Exploring Anti-Semitism in the Gospel of Matthew Essay

Matthew is the first of four gospels in the New Testament. Matthew presents his story of Jesus, the demands of Christian discipline, and shares the news of the death and resurrection of Jesus. There are many questions in Matthew that can not be answered.The book of Matthew is a gospel that contains narrative history, genealogy, parables, sermons, and some prophetic oracles. The gospel of Matthew was originally written for a Jewish audience by a Jewish perspective. This is why Matthew is often referred to as "The Gospel for the Jews". Although Matthew was written for Jews, it does not include very much of the Jewish culture and tradition. Throughout the entire gospel of Matthew, it is very clear that the entire book is mainly incorporated with Jews. The book of Matthew ties in with the Old Testament several times, such as when they refer to Jesus as Messiah or King. The key word used in Matthew is "kingdom" and it is used 28 times. The reason Matthew was written was to reveal that Jesus was the messiah, the long of the Jews, and to conceive the Jews that Jesus Christ was indeed their long awaited messiah. The author of Matthew

The commentary “The Gospel of Matthew” by Daniel Harrington major points explains that “Jesus came not to abolish but to “fulfill” the Law and Prophets (Harrington 90),” and that “Antithesis are

Matthew’s Christology is one that emphasises to a Jewish audience the Jewishness of Jesus. It will be the purpose of this paper to argue that the raison d’etre of Matthew’s Christology is to portray Jesus as entirely compatible if not with the Judaism of his day then with ancient Judaic tradition, namely the Old Testament. Whilst there are numerous titles given to Jesus that are exclusive/predominant within the Matthean account, such as that of Son of God, it is the writer’s assertion that these merely complement Matthew’s central theses; this being the portrayal of Jesus as Messiah and so, as such, will not be investigated except where they promote this conclusion. This fulfilment of Judaic tradition will be

In the Gospel of Matthew, the focus on the Jewish genealogy of Jesus played a significant role in the birth story. To fully understand Jesus, it was imperative to first acknowledge who Jesus was within Jewish ancestry and his subsequent position as King of the Jews.

In Matthew 1-2, the infant stories are used to prepare the ground for the theme of Jesus; the new and perfect Moses, the great teacher and interpreter of God’s ways. A parallel can be drawn between the experiences of the infant Jesus and the experience of Moses. This can be seen in Matthew 2:16-18, where the slaying of innocent male Hebrew children occurred around the time of the birth of Jesus, and in Exodus 1:15-22, where Hebrew children were also murdered at the time of Moses’ birth. Just as Moses came out of Egypt, leading the people of God, so does Jesus. Following the infancy stories, the rest of Matthew’s Gospel is structured around five long discourses where Jesus teaches. On each occasion, the evangelist indicates that a great teacher has been at work (Maloney, 1988, p. 133-34).

The way in which both Matthew and Luke treat Mary in their birth narratives affects our understanding of the historicity of these accounts. It could be argued that both of the birth narratives present the male ideology of that time. This is clear when in Luke, Mary is first introduced as “a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David” This description reveals the two most important features of a woman of her time: her virginity and, the man who she belonged to. This male ideology is also presented through Matthew’s writing as he also associates the female population with the aspect of birth and nurture. However, despite both of

Matthew’s Gospel has been understood as Jewish-Christian in outlook. Matthew had a number of purposes for writing the Gospel. One was “to instruct and exhort members of his community.” He has two broad categories of material: narrative and discourse. Many scholars conclude “Matthew’s primary intent was to write a handbook for church leaders to assist them in preaching, teaching, worship, mission, and polemic.” In his Gospel, Matthew focused clearly on

Have you ever noticed that when people talk of Jews, at least in a protestant church, that the Israelite legalism, rituals, dress and hair standards are the first things to mind? The topic of Judaism may come with stereotypical opinions and “Christian Judgement” that are without merit or understanding. Judaism, by a Christian worldview, had to change after Pentecost, since the animal sacrifice to atone for sin Christ completed on the Cross. However, Judaism does not accept this truth of Christ and His work on the cross, but Judaism remains in the world. So, what was this change in Judaism and when did it take place? There have been numerous fluctuations within Judaism, only the theme constructed in this essay has its foundations around the most important facet of Judaism- the Temple. With the Temple in the forefront of this essay, we will discuss the modifications that Judaism went through, at what time, different perspectives that the destruction of the Temple had, and how the Christian sect views these vagaries. The Temple destruction of A.D. 70 converted the Jewish faith in its singular fashion, while, at the same point, the Jewish faith never had a total change by always changing throughout time.

     The details of Jesus’ childhood were skipped by Matthew, most likely to show how significant his years of ministry were. The next important moment in the life of Jesus was his baptism. He went to the Jordan River where he met his cousin, John the Baptist, who was a prominent preacher of the time. John knew that Jesus was the Son of God, so he found it difficult to baptize him. He felt that Jesus should be the one baptizing him, but Jesus made it clear that it was his Father’s will that it should be done. As Jesus was baptized, the presence of God was felt among Jesus and the crowd. Matthew 3:16 tells of the heavens being opened up and the spirit of God descending upon him in the form of a dove. In Matthew 3:17, God said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” To anyone who is unfamiliar with Jesus, this is strong evidence of his powerful presence in the world to do the work of God.

Levine’s book titled The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus proves to be a highly informative resource when trying to understand the intricate relationship between Christianity and Judaism. Levine’s primary objective seems to be a desire to address the idea that there is a vast, irreconcilable disparity between the beliefs and practices of Christians and Jews. Levine’s central argument focuses upon a common misperception of this dissimilarity: it is the result of Jesus being in direct opposition to Judaism. Furthermore, she contends that only a decided openness and interfaith dialogue between Christianity and Judaism can truly provide the most complete and compelling portrait of Jesus’s life and work. To me, the most edifying facet of Levine’s argument was her call to anchor Jesus within the historical and cultural context in which he was teaching in order to best understand his work and his message. Levine not only provides support for this idea throughout The Misunderstood Jew, but near the end of the novel also offers up ways in which both Christians and Jews can reconcile these two ostensibly conflicting perceptions of Jesus. Therefore, in this essay, I will analyze Levine’s arguments regarding the importance of historical/cultural context in Chapter One and Chapter Four while synthesizing it with her solutions presented in Chapter Seven.

important and who are wondering how Jesus fits into history of the Jewish people. This problems means that Matthew’s community was largely Jewish Christian and needed to be reassured that being a Christian did not separate then from the Jewish heritage.

Art, music, architecture and literature are fundamental aspects of human development. One of the most notable societies that could be assimilated with this subject is the culture of the Ancient Jews or Hebrews. According to the textbook, the Ancient Hebrews were monotheistic, which meant that they only believed in one God, rather than many Gods, which differed from most of the known civilizations at the time who were instead polytheistic (Benton et al 173). This small aspect made these people differ from the surrounding civilizations. One of the most notable pieces of literature is perhaps the Hebrew Bible or the Torah (as it is most commonly referred to). According to the textbook, literature has been noted down and the most notable being,

In verse 9 of the passage, it is speculated that he was going into a synagogue that he didn’t belong to or was an outsider too. A synagogue is a place for religious worship that the Jewish come together in on the Sabbath. “Their synagogue: Mark 3:1 and Luke 6:6 simply have ‘the synagogue.’ Matthew’s expression probably reflects his own time, where there was a division between ‘their synagogue’ and ‘our synagogue’ (Christian).”19 In verse 10 they are trying to set Jesus up to be charged with breaking the Sabbath law. The Sabbath was a day of rest and worship by law so when they questioned Jesus they were testing Him to see if He would abide by their law or heal the man and break the law. “Shabbat. Sabbath, the seventh day of the week.”20

Instead, the Jews seem to be more prominence with Matthew trying to portray Messiah since they consider Matthew the most Jewish out of the other four Gospels. Matthew started to unveil the genealogy of Jesus, and started with Abraham and started to trace the father and son relationships, it started with Isaac and it ended with the husband of Mary who Jesus was born and he is called Christ. Matthew portrays as the “New Moses” for the Israel people.

Christianity and Judaism are major world religions which, though they worship the same God, have marked differences which have caused two thousand years of strife and animosity between the two religions. In his book We Jews and Jesus, Samuel Sandmel likens the link between Judaism and Christianity to a type of parent-child relationship, saying, “Early Christianity was a Judaism; within a century after the death of Jesus it was a separate religion. It was critical of its parent, and hostile to it, and elicited from its parent reciprocal criticism and hostility.”1 Opposing views of Jesus Christ caused the initial rift between Judaism and Christianity and is the primary source of the tension between