00:27Matthew and his sources
00:30Brothers, Matthew has drawn on two major sources to compose his work. The first, and most important,
00:39It is the Gospel of Mark. From this evangelist it has taken not only the structure and spatiotemporal order that goes
00:48from Galilee to Jerusalem, but has replicated Mark's style in presenting us with a biography of Jesus.
00:57As we have seen, the first traditions about Jesus that were written down were isolated accounts, such as miracles or his
01:08sayings.
01:09The similarity of materials caused some accounts, both of sayings and miracles, to be unified into somewhat unified units
01:20more extensive ones, of which there is still evidence in the miracle stories presented by Matthew,
01:28or the accounts of dispute that Mark offers us, as well as the great narrative of the passion and death
01:37of Jesus.
01:38Let us also remember, brothers, that the traditions concerning the sayings of Jesus were consolidated in works such as the Q source, used
01:50by Matthew and Luke, or the later apocryphal work called the Gospel of Thomas.
01:57Likewise, traditions about miracles were condensed in works such as the book of signs used by the author of
02:06fourth Gospel in the first part of his work.
02:11It is significant, brothers, that these stories or pericopes, which circulated in isolation from one another, have taken shape in a narrative
02:22biographical in nature.
02:24And the reason for this outcome has to do with the evangelists' interest in giving a good answer
02:33clear and defined about who Jesus is.
02:38But, brothers, it is striking that the Jews have so carefully preserved the sayings of great rabbis like Shamay,
02:48Gilel or Gamaliel II, but they never transmitted their lives to us, at least not in a structured or methodical way.
02:58But if there are exceptional Jews for Israel, this extraordinary way of being was manifested through the preservation and transmission of
03:10his teachings.
03:12Jewish interest was focused on the interpretation of the Torah that the great Jewish rabbis could make.
03:27For its part, the center of the gospels was, without a doubt, the life and person of Jesus
03:36of Nazareth.
03:37But we see how the evangelists have imitated the narrative of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, or Maccabees,
03:51and not just the doctrinal exposition of works such as Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom, or Sirach.
04:01The other major source for Matthew is the saying source called the Q Source, which has also been used
04:09by Lucas.
04:10Although there are many studies on Source Q, it is important to note that we do not have much certainty about this work.
04:19We only know that it is a written document and not a tradition, given that Matthew and Luke agree many times in
04:28their traditions and this coincidence is not only in the order of the narration, but even in the vocabulary used.
04:38It is possible that, as with the Gospel of Mark, there were several versions with some differences between them.
04:49one and the other.
04:50Since the canonical gospels were written in or around Palestine, it is thought that the Source
05:00Q had its origin.
05:02Also near where Jesus of Nazareth lived and preached, and which may have been written in Aramaic,
05:11the language of Jesus and his disciples.
05:16General information about the work
05:20Some details from the Gospel of Matthew make us think both about the community where the work originated, and about
05:28the community to which the evangelist addresses his writing.
05:33The Gospel was created within a context of liturgical celebration, as indicated by its elaborate form.
05:43Our Father,
05:44if we compare it with the somewhat simpler version in the Gospel of Luke.
05:51The way in which the narrative of the institution of the Eucharist is crafted and the sacrificial touch of the
06:00same,
06:01since it speaks of blood shed for the forgiveness of sins.
06:06The practice of forgiving one's brothers
06:09Topic extensively developed in chapter 18
06:14The mention at the end of the work of baptism in the name of the Trinity
06:20The evangelist has concerns typical of Jews, such as those related to the observance of Jewish law and its
06:32institutions.
06:33The author and the community are of Jewish-Christian origin.
06:39The use of the 70s version is noteworthy.
06:42Matthew does not only refer to the Jewish Old Testament,
06:47but rather speaks of the fulfillment or fullness of the promises made in his judgment in Jesus and his work.
06:57The Gospel of Matthew is thought to have been written around the year 80 AD.
07:03when a Torah study school had been established in Yavne or Javnia,
07:10which was led by great figures such as Gamaliel II or Eleazar Ben Azaria,
07:20and that apparently contributed to creating the Jewish canon of sacred books.
07:26Although we cannot speak of a canon established by the Yavne school,
07:31if it is possible to see in this the strengthening of later rabbinism that came into conflict with the nascent Catholic Church.
07:42This is where we find the disputes that Matthew attributes to Jesus confronting the Pharisees,
07:51who were considered the spiritual fathers or forerunners of the rabbis
07:57that still guide the community life of present-day Jewish communities.
08:04But, brothers, everything that Israel experienced after the defeat of the people
08:10and the destruction of his temple,
08:12allowed Matthew's community to open itself to the non-Jewish or pagan element in its community,
08:20a fact we discovered in the first two chapters of his work,
08:26especially regarding the Magi from the East who worship and pay homage to the newborn Jesus.
08:36The closing of this new opening to the Gentiles occurs in the sending that the resurrected Jesus makes to the
08:44community
08:45in the last chapter of the Gospel,
08:48when he asks the disciples to proclaim his message to all nations,
08:54including pagan peoples,
08:56something that contradicted the original message that Matthew offers in chapter 10 of his work,
09:04where Jesus clearly sends the disciples to the house of Israel
09:10to recover the lost or stray sheep.
09:15Matthew agrees with Paul on certain points
09:20as to whether it is possible to follow Jesus
09:23and submit completely to Jewish law,
09:27as is the case with Sabbath worship,
09:30the oneness of God that does not contemplate how Christ can be one with God,
09:38the need for circumcision or total submission to Mosaic law.
09:44However, brothers, Matthew also has his own points of view
09:50insofar as Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and its fullness or perfection,
09:58Furthermore, he does not understand how Jesus could completely abolish Jewish law,
10:05since Jesus himself is in agreement in many respects
10:11with the convictions that give Israel the sense of being the people chosen by God.
