Reading the Gospels Together The Storyline of Matthew’s Gospel – Part 1 As I have mentioned earlier, one of the assumptions that I bring to this study is that Matthew has used Mark’s gospel as the basis for his own gospel. There are just too many literal connections between Mark and Matthew to come to any other conclusion than that one is dependent upon the other. For some time in the church it was thought by some that Mark was a condensation of Matthew. While a case could be made for that, the case that Matthew is dependent upon Mark is much stronger and is increased when we take into consideration that Luke also appears to have used Mark. So, we begin with the premise that Matthew is dependent upon Mark. If you think about that, this does put some limits on Matthew. We have already seen how Mark has order his gospel in a particular way for some very important reasons for Mark. Matthew does not always share Mark’s conviction but he is bound in some ways to what Mark has written. For example, Matthew does not have a great investment in the idea of the hidden identity of Jesus as the Son of God that was a driving force for Mark. No human being could possibly recognize Jesus as the Son of God in Mark’s gospel until the Roman soldier looked up and saw Jesus dead upon the cross. It is only as the crucified Messiah that Mark would allow human beings to see Jesus as the Son of God. So we might say that in some ways Matthew is “stuck with Mark” but that is not a problem for Matthew. As we are tracing Matthew’s storyline we will mention when he is following Mark and only comment where Matthew makes significant changes to what he found in Mark. A second assumption that I have mentioned is that Matthew shares some material with Luke that is not found in Mark. Again there are just too many literary connections within this material to come to any conclusion other than that Matthew and Luke had a document containing this material that they shared together. I will also note those passages as we trace Matthew’s storyline. I have also mentioned that it is very unlikely that Matthew and Luke were aware of one another and that they each wrote independently from the other although they both generally followed Mark’s storyline. We might wonder under what circumstances Matthew wrote his gospel. If Mark wrote his gospel in the troubled times of the late 60’s or early 70’s AD it is likely that Matthew wrote his gospel no earlier than the late 70’s or more likely the 80’s AD. Likely things had settled down at least somewhat but Matthew’s gospel reflects a time in which great tension had arisen between Jews who followed Jesus and Jews who did not. Following the tragic Jewish War of 66-70 AD, a retrenchment likely set in amidst the Jewish faithful. The Temple had been destroyed and with it a significant part of what it meant to be Jewish. What is the way forward under these new circumstances? Why was the Temple destroyed? And what are we to make of these Jews who follow the Messiah Jesus who was killed by the Romans at the instigation of the Jewish religious leaders? And, from Matthew’s point of view, what are we to make of Jews who do not follow Jesus the Messiah? So Matthew’s gospel reflects this tension. Sometimes Matthew may even sound a bit defensive. It’s clear that Matthew appreciated Mark’s gospel since he uses over 80% of it, but it is also true the Matthew believes some modification is needs to speak to a new situation. As we have seen Mark’s gospel is a very clever and crafty writing that is full of surprises and has a way of grabbing ahold of Mark’s readers. Mark is often subtle in his storytelling. But perhaps that makes way for misunderstanding. While not rejecting Mark, Matthew does add clarity and removes some of the surprise. Our task will once again be to trace the story of Jesus as Matthew presents it to his readers. We will need to pay attention to the order that Matthew gives to his material and in particular how he weaves the material he shares with Luke as well as some of his own material into the skeleton of Mark’s gospel. Paying attention to where things happen and when will also be important as it was in tracing Mark’s story. We will need to pay attention to the pace that Matthew sets and how Matthew develops the characters in his story. Like Mark, Matthew writes as an omniscient narrator who is not a part of the story and treats he readers as recipients of a story they are also not a part of. So let’s see how Matthew’s storyline unfolds.