The Gospel of Matthew and Judaic Traditions: A Relevance-Based Commentary

817 Pages·2015·2.521 MB·English

by  Herbert W. Basser, Marsha B. Cohen

The Gospel of Matthew and Judaic Traditions
The Brill Reference
Library of Judaism
Editors
Alan J. Avery-Peck (College of the Holy Cross)
William Scott Green (University of Miami)
Editorial Board
Herbert Basser (Queen’s University)
Bruce D. Chilton (Bard College)
José Faur (Netanya College)
Neil Gillman (Jewish Theological Seminary of America)
Mayer I. Gruber (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Ithamar Gruenweld (Tel Aviv University)
Arkady Kovelman (Moscow State University)
David Kraemer (Jewish Theological Seminary of America)
Baruch A. Levine (New York University)
Jacob Neusner (Bard College)
Maren Niehoff (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Gary G. Porton (University of Illinois)
Aviezer Ravitzky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Dov Schwartz (Bar Ilan University)
Günter Stemberger (University of Vienna)
Michael E. Stone (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Elliot Wolfson (New York University)

VOLUME 46
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/brlj
The Gospel of Matthew and
Judaic Traditions
A Relevance-based Commentary
By
Herbert W. Basser with Marsha B. Cohen
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover image: “The Lord is My Good Shepherdˮ is by the 19th century German artist, Bernhard Plockhorst
(1825–1907).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Basser, Herbert W.
 The gospel of Matthew and Judaic traditions : a relevance-based commentary / by Herbert W. Basser,
with Marsha B. Cohen.
  pages cm. — (Brill reference library of Judaism, ISSN 1571-5000 ; volume 46)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-29179-9 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-29178-2 (e-book : alk. paper)
1. Bible. Matthew—Commentaries. 2. Jews in the New Testament. I. Title.
 BS2575.53.B37 2015
 226.2’07—dc23
2015000381
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brillˮ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering
Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities.
For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 1571-5000
isbn 978-90-04-29179-9 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-29178-2 (e-book)
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and
Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided
that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive,
Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Contents
Preface  IX
Co-Author’s Acknowledgements  XIX
List of Abbreviations  XX
General Introduction  1
Chapter 1  22
Introduction  22
Commentary  29
Chapter 2  47
Introduction  47
Commentary  53
Chapter 3  73
Introduction  73
Commentary  77
Chapter 4  99
Introduction  99
Commentary  103
Chapter 5  113
Introduction  113
Commentary  120
Chapter 6  170
Introduction  170
Commentary  176
Chapter 7  200
Introduction  200
Commentary  201
Chapter 8  212
Introduction  212
Commentary  217
vi contents
Chapter 9  226
Introduction  226
Commentary  233
Chapter 10  248
Introduction  248
Commentary  252
Chapter 11  267
Introduction  267
Commentary  268
Chapter 12  282
Introduction  282
Commentary  300
Chapter 13  320
Introduction  320
Commentary  326
Chapter 14  341
Introduction  341
Commentary  343
Chapter 15  356
Introduction  356
Commentary  371
Chapter 16  407
Introduction  407
Commentary  411
Chapter 17  430
Introduction  430
Commentary  435
Chapter 18  449
Introduction  449
Commentary  451
contents vii
Chapter 19  480
Introduction  480
Commentary  485
Chapter 20  512
Introduction  512
Commentary  518
Chapter 21  529
Introduction  529
Commentary  537
Chapter 22  559
Introduction  559
Commentary  566
Chapter 23  584
Introduction  584
Commentary  592
Chapter 24  619
Introduction  619
Commentary  623
Chapter 25  639
Introduction  639
Commentary  639
Chapter 26  652
Introduction  652
Commentary  656
Chapter 27  687
Introduction  687
Commentary  689
Chapter 28  713
Introduction  713
Commentary  714
viii contents
Works Cited  723
Primary Jewish Sources  744
Index of Modern Authors  746
Biblical and Post-Biblical Sources  750
Index Entries by Subject  779
Preface
I like to think my thought processes require others to drop all of their precon-
ceptions about the topic at hand in order to enter the domain of my current
views. I even try to do this myself when rethinking matters about which I had
once been convinced otherwise. Peter Zaas put it this way:
Basser’s own thought-world can occasionally be difficult to penetrate, but
those who have persevered have been more-than-amply rewarded.1
Michele Murray encapsulates my enterprise as
. . . expertly highlighting similarities and parallels between Matthew’s
Gospel and other pieces of Jewish literature in their interpretations of
biblical verses, use of idiom and motif, and theologies. In so doing, he
persuasively demonstrates the degree to which the earliest layer of the
Gospel of Matthew originally derives from a Palestinian Jewish matrix.
The result is a contribution that offers a richer and generally more
nuanced understanding of the Gospel material.2
The present work comprises a commentary to the complete Gospel of
Matthew as I now read it, having reworked many details in my thinking of
the last 10 years. My 2009 book, The Mind behind the Gospels: a Commentary
to Matthew 1–14, covered the first half of the Gospel. From that work I learned
much about writing commentaries on Matthew. If you do not fall, you do not
learn to walk. I discovered from that experience the necessity of proofread-
ing more carefully. Among the many typos was the omission of the little word
“not” from one sentence that completely reversed the intended meaning.
Furthermore (and this is even more embarrassing), an insight I mistakenly
believed to be original, and claimed as my own, had been previously published
by someone else in the 1920s; criticism of it had appeared in the 1960s. Only by
studying journal articles on Matthean research did I finally realize that I was
re-inventing a wobbly wheel. The authors of articles that disputed my retro-
version apparently overlooked the fact that I was not the first to have made
certain claims. I also changed my mind on a number of issues. For all of these
reasons, Marsha B. Cohen, my old friend and new collaborator, and I decided
1 Peter Zaas, “Review of The Jewish Jesus” (2012). 
2 Michele Murray, “(Review) The Mind Behind the Gospels” (2012), 164–167.