YOU ARE THE DESCENDANTS OF THOSE WHO KILLED THE PROPHETS
By Fr. Felix (African Times Guest Writer)
The last two of the seven ‘Woes!’ take on a
darker hue, dwelling on dusty and unclean
tombs. In this polemic against the scribes and
Pharisees Matthew goes far beyond Luke’s
version, and so is probably elaborating the
version of their common source.
He goes so far as to include the history as we
know it from the Acts of the Apostles and
Paul’s letters, flogging in the synagogues and
pursuit from one city to another.
Such a development may well spring from the
fact that after the Fall of Jerusalem in 70AD the
Pharisees formed the spearhead in the recovery
and re-constitution of Judaism centred on
Jamnia on the coast of Palestine – with the
result that even today the practice of Judaism
is still largely Pharisaic – and so the spearhead
of Jewish resistance to Christianity.
The letters of Paul, especially Galatians, show
that disagreement with Judaism focused on
legal observance, Sabbath, circumcision and
clean food, all topics on which the Pharisees
were particularly strong. Matthew is simply
projecting Jesus’ words into the situation a few
decades later.
Matthew’s vehemence would result from his
own involvement in the struggle. Paul, with his
Pharisaic background and writing perhaps a
couple of decades earlier, is still determined to
show that, whatever their failures in the past,
the Jews are still the Chosen People. Matthew’s
writing reflects a later period of conflict.
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