Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Matthew's narrative art
- 3 Reading Matthew's story of divine presence
- 4 Paradigms of presence in the Old Testament
- 5 ‘I am with you’: the Old Testament tradition of the saying
- 6 Matthew 1: the birth of the ‘God-with-us’ Messiah
- 7 Matthew 18.1–20: the presence of Jesus and his έκκλησία
- 8 Matthew 28.16–20: the presence of the risen Jesus
- 9 Jesus' presence and Matthew's christology
- 10 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index of passages
- Index of authors
1 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Matthew's narrative art
- 3 Reading Matthew's story of divine presence
- 4 Paradigms of presence in the Old Testament
- 5 ‘I am with you’: the Old Testament tradition of the saying
- 6 Matthew 1: the birth of the ‘God-with-us’ Messiah
- 7 Matthew 18.1–20: the presence of Jesus and his έκκλησία
- 8 Matthew 28.16–20: the presence of the risen Jesus
- 9 Jesus' presence and Matthew's christology
- 10 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index of passages
- Index of authors
Summary
In all ages of history, men and women have related memories of moments when they had perceived, with particular intensity, the presence of their gods. The literature of spirituality, be it Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, abounds in stories of divine appearances …
For more than a thousand years, the religion of Israel was dominated by the experience, the memory, or the hope of divine presence.
The question
On a personal level, true religion can be defined as the encounter between oneself and one's God, and on the corporate level as one's community practising the presence of God. This study is concerned with the understanding of God's presence with his people which appears in the Gospel of Matthew.
It has long been the endeavour of students of all faiths to observe, evaluate and codify their religious communities' past encounters with divine presence, through text, liturgy, theological dialogue and community life. What sets this study apart from some recent critical analyses within the Christian tradition is its subject-matter – an investigation focused on the ‘presence motif’ in Matthew – and its approach – a combination of narrative and historical criticism: the fresh response of a reader to Matthew's rhetorical design, and the practised assessments of the redaction critic.
Some scholars have made the claim that the Judeo-Christian biblical record as a whole is more accurately characterized as an account of the presence of God, acting in the midst and on behalf of the people of God, rather than the oft-cited theme of covenant.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Matthew's EmmanuelDivine Presence and God's People in the First Gospel, pp. 1 - 27Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996
- 1
- Cited by