THE PATH FROM THE MOUNTAIN TO THE VALLEY

The main section that now follows in our Gospel focuses on the community of disciples and the regulation of their lives. For this section Matthew turned to and expanded upon Mark 8:27 to 10:52. In Mark's Gospel the section is articulated primarily by the three announcements of the passion of the Son of Man in 8:31, 9:31 and 10:32–34. These correspond in Matthew to 16:21, 17:22–23 and 20:17–19. In Matthew's version, however, the symmetry of Mark's design has been somewhat upset by the interpolation of new material. By recasting the Discourse on Community in chapter 181 and inserting the extensive parable of the workers in the vineyard (20:1–16) Matthew has made the section between the second and third announcements of the passion (17:24 – 20:16) roughly three times as long as that between the first two. As a result, this middle section deals almost exclusively with questions of the life of the community of disciples – questions that have little or nothing to do with their suffering – while the subject of suffering is placed centre stage at the beginning (16:21 – 17:23) and the end (20:17–34). The result for the entire main section is a three-part structure superimposed upon the formal layout of narrative – discourse – narrative.

On the surface, we notice that in this section Jesus' controversies with his opponents, which dominated the preceding main section, now recede completely into the background.