The Vision of Matthew: Christ Church and Morality in the First Gospel

In this volume Father Meier explores how Matthew remodeled the form the Christological message and the moral demand of the gospel. Part I shows Matthews church in crisis. It was experiencing a shift in its Christian existence: from a narrow Jewish-Christian past to a universal Gentile future. To preserve yet reinterpret the particularistic traditions of that Jewish-Christian past Matthew drew up a model of salvation history and then reshaped the gospel message to fit it. Part II offers a mini-commentary on the whole gospel to illustrate this reshaping of the message. Pericope by pericope Matthew presents Jesus as Son of God and Son of Man and therefore as the definitive teacher of his Church. Indeed the nexus between Christ and his Church emerges as the outstanding characteristic of Matthews gospel. Part III studies Matthews construction of a unified moral vision on the basis of this connection between Christ and Church. The basic stance of Jesus and his disciples towards the Mosaic Law is one of fulfillment - a prophetic fulfillment which involves at times a deepening of at times the abrogation of the letter of the Law.