Chapter 6 Reading Guide

Jesus, the Jewish Messiah: The Gospel According to Matthew
  1. How does one go about using a redactional method to interpret Matthew’s Gospel?
  1. How does Matthew’s genealogy show that Jesus is the Jewish messiah?
  1. What are the key features of Matthew’s birth narrative? How does this narrative convey the main themes of Matthew’s gospel?
  1. How does the Sermon on the Mount serve to show that Jesus is the new Moses?
  1. In Matthew’s Gospel, what is Jesus’ view of the Law of Moses? Does he do away with it all? Should his followers keep it? How? Why?
  1. If Jesus is portrayed as thoroughly Jewish in Matthew’s Gospel and as fully supportive of Judaism, why does he have such significant conflict with the Jewish authorities? How does he react to this conflict?
  1. When, where, by whom, and for whom was the Gospel of Matthew written? What evidence leads scholars to these conclusions?
  1. According to the Gospel of Matthew, how does Jesus fulfill scripture?
  1. What is the relationship between the Beatitudes and the Antitheses? How do they work toward the larger point of the Sermon on the Mount?
  1. If Matthew makes a point to depict Jesus as thoroughly Jewish, how do you make sense of the anti-Jewish nature of the Gospel (e.g., the Passion Narrative). That is, why does Matthew portray Jesus as Jewish but denounce the Jewish leaders?
Back to top