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
8 - Matthew 28.16–20: the presence of the risen Jesus
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
The final words of the First Gospel are a promise uttered by the risen Jesus to ‘the Eleven’:
καί ἰδοὺ ἐγὠ μεθ' ύμων εἰμι πάσας τἀς ἡμέρας ἕως της συντελείς του αἰωνος
They conclude Matthew's account in 28.16–20 of Jesus' post-Easter appearance to his disciples on a Galilean mountain. This carefully crafted climax brings together several major strands of the story, including: mountain as a locus of christological significance; the manner and meaning of the risen Jesus' appearance; the disciples' obedience, worship and doubt; Jesus' claim to reception of divine authority; making disciples as a universal commission; baptism in the triadic name as ritual initiation into the community; the centrality of Jesus' ἐντολαί for the community; and the promise of his risen, continuous presence with his commissioned disciples.
Thus it is claimed that the last pericope of Matthew contains in nuce the essence of the Gospel; it provides the ‘abstract’ for Matthew's ‘dissertation’, but more, it is, in rhetorical and theological terms, both a digest and telos of the work. Michel's assertion that the conclusion ‘is the key to the understanding of the whole book’ has some merit.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Matthew's EmmanuelDivine Presence and God's People in the First Gospel, pp. 201 - 219Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996