04_Biblica_1_C_Thiessen_Layout 1 30/01/13 13:16 Pagina 552 552 MATTHEW THIESSEN abolishing followers of this law-abolishing Jesus so that we might guard ourselves against God’s wrath, which led to the persecution under Antiochus IV”. On the other hand, in the aftermath of the events of 70 C.E., it ap- pears that certain Jewish groups accused one another of being the cause of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. We have seen that Josephus, one of Matthew’s contemporaries, accuses his ideolog- ical rivals, the Zealots, of being law abolishers who brought about God’s judgment upon all of the Jewish people. Was the early Christian movement also the object of such accusations? Matt 5,17-20 seems to suggest that it indeed was and that throughout his gospel, but most vehemently in these verses, Matthew is answering this charge.18 Given the probability that the air was rife with the accusations of various Jewish groups against their rivals in the wake of the devastating results of the revolt, this seems a distinct possibility 19. This interpretation provides a strong connection to the preceding material in Matthew 5, since it could be argued that the persecution, reviling, and slandering that Matthew believes his community to be enduring, and to which he refers in 5,10-12, were accusations that they were law-abolishers who were responsible for the Temple’s destruction 20. In response, Matthew calls his readers in 5,13-16 to let their light shine so that oth- ers see their good works (i.e. their law observance) and praise God 21. Cf. W.D. DAVIES ‒ D.C. ALLISON Jr., A Critical and Exegetical Com- 18 mentary on The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (Edinburgh 1991) I, 482, and D.A. HAGNER, Matthew 1-13 (WBC 33A; Dallas, TX 1993) 104. In contrast to R.H. GUNDRY, Matthew. A Commentary on his Handbook 19 for a Mixed Church under Persecution (Grand Rapids, MI 21994) 599-609, and J. NOLLAND, The Gospel of Matthew. A Commentary on the Greek Text (NIGTC; Grand Rapids, MI 2005) 17, who argue for a pre-70 dating for Matthew, the majority of interpreters place the composition of Matthew’s gospel in the latter third of the first century C.E. This provenance better ex- plains Matthew’s use of Mark’s gospel, as well as the apparent allusion to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in Matt 22,7. These accusations should not be interpreted as malicious. It is entirely 20 conceivable, as S. VON DOBBELER, “Auf der Grenze. Ethos und Identität der matthäischen Gemeinde nach Mt 15,1-20”, BZ 45 (2001) 55-79 (63), argues, that those who accused Matthew’s community of law abolishment did so out of deep concern for Israel’s destiny. DEINES, Gerechtigkeit, 137-181, believes that the Beatitudes, and 5,1- 21 16 more broadly, signal the irrelevance of the Law, since Jesus speaks of peo- ple participating in the kingdom of heaven without any reference to Torah © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati