Matthew 5:17 – What did Jesus come to do?

Target year level: Year Six

Scripture text

Introduction

Matthew 5:17 is part of the Gospel of Matthew. In particular the text 5:17 is in that section of the Gospel that can be called ‘The ministry of Jesus to Israel’ (Mt.4:8 to Mt.13:58). In this section of his Gospel Matthew explains how as the new revelation of God, Jesus brings to its fullness the old revelation of God to the People of Israel. For Matthew it is fitting that Jesus comes first to the People of Israel in spite of the opposition of Jewish leaders. For Matthew and the early Christian communities for whom he writes, Jesus is the New Moses, come to bring the Law first given to Moses to its fullness. (See Who wrote the gospels and when)

World Behind the Text

Scripture scholars think that the Gospel of Matthew was written sometime after 70CE. Matthew’s intended audience were Jewish Christians as well as Christians who were Gentile but nonetheless familiar with Jewish culture, religious belief and religious practice.

Many scholars believe Matthew’s Gospel was written at Antioch, a Greek speaking city with a number of Jewish synagogues. Antioch became the capital of the Roman province in Syria in 64 BCE, and in the first century CE was the third largest city in the Roman Empire. Christianity had become well established in Antioch by 80 CE. A number of other possible locations with a similar demographic to Antioch are also suggested as possible sites for the writing of Matthew’s Gospel. (See Gospel of Matthew)

World of the Text

The immediate context for Matthew 5:17 is a segment of Matthew’s text called The Evangelical Discourse (Mt.5:1-7:29), a series of speeches or sermons of Jesus which set out attitudes and actions needed to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven. In Matthew the Kingdom of Heaven is a metaphor for a renewed society, culture and religion that mirrors all that is good, true, just and life giving. Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets: I have not come to abolish but to fulfil” is to be understood in relation to questions and disputes in Matthew’s community about the precise relationship between the Christian churches and Judaism, particularly with regard to the continuing relevance for Christians of Jewish Law and its associated religious and cultural practices and observances. This and other matters were a source of ongoing tension between Early Christian house churches and the local Jewish Synagogue. Within Christian churches there were disputes over the extent to which the observance of Jewish Law was required of Jewish and Gentile Christians.

Matthew 5:17 is communicating the message that Jewish Law and its associated practices and observances need to be understood and interpreted in the light of Jesus and in the context of the attitudes and behaviours set out in The Evangelical Discourse as indeed in the Gospel of Matthew as a whole.

World in Front of the Text

Some have observed that in contemporary society, as virtuous attitudes and actions decline, attempts to regulate individual and corporate behaviour through multiplying laws and regulations increase. Matthew is not denying the need for law or for the regulation of human behaviour. But he recognises that law can only go so far in regulating human behaviour and promoting the common good. True individual and societal flourishing is to be found only in acting as Jesus did and in developing the sorts of attitudes and behaviours that Jesus speaks about in Matthew’s Evangelical Discourse. That was as true for Matthew’s communities in the Greco-Roman world of the first century CE as it is for our communities today.