YOU ARE THE DESCENDANTS OF THOSE WHO KILLED THE PROPHETS

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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