Literary Contact: Discipleship in Matthew 16

In this paper, there will be research on the Gospel of Matthew from Daniel Harrington’s commentary “The Gospel of Matthew”, This paper will explain the teachings of the “6 Antithesis” in chapter 5 verses 21-48, and the main point on “Jesus came not to abolish but to “fulfill” the Law and Prophets (Harrington 90).” This paper will also have Daniel Harrington interpretations of the writing of the gospel of Matthew. I believe that Jesus had a reason for his teachings and how he went forward to preach them to the congregation.

They believed that this leader-the Messiah (?anointed one?)-would rescue them from their Roman oppressors and establish a new kingdom. As their king, he would rule the world with justice. However, many Jews overlooked prophecies that also spoke of this king as a suffering servant who would be rejected and killed. It is no wonder, then, that few recognized Jesus as the Messiah. ?How could this humble carpenter?s son from Nazareth be their king,? they thought. But Jesus was the King of all the earth, and it was Matthew (Levi) who took it upon himself (but not alone) to spread the word. Matthew used about 1475 words, 137 of which are words used by him alone of all the New Testament writers. Of these latter 76 are classical; 15 were introduced for the first time by Matthew, or at least he was the first writer in whom they were discovered; 8 words were employed for the first time by Matthew and Mark, and 15 others by Matthew and another New Testament writer. It is probable that, at the time of the Evangelist, all these words were in current use. Matthew's Gospel contains many peculiar expressions that help to give decided colour to his style. Thus, he employs thirty-four times the expression basileia ton ouranon; this is never found in Mark and Luke, who, in parallel passages, replace it by basileia tou thou, which also occurs four times in Matthew.

Throughout the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, it is apparent that there are similarities as well as differences when it comes to portraying the life and times of Jesus the Christ, the general descriptions of who Jesus was, and the sayings and deeds of Jesus during his short stay on this earth. Scripture scholars highlight that each Gospel writer viewed Jesus from a different perspective.

Malone first identifies two different analyses of the verse. First he looks at the verse through an Old Testament context. This includes endorsing the traditional interpretation that the prediction in the verse is the coming of John the Baptist and Jesus (Malone, 2006, page 216). The second analyses claims that both readers and scholars tend to jump to conclusions and automatically assume that it is referencing the Messiah, this is the dogmatic view. This view agrees that the verse has messianic value, but just not enough evidence linking Jesus to this particular verse.

Jesus then goes from speaking to His disciples specifically, to calling out to the whole crowd, in which He goes from speaking plainly to once again speaking in metaphors and riddles. Within this passage Mark uses the words of Jesus to reveal the true cost of discipleship. He tells the crowd that if anyone chooses to come after Him then the condition of that decision is that they must take up their cross and follow Him. So one must ask: What does it mean to deny yourself? What does it mean to take up your cross? And when you follow Him where are you going? So then one must put this into context by looking at what has not yet happened in Mark. When Jesus denies Himself, He is essentially denying the human instinct to self preserve through a fight or flight response. When Jesus picked up His cross, He was deciding to be rejected, tortured, mocked and falsely accused on His way to Calvary where He died for the sins of all. Therefore, if you want to go after Jesus, you must be willing to commit to sharing the gospel with others at all costs, you must be willing to tortured, mocked, and falsely accused and you must also be willing to die, not necessarily for anything that you have done, but so that others can reach salvation. Historically, during this time period, the cross was a well known style of execution in Rome, and so although one reading this might see this as simply a metaphor, it is actually a foreshadowing of reality, which can be seen in the fact that all the

In the Gospel of Matthew, the infancy narrative contributes a large sum of background information of Jesus that contributes to the development of Matthew’s Christology. In order to analyze how Matthew develops the Christology, we have to cut the infancy narrative into sections. This paper will discuss background information of the writing of this Gospel, literary elements of Jesus’ miraculous conception that reinforce his Jewishness, how Magi and literary devices help to understand Matthew’s Christology, what important biblical hero the infancy narrative parallels, and what foreshadowing is caused from this infancy narrative. Comparatively, the use of divine intervention in dreams to fulfill prophecy has been a key focus of the infancy narrative in order to create an unusual birth narrative and develop the unique Christology that Matthew envisioned specifically for the Jewish Messiah.

They had enjoyed a time of fellowship with Jesus and teaching from Him. But He was now preparing them to understand that he was going to leave them. This was one of the factors that were going to turn these believers world upside down and bring and opportunity to turn the world upside down. Because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is

The theme of this text seems to be centered on the cost of following Christ. God wants everybody; but with regards to discipleship, He wants only those willing and able. Jesus knows the hearts of those following Him and it is not the number of people He is concerned with, but the volume of their hearts. ?The audience has shifted from the Pharisees and dinner guests of 14:1-24 to the large crowds of people who were traveling with Jesus. Apparently Jesus has resumed his journey toward Jerusalem (9:51) and now will address the crowds? (Evans 228). He is on His final walk, a journey that will lead Him to a cross. This crowd is not ready. It is one thing to be part of a group,

The concept of ‘seeing’ the ways of Jesus and that He is the Messiah, is to truly understand the message being portrayed throughout the Gospel, and not the surface meaning that is being represented literally. This concept was very significant to Jesus and his followers as to interpret the meaning without being said, most parables being related to the Kingdom of God and Jesus’ miracle stories. Times were harsh and difficult to spread and teach the words of Jesus, as Mark’s community would face persecution. The disciples of Jesus could ‘see’ more than other believers could perceive, from being apart of Jesus’ life with close relationships, as they were taught the fundamentals from Jesus himself to understand his teachings in much more depth and fluency than others. There were many similarities among Jesus’ twelve disciples and Mark’s community, as both groups share the strong faith in Jesus and God’s power by spreading the good news to others as well as experiencing hardships caused by arrogant hierarchy and society. According to Mark, Jesus was known for his parables and

In all three gospels Jesus asks his disciples what the people think of Jesus and who he is. They reply with characters like John the Baptist, Elijah, or just another prophet. Then Jesus asks his disciples who they think he is. Peter replies with a varying statement of, “Christ, Son of the living God.” Jesus then tells his disciples to go and not speak to anyone about what they have learned. Jesus then continues to say that he must be rejected by the elders, he must be killed, and then he will rise again on the third day. Peter then rebukes Jesus as he is afraid for Jesus’ life. Jesus responds with, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are to on the side of God but of men.”

The Gospel according to Luke exhibits several differences from the other Synoptic Gospels. Unlike Matthew and Mark who record Jesus saying: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Luke states "Father, into your hands, I commend my Spirit."

The point of this assignment is to discuss the passage chosen, as well as information regarding the historical/cultural background of the passage and applying it to my life as a human being. It is also important that I apply this information on the passage to the Christian life or church ministry. The passage I have chosen for this assignment is from Matthew chapters 5-7 and is labeled “The Sermon on the Mount”. The Sermon on the Mount is the longest and most prominent of the five discourses of Jesus in Matthew. The whole point of the Sermon on the Mount was to show people who converted to Christianity how to live. It is to show how Christians should live in their actions, words, thoughts, and others ways of life. With that being said, this way of life was preached by Jesus Christ as he “went up on the mountain” to deliver his powerful message. The information for this passage is in, of course, the bible and our textbook “Encountering the New Testament”, as well as many other resources on the web that are related to the bible and passage.

In Chapter 16, Jesus asked His disciples who people said He was, and who they, His disciples, think He was. This comes at a point of time where the disciples have been witness to the Pharisees and Sadducees wanting to test Jesus (Matt 16:1) and Jesus refusal to do so and when Jesus told them to beware of the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matt 16:12).

In this article Harold Attridge examines Luke’s background, the scriptures Luke wrote, Jesus’s values, the context and purpose of Luke’s gospel and the treatment of Christians at the time of Luke’s writings. The article expresses that Luke’s Gospel was written before the destruction of Jerusalem and at a time when Christians were being persecuted for practicing their faith so consequently the purpose of his Gospel was to show an ethical example and imply that Christians could be good citizens. This source is relevant to the topic as it suggests the purpose of Luke's Gospel and the treatment of Christians before the fall of Jerusalem. A limitation of the website is that it has not been recently published, it’s publish date is April 1998 so it may not be up to date with the latest, accurate information. Nonetheless, this source is very beneficial and appropriate to the task as it provides facts and research on the chosen sacred text. This source will not be the cornerstone of my research but will add a good understanding to the purpose of the sacred text.

This is a summary of a No Travel Seminar on a Study of the Gospel of Matthew. The seminar was lead by Dr. John Dunaway who is a professor at NTS and has served as a pastor for over 50 years. After his brief self-introduction, he began his presentation with an overview of the Gospel of Matthew, followed by a more elaborated narrative summarizing the gospel, and he finished with brief closing remarks. Throughout this enthusiastic presentation, Dr. Dunaway made reference to remarks by multiple prominent commentators, which added substance to his narrative, even though none were explicitly stated upfront.