle of reunion. One wonders
whether Matthew’s text can really be so far from Judaism that its connotations
are exactly the opposite—especially as our Gospel nowhere directs polemic
against Jews in the diaspora. Even if the evangelist had given up on
Palestinian Jews and/or Jews in his neighbourhood, why must he have lost hope
for those scattered abroad?
(ii) 19:28 has almost certainly been influenced by Dan 7:9–27. But in
Daniel the saints of the Most High take possession of the kingdom and govern (cf. Obad 21; Wisd 3:7–8).
(iii) In T. Jud. 25:1–2 and T. Benj. 10:7 ingathered Israel is ruled
by the twelve patriarchs (cf. T. Zeb.: 10:2). Whether the texts are Jewish or
Christian is unclear, and their date is disputed. But they show that it was
possible to associate the eschatological restoration with rule by a body of
twelve. Related texts appear in the DSS.
(iv) Lk 22:28–30, as its context reveals, proves that at least the
Third Evangelist thought in terms of the disciples ruling.
(v) In Mt 20:20–1 the mother of James and John asks Jesus to let them
sit at his right hand and his left in the coming kingdom. The imagery is very
close to 19:28. Yet 20:20–1 is naturally taken to be about governing,
particularly in view of 20:25 (‘the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them’).
Is it not preferable to interpret 19:28 and 20:20–1 as referring to the same
set of circumstances?
(vi) Mt 2:6 cites 2 Sam 5:2 = 1 Chron 11:2: ‘who will govern my people
Israel’. To a first-century Jew this would have conjured up the eschatological
hope for Israel’s restoration, the re-establishment of the twelve tribes. 19:28
is not the only Matthean text to imply such expectation. See also on 8:11–12.
We conclude: 19:28 envisages the twelve disciples entering ‘into God’s
kingly power by themselves becoming rulers’. Israel has a future (cf. 1, pp.
23–4; 2, pp. 27–8). (W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison Jr., A
Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew,
3 vols. [London: T&T Clark International, 2004], 3:55-56)
