The messianic banquet as a paradigm for Israel-Gentile salvation in Matthew.

摘要

The Gospel of Matthew makes use of the imagery of a common Jewish belief in an eschatological messianic banquet. This image is used in order to teach a certain theological position about the nature of the church in its relationship with Israel, Jews, and Gentiles. The question of Matthew's church is first studied historically in order to establish the probability that Matthew is writing to a mostly Jewish-Christian church that has broken ties with larger Judaism. The community is persecuted by nonChristian Jewish leaders and has a minority of Gentile members who are accepted as equals in the Jewish-Christian church. Matthew writes to this Jewish-Christian church, with Gentile members included, making use of the imagery of the messianic banquet to teach his theological message about the permanent nature of the church in relationship with Jews, Gentiles, and the nation of Israel. The final conclusions concerning this theological message await a study of the use of the messianic banquet within OT and Jewish literature.;This study reveals four distinct paradigms for how the OT and Judaism used this theme: a metaphorical universal terrestrial banquet; a metaphorical restricted terrestrial banquet; a banquet as a single event at the inception of the messianic age; and the banquet as metaphorical for heavenly bliss. A detailed exegetical study of the passages where the image of the banquet is alluded to reveals that Matthew uses the first paradigm. The messianic banquet is used as a metaphor for a universal terrestrial messianic kingdom. Matthew's theology is distinct from normative Judaism in that this terrestrial messianic kingdom is both present and future and that the church is the sole beneficiary of that kingdom. The study is divided into six main sections having to do with the messianic banquet in Matthew: the Beatitudes (Matt 5:1--16); two miracle stories about the faith of the Gentiles (Matt 8:5--13; 15:21--28); three stories where Jesus is reclining at table with his disciples (Matt 9:9--17; 26:6--13, 17--29); two miracle stories about feeding the multitudes (Matt 14:13--21; 15:32--39); teaching about the future of Israel (Matt 19:27--30); and three parables that use the messianic banquet theme (Matt 21:33--46; 22:1--14; 25:1--13). The final concluding chapter summarizes the theological question of the nature of the church in relationship to Israel, Jews, and Gentiles based upon the previous study of the Matthean use of the imagery of the messianic banquet. Matthew teaches that the church is an expanded Israel that includes the true remnant of Israel to which Gentile followers are added. The entire church is the sole recipient of all the blessings of the messianic kingdom both present and future.