An Exegesis of Matthew 22:34–40
RL 205
Spring 2005
Introduction
and the Great Commandment
When
reading the bible, interpretation and analysis are required to understand the
text for those of the present day world. Over the last two thousand years since
the crucifixion of Christ, societies have changed dramatically both in language
as well as customs. This means that when the original text(s) for the bible
were constructed, the wording was reflective of the horizon of the time. Thus,
to the contemporary reader, the text is often the focus of conjecture and
discussion as to the true meaning and intent of Jesus’ message. In Matthew 22
verses 34 through 40, analysis and interpretation are required to understand
the pericope of the Great Commandment.
“When the
Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they came together and
one of them, a teacher of the law, tried to trap Jesus with a question.
‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus
answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and
with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and the most important commandment.
The second most important commandment is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as you
love yourself.’ The whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets hangs
on these two commandments.” (MT 22:34-40)
The World
of Matthew
The gospel
of Matthew was written between 70 (after the fall of the Jewish Temple) and 90
CE. During that time, Mark’s gospel was present, but it was not widely
dispersed, thus many of Jesus’ accounts were still being transmitted via the
oral tradition. At the same time, Matthew’s world was dominated by the Roman’s
and the aftermath of the First Jewish Revolt. The Jewish and Christian faiths
were under heavy attack with many followers abandoning their faith for fear of
persecution. In response to this crisis, there were two different perspectives
taken.
The first
of the two was that of the Pharisees. According to Freyne: “the Pharisees were
motivated by a zeal for Judaism that was far greater than the Sadducees… they
attempted to build a religious system that went far beyond the demands of the
temple religion” (Freyne, 111). With this in mind, they attempted to address
three main concerns: “First, without state or temple, what is the identity of
the people of God? Second, what is the relation of Jew and Gentile? And
finally, what should one think of the Messiah?” (Senior, 9). In response to
these questions, the Pharisees believed that “identity had to be built on
renewed obedience to the Torah”. Meaning that any person who preached contrary
to that of the Torah (namely Jesus) was a direct threat to the faith. Clearly
with this mindset, the Pharisees not only set out to trick Jesus (as seen in
this pericope) but also “to dampen the apocalyptic enthusiasm that would follow
Christ’s death and resurrection” (Senior, 9). In response to the Gentiles, the
Pharisees felt that they were too radical and detrimental to the faith to be
dealt with. Therefore, “they promoted further isolation and rejection of
Gentile ways” (Senior, 9).
The second
perspective was that of Matthew’s gospel. In his view, “he sought
reconciliation between Jew and Gentile within his community” (Senior, 9). Many
scholars believe that Matthew’s motivation behind this was his community’s
blending of both Rabbinic Judaism and Gentile Christianity (Senior, 10). At the
same time, Matthew is more focused on promoting the Good News based on his
belief in Christ. Given the fact that he constructs the gospel to preserve the
life of Christ, it is pretty clear that Matthew fully accepts Jesus as the Messiah.
As we can see, these two views are in complete contradiction to one another.
Many scholars have argued that Matthew was troubled by the Pharisees incorrect approach to the problems
facing the Christians that he wrote many of his gospels to spite them (this
concept will reoccur throughout our examination of the pericope).
Matthew’s
Audience
The one
thing that separates this gospel from the others is the intended audience of
the pericope. Matthew sets his gospel to appeal to the wealthier Gentiles and
Jews of the time (most likely those in
Throughout
Matthew’s gospel there are examples and stories where he instructs his audience
(via Jesus’ words) to have patience with the Romans (this can be seen in
chapter 22 with the paying of taxes). It is assumed, based on the congruity of
stories between Matthew and Mark, that Mark’s gospel was a source for Matthew’s
account. “Because there are several verbal agreements between Matthew and Luke
against Mark, it is held that the double
commandment came down separately in Mark and alternative source known as Q
or Quelle” (Carson, 463). According to the two-source hypothesis, it is assumed
that Matthew and Luke used Mark as well as Q to create their gospels, thus
explaining the relationship here.
Chapter
22 Explained
Chapter 22
of Matthew aims to address the following issues in the following order:
1)
Jesus uses a parable to explain how “many
are invited, but few are chosen” to enter the
2)
Jesus teaches a lesson of understanding to
the Pharisees stating “Pay the emperor what belongs to the emperor and pay to
God what belongs to Him.” (MT 22:21).
3)
Jesus explains that God is the God of the
Living.
4)
Jesus explains to the Pharisees the Great
Commandment of God.
5)
Jesus clarifies the expectation of the
messiah to be the descendant of David.
Clearly,
these stories are aimed at one general goal; to correct and explain the
teachings and expectations of the Old Testament. Given this general goal of the
chapter, it would seem that this is a logical division for the pericope, for it
too deals with this main topic. To effectively portray this, Jesus has a series
of debates with the Jewish authorities of the time. In the pericope prior to
the Great Commandment, Jesus argues and defeats the Sadducees (another group of
Jewish authorities at the time). Now here, we find Jesus defeating the
Pharisees to yet again show His superiority over His Jewish adversaries. In
both cases, “they [Jesus’ adversaries] leave (v22), fall silent (v34) or are
afraid to ask Him questions (v46)” (Luz, 121). By presenting Jesus in this
fashion, Matthew is “savoring Jesus’ triumph over Judaism” (Luz, 121).
The
Synoptic Gospels Examined
The
passage itself has parallels to the other two synoptic gospels (Mark and Luke).
In Mark’s gospel, “the pericope is worded as a friendly conversation among
scholars (Jesus and the Pharisees); in Matthew’s, it becomes a hostile attack
of the Pharisees, who conspire together to trick Jesus” (Meier, 256). This
resentment of the Pharisees is clearly the work of Matthew, not Jesus. As
stated before, given Matthew’s community, he clearly must have resentment
towards the Pharisees for their negative view of the Gentiles and refuting
Jesus’ authority. In verse 40 of Matthew’s version, he amends to Mark’s account
by saying: “the whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets hangs on
these two commandments”. According to Meier: “in Jewish usage, commandments
were said to ‘hang on’ a particular passage of Scripture in the sense that they
could be shown to be derived from or implied in that passage” (Meier, 257). By
adding this portion, Matthew reveals his Jewish heritage as well as to show
Jesus’ correlation to the Law of Moses.
In
comparing the overall message of the two accounts, they appear to be virtually
the same except that Matthew has added an introduction and general setting
leading up to Jesus’ proclamation of the Great Commandment. As stated above
this addition (v34-35), was clearly created to strike at the superiority of the
Pharisees (and later show Jesus’ supremacy over them). As far as the wording of
Jesus’ Commandment, Mark’s account differs only in regards to the First
Commandment: “Listen Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord. Love the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with
all your strength…” (MK 12:29-30). From this excerpt, two things can be
inferred: First, Mark makes Jesus’ comment directed towards all of
In Luke’s
gospel, the Greatest Commandment can be found within the text of the Parable of
the Good Samaritan. In this case, Luke gives a very brief introduction with the
Commandment stated almost exactly as in Mark. The only difference between these
two is that Luke’s gospel goes on to give a parable to explain the good
neighbor (the story of the Good Samaritan).
Despite
these differences, there is a general congruity between the three gospels
concerning the Greatest Commandment. This congruity suggests not only validity
in the story but also the importance of these words to the ministry of Jesus
for there is very little variation. Basically, since multiple sources were used
by Matthew and Luke in their gospels, to have such congruity implies congruity
in the wording of their sources, thus emphasizing the validity and importance
of this pericope.
About
the Author
Matthew
himself was not a Christian, but was actually a Jew. He was a strong believer
in the Jewish faith as can be seen by his constant clarification of Jewish Law
through Jesus’ word (Meier, 257). To be more precise, he sees Jesus as the
interpreter of the Law of Moses. At the same time, given Matthew’s intended
audience, it is conceivable that Matthew was himself a wealthy individual.
When
examining the words of passage, Matthew makes reference to Jesus as “Teacher”.
Clearly, Matthew views Jesus as a “rabbi” or teacher of the word. This further
supports the view of Matthew seeing Jesus as the interpreter of the Law of
Moses rather than the bringer of the new law. In verses 35-36, “the law, of course, is Scripture, most
likely the Pentateuch” (
Why
Matthew Wrote the Great Commandment
From
the passage, it seems that Matthew wishes to make his audience understand two
main things: First, he wants them to accept the message of Jesus (namely the
greatest commandment) and to hold it true in their lives. Secondly, he wants
his audience to view Jesus as the interpreter and new teacher of the Law of
Moses. To aid in this task, Matthew omits the portion of “all your strength” so
as to not ward off initial readers.
The
Great Commandment in Today’s World
To
the contemporary reader, this passage should hold just as much meaning as it
did in Matthew’s time. This is primarily because of the passages message. The
message of the Great Commandment is paramount to understanding not only the Old
Testament, but the Catholic faith as a whole. This is because if you embrace
God and His word, you will act and serve God as he has commanded. With that
said, if you love your neighbor as you love yourself, you will be following the
Bible’s ultimate virtue of peace and harmony. However, the one thing that does
change is the manner in which the story is perceived. For example, in Matthew’s
time, the action of Jesus walking up to the Pharisees (the teachers of the Law)
and basically telling them they are wrong in their understanding was a radical
act to the people of the time (which was Matthew’s intention). This would most
likely have been seen by some to be offensive and disrespectful to those of
authority. In current times however, this act is seen as acceptable due to free
speech and the general lax view of religion among people today. To modern day
readers, Jesus is not viewed as a radical but as the teacher teaching students
(the Pharisees); where as Matthew’s readers would view it as the class clown
(Jesus) trying to steal the teacher’s show.
Conclusion
The
Great Commandment of Matthew clearly shows a blend of Matthew’s Horizon
combined with an array of external accounts and sources. While these influences
change the wording of Christ Jesus’ message from the other accounts in the New
Testament, the meaning and intention of the passage remains perfectly preserved
in Matthew’s account.
Works Cited
Aude, David E. The Gospel of
Matthew In Current Study.
Carson, D A. The Expositor's Bible
Commentary.
Freyne, Sean. New Testament
Message: The World of the New Testament.
Luz, Ulrich. The Theology of the
Gospel of Matthew.
Mack,
Meier, John P. New Testament
Message: Matthew.