Wednesday of Week 10 in Ordinary Time - Matt 5: 17-19

Daily Gospel Exegesis

Logical Bible Study

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

5 • 629 Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Matthew 5: 17-19 - 'I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to complete them.'

Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:

- 577 (in 'Jesus and the Law') - At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus issued a solemn warning in which he presented God's law, given on Sinai during thefirst covenant, in light of the grace of the New Covenant: Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets: I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law, until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

- 592 (in 'Jesus and Israel's Faith in the One God and Saviour') - Jesus did not abolish the Law of Sinai, but rather fulfilled it (cf Mt 5:17-19) with such perfection (cf Jn 8:46) that he revealed its ultimate meaning (cf Mt 5:33) and redeemed the transgressions against it (cf Heb 9:15).

- 1967 (in 'The New Law of the Law of the Gospel') - The Law of the Gospel "fulfills," refines, surpasses, and leads the Old Law to its perfection. In the Beatitudes, the New Law fulfills the divine promises by elevating and orienting them toward the "kingdom of heaven." It is addressed to those open to accepting this new hope with faith - the poor, the humble, the afflicted, the pure of heart, those persecuted on account of Christ and so marks out the surprising ways of the Kingdom.

- 2053 (in 'The Ten Commandments') - To this first reply Jesus adds a second: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." This reply does not do away with the first: following Jesus Christ involves keeping the Commandments. the Law has not been abolished, but rather man is invited to rediscover it in the person of his Master who is its perfect fulfillment. In the three synoptic Gospels, Jesus' call to the rich young man to follow him, in the obedience of a disciple and in the observance of the Commandments, is joined to the call to poverty and chastity. The evangelical counsels are inseparable from the Commandments.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Daily Gospel Exegesis podcast where we try to do an analysis of the literal sense of scripture. We're diving deep into the
0:22.5	Gospels, doing a verse-by-verse analysis to see if we can get at what the original author
0:27.5	intended. Today we're looking at a text that is really important in understanding Jesus' own
0:32.6	theology and the theology of the New Testament in relation to the Old Testament. It's one that's been
0:38.6	probably misinterpreted by various Christians, and there's a lot of scholarly discussion about
0:45.1	this particular text, because it does have a lot of interesting implications, and people have
0:51.4	argued about this text, and its interpretation for many centuries. So we're going to
0:56.2	give it a go using the tools of Catholic scholarship and pulling it apart verse by verse. So Matthew
1:02.5	5, verses 17 to 19, Jesus said to his disciples, do not imagine that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come
1:12.7	not to abolish, but to complete them. I tell you solemnly till heaven and earth disappear,
1:19.1	not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the law until its purpose is achieved.
1:26.3	Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least of these
1:29.8	commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of
1:35.6	heaven, but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of
1:41.7	heaven. So what's the context here? Well, we're right near the beginning
1:47.2	of the sermon on the mount. We've already had the beatitudes. And then in verses 13 to 16, we already
1:53.1	had kind of this beginning introductory section where Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth
1:58.5	and you are the light of the world, where he reminds them
2:00.8	that they are followers of his for a purpose. If they're going to follow the ways of the kingdom,
2:06.0	they need to spread the kingdom. So now we get to verses 17 to 19, which is sort of, this is another
2:13.0	introduction to the whole sermon. And what he's saying in this section is, I'm about to say some things about the
2:19.1	law of Moses and here is why I'm saying them. So it's sort of like his introduction to his
	...

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