The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (52 page)

The OT substructure of Matthew's theology is also evident in his portrayal of Jesus in relation to major OT characters. At the beginning Matthew presented Jesus as
the son of David and the son of Abraham
(1:1–18). Jesus is also
the new Moses
, who in his “inaugural address” in the Gospel, the Sermon on the Mount, ascends a mountain and instructs his followers in his new law (chaps. 5 –7).

Also related to Jesus' fulfillment of the OT is the
kingdom of God
, which forms the subject of numerous parables, collected in three of the five major discourses in this Gospel (chaps. 13, 18, 25).
⁶⁸
While the exact phrase “kingdom of God” is not found in the OT, the concept is. At the height of Israel's history, the nation was ruled by King David and King Solomon. Ultimately, God himself was the King and Ruler of his people.

Jesus as the New Moses
As mentioned, a number of features in Matthew's Gospel suggest that the evangelist intended to highlight important parallels between Jesus and Moses. These parallels first appear in Matthew's account of the circumstances surrounding Jesus' birth described in Matthew 2. Herod the Great sought to prevent any threat to his throne by killing the infant that the wise men recognized as the Messiah. He demanded that all male children in Bethlehem age two and under be slain. To Jewish Christian readers, Herod's action would have been reminiscent of Pharaoh's order to kill all male Israelite infants in Exodus 1.

Matthew 2 reverberates with similarities to popular Jewish traditions about Moses' birth that are preserved in texts such as Josephus's
Antiquities of the Jews
. In Josephus's account, a “sacred scribe” in Pharaoh's court foretold that an Israelite boy would be born who would bring down the Egyptian dominion, raise the Israelites, be more righteous than any other man, and obtain a glory that would be remembered through all ages. The frightened king responded by ordering that all male Israelite infants be cast into the Nile and killed (Josephus,
Ant.
2.210–16). In both Matthew's and Josephus's accounts, a pagan king ordered the slaughter of male Israelite infants because he feared a single child of promise.

The parallels between Jesus and Moses are emphasized even more in Matt 2:20b. The words “those who sought the child's life are dead” are a clear and direct quotation of the Greek version (LXX) of Exod 4:19 with only minor changes, which were necessary to adapt the statement to a new context. The angel of the Lord seems to quote these exact words in order to signal that Jesus would somehow be like Moses.

Similarly, Jesus' ascent of a mountain to deliver his authoritative interpretation and application of God's law to his people is reminiscent of Moses' ascent of Sinai to receive and deliver the law of God (Exod 19:3). Three details suggest that Matthew wanted his readers to notice this parallel. First, the words “He went up on the mountain” (
anebē eis to oros
) in 5:1 are exactly parallel to the description of Moses ascending Mount Sinai in Exod 19:3. This particular construction appears only three times in the Greek OT, and all three occurrences describe Moses' ascent of Mount Sinai (Exod 19:3; 24:18; 34:4). Second, the definite article “the” may highlight the importance of the mountain and imply a comparison with Mount Sinai. Third, many Jewish interpreters took the Hebrew text of Deut 9:9 to mean that Moses sat on the mountain when he received the law. Although the Hebrew verb
yasab
may mean to “remain” or “dwell,” the most common meaning in the Hebrew OT was “sit,” and references in the Talmud show that many rabbis took the verb in this
sense.
⁶⁹
The description of Jesus' posture on the mountain in 5:1 –2 would thus constitute another parallel with Moses on Mount Sinai.

Matthew used this construction “He went up on the mountain” again in 14:23 and “He went up on a mountain” in 15:29.
⁷⁰
Matthew 14:23 introduces Jesus' miracle of walking on the water, which may have been reminiscent of the miraculous crossing of the sea in Exod 14:15–31. Similarly, Matt 15:29 immediately precedes the miraculous feeding of the 4,000, which is reminiscent of the miracle of the manna in the wilderness. Matthew did not create or invent events in Jesus' life to make him similar to Moses. However, it seems that he consciously highlighted the parallels between actual events in Jesus' life and Moses' experiences.
⁷¹

Finally, as B. W. Bacon observed, Matthew divided his Gospel into five major sections that may be a conscious imitation of the structure of the five books of Moses.
⁷²
Although Bacon's theory has not met with universal acceptance, it has much to commend it. Other Jewish literature consciously imitated the Pentateuch's five-book structure, and this structure closely matches the parallels that Matthew established between Jesus and Moses in his narrative details and OT quotations.

The parallels between Jesus and Moses identify Jesus as the new Moses and the fulfillment of Moses' prophecy in Deut 18:15–19. The prophecy offers three descriptions of the one who would fulfill it. First, he would be an Israelite. Twice Moses described him as coming “from among your own brothers” (Deut 18:15,18). Second, he would speak with divine authority, and the people were obligated to obey whatever he said. Third, God told Moses that the prophet would be “like you” (Deut 18:15,18). Deuteronomy 34:10–12 listed two important features of Moses' unique prophetic ministry: Moses' intimate relationship with God and Moses' miracles. Thus being “like Moses” would at least involve an intimate relationship with God and numerous amazing miracles. First-century Jews recognized that the prophecy foretold the coming of a Messiah-like figure (John 6:14; 7:40). The apostle Peter recognized the text as a messianic prophecy (Acts 3:11–26) and applied it specifically to Jesus.

Matthew's presentation of Jesus as the prophet like Moses fulfilled an important theological purpose: it identified Jesus as the Savior of his people in a powerful way. Although modern Christians think of Moses primarily as a lawgiver, to the ancient Jews he was far more. Moses was recognized as a redeemer, deliverer, and savior. Stephen, the first
martyr of the Christian church, presented Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophet-like-Moses prophecy. His sermon emphasized that Jesus, like Moses, was a rejected Redeemer and Deliverer. Stephen emphasized Moses' role as deliverer in Acts 7:25: “He assumed his brothers would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.” He emphasized Moses' role as redeemer in Acts 7:35: “This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, ‘Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?’—this one God sent as a ruler and a redeemer by means of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This man led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the desert for 40 years.”

By showing that Jesus is the prophet like Moses, Matthew demonstrated that Jesus was not only a prophet or a miracle worker, but he was also one who would redeem and deliver his people. Whereas Moses delivered Israel from their slavery in Egypt, Jesus would rescue God's people from their sins and from their deserved punishment. Matthew 1:21 clearly stresses that Jesus “will save His people from their sins.” Later, 20:28 insists that Jesus came “to give His life—a ransom for many.” Jesus led his people out of their spiritual bondage much like Moses led his people out of political bondage. Jesus delivered his people from their slavery to sin much like Moses delivered his people from their slavery in Egypt. Jesus will lead his people into a spiritual promised land (5:5) much like Moses led his people to inherit the land of Canaan. Jesus' name in Hebrew
(Yeshua)
is the same as that of Moses' immediate successor, Joshua, implying that Jesus was Moses' true successor who would continue Moses' ministry in a far greater sense. As the angel announced to Joseph, “You are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins” (1:21).

The theme of Jesus as the new Moses is intensified even more by two of the OT texts Matthew quoted. In 2:15, he quoted Hos 11:1: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” In the context of Hosea, the “son” was the nation of Israel, and the call from Egypt refers to the exodus when Pharaoh released the enslaved Hebrew people. At first it seems strange that Matthew would use this text to describe the holy family's journey from Egypt to Galilee. However, Matthew applied this text about the exodus to Jesus in order to identify Jesus as the new Moses who would lead a new exodus, who would liberate God's people from their bondage to sin much like Moses liberated his people from their bondage to Pharaoh. It is no accident that the second text that Matthew applied to Jesus in 2:17 was a passage from Jer 31:15 about Israel's bondage (this time in Babylon), which was immediately followed by a promise of deliverance and restoration. Matthew appealed to OT texts about bondage and redemption, slavery and deliverance, to show that Jesus was a deliverer who rescues God's people from the worst plight of all, sin and its consequences.

Jesus' identity as Savior and deliverer of those enslaved to sin is not only a theme of great texts in the NT letters but of the Gospel of Matthew as well. Moses was a savior and deliverer whose name brought to mind images of redemption and rescue. Although centuries had passed since Moses led his people to freedom from bondage to Pharaoh, his name still evoked images of rescue, deliverance, and salvation to Matthew's original
readers. Through his motif identifying Jesus as the new Moses, Matthew beautifully and powerfully emphasized that Jesus came to rescue his people, to break the power of sin, and to set its captives free.

Jesus as the Davidic King
Just as the Gospel of Matthew closely associates Jesus with Moses, it also closely associates Jesus with David. From the first verse of the Gospel, Matthew emphasizes Jesus' Davidic lineage by giving his genealogy the title “The historical record of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” The genealogy itself was arranged in chronological order. Thus, it began with the most ancient ancestor, Abraham, and concluded with the final legal descendant, Jesus.

Matthew also stressed Jesus' Davidic descent by his arrangement of the genealogy. Matthew 1:17 divided Jesus' genealogy into three sets of 14 generations. This arrangement is clearly artistic since it does not match the number of generations in each period listed in the preceding verses. The three periods actually contain 13, 14, and 13 (or 14, 15, and 14, if each person is identified as a generation; thus David is included twice for emphasis, ending the second and beginning the third) consecutive generations respectively. Matthew's artistic arrangement in 1:17 was thus not a result of a simple count of generations in the genealogy but was intended to communicate a message about Jesus' identity. Matthew was utilizing a literary device common among the rabbis of his day. This device was called
gematria
, which used the numeric value of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet to communicate an encoded message. The code was simple, and Matthew's readers would have been familiar with it. The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet represented the number 1, the second letter represented the number 2, and so forth. Using this device, the numeric value of the consonants of David's name was
daleth
(4),
waw
(6), and
daleth
(4), which made a total of 14. In Hebrew
gematria
, the number 14 thus represented King David. Hence the artistic arrangement of the genealogy, like the title, emphasized Jesus' Davidic descent.
⁷³

The important role of David in Jesus' lineage was stressed again in the heart of the genealogy. Although the genealogy of Jesus contained the names of many kings ranging from David to Jechoniah, only David was specifically identified as a king. This implies that Matthew stressed Jesus' Davidic lineage in order to demonstrate that Jesus was qualified to reign as king. Old Testament prophecies foretold that the Messiah, the eternal King of God's people, would be a descendent of David. In 2 Sam 7:11–16, the prophet Nathan prophesied that God would raise up a descendant of David and establish the throne of his kingdom forever. In light of this prophecy, many first-century Jews recognized that the Messiah would be a descendant of David. The Davidic Messiah was described in clear terms in Isa 9:1–7, a text that Matthew explicitly quoted in 4:15–16 and that has close connections with the prophecy in Isa 7:14 that Matthew quoted in 1:23. The climax of the messianic prophecy in Isaiah 9 says:

For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this. (Isa 9:6–7)

Matthew presented Jesus as this long-awaited King, the rightful heir to David's throne, the Ruler of God's people.

Matthew emphasized Jesus' identity as the Davidic Messiah again in 2:23. He explained that after Joseph, Mary, and Jesus returned from Egypt, they chose to settle in the city of Nazareth. Matthew added that this fulfilled “what was spoken by the prophets.” He summarized the prophetic message, “He will be called a Nazarene.” No single OT prophecy suggests that the Messiah would live in Nazareth. However, the plural noun “prophets” suggests that Jesus' identity as a Nazarene was foretold in multiple places in the OT and belonged to a broad prophetic theme. The best explanation of this is that Matthew saw a connection between the name Nazarene and the “branch” prophecies of the OT.
⁷⁴
The prophets used the image of the branch to describe the descendant of David who would reign over God's people. Isaiah 11:1 referred to the Messiah as a branch
(neser)
from Jesse, father of David: “Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” This prophecy promised that the Spirit of Yahweh would rest on this branch. He would be characterized by righteousness, knowledge, and justice. He would also serve as eschatological judge: “He will strike the land with discipline from His mouth, and He will kill the wicked with a command from His lips” (Isa 11:4).