Jesus and the Law in the Matthean Community: A Source-and-Redaction-Critical Study of Mt 5, 38-48

Abstract

In this postmodern world where religious communities are rediscovering one of their treasures, that is, Sacred Scripture, and the historical-critical method in biblical scholarship, the subtitle of this book resolutely alludes to a scholarly biblical work of Johny Thachuparamban. The book is a rework of his Ph.D dissertation that he successfully defended on November, 6, 2008 at the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. The purpose of this publication is the study of the Matthean community and the reconstruction of Quelle (Q) source. The triadic relationship of Jesus, the Law, and the Community constitutes the complete core of Christian identity as the experience of the Community makes the gospel a whole. For the author, the issue of Matthew’s community is a controversial one among scholars. On one hand, some argue that the gospel is still firmly rooted in the Jewish world. On the other hand, others hold the view that it is written for Jewish Christian readership that breaks from Judaism, open-ing somehow a possible mission to the Gentiles. Through the exegetical study of Mt 5, 38-48 where Jesus teaches non-retaliation and love of one’s enemies, Thachuparamban, in the final analysis, discovers the identity of the Matthean community. Likewise the exploration of this pericope and its parallel in Luke 6, 27-36 allows the author to critically reconstruct the common source of the two texts, that is, Q 6, 27-36.