2.29 The Gospels of Matthew and Luke
History in the Bible
Garry Stevens
4.4 • 711 Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2018
⏱️ 31 minutes
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Summary
The gospel of Matthew is the most Jewish of the gospels. He insists that his readers must follow Jewish law. Yet his gospel contains the infamous blood cry. Matthew's community might have been Jews who went to synagogue, and believed that what we call Christianity was the right way to be a Jew. Or they might have been outside the synagogues. Matthew today is understood as a factional writer, one who contended against the emerging rabbinical community. The gospel of Luke is part of a package, with the book of Acts. Luke is the most polished of the gospels, yet ranks with Mark in the bottom of the popularity stakes, even though it contains some of our most beloved stories: the parables of the good Samaritan and the tax collector, the annunciation of Jesus and John the Baptist, the shepherds and their flocks, and Jesus ascension to heaven.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Gide. I'm Gary Stevens. |
| 0:08.0 | And welcome to the second series of the History in the Bible podcast. |
| 0:13.1 | More of the history in more of the books in all the Bibles. |
| 0:20.0 | Episode 2.29, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. |
| 0:25.8 | In my last episode, I began my dissection of the Gospel of Matthew. |
| 0:32.1 | In this episode, I want to continue that and also explore the connections between Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. |
| 0:40.3 | We will never know who wrote the Gospel of Matthew. |
| 0:45.3 | The only question we can really ask is, was Matthew a Jew or a Gentile? |
| 0:52.3 | We are perplexed. |
| 0:55.0 | On the one hand, Matthew appears as the most Jewish of the Gospels. |
| 1:01.0 | To avoid saying the name of God, forbidden to Jews, |
| 1:05.0 | Matthew uses an expression usually translated into English as Kingdom of Heaven. |
| 1:12.0 | That is a phrase unknown to Mark and Luke. |
| 1:16.2 | Kingdom of Heaven is actually an inadequate translation of the Greek. |
| 1:21.1 | The Greek expression is much more dynamic. |
| 1:24.7 | A better translation would be God's kingly rule. and that is how I will translate it in future. |
| 1:32.9 | The evangelist goes to lengths to show Jesus as a Jew. Here is a passage unique to Matthew. |
| 1:41.1 | Quote, Matthew 517, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. |
| 1:50.1 | I have come not to abolish, but to fulfil. |
| 1:54.3 | For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, |
| 2:04.0 | will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least |
| 2:10.1 | of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in God's kingly rule. But whoever does them and teaches |
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